2 Corinthians 3:3

3:3 revealing ¹  that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, ²  written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets ³  but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 11:4

11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims ⁴  another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, ⁵  or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, ⁶  or a different gospel than the one you accepted, ⁷  you put up with it well enough! ⁸ 

Romans 15:19

15:19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

Romans 15:1

Exhortation for the Strong to Help the Weak

15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. ⁹ 

Colossians 2:4

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments ¹⁰  that sound reasonable. ¹¹ 

Galatians 3:2

3:2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law ¹²  or by believing what you heard? ¹³ 

Galatians 3:5

3:5 Does God then give ¹⁴  you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law ¹⁵  or by your believing what you heard? ¹⁶ 

Galatians 3:1

Justification by Law or by Faith?

3:1 You ¹⁷  foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell ¹⁸  on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed ¹⁹  as crucified!

Galatians 1:5-6

1:5 to whom be glory forever and ever! Amen.

Occasion of the Letter

1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one ²⁰  who called you by the grace of Christ ²¹  and are following ²²  a different ²³  gospel –

Galatians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁴  an apostle (not from men, nor by human agency, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead)

Galatians 1:12

1:12 For I did not receive it or learn it from any human source; ²⁵  instead I received it ²⁶  by a revelation of Jesus Christ. ²⁷ 

[3:3]  ¹ tn Or “making plain.”

[3:3]  ² tn Grk “cared for by us,” an expression that could refer either to the writing or the delivery of the letter (BDAG 229 s.v. διακονέω 1). Since the following phrase refers to the writing of the letter, and since the previous verse speaks of this “letter” being “written on our [Paul’s and his companions’] hearts” it is more probable that the phrase “cared for by us” refers to the delivery of the letter (in the person of Paul and his companions).

[3:3]  ³ sn An allusion to Exod 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deut 9:10-11.

[11:4]  ⁴ tn Or “preaches.”

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed.”

[11:4]  ⁶ tn Grk “a different spirit which you did not receive.”

[11:4]  ⁷ tn Grk “a different gospel which you did not accept.”

[11:4]  ⁸ tn Or “you endure it very well.”

[15:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 812 s.v. πιθανολογία states, “persuasive speech, art of persuasion (so Pla., Theaet. 162e) in an unfavorable sense in its only occurrence in our lit. ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ by specious arguments Col 2:4 (cp. PLips 40 III, 7 διὰ πιθανολογίας).”

[2:4]  ¹¹ sn Paul’s point is that even though the arguments seem to make sense (sound reasonable), they are in the end false. Paul is not here arguing against the study of philosophy or serious thinking per se, but is arguing against the uncritical adoption of a philosophy that is at odds with a proper view of Christ and the ethics of the Christian life.

[3:2]  ¹² tn Grk “by [the] works of [the] law,” a reference to observing the Mosaic law.

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “by [the] hearing of faith.”

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “provide.”

[3:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “by [the] works of [the] law” (the same phrase as in v. 2).

[3:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “by [the] hearing of faith” (the same phrase as in v. 2).

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “O” (an interjection used both in address and emotion). In context the following section is highly charged emotionally.

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “deceived”; the verb βασκαίνω (baskainw) can be understood literally here in the sense of bewitching by black magic, but could also be understood figuratively to refer to an act of deception (see L&N 53.98 and 88.159).

[3:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “publicly placarded,” “set forth in a public proclamation” (BDAG 867 s.v. προγράφω 2).

[1:6]  ²⁰ sn The one who called you is a reference to God the Father (note the mention of Christ in the following prepositional phrase and the mention of God the Father in 1:1).

[1:6]  ²¹ tc Although the majority of witnesses, including some of the most important ones (Ì⁵¹ א A B F^c Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï f vg sy^p bo), read “by the grace of Christ” (χάριτι Χριστοῦ, cariti Cristou) here, this reading is not without variables. Besides alternate readings such as χάριτι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (cariti Ihsou Cristou, “by the grace of Jesus Christ”; D 326 1241^s pc sy^h**) and χάριτι θεοῦ (cariti qeou, “by the grace of God”; 327 pc Thret^lem), a few mss (Ì^46vid F* G H^vid ar b Tert Cyp Ambst Pel) have simply χάριτι with no modifier. Internally, the reading that seems best to explain the rise of the others is the shortest reading, χάριτι. Indeed, the fact that three different adjuncts are found in the mss seems to be a natural expansion on the simple “grace.” At the same time, the witnesses for the shortest reading are not particularly impressive, being that they largely represent one textual strand (Western), and a less-than-reliable one at that. Further, nowhere else in the corpus Paulinum do we see the construction χάρις (cari", “grace”) followed by Χριστοῦ without some other name (such as κυρίου [kuriou, “Lord”] or ᾿Ιησοῦ). The construction χάρις θεοῦ is likewise frequent in Paul. Thus, upon closer inspection it seems that the original wording here was χάριτι Χριστοῦ (for it is difficult to explain how this particular reading could have arisen from the simple χάριτι, in light of Paul’s normal idioms), with the other readings intentionally or accidentally arising from it.

[1:6]  ²² tn Grk “deserting [turning away] to” a different gospel, implying the idea of “following.”

[1:6]  ²³ tn Grk “another.”

[1:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:12]  ²⁵ tn Or “I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it.”

[1:12]  ²⁶ tn The words “I received it” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[1:12]  ²⁷ tn It is difficult to determine what kind of genitive ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Ihsou Cristou) is. If it is a subjective genitive, the meaning is “a revelation from Jesus Christ” but if objective genitive, it is “a revelation about Jesus Christ.” Most likely this is objective since the explanation in vv. 15-16 mentions God revealing the Son to Paul so that he might preach, although the idea of a direct revelation to Paul at some point cannot be ruled out.