Galatians 3:12

3:12 But the law is not based on faith, ¹  but the one who does the works of the law ²  will live by them. ³ 

Galatians 3:5

3:5 Does God then give ⁴  you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law ⁵  or by your believing what you heard? ⁶ 

Galatians 5:8

5:8 This persuasion ⁷  does not come from the one who calls you!

Galatians 3:16-17

3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. ⁸  Scripture ⁹  does not say, “and to the descendants,” ¹⁰  referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” ¹¹  referring to one, who is Christ. 3:17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ¹²  so as to invalidate the promise.

Galatians 4:30

4:30 But what does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” ¹³  of the free woman.

Galatians 3:10

3:10 For all who ¹⁴  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ¹⁵ 

Galatians 4:1

4:1 Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, ¹⁶  is no different from a slave, though he is the owner ¹⁷  of everything.

Galatians 3:20

3:20 Now an intermediary is not for one party alone, but God is one. ¹⁸ 

Galatians 4:27

4:27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; ¹⁹ 

break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,

because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous

than those of the woman who has a husband.” ²⁰ 

Galatians 2:17

2:17 But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages ²¹  sin? Absolutely not!

Galatians 2:6

2:6 But from those who were influential ²²  (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people ²³ ) – those influential leaders ²⁴  added ²⁵  nothing to my message. ²⁶ 

Galatians 3:19

3:19 Why then was the law given? ²⁷  It was added ²⁸  because of transgressions, ²⁹  until the arrival of the descendant ³⁰  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ³¹  through angels by an intermediary. ³² 

Galatians 2:16

2:16 yet we know ³³  that no one ³⁴  is justified by the works of the law ³⁵  but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. ³⁶  And ³⁷  we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ ³⁸  and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one ³⁹  will be justified.

[3:12]  ¹ tn Grk “is not from faith.”

[3:12]  ² tn Grk “who does these things”; the referent (the works of the law, see 3:5) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:12]  ³ sn A quotation from Lev 18:5. The phrase the works of the law is an editorial expansion on the Greek text (see previous note); it has been left as normal typeface to indicate it is not part of the OT text.

[3:5]  ⁴ tn Or “provide.”

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

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “by [the] hearing of faith” (the same phrase as in v. 2).

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “The persuasion,” referring to their being led away from the truth (v. 7). There is a play on words here that is not easily reproducible in the English translation: The words translated “obey” (πείθεσθαι, peiqesqai) in v. 7 and “persuasion” (πεισμονή, peismonh) in v. 8 come from the same root in Greek.

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “his seed,” a figurative extension of the meaning of σπέρμα (sperma) to refer to descendants (L&N 10.29).

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Grk “It”; the referent (the scripture) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The understood subject of the verb λέγει (legei) could also be “He” (referring to God) as the one who spoke the promise to Abraham.

[3:16]  ¹² tn Grk “to seeds.” See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse. Here the term is plural; the use of the singular in the OT text cited later in this verse is crucial to Paul’s argument.

[3:16]  ¹³ tn See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse.

[3:17]  ¹³ tc Most mss (D F G I 0176 0278 Ï it sy) read “ratified by God in Christ” whereas the omission of “in Christ” is the reading in Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ 6 33 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 pc co. The shorter reading is strongly supported by the ms evidence, and it is probable that a copyist inserted the words as an interpretive gloss. However, this form of the “in Christ” expression is somewhat atypical in the corpus Paulinum (εἰς Χριστόν [ei" Criston] rather than ἐν Χριστῷ [en Cristw]), a fact which tempers one’s certainty about the shorter reading. Nevertheless, the expression is used more in Galatians than in any other of Paul’s letters (Gal 2:16; 3:24, 27), and may have been suggested by such texts to early copyists.

[4:30]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Gen 21:10. The phrase of the free woman does not occur in Gen 21:10.

[3:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “a small child.” The Greek term νήπιος (nhpios) refers to a young child, no longer a helpless infant but probably not more than three or four years old (L&N 9.43). The point in context, though, is that this child is too young to take any responsibility for the management of his assets.

[4:1]  ²³ tn Grk “master” or “lord” (κύριος, kurios).

[3:20]  ²⁵ tn The meaning of this verse is disputed. According to BDAG 634 s.v. μεσίτης, “It prob. means that the activity of an intermediary implies the existence of more than one party, and hence may be unsatisfactory because it must result in a compromise. The presence of an intermediary would prevent attainment, without any impediment, of the purpose of the εἶς θεός in giving the law.” See also A. Oepke, TDNT 4:598-624, esp. 618-19.

[4:27]  ²⁸ tn The direct object “children” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for clarity. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[4:27]  ²⁹ tn Grk “because more are the children of the barren one than of the one having a husband.”

[2:17]  ³¹ tn Or “does Christ serve the interests of sin?”; or “is Christ an agent for sin?” See BDAG 230-31 s.v. διάκονος 2.

[2:6]  ³⁴ tn Or “influential leaders.” BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.a.β has “the influential men Gal 2:2, 6b. A fuller expr. w. the same mng., w. inf. added…vss. 6a, 9.” This refers to the leadership of the Jerusalem church.

[2:6]  ³⁵ tn Grk “God does not receive the face of man,” an idiom for showing favoritism or partiality (BDAG 887-88 s.v. πρόσωπον 1.b.α; L&N 88.238).

[2:6]  ³⁶ tn Or “influential people”; here “leaders” was used rather than “people” for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy with the word “people” in the previous parenthetical remark. See also the note on the word “influential” at the beginning of this verse.

[2:6]  ³⁷ tn Or “contributed.” This is the same word translated “go to ask advice from” in 1:16, but it has a different meaning here; see L&N 59.72.

[2:6]  ³⁸ tn Or “added nothing to my authority.” Grk “added nothing to me,” with what was added (“message,” etc.) implied.

[3:19]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Why then the law?”

[3:19]  ³⁸ tc For προσετέθη (proseteqh) several Western mss have ἐτέθη (eteqh, “it was established”; so D* F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec). The net effect of this reading, in conjunction with the largely Western reading of πράξεων (praxewn) for παραβάσεων (parabasewn), seems to be a very positive assessment of the law. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting this reading: (1) externally, it is provincial and relatively late; (2) internally: (a) transcriptionally, there seems to be a much higher transcriptional probability that a scribe would try to smooth over Paul’s harsh saying here about the law than vice versa; (b) intrinsically: [1] Paul has already argued that the law came after the promise (vv. 15-18), indicating, more than likely, its temporary nature; [2] the verb “was added” in v. 19 (προσετέθη) is different from the verb in v. 15 (ἐπιδιατάσσεται, epidiatassetai); virtually all exegetes recognize this as an intentional linguistic shift on Paul’s part in order not to contradict his statement in v. 15; [3] the temper of 3:1–4:7 is decidedly against a positive statement about the Torah’s role in Heilsgeschichte.

[3:19]  ³⁹ tc παραδόσεων (paradosewn; “traditions, commandments”) is read by D*, while the vast majority of witnesses read παραβάσεων (parabasewn, “transgressions”). D’s reading makes little sense in this context. πράξεων (praxewn, “of deeds”) replaces παραβάσεων in Ì⁴⁶ F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec. The wording is best taken as going with νόμος (nomo"; “Why then the law of deeds?”), as is evident by the consistent punctuation in the later witnesses. But such an expression is unpauline and superfluous; it was almost certainly added by some early scribe(s) to soften the blow of Paul’s statement.

[3:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[3:19]  ⁴¹ tn Or “was ordered.” L&N 31.22 has “was put into effect” here.

[3:19]  ⁴² tn Many modern translations (NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this word (μεσίτης, mesith"; here and in v. 20) as “mediator,” but this conveys a wrong impression in contemporary English. If this is referring to Moses, he certainly did not “mediate” between God and Israel but was an intermediary on God’s behalf. Moses was not a mediator, for example, who worked for compromise between opposing parties. He instead was God’s representative to his people who enabled them to have a relationship, but entirely on God’s terms.

[2:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “yet knowing”; the participle εἰδότες (eidotes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[2:16]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “no man,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women.

[2:16]  ⁴² sn The law is a reference to the law of Moses.

[2:16]  ⁴³ tn Or “faith in Jesus Christ.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pisti" Cristou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in v. 20; Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 3:22; Eph 3:12; Phil 3:9) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.

[2:16]  ⁴⁴ tn In Greek this is a continuation of the preceding sentence, but the construction is too long and complex for contemporary English style, so a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[2:16]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “by faith in Christ.” See comment above on “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.”

[2:16]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “no human being”; Grk “flesh.”