Galatians 3:23-24

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ¹  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ²  until the coming faith would be revealed. 3:24 Thus the law had become our guardian ³  until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous ⁴  by faith.

Galatians 4:4-5

4:4 But when the appropriate time ⁵  had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ⁶ 

Galatians 5:3-4

5:3 And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey ⁷  the whole law. 5:4 You who are trying to be declared righteous ⁸  by the law have been alienated ⁹  from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

Galatians 5:14

5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, ¹⁰  namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹¹ 

Galatians 6:2

6:2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

[3:23]  ¹ tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ² tc Instead of the present participle συγκλειόμενοι (sunkleiomenoi; found in Ì⁴⁶ א A B D* F G P Ψ 33 1739 al), C D¹ 0176 0278 Ï have the perfect συγκεκλεισμένοι (sunkekleismenoi). The syntactical implication of the perfect is that the cause or the means of being held in custody was confinement (“we were held in custody [by/because of] being confined”). The present participle of course allows for such options, but also allows for contemporaneous time (“while being confined”) and result (“with the result that we were confined”). Externally, the perfect participle has little to commend it, being restricted for the most part to later and Byzantine witnesses.

[3:24]  ³ tn Or “disciplinarian,” “custodian,” or “guide.” According to BDAG 748 s.v. παιδαγωγός, “the man, usu. a slave…whose duty it was to conduct a boy or youth…to and from school and to superintend his conduct gener.; he was not a ‘teacher’ (despite the present mng. of the derivative ‘pedagogue’…When the young man became of age, the π. was no longer needed.” L&N 36.5 gives “guardian, leader, guide” here.

[3:24]  ⁴ tn Or “be justified.”

[4:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “the fullness of time” (an idiom for the totality of a period of time, with the implication of proper completion; see L&N 67.69).

[4:5]  ⁷ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Or “keep”; or “carry out”; Grk “do.”

[5:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “trying to be justified.” The verb δικαιοῦσθε (dikaiousqe) has been translated as a conative present (see ExSyn 534).

[5:4]  ¹² tn Or “estranged”; BDAG 526 s.v. καταργέω 4 states, “Of those who aspire to righteousness through the law κ. ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ be estranged from Christ Gal 5:4.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn Or “can be fulfilled in one commandment.”

[5:14]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.