Galatians 3:25

3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. ¹ 

Galatians 5:18

5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 4:2

4:2 But he is under guardians ²  and managers until the date set by his ³  father.

Galatians 4:5

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ⁴ 

Galatians 4:21

An Appeal from Allegory

4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? ⁵ 

Galatians 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ⁶  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ⁷  until the coming faith would be revealed.

Galatians 4:3

4:3 So also we, when we were minors, ⁸  were enslaved under the basic forces ⁹  of the world.

Galatians 3:22

3:22 But the scripture imprisoned ¹⁰  everything and everyone ¹¹  under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness ¹²  of Jesus Christ – to those who believe.

Galatians 4:4

4:4 But when the appropriate time ¹³  had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Galatians 4:9

4:9 But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ¹⁴  basic forces? ¹⁵  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ¹⁶ 

Galatians 3:10

3:10 For all who ¹⁷  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.” ¹⁸ 

Galatians 3:17

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, ¹⁹  so as to invalidate the promise.

[3:25]  ¹ tn See the note on the word “guardian” in v. 24. The punctuation of vv. 25, 26, and 27 is difficult to represent because of the causal connections between each verse. English style would normally require a comma either at the end of v. 25 or v. 26, but in so doing the translation would then link v. 26 almost exclusively with either v. 25 or v. 27; this would be problematic as scholars debate which two verses are to be linked. Because of this, the translation instead places a period at the end of each verse. This preserves some of the ambiguity inherent in the Greek and does not exclude any particular causal connection.

[4:2]  ² tn The Greek term translated “guardians” here is ἐπίτροπος (epitropo"), whose semantic domain overlaps with that of παιδαγωγός (paidagwgo") according to L&N 36.5.

[4:2]  ³ tn Grk “the,” but the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[4:5]  ³ 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.”

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Or “will you not hear what the law says?” The Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw) means “hear, listen to,” but by figurative extension it can also mean “obey.” It can also refer to the process of comprehension that follows hearing, and that sense fits the context well here.

[3:23]  ⁵ tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ⁶ 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.

[4:3]  ⁶ tn See the note on the word “minor” in 4:1.

[4:3]  ⁷ tn Or “basic principles,” “elemental things,” or “elemental spirits.” Some interpreters take this as a reference to supernatural powers who controlled nature and/or human fate.

[3:22]  ⁷ tn Or “locked up.”

[3:22]  ⁸ tn Grk “imprisoned all things” but τὰ πάντα (ta panta) includes people as part of the created order. Because people are the emphasis of Paul’s argument ( “given to those who believe” at the end of this verse.), “everything and everyone” was used here.

[3:22]  ⁹ tn Or “so that the promise could be given by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.” 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 Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 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.

[4:4]  ⁸ 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).

[4:9]  ⁹ tn Or “useless.” See L&N 65.16.

[4:9]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on the phrase “basic forces” in 4:3.

[4:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “basic forces, to which you want to be enslaved…” Verse 9 is a single sentence in the Greek text, but has been divided into two in the translation because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence.

[3:10]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

[3:17]  ¹¹ 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.