Galatians 4:17

4:17 They court you eagerly, ¹  but for no good purpose; ²  they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly. ³ 

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? ⁴ 

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 ⁵  or by believing what you heard? ⁶ 

Galatians 4:20

4:20 I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, ⁷  because I am perplexed about you.

Galatians 1:7

1:7 not that there really is another gospel, ⁸  but ⁹  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ¹⁰  to distort the gospel of Christ.

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 ¹¹  basic forces? ¹²  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ¹³ 

Galatians 6:12-13

6:12 Those who want to make a good showing in external matters ¹⁴  are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so ¹⁵  only to avoid being persecuted ¹⁶  for the cross of Christ. 6:13 For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. ¹⁷ 

Galatians 5:17

5:17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires ¹⁸  that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to ¹⁹  each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

[4:17]  ¹ tn Or “They are zealous for you.”

[4:17]  ² tn Or “but not commendably” (BDAG 505 s.v. καλῶς 2).

[4:17]  ³ tn Or “so that you would be zealous.”

[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.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “by [the] works of [the] law,” a reference to observing the Mosaic law.

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “by [the] hearing of faith.”

[4:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “voice” or “tone.” The contemporary English expression “tone of voice” is a good approximation to the meaning here.

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “which is not another,” but this could be misunderstood to mean “which is not really different.” In fact, as Paul goes on to make clear, there is no other gospel than the one he preaches.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “except.”

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “trying.”

[4:9]  ¹⁶ tn Or “useless.” See L&N 65.16.

[4:9]  ¹⁷ tn See the note on the phrase “basic forces” in 4:3.

[4:9]  ¹⁸ 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.

[6:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in the flesh.” L&N 88.236 translates the phrase “those who force you to be circumcised are those who wish to make a good showing in external matters.”

[6:12]  ²⁰ tn Grk “to be circumcised, only.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started with the words “They do so,” which were supplied to make a complete English sentence.

[6:12]  ²¹ tc ‡ Grk “so that they will not be persecuted.” The indicative after ἵνα μή (Jina mh) is unusual (though not unexampled elsewhere in the NT), making it the harder reading. The evidence is fairly evenly split between the indicative διώκονται (diwkontai; Ì⁴⁶ A C F G K L P 0278 6 81 104 326 629 1175 1505 pm) and the subjunctive διώκωνται (diwkwntai; א B D Ψ 33 365 1739 pm), with a slight preference for the subjunctive. However, since scribes would tend to change the indicative to a subjunctive due to syntactical requirements, the internal evidence is decidedly on the side of the indicative, suggesting that it is original.

[6:13]  ²² tn Or “boast about you in external matters,” “in the outward rite” (cf. v. 12).

[5:17]  ²⁵ tn The words “has desires” do not occur in the Greek text a second time, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

[5:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “are hostile toward” (L&N 39.1).