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? ¹ 

Galatians 5:16

5:16 But I say, live ²  by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. ³ 

Galatians 1:9

1:9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! ⁴ 

Galatians 3:15

Inheritance Comes from Promises and not Law

3:15 Brothers and sisters, ⁵  I offer an example from everyday life: ⁶  When a covenant ⁷  has been ratified, ⁸  even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it.

Galatians 4:1

4:1 Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, ⁹  is no different from a slave, though he is the owner ¹⁰  of everything.

Galatians 5:2

5:2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!

Galatians 3:16-17

3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. ¹¹  Scripture ¹²  does not say, “and to the descendants,” ¹³  referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” ¹⁴  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, ¹⁵  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” ¹⁶  of the free woman.

[4:21]  ¹ 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.

[5:16]  ² tn Grk “walk” (a common NT idiom for how one conducts one’s life or how one behaves).

[5:16]  ³ tn On the term “flesh” (once in this verse and twice in v. 17) see the note on the same word in Gal 5:13.

[1:9]  ³ tn See the note on this phrase in the previous verse.

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

[3:15]  ⁵ tn Grk “I speak according to man,” referring to the illustration that follows.

[3:15]  ⁶ tn The same Greek word, διαθήκη (diaqhkh), can mean either “covenant” or “will,” but in this context the former is preferred here because Paul is discussing in vv. 16-18 the Abrahamic covenant.

[3:15]  ⁷ tn Or “has been put into effect.”

[4:1]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Grk “master” or “lord” (κύριος, kurios).

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “his seed,” a figurative extension of the meaning of σπέρμα (sperma) to refer to descendants (L&N 10.29).

[3:16]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse.

[3:17]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Gen 21:10. The phrase of the free woman does not occur in Gen 21:10.