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 5:18

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

Galatians 4:5

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ² 

Galatians 6:2

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

Galatians 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ³  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ⁴  until the coming faith would be revealed.

Galatians 5:3

5:3 And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey ⁵  the whole law.

Galatians 4:4

4:4 But when the appropriate time ⁶  had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Galatians 6:13

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. ⁷ 

[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.

[4:5]  ² 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.”

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

[3:23]  ⁴ 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.

[5:3]  ⁴ tn Or “keep”; or “carry out”; Grk “do.”

[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).

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