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Galatians

Galatianschapter 3

29 verses · BSBGalatians book hub →

Speaks with:Galatians 3×8Hebrews 10×4Romans 4×5Galatians 5×3Romans 10×3Romans 3×3

Summary

Chapter summary

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. JFB reads this as the central doctrinal argument of the letter.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Galatians overview

  • A. 1–5 Who Bewitched You? Did the Spirit Come by Works?
  • B. 6–14 Abraham's Faith and the Curse Christ Carried
  • C. 15–22 A Promise the Law Could Not Cancel
  • D. 23–29 The Tutor Dismissed: Heirs, and All One in Christ

The outline

  1. A.Who Bewitched You? Did the Spirit Come by Works?vv. 1 to 5

    Read vv. 1 to 5 →

  2. B.Abraham's Faith and the Curse Christ Carriedvv. 6 to 14

    Read vv. 6 to 14 →

  3. C.A Promise the Law Could Not Cancelvv. 15 to 22

    Read vv. 15 to 22 →

  4. D.The Tutor Dismissed: Heirs, and All One in Christvv. 23 to 29

    Read vv. 23 to 29 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Crucified with Christ

Pattern

Galatians strikes the cross four times as the believer's own history: I am crucified with Christ, Christ set forth crucified before your eyes, they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, and the world crucified unto me.

The four beats carry the letter's whole argument. Liberty from law-keeping does not come by loosening the standard but by a death and a new life, Christ living in the believer.

  1. Galatians 2:20

    I am crucified with Christ

    Union stated in the first person: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

  2. Galatians 3:1 you are here

    Set forth crucified before your eyes

    The preaching the Galatians first believed placed the crucified Christ evidently before them.

  3. Galatians 5:24

    They have crucified the flesh

    They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

  4. Galatians 6:14

    The world crucified unto me

    Paul's only glory is the cross, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The just shall live by his faith

Pattern

Habakkuk asked God why judgment tarried and was told to write the answer plainly: the just shall live by his faith. The New Testament quotes the sentence three times, as the thesis of Romans, the proof in Galatians that no man is justified by the law, and the anchor of endurance in Hebrews.

One sentence from a short prophet carries the doctrine of justification by faith. Luther's own account of his awakening runs through Romans 1:17, and the church has read the verse as the gospel in miniature ever since.

  1. Habakkuk 2:4

    The sentence given to the watchman

    Habakkuk, waiting on his watch for God's answer, receives it: the just shall live by his faith.

  2. Romans 1:17

    The thesis of Romans

    Paul sets the sentence at the head of his fullest statement of the gospel.

  3. Galatians 3:11 you are here

    No man justified by the law

  4. Hebrews 10:38

    Faith holding on under trial

    Hebrews quotes the verse to a church tempted to draw back.

The world behind this chapter

Galatians 3
When
The heart of the argument · c. AD 48–49 or c. AD 53–56, depending on the letter's dating
Where
An appeal to the Galatians' own experience, then to Abraham, then to the purpose of the Law.
Who first heard it
Gentile Christians who had received the Spirit without becoming Jews and were now being told to finish the job.

The history

Paul's first argument is empirical, and it was checkable: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Whatever had happened in those churches — and he mentions miracles worked among them — happened before anyone raised the subject of circumcision.

The legal illustration about a ratified covenant reflects ordinary practice: once a will or contract was formally settled, a later party could not add conditions to it. The promise to Abraham was ratified four hundred and thirty years before Sinai, so the Law cannot annul it.

The Law's role is described with a specific household figure, the paidagogos — a trusted slave who escorted a boy to school, supervised his behaviour, and disciplined him until he came of age. He was not the teacher and not the father. Every reader with money knew one; every boy had resented one.

The chapter's closing lines dismantle the three great social divisions of the ancient world at once — Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female — by saying all are one in Christ Jesus. Those were the exact categories by which a person's legal and religious standing was assigned.

What it meant to them

For Gentile believers, the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him was the whole point: they were not late additions to someone else's covenant but the nations named in it from the start.

And the guardian's job had ended. If they belonged to Christ, they were Abraham's offspring and heirs according to promise, and going back under supervision would be walking backwards out of their inheritance.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Galatians 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 6 · Quoted here

Same faith-reckoning, quoted to ground Paul's Abrahamic-covenant argument in Galatians 3.

Genesis 15:6→

Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

quote-explicit (public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus)

v. 8 · A picture of Christ · Quoted here

Paul calls Gen 12:3 the gospel preached beforehand to Abraham: 'In thee shall all nations be blessed.'

Genesis 12:3→

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

MannaFest topical index

v. 13 · The same word

'Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree (xylon)' - Peter's deliberate xylon, echoing Deut 21 and Isa 53. Crossing-point into the Scarlet Thread feature (same G3586 door).

1 Peter 2:24→

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

public-domain quotation; G3586

v. 13 · The same word

Apostolic preaching's fixed formula 'hanged on a tree (xylon)' (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29) - the kerygma deliberately chooses the Deut-21 curse-word over stauros.

Acts 5:30→

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.

public-domain quotation; G3586

v. 13 · Prophecy and fulfillment

'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (H6086 -> LXX xylon)'; Paul quotes Deut 21:23 LXX verbatim and lands the curse on the cross. The cross-as-'ets/xylon station.

Deuteronomy 21:22→

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

PD-LXX (Swete); H6086/G3586; sibling

v. 13 · The Greek Old Testament reads it this way · Quoted here

H6086 'ets -> LXX xylon (G3586); 'cursed is everyone hanged on a xylon.' The curse-tree cross-link that ties Row 4 (curse lifted) to the cross.

Deuteronomy 21:23→

you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the…

Read the whole verse

you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

LXX Deut 21:23 (Swete, PD); Gal 3:13

v. 13 · An echo of this verse

En route to the cross Jesus says 'if they do these things in the green tree (xylon), what shall be done in the dry?' - a xylon saying spoken on the way to the curse-tree.

Luke 23:31→

For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

public-domain quotation; G3586

v. 16 · Quoted here

'And to thy seed' - Paul's explicit singular-seed citation (w/ Gen 22:18)

Genesis 12:7→

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 16 · Quoted here

Abrahamic 'in thy seed shall all the nations be blessed' -> Christ; Paul's explicit citation.

Genesis 22:18→

And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

quote-explicit. framework: covenantal

v. 16 · First time in Scripture · Prophecy and fulfillment · A covenant thread · First said here, fulfilled there

The collective-singular 'seed' first spoken in Gen 3:15 is the grammatical ground of Paul's argument: 'not to seeds, as of many; but as of one... which is Christ.'

Genesis 3:15→

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (public domain)Puritan

This page draws on E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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