HOLY BIBLE: Galatians 6 (original) (raw)

11 ἴδετε πηλίκοις ὑμῖν γράμμασιν ἔγραψα τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί. 12 ὅσοι θέλουσιν εὐπροσωπῆσαι ἐν σαρκί, οὗτοι ἀναγκάζουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι, μόνον ἵνα τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μὴ διώκωνται. 13 οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ περιτεμνόμενοι αὐτοὶ νόμον φυλάσσουσιν, ἀλλὰ θέλουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι ἵνα ἐν τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ σαρκὶ καυχήσωνται. 14 ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται κἀγὼ κόσμῳ. 15 οὔτε γὰρ περιτομή τί ἐστιν οὔτε ἀκροβυστία, ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις. 16 καὶ ὅσοι τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ στοιχήσουσιν, εἰρήνη ἐπ' αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ θεοῦ. 17 τοῦ λοιποῦ κόπους μοι μηδεὶς παρεχέτω, ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰ στίγματα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματί μου βαστάζω. 18 Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ὑμῶν, ἀδελφοί: ἀμήν.

11 Here is some bold lettering for you, written in my own hand.[2] 12 Who are they, these people who insist on your being circumcised? They are men, all of them, who are determined to keep up outward appearances, so that the cross of Christ may not bring persecution on them. 13 Why, they do not even observe the law, although they adopt circumcision; they are for having you circumcised, so as to make a display of your outward conformity.[3] 14 God forbid that I should make a display of anything, except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world stands crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Circumcision means nothing, the want of it means nothing; when a man is in Christ Jesus, there has been a new creation. 16 Peace and pardon to all those who follow this rule, to God’s true Israel.[4] 17 Spare me, all of you, any further anxieties; already I bear the scars of the Lord Jesus printed on my body.[5] 18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

11 Videte qualibus litteris scripsi vobis mea manu. 12 Quicumque enim volunt placere in carne, hi cogunt vos circumcidi, tantum ut crucis Christi persecutionem non patiantur. 13 Neque enim qui circumciduntur, legem custodiunt: sed volunt vos circumcidi, ut in carne vestra glorientur. 14 Mihi autem absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi: per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo. 15 In Christo enim Jesu neque circumcisio aliquid valet, neque præputium, sed nova creatura. 16 Et quicumque hanc regulam secuti fuerint, pax super illos, et misericordia, et super Israël Dei. 17 De cetero, nemo mihi molestus sit: ego enim stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore meo porto. 18 Gratia Domini nostri Jesu Christi cum spiritu vestro, fratres. Amen.

[1] ‘The burden of one another’s failings’; this is the meaning preferred by St Chrysostom and others (cf. the Imitation of Christ, 1.16 and 2.3). The more usual interpretation of the passage, which understands ‘the burdens of one another’ to mean the misfortunes of others, which we are to bear by our sympathy, does not agree well with the context which goes before, or with that which follows. For ‘the law of Christ’, cf. Mat. 6.14; 18.35. In concluding this epistle, which is concerned with the Jewish law and the burdens it imposed, St Paul explains what burdens we ought to carry, what law we ought to obey.

[2] It seems probable that these last eight verses were all written in autograph, and some part of them in large writing, as if to attract special attention to them. The rendering, ‘See what a long letter I have written to you in my own hand’, would suit the Latin equally well, but it is not certain that it conforms with the Greek.

[3] This suggests that the agitators in Galatia were Gentiles, rather than Jews, by birth.

[4] ‘God’s true Israel’ may mean the Church in general, or the believing Jews in particular.

[5] The ‘scars of the Lord Jesus’ were, according to the common interpretation, the marks left on St Paul’s body by the persecutions he had endured.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd