Galatians 4-6
Complete Jewish Bible
4 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a minor he is no different from a slave, even though he is the legal owner of the estate; 2 rather, he is subject to guardians and caretakers until the time previously set by his father. 3 So it is with us — when we were “children” we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe; 4 but when the appointed time arrived, God sent forth his Son. He was born from a woman, born into a culture in which legalistic perversion of the Torah was the norm, 5 so that he might redeem those in subjection to this legalism and thus enable us to be made God’s sons. 6 Now because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit who cries out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). 7 So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son you are also an heir.
8 In the past, when you did not know God, you served as slaves beings which in reality are non-gods. 9 But now you do know God, and, more than that, you are known by God. So how is it that you turn back again to those weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to enslave yourselves to them once more? 10 You observe special days, months, seasons and years! 11 I fear for you that my work among you has been wasted!
12 Brothers, I beg of you: put yourselves in my place — after all, I put myself in your place. It isn’t that you have done me any wrong — 13 you know that it was because I was ill that I proclaimed the Good News to you at first; 14 and even though my physical condition must have tempted you to treat me with scorn, you did not display any sign of disdain or disgust. No, you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God, as if I had been the Messiah Yeshua himself! 15 So what has become of the joy you felt? For I bear you witness that had it been possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth? 17 True, these teachers are zealous for you, but their motives are not good. They want to separate you from us so that you will become zealous for them. 18 To be zealous is good, provided always that the cause is good. Indeed, whether I am present with you or not, 19 my dear children, I am suffering the pains of giving birth to you all over again — and this will go on until the Messiah takes shape in you. 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone of voice. I don’t know what to do with you.
21 Tell me, you who want to be in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism, don’t you hear what the Torah itself says? 22 It says that Avraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. 23 The one by the slave woman was born according to the limited capabilities of human beings, but the one by the free woman was born through the miracle-working power of God fulfilling his promise. 24 Now, to make a midrash on these things: the two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery — this is Hagar. 25 Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Yerushalayim, for she serves as a slave along with her children. 26 But the Yerushalayim above is free, and she is our mother; 27 for the Tanakh says,
“Rejoice, you barren woman who does not bear children!
Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor!
For the deserted wife will have more children
than the one whose husband is with her!”[a]
28 You, brothers, like Yitz’chak, are children referred to in a promise of God. 29 But just as then the one born according to limited human capability persecuted the one born through the Spirit’s supernatural power, so it is now. 30 Nevertheless, what does the Tanakh say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for by no means will the son of the slave woman inherit along with the son of the free woman!”[b] 31 So, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
5 What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words — I, Sha’ul, tell you that if you undergo b’rit-milah the Messiah will be of no advantage to you at all! 3 Again, I warn you: any man who undergoes b’rit-milah is obligated to observe the entire Torah! 4 You who are trying to be declared righteous by God through legalism have severed yourselves from the Messiah! You have fallen away from God’s grace! 5 For it is by the power of the Spirit, who works in us because we trust and are faithful, that we confidently expect our hope of attaining righteousness to be fulfilled. 6 When we are united with the Messiah Yeshua, neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised matters; what matters is trusting faithfulness expressing itself through love.
7 You were running the race well; who has stopped you from following the truth? 8 Whatever means of persuasion he used was not from the One who calls you. 9 “It takes only a little hametz to leaven the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident that since you are united with the Lord, you will take no other view; and I am confident that the one who has been disturbing you, whoever he may be, will have to bear his punishment.
11 And as for me, brothers, if I am still preaching that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were the case, my preaching about the execution-stake would cause no offense whatever. 12 I wish the people who are bothering you would go the whole way and castrate themselves!
13 For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. 14 For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself”;[c] 15 but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!
16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. 17 For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
19 And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; 20 involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue 21 and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. 25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
6 Brothers, suppose someone is caught doing something wrong. You who have the Spirit should set him right, but in a spirit of humility, keeping an eye on yourselves so that you won’t be tempted too. 2 Bear one another’s burdens — in this way you will be fulfilling the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is fooling himself. 4 So let each of you scrutinize his own actions. Then if you do find something to boast about, at least the boasting will be based on what you have actually done and not merely on a judgment that you are better than someone else; 5 for each person will carry his own load. 6 But whoever is being instructed in the Word should share all the good things he has with his instructor. 7 Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. 8 Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life. 9 So let us not grow weary of doing what is good; for if we don’t give up, we will in due time reap the harvest. 10 Therefore, as the opportunity arises, let us do what is good to everyone, and especially to the family of those who are trustingly faithful.
11 Look at the large letters I use as I close in my own handwriting.
12 It is those who want to look good outwardly who are trying to get you to be circumcised. The only reason they are doing it is to escape persecution for preaching about the Messiah’s execution-stake. 13 For even those who are getting circumcised don’t observe the Torah. On the contrary, they want you to get circumcised so that they can boast of having gained your adherence. 14 But as for me, Heaven forbid that I should boast about anything except the execution-stake of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! Through him, as far as I am concerned, the world has been put to death on the stake; and through him, as far as the world is concerned, I have been put to death on the stake.
15 For neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised matters; what matters is being a new creation. 16 And as many as order their lives by this rule, shalom upon them and mercy, and upon the Isra’el of God!
17 From now on, I don’t want anyone to give me any more tsuris, because I have scars on my body to prove that I belong to Yeshua!
18 The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Notas al pie
- Galatians 4:27 Isaiah 54:1
- Galatians 4:30 Genesis 2l:10
- Galatians 5:14 Leviticus 19:18
Kehillah in Galatia 4-6
Orthodox Jewish Bible
4 Now I say this: for however much time as the yoresh (heir) has not attained his majority (the state or time of being of full legal age, or his religious majority, his Bar Mitzvah), he differs nothing from an eved, though being Ba’al Bayit of all the nachalah (inheritance).
2 And he is under shomrim (guardians) and omnot (governesses) until the time previously appointed by the Ba’al Bayit.
3 So also we, when we were immature, had been enslaved under the yesodot (rudiments) of the Olam Hazeh.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, Hashem sent forth his Ben HaElohim [Moshiach, 2Sm 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:27], born of an isha (Gn 3:15; Isa 7:14; Mic 5:2), born under the Torah,
5 That Moshiach might bring the Geulah (Redemption) to the ones under the Torah, that we might receive the Ma’amad HaBanim (the standing as sons), the bechirah adoption.
6 And because you are banim, Hashem sent forth the Ruach of His Ben HaElohim into your levavot, crying "Abba, Avinu!"
7 So you are no longer an eved but a ben; and if a ben, also a yoresh through Hashem.
8 But, formerly, when you did not have da’as (knowledge) of Hashem, you were avadim serving that which is by nature not HaEl Ha’Amiti (the true G-d).
9 But, now, having known Hashem, or rather having been known by Hashem, how is it that you are returning to the weak and beggarly yesodot (rudiments) of the Olam Hazeh to which again you want to renew your service as avadim?
10 You [Galatian Goyim] observe yamim (days) and chodashim (months, new moons) and mo’adim (fixed times, festivals) and shanim.
11 I fear for you, lest somehow efsher (perhaps) I have labored for you lashav (in vain).
12 Become as I am, because I also became as you are, Achim B’Moshiach. I implore you. You did me no wrong.
13 And you know that it was due to chulshat habasar (weakness of the flesh, sickness) that I first preached the Besuras HaGeulah to you,
14 and your nisayon (trial) in my basar you did not despise nor did you loathe, but as a malach Hashem you received me, as Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua himself.
15 Where then is your birkat Shomayim? For I testify to you that if possible, having torn out your eynayeem (eyes), you would have made a mattanah (gift) of them to me.
16 So, then, have I become your oyev (enemy) by telling you HaEmes?
17 They (the mohalim haGoyim) are zealously courting you, but not in a good way; rather, they desire to cut you off and shut you out, in order that you may be zealous for them.
18 Now it is tov ma’od to be zealous in a good thing all the time, and not only during my presence with you.
19 My yeladim, for whom again I suffer chevlei leydah (birth pains) until Moshiach is formed in you,
20 Would that I were present with you just now and could change my tone, because I am baffled by you.
21 Tell me, you Goyim who wish to be under the Torah, do you not possess "shema" hearing of the Torah?
22 For the Torah says that Avraham Avinu had shnei banim (two sons), one of shifchah (the slave woman) and one of the gevirah.
23 But the one of the slave woman has been born according to the basar, and the one of the free woman has been born through the havtachah (promise).
24 Now these things can be taken derech mashal (figuratively); for these are two beritot (covenants, see 3:17), one from Mount Sinai bearing banim for avdut (slavery, bondage): this is Hagar.
25 Now, Hagar is the Mount Sinai in Arabia; and corresponds to the Yerushalayim of the present, for she is in avdut with her banim.
26 But the Yerushalayim above is a Bat Chorin (daughter of freedom), the Imma lechulanu (the Mother of us all TEHILLIM 87:5-6; SHEMOT 25:40; YESHAYEH 49:20f; 54:1-13).
27 For it has been written, RANNI AKARAH LO YALADAH PITZCHI RINNAH V’TZAHALI LO CHALAH KI RABBIM BENEI SHOMEMAH MIB’NEI VE’ULAH ("Sing, rejoice, O barren, the one not giving birth, break forth into song and shout for joy, the one not suffering birth pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than the one having the husband" YESHAYEH 54:1).
28 But you, Achim b’Moshiach, are Bnei HaHavtacha (Sons of the Promise), like Yitzchak. [BERESHIS 18:10]
29 But just as at that time the one born according to the basar was bringing redifah (persecution) on the one born according to the Ruach HaKodesh, so it is now also.
30 But what does the Kitvei HaKodesh say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for never will the son of the slave woman inherit with my son, the son of the free woman" BERESHIS 21:10)
31 Therefore, Achim B’Moshiach, we are not Bnei “HAAMAH” (Sons of the Slave Woman) but Bnei HaKhofshi’yah (Sons of Lady Freedom, the Freedwoman).
5 For this “zman cheruteinu” (Pesach Haggadah Kiddush), Moshiach freed us; stand fast, therefore, and be not again bound by an ol (yoke) of avdut (slavery).
2 Hinei, I Sha’ul say to you, that if you Goyim undergo the bris milah, Moshiach will profit you nothing [3:12-14].
3 And I testify again to every one of you undergoing bris milah that such is chal (placed under obligation) to do the whole Torah.
4 You who want to be YITZDAK IM HASHEM ("justified with G-d") by chumra (legalism), [i.e., legal justification] by chukim of the Torah, are estranged from Moshiach, you at that point fall from the Chen v’Chesed Hashem.
5 For we by the Ruach Hakodesh eagerly await by emunah that for which we have tikvah, the Tzidkat Hashem (DANIEL 9:24).
6 For in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua neither bris milah is of any force nor the lack of it, but emunah working through ahavah (agape).
7 You [Goyim] were running well: who hindered you from being persuaded by HaEmes?
8 This persuasion is not of the One calling you.
9 A little chametz leavens all habatzek (the dough, T.N. see Pesach Haggadah).
10 I have bitachon, (confidence) in you in Adoneinu that you will think nothing other, but the one troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be.
11 But if I preach [to Goyim] the bris milah, Achim B’Moshiach, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the michshol (stumbling block) of [Moshiach’s] Etz (3:12-14; DEVARIM 21:23) has been abolished.
12 O if the ones (the mohalim of Goyim) troubling you would castrate themselves!
13 For, Achim B’Moshiach, you were called for “zman Cheruteinu” (5:1); only use not the Cherut for a pretext for the basar, but, through ahavah (agape), minister to one another as avadim (servants).
14 For the entire Torah has been summed up in one word: V’AHAVTA L’RE’ACHA KAMOCHA ("Love your neighbor as yourself" VAYIKRA 19:18).
15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another.
16 But I say, let your halakhah be by the Ruach HaKodesh, and by no means will you carry out the ta’avot (lusts) of the basar.
17 For the basar desires against the Ruach HaKodesh, and the Ruach HaKodesh desires against the basar—for these oppose each other—with the result that the things you wish you cannot do (Ro chp 7).
18 But if by the Ruach HaKodesh you are led, you are not under [epoch of] Torah.
19 Now the ma’asei habasar are manifest, dehainu (being:) zenut (fornication), tum’ah (impurity), zimmah (licentiousness),
20 Avodah zarah (idolatry), kashefanut (sorcery, witchcraft), eivot (enmities), merivah (strife), kinah (jealousy), rogez (anger), anochiyut (selfishness), machalokot (dissensions), kitot (sects),
21 Tzarut ayin (envyings), shichrut (drunkenness), holelut (carousing) and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, as I said previously, that the ones practicing such things will not receive the nachalah (inheritance) of the Malchut Hashem.
22 But the p’ri of the Ruach HaKodesh is ahavah (agape), simcha (joy), shalom (peace), zitzfleisch (patience), nedivut (generosity, kindness), chesed (loving-kindness), ne’emanut (faithfulness),
23 Anavah (meekness, shiflut, lowliness), shlitah atzmi (self-control)...would you not agree?—against these things there is no isser (proscription in the Torah).
24 But the ones who are mekabel Moshiach Yehoshua have put to be talui al HaEtz (hanging on the Tree, DEVARIM 21:23) the basar with its teshukot (desires) and its ta’avot (lusts).
25 If we live by the Ruach HaKodesh, we should stay in line with the Derech HaYashar (Straight Way) of the Ruach HaKodesh.
26 Let us not become ba’alei ga’avah (conceited, haughty persons), provoking one another, envying one another.
6 Achim B’Moshiach, if indeed a man is overtaken in some averah, you ones with ruchniyus restore such a one in a spirit of anavah (meekness), watching out for yourself lest also you come under nisayon (temptation).
2 Bear one another’s burdens (TEHILLIM 55:23) and thus you will fulfill the Torah of Moshiach.
3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4 But let each man prove his own ma’aseh and then in his own ma’asim rather than in that of his re’a (neighbor) he will find kavod.
5 For each man must bear his own load.
6 And let the one being taught limudei kodesh (sacred studies) in the Kitvei HaKodesh share in all good things with his rabbinic moreh (2Ti3:14-15).
7 Do not be led astray. Hashem is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this also he will reap.
8 For the one sowing to the basar of himself, of the basar will reap churban (destruction); but the one sowing to the Ruach HaKodesh, of the Ruach HaKodesh will reap Chayyei Olam.
9 Now let us not lose chozek in doing Gemilut Chasadim, for BE’ITO ("in its season" TEHILLIM 1:3) we will reap, if we faint not.
10 Therefore, then, as we have opportunity, we should do ma’asim tovim towards all, and especially towards the Bnei Beis HaEmunah.
11 SEE WITH WHAT GROISE LETTERS I WROTE TO YOU WITH MY OWN HAND.
12 As many as crave to be good preeners in the basar (Ro 2:29), these compel you (Goyim) to undergo bris milah; they (the mohalim of Goyim) do so only to avoid suffering redifah (persecution) for the Etz of Moshiach (DEVARIM 21:23).
13 For not even those of the party of the bris milah are shomer mitzvot themselves; they (the mohalim of Goyim) want you (Goyim) to undergo bris milah for the purpose of boasting in your basar!
14 But may it not be to me to boast, except in HaEtz HaMoshiach (DEVARIM 21:23) Yehoshua Adoneinu, through whom the Olam Hazeh has become nevelah talui al HaEtz (corpse hanging on the tree DEVARIM 21:23) to me, and I have become a nevelah talui al HaEtz (corpse hanging on the tree) to the Olam Hazeh.
15 For neither bris milah is anything, nor fehlt (the lacking) of bris milah, but a Bri’a Chadasha (New Creation).
16 And as many as stay in line with the Derech HaYashar (Straight Way) of these divrei torah, Shalom Hashem and Chesed Hashem be upon them, and upon the Yisroel of Hashem [See Ro 2:28-29].
17 For the rest, let no one give me any more tzoros; for I bear in my basar the chabburot haYehoshua (wounds, stripes of Yehoshua YESHAYEH 53:5).
18 Achim B’Moshiach, the Chen v’Chesed Hashem of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu be with your neshamah. Omein.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International