As for those who are agitating youThis phrase refers to the Judaizers, a group of Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile converts to Christianity must adhere to Jewish law, including circumcision. The term "agitating" suggests they were causing confusion and unrest among the Galatian believers. Historically, the early church faced significant tension between Jewish traditions and the new covenant of grace through faith in Christ. This conflict is evident in
Acts 15, where the Jerusalem Council addressed similar issues. The agitators were undermining the gospel of grace, which Paul had preached, by adding legalistic requirements.
I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves!
Paul uses strong language here to express his frustration and to make a point about the absurdity of the Judaizers' demands. The term "emasculate" is a hyperbolic expression, suggesting that if the agitators are so insistent on circumcision as a means of righteousness, they might as well go further and castrate themselves. This reflects Paul's deep conviction that salvation is through faith alone, not by works of the law. The use of such a graphic metaphor underscores the seriousness of the issue and the danger of compromising the gospel. This echoes the strong language used by Jesus inMatthew 18:8-9, where He speaks about cutting off a hand or foot if it causes one to sin, emphasizing the radical nature of dealing with sin and false teaching.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
Paul the ApostleThe author of the letter to the Galatians, addressing issues within the early Christian community.
2.
The GalatiansThe recipients of the letter, a group of early Christians in the region of Galatia who were being influenced by false teachings.
3.
JudaizersA group of individuals advocating for the necessity of following Jewish law, including circumcision, for salvation.
4.
CircumcisionA physical act that was being wrongly emphasized by the Judaizers as necessary for salvation.
5.
GalatiaA region in Asia Minor where the churches addressed in this letter were located.
Teaching Points
The Danger of False TeachingsPaul uses strong language to emphasize the severity of the false teachings infiltrating the Galatian church. Believers must be vigilant against teachings that add to the gospel of grace.
The Sufficiency of ChristThe emphasis on circumcision by the Judaizers undermines the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. Believers are reminded that salvation is through faith in Christ alone, not by works of the law.
The Importance of Spiritual FreedomPaul’s hyperbolic wish for the agitators to emasculate themselves underscores the importance of spiritual freedom in Christ. Believers are called to live in the freedom that Christ provides, not under the bondage of legalism.
Guarding the GospelThe Galatians are urged to guard the purity of the gospel message. This involves discerning truth from error and standing firm in the faith once delivered to the saints.
The Role of Righteous IndignationPaul’s strong language reflects a righteous indignation against those who distort the gospel. Believers can learn to channel their own indignation towards constructive defense of the faith.
Lists and Questions
Top 10 Lessons from Galatians 5
What are the seven deadly sins?
What does the Bible say regarding cynicism?
2 Corinthians 5:17 - How can believers be 'new creations' while still exhibiting old habits, flaws, and sins?
What is the Bible's stance on sedition?(12)
I would they were even cut off.--The Authorised version is undoubtedly wrong here. The words may mean "cut themselves off,"
i.e., from your communion, but it seems far best to take the words, with all the ancient Greek interpreters and a large majority of modern commentators, including Dr. Lightfoot and Bishop Wordsworth, as referring to an extension of the rite of circumcision, such as the Galatians might see frequently practised by the priests of Cybele, whose worship had one of its most imporant centres in their country--
I would they would even make themselves eunuchs. Let them carry their self-mutilation still further, and not stop at circumcision.
The expression is in several ways surprising as coming from St. Paul. We should remember, in some mitigation of it, the fact just alluded to, that the Galatians were themselves familiar with this particular form of self-mutilation; and familiar with it, no doubt, in discourse as well as in act. Christianity, while it has had the effect of putting a stop to such horrible practices, has also banished them even from thought and word. It is less, perhaps, a matter of wonder that we should have to appeal to the difference in standard between the Apostle's times and our own, than that we have to appeal to it so seldom. Still, at the best, words like these must be allowed to come some way short of the "meekness and gentleness of Christ." We may compare with them, as well for the particular expression as for the general vehemence of language,Philippians 3:2 : "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concision" (with a play on "circumcision"). The Apostle himself would have been the last to claim that he had "already attained, either were already perfect." A highly nervous and excitable constitution such as his, shattered by bodily hardships and mental strain, could not but at times impair his power of self-control. It is to be noticed, however, that his indignation, if it sometimes carries him somewhat too far, is always roused in a worthy cause. Such momentary ebullitions as these are among the very few flaws in a truly noble and generous character, and are themselves in great part due to the ardour which makes it so noble.
Which trouble you.--A different word from that which is similarly translated inGalatians 5:10. Its meaning is stronger: "to uproot and overthrow."
Verse 12. -
I would they were even cut off which trouble you (
ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονταιοἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς);
would to God they would make themselves even as the apocopi of Cybele (Greek,
would even mutilate themselves),
who are casting you out of country and home! The word
ὄφελον, originally a verb, had got, thus stripped of its augment, to be a mere particle of wishing. Its sense with an indicative aorist is seen
1 Corinthians 4:8,
Ὄφελόν γε ἐβασιλεύσατε, "Would to God ye had come to your kingship [which is far from being really the case yet!];"
Exodus 16:3;
Numbers 14:2;
Numbers 20:3 (Septuagint),
Ὄφελονἀπεθάνομεν, "Would to God we had died!" with an indicative
imperfect,
2 Corinthians 11:1,
Ὄφελον ἀνείχεσθέ μον μικρὸν ἀφροσύνης, "Would to God ye were [
i.e. could be] tolerant of a little foolishness of mine! [might I hope for it?];"
Revelation 3:15,
Ὄφελον ψυχρὸς η΅ς, etc., "Would that thou wert cold," etc. With an indicative
future (an extremely rare combination), it may still be regarded as expressing a longing that something
might be looked forward to, which in reality is not to be anticipated; different from a simple desire that a thing may be, unaccompanied by the feeling that it cannot be, which is its three with an optative, as in
Psalm 119:5. The tone of especially fervid aspiration, the vivacity, which usually marks wishes introduced by
ὄφελον, is perhaps unduly tamed down by the rendering "I would that." In respect to the verb
ἀποκόψονται, Greek scholars are pretty well agreed that the passive rendering of our Authorized Version, "were cut off," cannot be defended. There is no certain instance (Bishop Ellicott remarks) of a similar interchange of the middle voice with the passive. The sense of the verb is shown by
the Septuagint rendering of
Deuteronomy 23:1,
Οὐκ εἰσελεύσεταιθλαδίας καὶ ἀποκεκομμένος εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Θεοῦ: where the word 'to the
ἀποκεκομμένος answers Hebrew
keruth shophkah, rightly rendered in the Vulgate and in our English Bible (cf. Gesenius's 'Thesaurus,' and Furst, under
shophkah). "This meaning is assigned to
ἀποκόψονται," observes Bishop Lightfoot, "by all the Greek commentators, I believe, without exception (the Latin Fathers, who read ' abseimtantur' in their text had more latitude), and seems alone tenable." (See Grotius, in Peele's ' Synopsis.' ) This interpretation gives its full force to
καί ("not only circumcise, but even," etc.): it explains the form of the aspiration as one not likely to be realized; whereas the excision from the Church of these extremely aberrant members, falling nearly if not quite under the
anathema of the first chapter, was a thing quite within the apostle's own power: it harmonizes with the intense resentment which colours the phrase,
οἱ ἀναστατοῦντεςἡμᾶς (see below). The sentiment, it is true, seems one which it would be impossible for a public speaker, or even a writer, amongst ourselves to give such open expression to. Nevertheless, when viewed as framed in amid the surroundings which environed it at the time, it wears none of that aspect of coarseness which would confessedly be felt to attach to it under the conditions of modern life. That the worship of Cybele at Pessinus, one of the principal cities of Galatia, was deformed by the practice of such self-mutilation on the part of some of its devotees, was a matter of universal notoriety, and we may confidently assume that the apostle, when in the neighbourhood, heard frequent mention of those
apocopi as they were called, and thus was led now to allude to it as he seems to do in this malediction. For it
is a malediction, as Chrysostom describes it; a malediction, however, which in severity falls far short of the anathema which has been previously pronounced. Good were it (he means) for the Church, and even perhaps themselves, if they would have the rashness to go a little further with what they call "circumcision," which in their case is mere
concision (
Philippians 3:2), and make it clear to all men how purely senseless and unchristian their action in this matter is. "Casting you out of country and home." The verb
ἀναστατοῦν occurs besides only in
Acts 17:6 ("turned upside down" ) and
Acts 21:38 ("madest an uproar" ). It is not found in classical Greek, in which we have in its stead
ἀναστάτους ποιεῖν ορτιθέναι: the verbal adjective
ἀνάστατος, when it is applied, as it frequently is, to populations, meaning, "made to rise up and depart," "driven from house and home;" applied to cities, "ruined," "laid waste" (Liddell and Scott). Chrysostom observes, "Well does he say,
ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς: for they compelled them to abandon their own proper country and liberty and heavenly kindred, and to seek an alien and strange one; casting them out of ' Jerusalem which is above and free,' and forcing them to wander abroad as captives and perforce emigrants." The present tense of the participle points to the action of these perverters as one which. if successful, would have this result; which (ver. 10) the apostle hopes to defeat. The selection of this particular verb, which goes far beyond the
ταράσσοντες before used, and which the word "unsettle" adopted here by the Revisers, does not, as commonly used, completely represent, betokens the apostle's intense feeling of the ruinous consequences of the proposed Judaizing reaction. It shows that he adds the words
aetiologically, that is, to justify his strong words,
ὄφελον ἀποκόψονται. The energy of both expressions suggests the feeling that probably the apostle would not have written as he has here done except for his burning resentment on behalf of Christ's people threatened with so great a hurt. In 1 Car. 6:4 indignant feeling carries him away beyond himself to an utterance which in the next verse he virtually retracts, remarking, "I say it to move you to shame." Perhaps we have here something of the same kind.
Parallel Commentaries ...
Greek
As for those whoοἱ(hoi)Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588:The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.are agitatingἀναστατοῦντες(anastatountes)Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 387:From a derivative of anistemi; properly, to drive out of home, i.e. to disturb.you,ὑμᾶς(hymas)Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771:You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.I wishὌφελον(Ophelon)Interjection
Strong's 3785:First person singular of a past tense of opheilo; I ought, i.e. oh that!they would proceed to emasculate themselves!ἀποκόψονται(apokopsontai)Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 609:From apo and kopto; to amputate; reflexively to mutilate.
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NT Letters: Galatians 5:12 I wish that those who disturb you (Gal. Ga) 
