O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
Parallel translations
- WEB Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
- KJV O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
- BSB O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
- NASB You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
- NLT Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul rebukes the Galatians as foolish and bewitched for abandoning the truth, since Christ crucified had been clearly portrayed to them. They are turning from what they plainly knew.
Overview
Paul's sharp tone reflects his astonishment that the Galatians would forsake the cross-centered gospel preached so vividly among them. The word 'bewitched' suggests they have been spiritually deceived against all reason. The crucified Christ, once central to their faith, remains the answer to their error.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 35
- Gal 5:7–8You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?
- 2 Cor 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
- Gal 1:6I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
- Rev 2:20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
- 1 Pet 4:17For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
- Gal 4:9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?
- Heb 11:8By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
- Gal 3:3Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
- 1 Pet 1:22Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently:
- Eph 4:14that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
- 2 Pet 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- Eph 5:15Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
- Heb 5:9Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,
- Rev 13:13–14He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people.
- Gal 2:14But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?
- 2 Th 2:9–12even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
- 1 Tim 6:4he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions,
- 1 Cor 2:2For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
- Rom 6:17But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
- 2 Cor 11:13–15For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
- 1 Cor 11:26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
- Acts 6:7The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
- Rev 18:3For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
- 1 Sam 13:13Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you; for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever.
- 2 Cor 10:5throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
- Rom 2:8but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,
- Eph 3:8To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Acts 8:9–11But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who used to practice sorcery in the city, and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one,
- 1 Cor 1:23–24but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,
- Rom 10:16But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
- 2 Th 1:8giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- Luke 24:25He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
- Matt 24:24For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
- Deut 32:6Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.
- Matt 7:26Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 3:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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