What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
Parallel translations
- KJV Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
- BSB What then has become of your blessing? For I can testify that, if it were possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
- NKJV What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
- NASB Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I testify about you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
- NLT Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible.
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 asks what became of their earlier joy and devotion, recalling they would have given their own eyes for him. He laments the loss of their first affection.
Overview
The vivid image of plucking out their eyes shows the depth of the Galatians' original love and self-sacrifice toward Paul. Some see this as a hint about Paul's ailment affecting his eyes, though this is uncertain. The verse mourns how a false gospel has cooled a once-fervent relationship and warns how legalism damages Christian fellowship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Rom 5:2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Col 4:13For I testify about him, that he has great zeal for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.
- 1 Jn 3:16–18By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
- Gal 6:4But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else.
- Rom 4:6–9Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
- Rom 10:2For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
- 2 Cor 8:3For according to their power, I testify, yes and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord,
- Rom 15:13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Gal 4:19My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you —
- 1 Th 2:8Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.
- 1 Th 5:13and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
- Gal 3:14that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
- Rom 9:3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
- Luke 8:13Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation.
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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 4:15 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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