For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
Parallel translations
- WEB For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
- KJV For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
- NKJV For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
- NASB For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.
- NLT And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples.
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
The circumcision party did not even keep the law themselves; they wanted converts so they could boast in their numbers. It unmasks the pride and inconsistency behind legalism.
Overview
Paul points out the hypocrisy of the false teachers: they demanded law-observance from others while failing to keep it fully themselves. Their real aim was to boast in the Galatians as trophies of their influence. This contrasts sharply with the gospel, which leaves no room for human boasting and rests entirely on Christ's finished work.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Phil 3:3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
- 1 Cor 5:6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
- 2 Pet 2:19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
- Rom 2:17–25Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;
- Matt 23:3So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
- 2 Cor 11:18Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.
- Matt 23:15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
- Rom 3:9–19What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.
- 1 Cor 3:21Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
- Matt 23:23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
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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 6:13 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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