Galatians 3:20

Galatians 3:20 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
• New International Version (NIV)A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
• English Standard Version (ESV)Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

Context of Galatians 3:20

18God has promised to give good things to his children. But that does not happen as a result of God's Law. If that were true, then we would not receive God's good things as a result of his promise. But God gave those good things to Abraham as a gift, because he had promised to bless Abraham. 19So we could ask: Why did God give his Law to his people after his promise to Abraham? He gave his Law to show them which things are wrong. It would have authority until Abraham's special descendant would come. That was the descendant that God had promised to bless. God used angels to give his Law to his people. It was Moses who received the Law from God, and Moses then took it to God's people. But God himself gave his promise to Abraham. It was not necessary to have somebody in between, like Moses. 21So should we say that God's Law works against God's promises? No, certainly that is not true! It is not possible for the rules of any law to give us life with God. If that could happen, then God would have accepted us as right if we obeyed those rules. 22But the Bible says that sin has power over everyone. People can not get free. This means that we can only receive what God has promised when we trust Jesus Christ. God gives his promise to those who believe.

Galatians 3:20 word by word

ὁ δὲ μεσίτης ἑνὸς οὐκ ἔστιν, ὁ δὲ θεὸς εἷς ἐστιν.¶Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Nowδέde · thenG1161
• a mediatorμεσίτηςmesitēs · mediatorG3316
• isεἰμίeimi · to beG1510
• notοὐou · noG3756
• of oneεἷςheis · oneG1520
• Godθεόςtheos · GodG2316
• ·ὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588

Cross-references for Galatians 3:20

• Job 9:33There is nobody who can decide which of us is right. Nobody has authority to judge both of us.
• Acts 12:20At that time, King Herod was angry with the people who lived in Tyre and Sidon. A group of men from these cities went together to speak to Herod about the problem. A man called Blastus was an important servant in King Herod's house. The group of men said to Blastus, ‘Please help us when we speak to King Herod.’ Then they went and they said to Herod, ‘Please stop being angry with our people. We want to be friends again.’ They said this because they needed to buy food in King Herod's country.
• 1 Timothy 2:5There is only one God. There is also only one person who brings God and people together. That person is Christ Jesus, who became a man himself.
• Galatians 3:17What I mean is this: God made an agreement with Abraham. He promised to bless him. Then, 430 years later, God gave his Law to Moses for the Jewish people. But that Law could not take away the authority of God's agreement with Abraham. It could not stop what God had already promised.
• Genesis 15:18On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the River Euphrates.
• Genesis 17:1When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him. The Lord said, ‘I am God Almighty. In all your life, obey me and do nothing wrong.
• Deuteronomy 6:4Listen, Israelites! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other true God.
• Romans 3:29God is not God only for Jewish people. He is also God for the Gentiles. Yes! He is the God for all people.

Commentaries on Galatians 3:20

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 20A mediator is not a mediator of one - As a mediator, , signifies a middle person, there must necessarily be two parties, between whom he stands, and acts in reference to both, as he is supposed to have the interests of both equally at heart. This verse is allowed to be both obscure and difficult; and it is certain that there is little consent among learned men and critics in their opinions concerning it. Rosenmuller thinks that the opinion of Nosselt is…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one … - This verse has given great perplexity to commentators. “There is, unquestionably,” says Bloomfield, “no passage in the New Testament that has so much, and to so little purpose, exercised the learning and ingenuity of commentators as the present, which seems to defy all attempts to elicit any satisfactory sense, except by methods so violent as to be almost the same thing as writing the passage afresh.” In regard…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 19-22Verses 19-22 If that promise was enough for salvation, wherefore then serveth the law? The Israelites, though chosen to be God's peculiar people, were sinners as well as others. The law was not intended to discover a way of justification, different from that made known by the promise, but to lead men to see their need of the promise, by showing the sinfulness of sin, and to point to Christ, through whom alone they could be pardoned and justified. The…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 20The law of Moses was given through angels and a mediator (Moses). The law required agreement between God and the people. The law was conditional, with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. In contrast, God gave his promise directly to Abraham without a mediator. It was God's promise alone, and God did not require anything in return. but God is one: Paul used the basic Jewish creed (see Deuteronomy 6:4) to persuade non-Jewish Christians not…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2020. "Now a mediator cannot be of one (but must be of two parties whom he mediates between); but God is one" (not two: owing to His essential unity not admitting of an intervening party between Him and those to be blessed; but as the One Sovereign, His own representative, giving the blessing directly by promise to Abraham, and, in its fulfilment, to Christ, "the Seed," without new condition, and without a mediator such as the law had). The conclusion…Read the comment

Topics related to Galatians 3:20

• Faith
• God Continued...
• Salvation
• Works

In the dictionaries

• God
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Conclude
• Curse
• Eye
• Flesh
• Foolish
• Redeem
• Schoolmaster
• Shut

Commentaries on Galatians 3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings