New International Version
Galatians 5:12
12As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Galatians 5:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
- English Standard Version (ESV)I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
- New King James Version (NKJV)I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
- New Living Translation (NLT)I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
Context of Galatians 5:12
10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! 13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Read all of Galatians 5Galatians 5:12 word by word
ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Galatians 5:12
- Galatians 5:10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.
- Galatians 1:8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
- Genesis 17:14Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
- Exodus 12:15For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
- Exodus 30:33Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people.’ ”
- Leviticus 22:3“Say to them: ‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.
- Joshua 7:12That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
- John 9:34To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
- Acts 5:5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
- 1 Corinthians 5:13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
- Acts 15:1Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Commentaries on Galatians 5:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12I would they were even cut off which trouble you - This saying has puzzled many, and different interpretations of the place have been proposed by learned men. At first sight it seems as if the apostle was praying for the destruction of the false teachers who had perverted the Churches of Galatia. Mr. Wakefield thought might be translated, I wish that they were made to weep; and in his translation of the New Testament the passage stands thus: "I wish that…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12I would they were even cut off - That is, as I understand it, from the communion of the church. So far am I, says Paul, from agreeing with them, and preaching the necessity of circumcision as they do, that I sincerely wish they were excluded from the church as unworthy a place among the children of God. For a very singular and monstrous interpretation of this passage, though adopted by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Jerome, Grotius, Rosenmuller…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-12Verses 7-12 The life of a Christian is a race, wherein he must run, and hold on, if he would obtain the prize. It is not enough that we profess Christianity, but we must run well, by living up to that profession. Many who set out fairly in religion, are hindered in their progress, or turn out of the way. It concerns those who begin to turn out of the way, or to tire in it, seriously to inquire what hinders them. The opinion or persuasion, ver. #(8), was…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 12emasculate themselves (literally cut themselves off; compare Philippians 3:2): Paul uses strong words to criticize people who demanded circumcision (cutting off the foreskin from the male sex organ). Paul might refer to pagan priests in Galatia who castrated themselves (removed their testicles) for their gods. Insisting on circumcision for Christians is similar. It involved cutting the flesh to please God through physical actions instead of faith in…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. they ... which trouble you--Translate, as the Greek is different from Ga 5:10, "they who are unsettling you." were even cut off--even as they desire your foreskin to be cut off and cast away by circumcision, so would that they were even cut off from your communion, being worthless as a castaway foreskin (Ga 1:7, 8; compare Php 3:2). The fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrysostom, explain it, "Would that they would even cut themselves off,"…Read the comment
Topics related to Galatians 5:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Galatians 5
- 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
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