Those who depend on obeying the Law is literally “as many as are out of works of law” (Revised Standard Version “who rely on works of the law”). Although law can mean any law, since the Greek speaks of “law” and not of “the Law,” most translators and commentators take “law” here to refer to the Jewish Law, since it was the Jewish Law whose role as an instrument in putting man in a right relationship with God is now in question. It is this same Jewish Law that the Galatians are being urged by the false teachers to accept.
“Works of law” means here, as it does in 3.2, “doing what the law requires.” The whole expression, then, “as many as are out of works of law” means those who depend on obeying the Law as the means by which they may be put in right relationship with God, or those who seek to please God by following specific regulations in the Law.
The expression those who depend on obeying the Law involves considerable semantic ellipsis, since the purpose of the dependence has been omitted; in other words, these are people who depend on obeying the Law in order to be put right with God. Furthermore, in a number of languages it makes very little sense to say depend on obeying the Law unless one indicates the purpose for such an action. Therefore, it may be necessary to translate this initial clause as “those who think they will be received by God because they obey what the laws say,” or “those who think they will get right with God because they obey what the laws say they must do.”
Curse is in this verse contrasted with “blessing” in verses 8 and 9. A curse is a wish or a prayer for evil to befall someone. In treaties and contracts, the curse was directed at any party who in the future might dare to violate the provisions agreed upon. In verse 10, the curse is defined more fully in the quotation which follows. Therefore, while it is possible to say “under a curse from God” or “under the curse of God,” it is better in the present case to retain the original form “under a curse,” so that it can clearly be seen as a reference to the quotation which follows.
The phrase live under a curse may be extremely difficult to render in such a way as really to communicate the meaning of the Greek text. In many languages a literal translation of this expression would mean “to continue living after someone has already cursed you.” This, of course, is not the meaning. It is rather the threat of condemnation which continues for any person who thinks that he can become right with God by obeying the Law. Therefore, one may translate live under a curse as “continue under threat of being condemned,” or “live all the time knowing that God will condemn them.”
In some languages it may be perfectly appropriate to use a technical term for curse, but in other languages this would not be advisable since a “curse” is regarded only as an instrument of evil, and anyone putting a curse on another would be doing something entirely wrong. Such an interpretation would, of course, not be satisfactory for the scripture quotation which speaks of God’s curse.
The quotation “whoever does not…” is from Deuteronomy 27.26 and follows the Septuagint, with some variations.
The implied premise of the whole verse is twofold: (1) that in order for one to gain God’s approval through the Law, he must obey everything that is provided therein; and (2) that no one can follow everything that is written in the book of the Law. Since, therefore, anyone who does not follow everything in the Law is under God’s curse, and no one is able to follow everything in the Law, then everyone who depends on obeying the Law lives under a curse.
The phrase for the scripture says must sometimes be rendered “as one may read in the Scriptures,” or “according to the words of the Scriptures.”
The indefinite relative clause “whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law” must be reinterpreted in some languages as a condition, for example, “if someone does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law.” In place of the passive expression everything that is written in the book of the Law, it is possible in some cases to use “all the words of the book of the laws.”
Since in this context the term book refers simply to the listing, it may be preferable not to employ a term which would imply that all the laws were contained within a single book. It may be better to say “obey all the regulations of the laws,” or “obey all the regulations listed in the laws.”
Under God’s curse is literally “cursed,” with the implied agent being God, hence “cursed by God.” Accordingly, is under God’s curse, may be rendered as “is exposed to God’s condemnation.” On the other hand, the entire sentence may be restructured to read as “God condemns anyone who does not always obey all that is written in the book of the Law.” It may be necessary to indicate here that the Law refers to “the laws coming through Moses,” or “… given by means of Moses.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .