3:5

In Greek, this verse begins with a conjunction that makes it clear this verse is Paul’s conclusion or summary of this paragraph.

Some ways to translate this conjunction to introduce this conclusion are:

So then (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
So ?tell me?
-or-
Therefore (King James Version)

Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?: In this verse, Paul again used a rhetorical question. This rhetorical question emphasized something that the Galatians already knew, that they had received the Spirit by faith. This question is similar to the rhetorical question in 3:2.

Paul began the rhetorical question by summarizing two things that God did for the Galatians:

(a) he gave them his Holy Spirit

(b) he worked miracles among them

Paul continued the rhetorical question by asking the Galatians two questions: had they received these things:

(a) by obeying the law or

(b) by faith in Jesus Christ?

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

• As one or two rhetorical questions. For example:

Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it? (Good News Translation)
-or-
Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires? Or is it because you hear the gospel and believe it?

• As a question followed by a statement. For example:

Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you follow the law? No, he does these things because you heard the Good News and believed it. (New Century Version)

• As a statement followed by a question. For example:

God gives you his Spirit and works miracles in you. But does he do this because you obey the Law of Moses or because you have heard about Christ and have faith in him? (Contemporary English Version)

• As a statement. For example:

God gives you his Spirit and works miracles in you. He does not do it by means of your obedience to the law. Instead it is by means of your faith in what you heard.

3:5a

lavish His Spirit on you: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as lavish means “give.” God gave the Holy Spirit to the Galatians. For example:

give you the Holy Spirit (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
gives you his Spirit (Contemporary English Version)

work miracles among you: This clause means that God did miracles among the Galatians. These miracles were things such as healing people or causing them to prophesy and speak in other languages. The miracles were also giving people spiritual qualities such as faith, hope, and love.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

does miracles in your midst
-or-
does amazing things among you

3:5b

because you practice the law: In Greek, this is the same phrase as in 3:2b. You should translate it in the same way. For example:

by obeying the Law (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
through keeping the law
-or-
because of keeping the law
-or-
following the law ?that God gave to Moses?

because you hear and believe: In Greek, this is the same phrase as in 3:2c. You should translate it in the same way. For example:

by means of your faith ?in the gospel? you heard
-or-
because of trusting ?in Christ? when you heard ?the Good News? .

See faith, Meaning 1 in the Glossary for more information.

© 2016 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.