1:7a

They want to be teachers of the law: People respected the teachers of Moses’ law and recognized that they were experts. The false teachers about whom Paul was writing here also wanted people to respect them and to consider them experts.

teachers of the law: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as teachers of the law refers to men who were experts in the laws which are recorded in the Old Testament.

the law: Here Paul was referring to the laws that God gave to Moses and that are recorded in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Some ways to translate the law in the sense of “the law of Moses” are:

God’s laws that Moses taught
-or-
the law that God gave to Moses

Since this phrase is singular in English (and Greek), some readers may think that Paul was talking about only one law. If this causes a problem for your readers you may need to use a plural term.

1:7b

they do not understand what they are saying: Paul said that these false teachers did not understand what they were saying. They did not understand the meaning of God’s laws, even though they thought they knew them well enough to teach others. This is similar to what Paul said about the false teachers in 6:4a. See the note there.

1:7c

or that which they so confidently assert: This phrase is similar to what Paul said in 1:7b. However, he now added the idea that the false teachers taught confidently. That meant that they spoke boldly as if they understood what they were teaching.

so confidently assert: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as so confidently assert could also be translated as “insist [on].” This word also occurs in Titus 3:8, where the Berean Standard Bible translates it as “emphasize.”

General Comment on 1:7b–c

In some languages, it may be best to translate 1:7b and 1:7c as two separate clauses, as the Berean Standard Bible does. But in other languages, it may be better to combine both clauses and translate them as only one emphatic clause. For example:

…but they really know absolutely nothing about what they are trying to teach.

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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.