The second group consists of two which are associated with heathen worship: “idolatry” and “sorcery.” “Idolatry” is worship of idols in a specific sense, and in a general sense worship of anything other than the one God. “Sorcery” translates a word which originally meant simply “use of medicine or drugs,” but which had the derived meaning of the use of drugs for magical purposes. Therefore it came to mean, in the biblical writings, magic, sorcery, or witchcraft.

Worship of idols may be rendered simply as “people worshiping idols,” “people bowing down before idols,” or “… statues of their gods.”

Witchcraft may be rendered as “they practice black magic against one another,” “they do sorcery,” “they cause curses to come upon people,” or “they cause curses by magic.” In some instances witchcraft is identified by very specific idiomatic expressions, for example, “they burn hair,” “they mutter curses,” or “they mix saliva.” One should not, however, employ an idiomatic expression for witchcraft unless it has a broader meaning than merely the designation of some technique appropriate only to some usage in an individual culture.

The third group includes eight which can be generally designated as describing social evils. Except for two, “strife” and “jealousy” (see below), all these are plural in the Greek, stressing numerous and repeated occurrences. Good News Translation indicates this plural form by starting a new sentence and focusing on the people who perform them rather than on the acts themselves. Thus, for “enmity” Good News Translation has people become enemies, and so on. In most languages the remaining types of evil behavior are expressed either by verbs or by a general term of action qualified by a word such as “angrily” or “with envy.”

Paul starts this third list with “enmity,” a general term referring to hostility or unneighborly acts of any kind or form.

“Strife” refers to “dissensions, wranglings” (Jerusalem Bible), “bickering” (New American Bible), “quarrels” (Knox). Though Good News Translation translates they fight, the fighting should be regarded primarily as an aspect of dissension and arguing. One may therefore translate “they quarrel with one another,” or “they fight with one another with words.”

“Jealousy” should not be understood as a term which refers simply to a lover’s attitude toward his rivals, but the eager desire to have or attain what belongs to another, hence “envy” (New English Bible). Quite frequently “jealousy” here is rendered as “they want what other people have,” or “they look with envious eyes at one another.”

“Anger” is the same word often rendered “passion,” but here it is used in the sense of “wrath,” “rage,” “outbursts of anger” (Knox); “outbursts of rage” (New American Bible). Paul is not simply describing a characteristic, as some translations might suggest (Jerusalem Bible “bad temper”), but an act in which anger is expressed.

“Selfishness” is a word which suggests the act of pushing oneself ahead regardless of what happens to others, or of working zealously for one’s own interests, together with the resulting intrigues and rivalries (Good News Translation ambitious; New English Bible “selfish ambitions”; New American Bible “selfish rivalries”). Since ambitious can be understood in a perfectly proper sense, it may be essential to have some qualifying phrase or word, for example, “selfishly ambitious,” “ambitious only for themselves,” or “wanting to get ahead of others.”

“Dissension” refers to divisions and schisms, while “party spirit” translates a word which means “sect” or “faction,” usually a heretical one. Since the two concepts are related, both referring to the act of separating from one another or creating divisions and so destroying the unity of any group, Good News Translation joins them together: They separate into parties and groups. It is possible to understand parties as temporary divisions, and groups as permanent divisions, and some translations reflect this kind of understanding (Jerusalem Bible “disagreements, factions”; New American Bible “dissensions, factions”). One may also translate “they divide themselves into cliques and oppose one another.”

“Envy” is similar to “jealousy.” Perhaps, as some scholars have suggested, the use of the plural denotes different acts or specific forms of envious desire.

A number of Greek manuscripts and so some translations include a ninth “work of the flesh,” namely, “murder.” The manuscript evidence in favor of its inclusion is considerable.

The fourth group includes two sins of intemperance. “Drunkenness” is self-explanatory, and it results in “carousing,” which is a word to describe “excessive feasting” or “orgies.” In heathen worship, these acts were usually part of the festal processions in honor of the gods. The distinctions here in terms of two levels of intemperance may be expressed in some languages as “they get drunk, and they are drunk in religious festivals,” or “they get very drunk during fiestas.”

Paul concludes his enumeration with the clause and do other things like these. This indicates that his list is by no means exhaustive, but that the Galatians will be able to recognize other “works of the flesh,” in addition to what Paul has mentioned.

Paul now spells out the consequences of all these “works of the flesh” in the form of a warning. As I have before probably refers to the same occasion which he has referred to previously (see 1.9; 4.16; 5.3).

The people who practice these “works of the flesh” will not possess the Kingdom of God (literally, “shall not inherit the Kingdom of God”). The expression the Kingdom of God does not refer to a place where God is king, or to a realm where God exercises his kingship, but to his rule, to his activity as King. To “inherit the Kingdom of God,” therefore, is to reach the point of acknowledging God as King or to be under God’s rule and authority. Will not possess the Kingdom of God may be rendered in some languages as “will not enjoy having God rule over them,” or “will never have the joy of God ruling them.”

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 .