Galatians Chapter 3 verse 3 Holy Bible

ASV Galatians 3:3

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?
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BBE Galatians 3:3

Are you so foolish? having made a start in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh?
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DARBY Galatians 3:3

Are ye so senseless? having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?
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KJV Galatians 3:3

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
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WBT Galatians 3:3


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WEB Galatians 3:3

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
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YLT Galatians 3:3

so thoughtless are ye! having begun in the Spirit, now in the flesh do ye end?
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Galatians 3 : 3 Bible Verse Songs

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (οὕτως ἀνόητοί ἐστε ἐναρξάμενοι, πνεύματι νῦν σαρκὶ ἐπιτελεῖσθε); are ye so foolish? having begun with the Spirit, are ye now finishing with the flesh? Πνεύματι, as contrasted with σαρκί, means the element of spiritual existence (comp. the use of πνεῦμα in Romans 1:4; 1 Peter 3:18) into which they had been brought at their conversion by the Holy Spirit's influence; including the spiritual sensibility and spiritual activity which had at first marked their Christian life, as e.g. joy in God in the sense of pardon, adoption (Galatians 4:6), love to God, affectionate attachment to their spiritual teacher (Galatians 4:14, 15), brotherly love among themselves: at that hour all their soul was praise, joy, love. Σαρκὶ denotes a lower, merely sensuous kind of religiousness, one busying itself with ceremonial performances, observance of days and festivals (Galatians 4:10), distinctions of meats, and other matters of ceremonial prescription; with petty strivings and disputings, of course, about such points, as if they really mattered at all; in which kind of religiousness the former tone of love, joy, sense of adoption, praise, had evaporated, leaving their souls dry, earthly (comp. "weak and beggarly rudiments," Galatians 4:9; and for the use of σάρξ, Hebrews 9:10). Perhaps the apostle includes also in his use of the term the loss of spiritual victory over sin. if in place of surrendering themselves to the leading of the Spirit (comp. Galatians 5:18) they put themselves under the Law, then they fell back again under the power of the "flesh," which the Law could only command them to control, but could of itself give them no power to control (Romans 8:3). The Authorized Version, "begun in," is doubtless faulty, in taking πνεύματι as governed by the ἐν of the compound verb. The two verbs ἐνάρχομαι and ἐπιτελεῖν are balanced against each other in 2 Corinthians 8:6; Philippians 1:6. Ἐπιτελεῖσθε may be either a passive, as it is rendered in the Authorized Version, "Are ye made perfect," i.e. "Are ye seeking to be made perfect;" so the Revised Version, "Are ye now perfected;" or a middle verb, as ἐπιτελοῦμαι is often used in other writers, though nowhere in the New Testament or Septuagint. The latter seems the more suitable, with the understood suppletion of "your course" or "your estate," as in our English word "finishing." The apostle is partial to the deponent form of verbs.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) Foolish.--See the Note on Galatians 3:1.Having begun in the Spirit.--Begun your career as Christians in a manner so entirely spiritual--with the spiritual act of faith on your part, and with an answering gift of spiritual graces and powers.Made perfect by the flesh.--Do you wish to finish and complete the career thus auspiciously begun under a system of things entirely different--a system carnal and material, narrow, slavish, and literal--the Law in place of the Gospel? By "the flesh" is here meant the Law, which, though described as spiritual in Horn. vii. 14, and though it really was spiritual in view of its origin, in another aspect--as imposing a system of literal obedience upon its adherents--was carnal, "earthly," rigid, petty, and low. It had none of that sublime expansiveness and aspiration which belongs to faith. It was a grievous reversing of the whole order of progress--to begin with faith, and, instead of completing with faith that which faith had begun, to fall back upon a condition of things which was shared with the Christian by the unemancipated Jew.