Galatians — Footnotes

🔗Chapter 5

5:4 — The verbs are proleptic (futuristic) aorists: Paul states the consequence of choosing law-righteousness as if it has already happened, to show that the two paths — law and Christ — are mutually exclusive. It is a statement of incompatibility, not a declaration. See BDF §333(2); Bruce, NIGTC, ad loc.

5:12 — Literally, "cut off themselves" (ἀποκόψονται). On the Cybele cult background and the middle voice as causative, see D.F. Tolmie, "The Interpretation and Translation of Galatians 5:12," Acta Theologica 2009:2, 86-102; J.R. Edwards, "Galatians 5:12: Circumcision, the Mother Goddess, and the Scandal of the Cross," Novum Testamentum 53/4 (2011), 319-337.