Galatia 4:8

Heirs of Promise Are Not to Return to Law

4:8 Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. ¹ 

Galatia 4:29

4:29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ²  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ³  so it is now.

[4:8]  ¹ tn Grk “those that by nature…” with the word “beings” implied. BDAG 1070 s.v. φύσις 2 sees this as referring to pagan worship: “Polytheists worship…beings that are by nature no gods at all Gal 4:8.”

[4:29]  ² tn Grk “according to the flesh”; see the note on the phrase “by natural descent” in 4:23.

[4:29]  ³ tn Or “the one born by the Spirit’s [power].”