Galatians 3:5
New International Version
So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

New Living Translation
I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

English Standard Version
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Berean Standard Bible
Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?

Berean Literal Bible
Therefore, the One supplying to you the Spirit and working miracles among you, is it out of works of the Law, or out of hearing of faith?

King James Bible
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

New King James Version
Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—

New American Standard Bible
So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

NASB 1995
So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

NASB 1977
Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Legacy Standard Bible
So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Amplified Bible
So then, does He who supplies you with His [marvelous Holy] Spirit and works miracles among you, do it as a result of the works of the Law [which you perform], or because you [believe confidently in the message which you] heard with faith?

Christian Standard Bible
So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

American Standard Version
He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Is he, therefore, who gives The Spirit among you, and does miracles among you, of the works of The Written Law, or of the hearing of faith?

Contemporary English Version
God gives you his Spirit and works miracles in you. But does he do this because you obey the Law of Moses or because you have heard about Christ and have faith in him?

Douay-Rheims Bible
He therefore who giveth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you; doth he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of the faith?

English Revised Version
He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you through your own efforts or through believing what you heard?

Good News Translation
Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?

International Standard Version
Does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do the actions of the Law or because you believe what you heard?

Literal Standard Version
He, therefore, who is supplying the Spirit to you and working mighty acts among you—[is it] by works of law or by the hearing of faith?

Majority Standard Bible
Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?

New American Bible
Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?

NET Bible
Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

New Revised Standard Version
Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

New Heart English Bible
He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

Webster's Bible Translation
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he this by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Weymouth New Testament
He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among you--does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed:

World English Bible
He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

Young's Literal Translation
He, therefore, who is supplying to you the Spirit, and working mighty acts among you -- by works of law or by the hearing of faith is it?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Faith and Belief
4Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe? 6So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”…

Cross References
Romans 10:17
Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:10
to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

2 Corinthians 9:10
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Philippians 1:19
because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.


Treasury of Scripture

He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, does he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

that.

Galatians 3:2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

2 Corinthians 3:8
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

worketh.

Acts 14:3,9,10
Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands…

Acts 19:11,12
And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: …

Romans 15:19
Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

by the works.

Galatians 3:2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Jump to Previous
Acts Believed Faith Gives Ground Heard Hearing Law Mighty Ministereth Miracles Obedience Observe Power Principle Provides Report Result Spirit Supplies Supplieth Supplying Work Worketh Working Works
Jump to Next
Acts Believed Faith Gives Ground Heard Hearing Law Mighty Ministereth Miracles Obedience Observe Power Principle Provides Report Result Spirit Supplies Supplieth Supplying Work Worketh Working Works
Galatians 3
1. He asks what moved them to leave the faith, and hold onto the law.
6. Those who believe are justified,
9. and blessed with Abraham.
10. And this he shows by many reasons.
15. The purpose of the Law
26. You are sons of God














(5) The appeal by which the Apostle sought to check the defection of his thoughtless converts was not only an appeal to their past experience, when first they listened to his own preaching, but also to their present experience of facts that they saw actually going on among them. The first great outpouring of the Spirit, both in its miraculous and non-miraculous forms, though checked, had not entirely ceased; and the Galatians might thus see, simply by looking around them, that the channel which God chose for conveying His gifts was not that upon which the Judaisers insisted--the Law--but rather the preaching of faith. Where the faith implanted by the Apostle's preaching still showed signs of vital growth, there the gifts of the Spirit were seen in connection with it; but not amongst the Judaisers and their party.

Therefore.--This word takes up again the question which had been started in Galatians 3:2, but brings it down, as it were, to the present time. The opposition between the effects of faith, on the one hand, and works, on the other, was conspicuous when the Galatians were first converted; it is as conspicuous still. The argument is the same, whichever standpoint is assumed.

Ministereth.--The notion contained in this word is not only that of "supply," but of "liberal supply." At Athens it was the custom for wealthy citizens to bear the cost of bringing out the chorus--which was practically equivalent to putting a play upon the stage--at the great public feasts. The word translated "ministereth" was the technical term for this. The same word is used in 2Corinthians 9:10; Colossians 2:19; 2Peter 1:5; 2Peter 1:11. In three out of the four places it is rendered by the same word "minister;" in 2Peter 1:5 it appears in the phrase "add to your faith virtue" (rather, furnish forth in your faith virtue--i.e., "let your faith prompt you to abundant acts of virtue"). "He that ministereth" is, of course, God. . . .

Verse 5. - He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you (ὁ οϋν ἐπιχορηγῶν ὑμῖν τὸ Πνεῦμα καὶ ἐνεργῶν δυνάμεις ἐν ὑμῖν); he then that sup-plieth to you the Spirit and worketh powers in you, or, miracles among you. The "then" marks the taking up afresh of the topic brought forward in ver. 2, with especial prominence given here to the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit's presence. The argumentative treatment of this topic of the gift of the Spirit was interrupted in vers. 3 and 4 by curt, strongly emotional interrogatories, darted forth upon the apostle's recollecting the animated spirituality which marked those early days of their discipleship. The impassioned desultoriness of his language here, together with its abrupt, stingy wording, is paralleled by Galatians 4:10-20. Perhaps these features in the form of the composition were in part occasioned by the circumstance that he was writing this Epistle with his own hand and not through an amanuensis; such manual exertion being, it should seem, unusual with him, and from some cause even laborious and painful: and so from time to time he appears, as it were, laying down the pen, to rest, to quell emotion, to reflect. The compound verb ἐπιχορηγεῖν, supply, differs probably from the simple form χορηγεῖν only by indicating profusion in the supply; but this qualification of its meaning is too slight to be representable in translation. Besides 2 Peter 1:5, 11, we find it in 2 Corinthians 9:10, "He that supplieth (ὁ ἐπιχορηγῶν) seed... shall supply (χορηγήσει) and multiply your seed for sowing;" Colossians 2:19, "From whom all the body... being supplied;" 1 Peter 4:11, "As of the strength which God sup-plieth." And with similar application the substantive "supply" (ἐπιχορηγία) in Philippians 1:19, "Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;" Ephesians 4:16, "Through every joint of the supply." These passages make it clear that "he that supplieth" is no other than God. And this conclusion is borne out by the comparing of the other clause, "worketh powers in you," with 1 Corinthians 12:6, "It is the same God ( ἐνεργῶν who worketh all in all" (referring to the charismata) - which passage shows that "powers' (δυνάμεις) are not "miracles" themselves as in Matthew 7:22 and Matthew 11:20, and often, but power to work miracles, the plural number pointing to the various forms of its manifestation, as in 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28, 29. The apostle uses the present participles ἐπιχορηγῶν and ἐνεργῶν as describing an agency which the Almighty was continually putting forth among believers in general, including the Galatian Churches themselves. Doeth he it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? (ἐξ ἔργων νόμου η} ἐξ ἀκοης πίστεως;) in consequence of works of the Law or of the hearing of faith? With the sparingness of words above noted, the apostle barely jots down, so to speak, the substance of the interrogative dilemma, without filling in the form of the question. The suppletion would naturally be that of our version, "doeth he it." The substance of the argument apparently required no more than, as before, the question - Was it in consequence of works of the Law or of the hearing of faith that the Spirit and his wonder-working powers were received? But instead of putting it so, St. Paul interposes the personality of the great God himself as imparting these great gifts, making his sentence thereby the more stately and impressive: it is with God in the might of his working that these corrupters of the gospel have to reckon. The impartation of the Spirit and the charisms evidenced God's complacency in the recipients. On what was that complacency founded? on their earning it by ceremonial performances, or on their simply opening their hearts to receive his love? It was a question which the Galatian Churchmen might, if they would, see the answer to in experiences of their own. Among themselves these powers had appeared, and no doubt were still operative. "Well, then," says the apostle, "look and see: are they not operative in those only of you who had received them upon the mere acceptance of righteousness offered them through faith in Christ simply, without having given any heed to Mosaic ceremonialism? Have any of you received them after taking up with such ceremonialism?" The apostle, it will be observed - and the remark is one of no small importance - makes an appeal to simple matters of fact, founded upon his and their own familiar acquaintance with the facts, and defying contradiction. We may be sure, therefore, that the facts were as he indicates, however small the extent may be to which we, with our imperfect knowledge of the circumstances, are ourselves able to verify his statement. In some degree, however, we can. Besides the striking illustration afforded by what occurred in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:44), we see that such charismata were bestowed, and in some instances, as, e.g. at Corinth, in exceeding great profusion, in the train of St. Paul's evangelizing ministrations; and how remote those ministrations were from the inculcation, or even the admission, among Gentile converts of Mosaic ceremonialism we know perfectly.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
{Does} [God]
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

lavish
ἐπιχορηγῶν (epichorēgōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2023: From epi and choregeo; to furnish besides, i.e. Fully supply, aid or contribute.

[His]
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Spirit
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

on you
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

work
ἐνεργῶν (energōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1754: From energes; to be active, efficient.

miracles
δυνάμεις (dynameis)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 1411: From dunamai; force; specially, miraculous power.

among
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

you
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

because [you]
ἐξ (ex)
Preposition
Strong's 1537: From out, out from among, from, suggesting from the interior outwards. A primary preposition denoting origin, from, out.

practice
ἔργων (ergōn)
Noun - Genitive Neuter Plural
Strong's 2041: From a primary ergo; toil; by implication, an act.

the Law,
νόμου (nomou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

or
(ē)
Conjunction
Strong's 2228: Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.

because [you]
ἐξ (ex)
Preposition
Strong's 1537: From out, out from among, from, suggesting from the interior outwards. A primary preposition denoting origin, from, out.

hear
ἀκοῆς (akoēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 189: Hearing, faculty of hearing, ear; report, rumor. From akouo; hearing.

[and] believe?
πίστεως (pisteōs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 4102: Faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness.


Links
Galatians 3:5 NIV
Galatians 3:5 NLT
Galatians 3:5 ESV
Galatians 3:5 NASB
Galatians 3:5 KJV

Galatians 3:5 BibleApps.com
Galatians 3:5 Biblia Paralela
Galatians 3:5 Chinese Bible
Galatians 3:5 French Bible
Galatians 3:5 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: Galatians 3:5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 3:4
Top of Page
Top of Page