Galatians 2:18
New International Version
If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

New Living Translation
Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.

English Standard Version
For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Berean Standard Bible
If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.

Berean Literal Bible
For if I build again these things that I had torn down, I prove myself a transgressor.

King James Bible
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

New King James Version
For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

New American Standard Bible
For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a wrongdoer.

NASB 1995
“For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

NASB 1977
“For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Amplified Bible
For if I [or anyone else should] rebuild [through word or by practice] what I once tore down [the belief that observing the Law is essential for salvation], I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Christian Standard Bible
If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If I rebuild the system I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

American Standard Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For if I build those things again that I once destroyed, I have shown about myself that I violate The Covenant.

Contemporary English Version
But if I tear down something and then build it again, I prove that I was wrong at first.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if I build up again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator.

English Revised Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
If I rebuild something that I've torn down, I admit that I was wrong to tear it down.

Good News Translation
If I start to rebuild the system of Law that I tore down, then I show myself to be someone who breaks the Law.

International Standard Version
For if I rebuild something that I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a wrongdoer.

Literal Standard Version
For if the things I threw down, these again I build up, I set myself forth [as] a transgressor;

Majority Standard Bible
If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.

New American Bible
But if I am building up again those things that I tore down, then I show myself to be a transgressor.

NET Bible
But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God's law.

New Revised Standard Version
But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

New Heart English Bible
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

Webster's Bible Translation
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Weymouth New Testament
Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor;

World English Bible
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

Young's Literal Translation
for if the things I threw down, these again I build up, a transgressor I set myself forth;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul Confronts Cephas
17But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.…

Cross References
Romans 2:25
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Romans 3:5
But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.


Treasury of Scripture

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Galatians 2:4,5,12-16,21
And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: …

Galatians 4:9-12
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? …

Galatians 5:11
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

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Build Constitute Demolished Destroyed Destruction Forth Law-Breaker Once Prove Rebuild Rebuilding Sin Structure Thereby Threw Thrown Tore Transgressor Wrongdoer
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Build Constitute Demolished Destroyed Destruction Forth Law-Breaker Once Prove Rebuild Rebuilding Sin Structure Thereby Threw Thrown Tore Transgressor Wrongdoer
Galatians 2
1. He shows when he went up again to Jerusalem, and for what purpose;
3. and that Titus was not circumcised;
11. and that he resisted Peter, and told him the reason;
14. why he and others, being Jews, believe in Christ to be justified by faith, and not by works;
20. and that they live not in sin, who are so justified.














(18) But Christ is not a minister of sin. The thought is not to be tolerated. For, on the contrary, the sin is seen, not in leaving the Law for Christ, but in going back from Christ to the Law. The sin is seen doubly: for on one theory--the theory that the Law is valid--it was wrong to give it up; while on the other theory, that Christianity has taken its place, it is still more wrong to restore the fabric that has once been broken down.

For.--The connection is with the words immediately preceding: "God forbid that Christ should be the minister of sin." The idea is absurd as well as profane. For, instead of the Pauline Christian (who follows Christianity to its logical results) being the sinner, it is really the Judaising Christian who stands self-condemned--i.e., in returning to what he has forsaken.

If I build again.--The first person is used out of delicate consideration for his opponents. The Apostle is going to put a supposed case, which really represents what they were doing; but in order to soften the directness of the reference he takes it, as it were, upon himself.

St. Paul is fond of metaphors taken from building. Comp. Romans 15:20 (building upon another man's foundation), 1Corinthians 3:10-14 (Christ the foundation), Ephesians 2:20-22 (the Church built on the foundation of Apostles and prophets), and the words "edify" and "edification" wherever they occur. The idea of "pulling down" or "destroying" is also frequently met with. So in Romans 14:20 ("for meat destroy not the work of God," the same word as here used, in opposition to "edify," immediately before); 2Corinthians 5:1 ("if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved"--pulled down or destroyed); 2Corinthians 10:4 ("mighty to the pulling down of strongholds")--a different word in the Greek, but similar in meaning. . . .

Verse 18. - For if I build again the things which I destroyed (εἰ γὰρ α} κατέλυσα ταῦτα πάλιν οἰκοδομῶ); for if I am building up again the things which I pulled down. I make myself a transgressor (παραβάτην ἐμαυτὸν συνίστημι [or, συνιστάνω another form of the same verb]); a transgressor is what I am showing my own self to be. I must be wrong one way or the other; if I am right now, was wrong then; and from the very nature of the case now in hand, wrong exceedingly; no less than an absolute transgressor. This word "transgressor" denotes, not one who merely happens to break, perchance inadverdently, some precept of the Law, but one who, perhaps in consequence of even one act of wilful transgression, is to be regarded as trampling upon the authority of the Law altogether (comp. Romans 2:25, 27; James 2:9, 11, which are the only places of the New Testament in which the word occurs; it is therefore a full equivalent to the word "sinner" of ver. 17). The Greek verb συνιστάνω, "to put forward in a clear light," is used similarly in 2 Corinthians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 7:11. It is much debated, and is certainly nowise clear, how far down in the chapter the rebuke addressed to St. Peter extends. If it does not reach to the end of the chapter, as some think it does, the break may be very well placed at the end of this verse. For this verse clearly relates to St. Peter, whether actually addressed to him or not; notwithstanding that the verbs are in the hypothetical first person singular, they cannot be taken as referred to St. Paul, not being at all applicable to his case. On the other hand, with the nineteenth verse the first person is plainly used by St. Paul with reference to his own self, which is indeed marked by the emphatic ἐγὼ with which it opens.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
If
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

I rebuild
οἰκοδομῶ (oikodomō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 3618: From the same as oikodome; to be a house-builder, i.e. Construct or confirm.

what
ταῦτα (tauta)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it.

I have already torn down,
κατέλυσα (katelysa)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2647: From kata and luo; to loosen down, i.e. to demolish; specially to halt for the night.

I prove
συνιστάνω (synistanō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 4921: To place together, commend, prove, exhibit; instrans: I stand with; To be composed of, cohere.

myself
ἐμαυτὸν (emauton)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1683: Genitive case compound of emou and autos; of myself so likewise the dative case emautoi em-ow-to', and accusative case emauton em-ow-ton'.

[to be] a lawbreaker.
παραβάτην (parabatēn)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3848: A transgressor, law-breaker. From parabaino; a violator.


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NT Letters: Galatians 2:18 For if I build up again those (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 2:17
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