Galatians 3:3
New International Version
Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

New Living Translation
How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

English Standard Version
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Berean Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?

Berean Literal Bible
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?

King James Bible
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

New King James Version
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

New American Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

NASB 1995
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

NASB 1977
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Legacy Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Amplified Bible
Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh [that is, by your own works and efforts to keep the Law]?

Christian Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?

American Standard Version
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Are you so foolish that you began in The Spirit and now you finish in the flesh?

Contemporary English Version
How can you be so stupid? Do you think that by yourself you can complete what God's Spirit started in you?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Are you so foolish, that, whereas you began in the Spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?

English Revised Version
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Are you that stupid? Did you begin in a spiritual way only to end up doing things in a human way?

Good News Translation
How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power?

International Standard Version
Are you so foolish? Having started out with the Spirit, are you now ending up with the flesh?

Literal Standard Version
Are you so thoughtless? Having begun in the Spirit, do you now end in the flesh?

Majority Standard Bible
Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?

New American Bible
Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

NET Bible
Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?

New Revised Standard Version
Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

New Heart English Bible
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?

Webster's Bible Translation
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Weymouth New Testament
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to reach perfection through what is external?

World English Bible
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?

Young's Literal Translation
so thoughtless are ye! having begun in the Spirit, now in the flesh do ye end?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Faith and Belief
2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing?…

Cross References
Ezekiel 18:24
But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.

Galatians 3:2
I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Galatians 3:4
Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing?


Treasury of Scripture

Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?

having.

Galatians 4:7-10
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ…

Galatians 5:4-8
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace…

Galatians 6:12-14
As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ…

Jump to Previous
Attain Beginning Begun Complete Completed Effort End Ending External Flesh Foolish Goal Human Perfect Perfected Perfection Reach Senseless Spirit Start Thoughtless Trying
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Attain Beginning Begun Complete Completed Effort End Ending External Flesh Foolish Goal Human Perfect Perfected Perfection Reach Senseless Spirit Start Thoughtless Trying
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














(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.

Verse 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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Are you
ἐστε (este)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

so
Οὕτως (Houtōs)
Adverb
Strong's 3779: Thus, so, in this manner. Or (referring to what precedes or follows).

foolish?
ἀνόητοί (anoētoi)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 453: Foolish, thoughtless. By implication, sensual.

After starting
ἐναρξάμενοι (enarxamenoi)
Verb - Aorist Participle Middle - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1728: To begin (in), make a beginning, commence. From en and archomai; to commence on.

in [the] Spirit,
Πνεύματι (Pneumati)
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

are you now finishing
ἐπιτελεῖσθε (epiteleisthe)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2005: To complete, accomplish, perfect. From epi and teleo; to fulfill further, i.e. Execute; by implication, to terminate, undergo.

in [the] flesh?
σαρκὶ (sarki)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4561: Flesh, body, human nature, materiality; kindred.


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NT Letters: Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 3:2
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