to determine (as an active option from subjective impul… · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular
learn
μαθεῖνmathein
G3129
to learn (in any way) · verb — second aorist active infinitive
of
ἀφ᾽aph᾽
G575
"off · preposition
you
ὑμῶνhymōn
G5216
of (from or concerning) you
ye
ἐλάβετεelabete
G2983
while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent · verb — second aorist active indicative, 2nd person plural
Spirit
πνεῦμαpneuma
G4151
a current of air · noun — accusative singular neuter
by
ἐξex
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
works
ἔργωνergōn
G2041
toil (as an effort or occupation) · noun — genitive plural neuter
law
νόμουnomou
G3551
law (through the idea of prescriptive usage) · noun — genitive singular masculine
or
ἢē
G2228
disjunctive · conjunction
by
ἐξex
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
hearing
ἀκοῆςakoēs
G189
hearing (the act · noun — genitive singular feminine
faith
πίστεως;pisteōs
G4102
persuasion · noun — genitive singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 10:16-17 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Acts 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Galatians 3:5 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 f…
Ephesians 1:13-14 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were s…
Acts 8:15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
Hebrews 2:4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will…
Acts 19:2-6 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Galatians 3:1-5
The apostle is here dealing with those who, having embraced the faith of Christ, still continued to seek for justification by the works of the law; that is, who depended upon their own obedience to the moral precepts as their righteousness before God, and, wherein that was defective, had recourse to the legal sacrifices and purifications to make it up. These he first sharply reproves, and then endeavours, by the evidence of truth, to convince them. This is the right method, when we reprove any for a fault or an error, to convince them that it is an error, that it is a fault.
He reproves them, and the reproof is very close and warm: he calls them foolish Galatians, Gal 3:1. Though as Christia…
"Was it by the works of the law that ye received the Spirit (manifested by outward miracles, Gal 3:5; Mar 16:17; Heb 2:4; and by spiritual graces, Gal 3:14; Gal 4:5-6; Eph 1:13), or by the hearing of faith?" The "only" implies, "I desire, omitting other arguments, to rest the question on this alone"; I who was your teacher, desire now to "learn" this one thing from you. The epithet "Holy" is not prefixed to "Spirit" because that epithet is a joyous one, whereas this Epistle is stern and reproving [BENGEL].
hearing of faith--Faith consists not in working, but in receiving (Rom 10:16-17).
Adam Clarke on Galatians 3:2
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law - This may refer to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, which were very common in the apostolic Church. Did ye receive these extraordinary gifts in consequence of your circumcision, and observing the Mosaic precepts? or was it by the hearing of the Gospel, prescribing faith in Christ crucified? It may also refer to the spirit of adoption, and consequently to their sonship.
John Gill on Galatians 3:2
This one thing would I learn of you,.... Though there were many things he could have put to them, yet he would only ask this one question, which, if rightly attended to, and honestly answered, must expose their folly, and put an end to the controversy upon this head:
received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? This question supposes they had received the Spirit; that is, the Spirit of God, as a spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of Christ; as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification; as a spirit of faith and adoption; and as the earnest, seal, and pledge of their future glory. Now the apostle asks, whether they received this Spirit "by the wo…
The Church Fathers
"I only wish to learn this from you." Since, he says, you do not pay attention to so great a privilege, I will say something brief to you. Did you receive the Holy Spirit through the works prescribed by the law, and perform so many powers and signs, or through faith? Since you were not under the law but were esteemed to be in the Spirit, how then, having abandoned faith, do you again submit yourselves to the law?
He sets forth a tenet that could not at that time be denied: the Holy Spirit dwells in believers. This gift was manifested by God to recollect the rudiments of the faith, as it was at the beginning when it was practiced among the apostles and the other disciples. … On these the Holy Spirit descended and gave the capacity to speak in many tongues, with the gift of interpretation, so that no one dared deny the presence of the Spirit of God in them.
As ye do not attend, says he, to long discourses, nor are willing to contemplate the magnitude of this Economy, I am desirous, (seeing your extreme ignorance,) to convince you by concise arguments and a summary method of proof. Before, he had convinced them by what he said to Peter; now, he encounters them entirely with arguments, drawn not from what had occurred elsewhere, but from what had happened among themselves. And his persuasives and proofs are adduced, not merely from what was given them in common with others, but from what was especially conferred on themselves. Therefore he says, "This only would I learn from you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith." Ye have received, he says, the Holy Spirit, ye have done many mighty works, ye have effected miracles in raising the dead, in cleansing lepers, in prophesying, in speaking with tongues,-did the Law confer this great power upon you? was it not rather Faith, seeing that, before, ye could do no such things? Is it not then the height of madness for these who have received such benefits from Faith, to abandon it, and desert back to the Law which can offer you nothing of the same kind?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Backsliding · Is departing form the simplicity of the gospel — Is departing form the simplicity of the gospel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Galatians 3:1-5
1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
1. O stulti Galatae, quis vos fascinavit, ut non obediatis veritati? quibus ante oculos Iesus Christus depictus est inter vos crucifixus.
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. Hoc solum volo discere a vobis: Ex operibus Legis Spiritum accepistis, an ex praedicatione fidei?
3. Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
3. Ita stulti estis, ut, exorsi a Spiritu, nunc carne eonsummemini?
4. H…
The Galatians, like all Christians, received the Spirit by faith in Christ, not by obeying the law of Moses (see Acts 2:38-39; Rom 8:9-11; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:11-14; cp. Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-18). God accepted the Galatians because of their faith in the message . . . about Christ (cp. Rom 10:14-17), which made their turning to the law absurd (Gal 3:3-4).
