to determine (as an active option from subjective impul… · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person plural
exclude
ἐκκλεῖσαιekkleisai
G1576
to shut out (literally or figuratively) · verb — aorist active infinitive
you
ὑμᾶςhymâs
G5209
you (as the objective of a verb or preposition)
that
ἵναina
G2443
compare G3588 (ὁ)) · conjunction
affect
ζηλοῦτε.zēloute
G2206
to have warmth of feeling for or against · verb — present active subjunctive, 2nd person plural
them
αὐτοὺςautous
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative plural masculine
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 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the s…
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2 Peter 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their d…
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold…
1 Corinthians 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
1 Corinthians 4:18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.
1 Corinthians 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Galatians 4:17-18
The apostle is still carrying on the same design as in the foregoing verse, which was, to convince the Galatians of their sin and folly in departing from the truth of the gospel: having just before been expostulating with them about the change of their behaviour towards him who endeavoured to establish them in it, he here gives them the character of those false teachers who made it their business to draw them away from it, which if they would attend to, they might soon see how little reason they had to hearken to them: whatever opinion they might have of them, he tells them they were designing men, who were aiming to set up themselves, and who, under their specious pretences, were more consu…
They--your flatterers: in contrast to Paul himself, who tells them the truth.
zealously--zeal in proselytism was characteristic especially of the Jews, and so of Judaizers (Gal 1:14; Mat 23:15; Rom 10:2).
affect you--that is, court you (Co2 11:2).
not well--not in a good way, or for a good end. Neither the cause of their zealous courting of you, nor the manner, is what it ought to be.
they would exclude you--"They wish to shut you out" from the kingdom of God (that is, they wish to persuade you that as uncircumcised Gentiles, you are shut out from it), "that ye may zealously court them," that is, become circumcised, as zealous followers of themselves. ALFORD explains it, that their w…
They zealously affect you, but not well - It is difficult for common readers to understand the meaning of these words: perhaps it would be better to translate Ζηλουσιν ὑμας ου καλως, these false teachers endeavor to conciliate your esteem, but not in honest or true principles; they work themselves into your good graces; they wish you to place all your affection upon themselves.
They would exclude you - They wish to shut you out from the affection of your apostle, that you might affect them, ἱνα αυτους ζηλουτε, that you might love them alone, hear them alone, abide by their directions only, and totally abandon him who called you into the grace of the Gospel of Christ. Some MSS. read ἡμας,…
The Church Fathers
He says this with reference to those evil teachers. "For seeing your conspicuous faith," he says, "they are grieved and all try by every means to rob you of those goods and subject you to their own authority." For that is what he means by writing "that you may emulate them."
It is a wholesome emulation which leads to an imitation of virtue, but an evil one, which seduces from virtue him who is in the right path. And this is the object of those persons, who would deprive you of perfect knowledge, and impart to you that which is mutilated and spurious, and this for no other purpose than that they may occupy the rank of teachers, and degrade you, who now stand higher than themselves, to the position of disciples. For this is the meaning of the words "that ye may seek them." But I, says he, desire the reverse, that ye may become a model for them, and a pattern of a higher perfection: a thing which actually happened when I was present with you...
— [OECUMENIUS] "They envy you." He says they do not welcome the same faith in Christ for your benefit, but in order to exclude you from it and persuade themselves to follow, because such a plan has been formulated against your deception. [end of the excerpt by Oecumenius] — "not rightly." For there is also good envy, when someone so envies that he imitates virtue. And there is also bad envy, when someone envies in such a way as to drive the virtuous person out of virtue. "but they desire to exclude you." Paul says, They wish to shut you off and to carry you away from the true knowledge, so that having become your teachers themselves, they may lead you to the same envy and imitation. For this reason they carry you away from true knowledge and bring you to the law.
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
Heaven — (1.) Definitions. The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament,…
Affections · False teachers seek to — False teachers seek to
Affections, The · False teachers seek to captivate — False teachers seek to captivate
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).
They zealously affect you,.... Or "are jealous of you"; meaning the false apostles, whose names, in contempt, he mentions not, being unworthy to be taken notice of, and their names to be transmitted to posterity. These were jealous of them, not with a godly jealousy, as the apostle was, lest their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity of the Gospel; but they were jealous, lest they should love the apostle more than they, and therefore represented him in a very bad light, and expressed great love and kindness for them themselves:
but not well; their zeal and affection were not hearty, and sincere, and without dissimulation, but were all feigned, were only in word and in tongue, not i…
Galatians 4:12-20
12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
12. Estote ut ego; quia ego quoque sum ut vos. Fratres, rogo vos; nihil mihi fecistis injuriae.
13. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
13. Novistis antem, quod per infirmitatem carnis evangelizaverim vobis prius;
14. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
14. Et experimenturn mei, quod fuit in carne mea, non contempsistis, neque respuistis; sed tanquam angelum Dei suscepistis me, tanquam Christum Iesum.
15. Where is then the blessedness…
are so eager: The Greek word can have the positive meaning of zeal and eagerness or the negative meaning of jealousy and envy. The same word is also translated will pay attention and “is eager” (4:18). • They are trying to shut you off from me: Perhaps the Judaizers were so eager because they envied the Galatians’ devotion to Paul and wanted it for themselves (cp. 2 Corinthians; see also Luke 11:46-52). Another possibility is that the Judaizers wanted the Galatians to become dependent on them as interpreters of the law.
