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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Galatians 3:11 - 3:11
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11. ὅτι δὲ. Adversative to the possibility of continuing in the things of the Law. The opposite is shown by the existence of another source of justification and consequent life, stated in Habakkuk. Weiss suggests that this begins the protasis of a sentence of which the apodosis is Gal 3:13, Gal 3:11 b (δηλονότι) to Gal 3:12 then being a parenthesis. But this is quite unnecessary.
ἐν νόμῳ. The Jewish Law, as throughout this Epistle, see Gal 2:16, note. The phrase is to be taken closely with δικαιοῦται, and signifies in the performance of the Law, not, as it is often misunderstood, in the statement of the Law, i.e. the Prophets. It takes the place of ἐξ ἕργων νόμου.
οὐδεὶς δικαιοῦται παρὰ τῷ θεῷ. For παρά cf. Rom 2:13.
δῆλον. With the preceding; the following ὅτι = because. Some join it with the following: “Now because no one (as is evident from Gal 3:10) is justified in (the) Law it is clear that the righteous shall live by faith.” But this form of reasoning is very un Pauline.
ὅτι. Proof: Faith (not works) justifies, and life ensues.
ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται. So Rom 1:17. See also Heb 10:38. From Hab 2:4, where it is said that, in contrast to the Chaldaean invader whose soul is lifted up in pride, the righteous (though hemmed in by the wicked, Gal 1:4) shall live by his stedfastness, i.e. primarily his trustworthiness and faithfulness of principle. This, as the result of steady faith, is not unfairly understood as faith in the active sense by the N.T. writers, though probably not by the LXX. (see Driver, Minor Prophets, p. 63). The LXX. misreading “his” as “my” has in B ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται, which A modifies by inserting another μου after δίκαιός.
It is very difficult to decide whether St Paul intended the stress of ἐκ πίστεως to lie on ὁ δίκαιος or on ζήσεται. In favour of the latter is the almost certain construction of the Hebrew and of the quotation in Hebrews, and the ease with which St Paul could have modified the quotation to run ὁ ἐκ πίστεως δίκαιος. Yet the former is preferable here in view of the fact that up to this point he has been thinking of justification, and not of life (see especially Winer-Schmiedel, § 20. 5 d). How can men escape the curse (Gal 3:10), and be righteous? By faith.