Galatians 4:17
New International Version
Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.

New Living Translation
Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them.

English Standard Version
They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

Berean Standard Bible
Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.

Berean Literal Bible
They zealously seek you, not rightly. But they desire to isolate you from us, so that you might be zealous after them.

King James Bible
They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

New King James Version
They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.

New American Standard Bible
They eagerly seek you, not in a commendable way, but they want to shut you out so that you will seek them.

NASB 1995
They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.

NASB 1977
They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out, in order that you may seek them.

Legacy Standard Bible
They zealously seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will zealously seek them.

Amplified Bible
These men [the Judaizers] eagerly seek you [to entrap you with honeyed words and attention, to win you over to their philosophy], not honorably [for their purpose is not honorable or worthy of consideration]. They want to isolate you [from us who oppose them] so that you will seek them.

Christian Standard Bible
They court you eagerly, but not for good. They want to exclude you from me, so that you would pursue them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They are enthusiastic about you, but not for any good. Instead, they want to isolate you so you will be enthusiastic about them.

American Standard Version
They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
They imitate you, not for what is excellent but because they want to oppress you that you would imitate them.

Contemporary English Version
Those people may be paying you a lot of attention, but it isn't for your good. They only want to keep you away from me, so you will pay them a lot of attention.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They are zealous in your regard not well: but they would exclude you, that you might be zealous for them.

English Revised Version
They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
These people [who distort the Good News] are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They don't want you to associate with me so that you will be devoted only to them.

Good News Translation
Those other people show a deep interest in you, but their intentions are not good. All they want is to separate you from me, so that you will have the same interest in them as they have in you.

International Standard Version
These people who have been instructing you are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They want you to avoid me so that you will be devoted to them.

Literal Standard Version
They are zealous for you—[yet] not well, but they wish to shut us out, that you may be zealous for them;

Majority Standard Bible
Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.

New American Bible
They show interest in you, but not in a good way; they want to isolate you, so that you may show interest in them.

NET Bible
They court you eagerly, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly.

New Revised Standard Version
They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them.

New Heart English Bible
They zealously seek you, but for no good purpose; they desire to alienate you, that you may be zealous for them.

Webster's Bible Translation
They zealously affect you, but not well; for, they would exclude you, that ye may affect them.

Weymouth New Testament
These men pay court to you, but not with honourable motives. They want to exclude you, so that you may pay court to them.

World English Bible
They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them.

Young's Literal Translation
they are zealous for you -- yet not well, but they wish to shut us out, that for them ye may be zealous;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul's Fears for the Galatians
16Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. 18Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose—at any time, and not only when I am with you.…

Cross References
Galatians 4:16
Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Galatians 4:18
Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose--at any time, and not only when I am with you.


Treasury of Scripture

They zealously affect you, but not well; yes, they would exclude you, that you might affect them.

zealously.

Galatians 6:12,13
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…

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 more the child of hell than yourselves.

Romans 10:2
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

exclude you.

1 Corinthians 4:8,18
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…

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Affect Alienate Court Desire Eagerly Exclude Good Honourable Interest Motives Pay Purpose Rightly Seek Shut Want Way Win Wish Zealous Zealously
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Affect Alienate Court Desire Eagerly Exclude Good Honourable Interest Motives Pay Purpose Rightly Seek Shut Want Way Win Wish Zealous Zealously
Galatians 4
1. We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under the guardian till he be of age.
5. But Christ freed us from the law;
7. therefore we are servants no longer to it.
14. Paul remembers the Galatians' good will to him, and his to them;
22. and shows that we are the sons of Abraham by the freewoman.














(17-20) All this eagerness to court your favour springs from an interested motive: they wish to make a sect of you, in which they shall be masters and courted in their turn. Not but that it is a good thing for teachers and taught--you and I--to seek favour with each other, so long as it is done disinterestedly, and that, too, when I am absent as well as when I am present. My heart yearns towards you. I cannot forget that you owe your life, as Christians, to me. Now, once more, it seems as if all that long travail has to be gone over again. You must be re-fashioned in the likeness of Christ, as the infant is fashioned in the form of man. Would that I could be with you and speak in a different tone, for how to deal with you I do not know.

(17) They zealously affect you.--"Zealously affect" is a single word in the Greek, and means "to show zeal towards," "to court," "to curry favour with," "to canvass eagerly, so as to win over to their side." The subject of this verse is the Judaising teachers.

They would exclude you.--They desire to separate you from the rest of the Gentile churches, and to make a sect by itself, in which they themselves may bear rule. All the other Gentile churches had accepted the freer teaching of St. Paul; the Judaising party wished to make of Galatia an isolated centre of Judaism. They did this with personal motives, "not well"--i.e., from honest and honourable motives--but with a view to secure their own ascendancy.

That ye might affect them.--The same word as "zealously affect" above and in the next verse. They expect to have all this zeal on their part returned to them in kind. With them it is the proselytizing zeal of the faction leader; from you they expect the deferential zeal of devoted followers.

Verse 17. - They zealously affect you, but not well (zhlou = sin u(ma = ou) kalw = ); they admire you in no good way. Of the several senses of the verb ζηλοῦν, those of "envy," "emulate," "strive after," are plainly unsuitable in this verse and the one which follows. So also are the senses "to be zealous on one's behalf, to be jealous of one," which in Hellenistic usage crept into it, apparently from its having been in other senses adopted to represent the Hebrew verb qinne, and borrowing these from this Hebrew verb. The only phase of its meaning which suits the present passage is that which it perhaps by far the most frequently presents in ordinary Greek, though not so commonly in the Septuagint and in the New Testa ment, namely, "to admire," "deem and pronounce highly fortunate and blessed." When used in this sense, it has properly for its object a person; but with a suitable qualification of meaning it may have for its object something inanimate. Very often is the accusative of the person accompanied with the genitive of the ground of gratulation, as Aristophanes, 'Ach.,' 972, Ζηλῶσε τῆς εὐβουλίας "I congratulate, admire, you for your cleverness;" see also 'Equit.,' 834; 'Thes moph.,' 175; 'Vesp.,' 1450; but not always; thus Demosthenes, 'Fals. Legat.,' p. 424, "(Θαυμάζουσι καὶ ζηκοῦσι) they admire and congratulate and would each one be himself the like;" 'Adv. Lept.,' p. 500 (respecting public funeral orations), "This is the custom of men admiring (ζηλοὐντων) virtue, not of men looking grudgingly upon those who on its account are being honoured;" Xenophon, 'Mere.,' 2:1,19. "Thinking highly of themselves, and praised and admired (ζηλουμένους) by others;" Josephus, 'C. Ap.,' 1:25, "(ζηλουμένους) admired by many." It thus seems to be often just equivalent to ὀλβίζω or μακαρίζω, with the sense of which latter verb it is brought into close neighbourhood in Aristophanes, 'Nubes,' 1188, "' Blessed (μάκαρ), Strepsiades, are you, both for being so wise yourself and for having such a son as you have,' - thus will my friends and fellow-wardsmen say, in admiration of me (ζηλοῦντες)." Probably this is the sense in which the apostle uses the verb in 2 Corinthians 11:2, Ζηλῶ γὰρ ὑμᾶς Θεοῦ ζηκῷ, "I rejoice in your felicity with an infinite joy;" referring to the intense admiration which he felt of their present felicity, in their having been betrothed a chaste maiden to Christ; not till the next verse introducing the mention of his fear lest this paradisaical happiness might be darkened by the wiles of Satan. It is in a modified shade of the same sense that the word is employee - where it is rendered "covet earnestly" in our Authorized Version in 1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39. In the passage now. before us, then, ζηκιῦσιν ὑμᾶς probably means "they admire you," that is, they tell you so. They were expressing strong admiration of the high Christian character and eminent gifts of these simple-minded believers; the charisms which had been bestowed upon them (Galatians 3:2); their virtues, in contrast especially with their heathen neighbours; their spiritual enlightenment. No doubt all this was said with the view of courting their favour; but ζηλοῦτε can hardly itself mean "court favour," and no instance of its occurring in this sense has been adduced; and this rendering of the verb breaks down utterly in ver. 18. The persons referred to must, of course, be understood as those who were busy in instilling at once Judaizing sentiments and also feelings of antipathy to the apostle himself, as if he were their enemy (ver. 16). The Epistle furnishes no indication whatever that these persons were strangers coming among them from without, answering, for example, to those spoken of in Galatians 2:12 as disturbing the Antiochian Church. It is quite supposable that the warning which, not long after the writing of this Epistle, the apostle addressed to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts 20:29, 30), when putting them on their guard against those who "from among their own selves should rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them," was founded in part upon this experience of his in the Galatian Churches. Galatian Churchmen it may well have been, and no other, who now (as the apostle had just been apprised) were employing that χρηστολογία καὶ εὐλογία, that "kind suave speech" and that "speech of compliment and laudation," which in Romans 16:18 he describes as a favourite device of this class of deceivers, to win the ear of their unwary brethren. "In no good way;" for they did it insincerely and with the purpose of drawing them into courses which, though these men themselves knew it not, were nevertheless fraught with ruin to their spiritual welfare. Yea, they would exclude you; or, us (ἀλλὰ ἐκκλεῖσαι ὑμᾶς θέλουσιν); nay, rather, to shut you out is their wish. The reading "us," noticed in the margin of the Authorized Version, is probably a merely conjectural emendation made in the Greek text by Beza, wholly unsupported by manuscript authority. The ἀλλὰ is adversative to the οὐ καλῶς, the secondary thought of the preceding clause, in the same way as the ἀλλὰ in 1 Corinthians 2:7 is adversative to the secondary negative clauses of ver. 6. The verb "shut out," with no determinative qualification annexed, must have it supplied from the unexpressed ground for the "admiration" denoted by the verb ζηλοῦσιν. The high eminence of spiritual condition and happiness on the possession of which these men were congratulating their brethren, they would be certainly excluded from if they listened to them. Compare the phrase, "who are unsettling you," driving you out of house and home, in ch. 5:12, where see note. That ye might affect them (ἵνα αὐτοὺς ζηλοῦτε); that ye may admire themselves. The position of αὐτοὺς makes it emphatic. We may paraphrase thus: that, being detached from regard to my teaching, and made to feel a certain grave deficiency on your own part in respect to acceptableness with God, ye may be led to look up as disciples to these kind-hearted sympathetic advisers for instruction and guidance. The construction of ἵνα with ζηλοῦτε, which in ordinary Greek is the present indicative, ζηλῶτε being the form for the present subjunctive, is precisely similar to that of ἵνα μὴ with φυσιοῦσθε in 1 Corinthians 4:6. When it is considered how punctually St. Paul is wont to comply with the syntactical rule with reference to ἵνα, and that these two remarkable deflections therefrom are connected with contract forms of verbs in -όω, Ruckert's suggestion seems to be perfectly reasonable, that the solecism lies, not in the syntactical construction, but in the grammatical in flexion, contracting -όη into -οῦ instead of into-. This form of contraction may have been a provincialism of Tarsus, or it may have been an idiotism of St. Paul himself. Other expedients of explanation which have been proposed are intolerably harsh and improbable.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[Those people] are zealous for you,
Ζηλοῦσιν (Zēlousin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2206: From zelos; to have warmth of feeling for or against.

[but] not
οὐ (ou)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

in a good way.
καλῶς (kalōs)
Adverb
Strong's 2573: Well, nobly, honorably, rightly. Adverb from kalos; well.

Instead,
ἀλλὰ (alla)
Conjunction
Strong's 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

they want
θέλουσιν (thelousin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2309: To will, wish, desire, be willing, intend, design.

to isolate
ἐκκλεῖσαι (ekkleisai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 1576: To shut out, exclude, separate. From ek and kleio; to shut out.

you [from us],
ὑμᾶς (hymas)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

so that
ἵνα (hina)
Conjunction
Strong's 2443: In order that, so that. Probably from the same as the former part of heautou; in order that.

you will be zealous
ζηλοῦτε (zēloute)
Verb - Present Subjunctive Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2206: From zelos; to have warmth of feeling for or against.

for them.
αὐτοὺς (autous)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.


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NT Letters: Galatians 4:17 They zealously seek you in no good (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 4:16
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