Galatians 4:6
New International Version
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

New Living Translation
And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”

English Standard Version
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Berean Standard Bible
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Berean Literal Bible
And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

King James Bible
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

New King James Version
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

New American Standard Bible
Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

NASB 1995
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

NASB 1977
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Legacy Standard Bible
And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Amplified Bible
And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

Christian Standard Bible
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father! ”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

American Standard Version
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But because you are children, God has sent The Spirit of his Son into your hearts, who cries, “Father, our Father”.

Contemporary English Version
Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.

English Revised Version
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Because you are God's children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into us to call out, "Abba! Father!"

Good News Translation
To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, "Father, my Father."

International Standard Version
Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, "Abba! Father!"

Literal Standard Version
and because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Majority Standard Bible
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

New American Bible
As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

NET Bible
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls "Abba! Father!"

New Revised Standard Version
And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

New Heart English Bible
And because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father."

Webster's Bible Translation
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Weymouth New Testament
And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son to enter your hearts and cry "Abba! our Father!"

World English Bible
And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

Young's Literal Translation
and because ye are sons, God did send forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father!'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Sons and Heirs
5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.…

Cross References
Mark 14:36
"Abba, Father," He said, "all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will."

Acts 16:7
And when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not permit them.

Romans 5:5
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

Romans 8:9
You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

Romans 8:16
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.


Treasury of Scripture

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

God.

Luke 11:13
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

John 7:39
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John 14:16
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

the Spirit.

John 3:34
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:7
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

crying.

Isaiah 44:3-5
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: …

Jeremiah 3:4,19
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? …

Matthew 6:6-9
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly…

Jump to Previous
Abba Calls Children Cry Crying Enter Forth Hearts Spirit
Jump to Next
Abba Calls Children Cry Crying Enter Forth Hearts Spirit
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.














(6) It is because you are sons that you are able to address your Heavenly Father in such genuine accents of filial emotion. It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of Christ which has been given to you in virtue of your adoption. He prompts your prayers.

This verse should be read in connection with Romans 8:15-16, to which it forms a close parallel.

Because.--It is, perhaps, on the whole, best to retain this translation. The conjunction may, however, possibly mean "in proof that."

Abba, Father.--A reduplication of loving entreaty. (See Note on Romans 8:15.) For similar instances of a Greek word being repeated in Aramaic, or an Aramaic word in Greek, we may compare Revelation 9:11 : "The angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon;" Revelation 12:9 : "That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." The Aramaic "Abba" appears in our word "abbot." . . .

Verse 6. - And because ye are sons (ὅτι δέ ἐστε υἱοί). The apostle is adducing proof that God's people had actually received the adoption of sons; it was because it was so, that God had sent into their hearts the Holy Spirit, imparting that vivid consciousness of sonship which they enjoyed. The fact of the adoption must have been there, to qualify them to be recipients of this divinely inspired consciousness. The affirmation in Romans 8:16, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God," closely resembles our present passage; but it is not identical. We are not made sons (the apostle intimates) by the Spirit giving us the consciousness of sonship; but, having been previously made sons, the Spirit raises in our spirits sentiments answering to the filial relation already established. The position of the clause introduced by "because" is like that in 1 Corinthians 12:15, 16. The persons recited by the "ye" are still God's people; not the Galatian believers in particular, except as a portion of the whole Church of God. The apostle puts the thought in this form to bring the truth more strikingly home to their minds. This he does more closely still in the next verse by "thou." But that he has in view God's people as a whole is clear, not only from the whole strain of the context, but also from the phrase, "into our hearts," in the next clause. God hath sent forth (ἐξαπέστειλεν ὁ Θεός); God sent forth. The tense indicates that the apostle does not refer to a sending forth of God's Spirit to each individual believer, parallel to that "sealing" which believers are stated to be subjects of in Ephesians 1:13. This historic aorist, as it does in ver. 4, points to one particular emission - that by which the Comforter was sent forth to take up his dwelling in the Church as his temple through all time (John 14:16, 17; Acts 1:4, 5). The Spirit of his Son. The Spirit which "anointed" Jesus to be the Christ; which throughout animated the God-Man Jesus; which prompted him in full filial consciousness, himself in a certain critical hour with loud outcry (μετὰ κραυγῆς ἰσχυρᾶς, Hebrews 5:7) to call out, "Abba, Father!" The phrase, "his Son," is aetiological; by it the apostle intimates that it was only congruous that the Spirit which had animated the whole life of the incarnate Son should be shed forth upon those who by faith become one with him, and should manifest his presence with them, as well as their union with Christ, by outcome of sentiment similar to that which Christ had expressed. Since the sonship of Christ is here spoken of as if it were not merely antecedent, but also in some way preparatory to the sending forth of the Spirit, it best suits the connection to construe it, not, as in ver. 4, as that belonging to him in his preincarnate state of being, but as that which appertained to him after being "made to be of a woman," and in which his disciples might be considered as standing on a certain footing of parity with him. This harmonizes with the relation which in the Gospels and Acts the sending of the Spirit is represented as holding to his resurrection and ascension. The interpretation above given in one point presupposes the apostle's knowledge of the story of the agony in the garden, when, according to St. Mark (Mark 14:36), Jesus himself used the words, "Abba. Father." This presupposition is warranted, not only by the probabilities of the case, but also by what we read in Galatians 5:7 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Pauline, certainly, if not actually St. Paul's. We have to add that the Gospels not only make repeated mention of our Lord as addressing the Supreme Being by the compellative of "Father," but also represent him as constantly speaking of God as bearing that relation both to himself and to his disciples. This mode of designating the Almighty was characteristic in the highest degree of Jesus, and up to that time, so far as appears in the Scriptures, unknown. The manner in which the apostle here speaks of the "sending forth" of the Spirit in close proximity to the mention of the "sending forth" of the Son, strongly favours the belief that he regarded the Spirit, as being also a personal agent. In Psalm 104:30 we have in the Septuagint "Thou wilt send forth (ἐξαποστελεῖς) thy Spirit, and they will be created." In Psalm 43:3 and Psalm 57:3 God is implored to "send forth [ἐξαπόστειλον, Septuagint] his light and his truth," "his mercy and his truth;" these being poetically personified as angelic messengers. Into your hearts (εἰς τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν). But this reading of the Textus Receptus is, by recent editors, replaced by the reading, εἰς τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν, into our hearts, the other reading being regarded as a correction designed to conform this clause with the words, "ye are sons," in the preceding one. In both cases the apostle has in his view the Church of God viewed generally. His putting "our" here instead of "your" was probably an outcome of his feeling of proud gladness in the thought of his own happy experience. A precisely similar change in the pronoun, attributable probably to the same cause, is observable in the remarkably analogous passage in Romans 8:15, "Ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Crying (κράζον); crying out aloud. The word expressing loud utterance betokens in this case undoubting assurance. No faint whisper this of an inner consciousness, shy, reticent, because afraid to assure itself of so. glorious, so blissful a relation; no hesitating half-hope; it is a strong, unwavering conviction, bold, though humbly bold, to thus address the all-holy Supreme himself. The "cry" is here attributed to the Spirit himself; in Romans 8:15 to believers, these being the Spirit's organs of utterance; presently after in the Romans, vers. 26, 27, the Spirit himself is said to "intercede with groanings which cannot be uttered ... . according to the will of God." Analogously, in the Gospels, evil spirits in demoniacs at times are said to "cry out" (Mark 1:26; Mark 9:26), while in other passages the cry is attributed to the possessed person. Abba, Father (Ἀββᾶ ὁ Πατήρ). In addition to Romans 8:15, just cited, the same remarkable words are found once only besides, in Mark 14:36, as uttered by our Lord in the garden. St. Luke (Luke 22:42) gives only "Father" (Πάτερ); St. Matthew (Matthew 26:39, 42), "my Father" (Πάτερ μου: in ver. 39, however, νου is omitted by Tischendorf, though he retains it in ver. 42). St. Matthew, by adding μου to Πάτερ here, which he does not add in Matthew 11:25, 26, seems to indicate that the form of address which our Lord then employed bespoke more than usual of fervency or of intimacy of communion. According to Furst ('Concordance'), "Abba," אַבָּא, occurs frequently in the Targums "sensu proprio et honorifico;" in the Jerusalem Targum taking the form "Ibba," אִבָּא. In consequence, we may assume, of the "honorific" complexion of this form of the word, it was in Chaldee the form usually employed in compellation, or for the vocative. The hypothesis that either the Divine Sneaker, or the Evangelist Mark, or the Apostle Paul, added ὁ Πατὴρ as an explanatory adjunct to the Aramaic "Abba," for the benefit of such as might need the explanation, is resisted

(1) by the threefold recurrence of the conjoined phrases in just the same form;

(2) by the absence of any such intimation of a translation as we find given in other passages where an Aramaic word is explained, as in Mark 5:41; Mark 7:11, 34; John 1:38, 41, 42; John 20:16; Acts 9:36;

(3) by the addition of ὁ Πατὴρ being made by St. Paul in the Romans, when writing with a glowing ardour of strong feeling wholly repugnant to the didactic calmness of a translational gloss: he does not pause to add such a gloss to "Maranatha" in 1 Corinthians 16:22, where it would seem to be much more called for. The apparently nominatival form of ὁ Πατὴρ lends no countenance to this view, as is shown by the comparison of Matthew 11:26, ναί ὁ Πατήρ: Luke 8:54, 41 ἡ παῖς, ἔγειρε: and in the Septuagint, Psalm 8:1, 9, Κύριε ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν: Psalm 7:1, Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου. Another hypothesis that the twofold compellative was meant to intimate that God was now Father alike to Jewish believers and to Gentile, is wrecked upon its occurrence in St. Mark. The present writer ventures to surmise that the conjoined phrase originated thus: The Lord Jesus, being wont very commonly to substitute for the name "God" the designation of "Father," may be supposed to have used for this designation the word "Abba" as the honorific form of the Chaldaic noun for "father," in much the same way as the Jews regularly substituted the noun Adonai, an honorific form of Adonim, "lord," or "master," for the unutterable tetragrammaton, יהוה. Instead of Adonai, Christ (it may be supposed) customarily employed the word "Abha," as an almost proper name of the Supreme Being. When our Lord had occasion to apply the word "Father" as a common noun to God, whether in addressing him or in speaking of him, we may infer firm the Peshito-Syriac Version of Mark 14:36 that he added another form of the same original noun "Abj," or "Obj," instead of or in addition to "Abba." The Πάτερ of Luke 22:42 may have been used to represent "Abba;" St. Matthew's Πάτερ μου to represent "Abj" or "Obj." The use of "Abba, ὁ Πατὴρ by believers, probably quite an exceptional use, was adopted, both as a conscious reminiscence of Christ's utterance in the garden - they, by conjoining themselves thus with their Lord, pleading, as it were, his Name as their warrant for claiming this filial relation with the Most High - and also as an intensely emphatic description of God's fatherhood, by conjoining together the almost proper name denoting his general fatherhood by which (supposably) Christ was used to designate God, and the common noun by which Christ's disciples had by him been taught to address him in prayer, and which embodied their sense of his especial fatherhood to those who serve him. The apostle is not to be understood as intimating that the Holy Spirit does actually produce in every heart in which he dwells the definite consciousness of sonship. It is enough for his purpose that the nisus, the endeavour and tendency of his spiritual operation, is in all cases in that direction, though through slackness on their own part so many Christians fail of conquering for themselves the full possession of their inheritance. But, however, we need not (he implies)go back to Mosaic ceremonialism to seek there for our assured sonship. We have it already here - here, in Christ, and in the indwelling presence of his Spirit.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
And
δέ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

because
Ὅτι (Hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

you are
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.

sons,
υἱοί (huioi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

sent
ἐξαπέστειλεν (exapesteilen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1821: From ek and apostello; to send away forth, i.e. to despatch, or to dismiss.

the
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Spirit
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

of
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

His
αὐτοῦ (autou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
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.

Son
Υἱοῦ (Huiou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

into
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

our
ἡμῶν (hēmōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

hearts,
καρδίας (kardias)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 2588: Prolonged from a primary kar; the heart, i.e. the thoughts or feelings; also the middle.

crying out,
κρᾶζον (krazon)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 2896: To cry aloud, shriek. A primary verb; properly, to 'croak' or scream, i.e. to call aloud.

“Abba,
Ἀββᾶ (Abba)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5: Abba, Father. Of Chaldee origin; father as a vocative.

Father!”
Πατήρ (Patēr)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.


Links
Galatians 4:6 NIV
Galatians 4:6 NLT
Galatians 4:6 ESV
Galatians 4:6 NASB
Galatians 4:6 KJV

Galatians 4:6 BibleApps.com
Galatians 4:6 Biblia Paralela
Galatians 4:6 Chinese Bible
Galatians 4:6 French Bible
Galatians 4:6 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: Galatians 4:6 And because you are children God sent (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 4:5
Top of Page
Top of Page