Galatians 5:12
New International Version
As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

New Living Translation
I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

English Standard Version
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Berean Standard Bible
As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves!

Berean Literal Bible
I wish those upsetting you also will emasculate themselves!

King James Bible
I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

New King James Version
I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

New American Standard Bible
I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.

NASB 1995
I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

NASB 1977
Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

Legacy Standard Bible
I wish that those who are upsetting you would even mutilate themselves.

Amplified Bible
I wish that those who are troubling you [by teaching that circumcision is necessary for salvation] would even [go all the way and] castrate themselves!

Christian Standard Bible
I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!

American Standard Version
I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But I would also that those who trouble you would be cut off.

Contemporary English Version
I wish everyone who is upsetting you would not only get circumcised, but would cut off much more!

Douay-Rheims Bible
I would they were even cut off, who trouble you.

English Revised Version
I would that they which unsettle you would even cut themselves off.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I wish those troublemakers would castrate themselves.

Good News Translation
I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!

International Standard Version
I wish that those who are upsetting you would castrate themselves!

Literal Standard Version
O that even they would cut themselves off who are unsettling you!

Majority Standard Bible
As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves!

New American Bible
Would that those who are upsetting you might also castrate themselves!

NET Bible
I wish those agitators would go so far as to castrate themselves!

New Revised Standard Version
I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!

New Heart English Bible
I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

Webster's Bible Translation
I would they were even cut off who trouble you.

Weymouth New Testament
Would to God that those who are unsettling your faith would even mutilate themselves.

World English Bible
I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

Young's Literal Translation
O that even they would cut themselves off who are unsettling you!

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Freedom in Christ
11Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves! 13For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 23:1
No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Galatians 2:4
This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.

Galatians 5:10
I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be.


Treasury of Scripture

I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

cut.

Galatians 5:10
I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

Galatians 1:8,9
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed…

Genesis 17:14
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

trouble.

Acts 15:1,2,24
And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved…

Jump to Previous
Circumcision Confusion Cut Desire Disturb Faith Mutilate Themselves Throw Trouble Troubling Unsettling Way Whole Wish
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Circumcision Confusion Cut Desire Disturb Faith Mutilate Themselves Throw Trouble Troubling Unsettling Way Whole Wish
Galatians 5
1. He wills them to stand in their liberty,
3. and not to observe circumcision;
13. but rather love, which is the sum of the law.
19. He lists the works of the flesh,
22. and the fruits of the Spirit,
25. and exhorts to walk in the Spirit.














(12) I would they were even cut off.--The Authorised version is undoubtedly wrong here. The words may mean "cut themselves off," i.e., from your communion, but it seems far best to take the words, with all the ancient Greek interpreters and a large majority of modern commentators, including Dr. Lightfoot and Bishop Wordsworth, as referring to an extension of the rite of circumcision, such as the Galatians might see frequently practised by the priests of Cybele, whose worship had one of its most imporant centres in their country--I would they would even make themselves eunuchs. Let them carry their self-mutilation still further, and not stop at circumcision.

The expression is in several ways surprising as coming from St. Paul. We should remember, in some mitigation of it, the fact just alluded to, that the Galatians were themselves familiar with this particular form of self-mutilation; and familiar with it, no doubt, in discourse as well as in act. Christianity, while it has had the effect of putting a stop to such horrible practices, has also banished them even from thought and word. It is less, perhaps, a matter of wonder that we should have to appeal to the difference in standard between the Apostle's times and our own, than that we have to appeal to it so seldom. Still, at the best, words like these must be allowed to come some way short of the "meekness and gentleness of Christ." We may compare with them, as well for the particular expression as for the general vehemence of language, Philippians 3:2 : "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concision" (with a play on "circumcision"). The Apostle himself would have been the last to claim that he had "already attained, either were already perfect." A highly nervous and excitable constitution such as his, shattered by bodily hardships and mental strain, could not but at times impair his power of self-control. It is to be noticed, however, that his indignation, if it sometimes carries him somewhat too far, is always roused in a worthy cause. Such momentary ebullitions as these are among the very few flaws in a truly noble and generous character, and are themselves in great part due to the ardour which makes it so noble.

Which trouble you.--A different word from that which is similarly translated in Galatians 5:10. Its meaning is stronger: "to uproot and overthrow."

Verse 12. - I would they were even cut off which trouble you (ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς); would to God they would make themselves even as the apocopi of Cybele (Greek, would even mutilate themselves), who are casting you out of country and home! The word ὄφελον, originally a verb, had got, thus stripped of its augment, to be a mere particle of wishing. Its sense with an indicative aorist is seen 1 Corinthians 4:8, Ὄφελόν γε ἐβασιλεύσατε, "Would to God ye had come to your kingship [which is far from being really the case yet!];" Exodus 16:3; Numbers 14:2; Numbers 20:3 (Septuagint), Ὄφελον ἀπεθάνομεν, "Would to God we had died!" with an indicative imperfect, 2 Corinthians 11:1, Ὄφελον ἀνείχεσθέ μον μικρὸν ἀφροσύνης, "Would to God ye were [i.e. could be] tolerant of a little foolishness of mine! [might I hope for it?];" Revelation 3:15, Ὄφελον ψυχρὸς η΅ς, etc., "Would that thou wert cold," etc. With an indicative future (an extremely rare combination), it may still be regarded as expressing a longing that something might be looked forward to, which in reality is not to be anticipated; different from a simple desire that a thing may be, unaccompanied by the feeling that it cannot be, which is its three with an optative, as in Psalm 119:5. The tone of especially fervid aspiration, the vivacity, which usually marks wishes introduced by ὄφελον, is perhaps unduly tamed down by the rendering "I would that." In respect to the verb ἀποκόψονται, Greek scholars are pretty well agreed that the passive rendering of our Authorized Version, "were cut off," cannot be defended. There is no certain instance (Bishop Ellicott remarks) of a similar interchange of the middle voice with the passive. The sense of the verb is shown by the Septuagint rendering of Deuteronomy 23:1, Οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται θλαδίας καὶ ἀποκεκομμένος εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Θεοῦ: where the word 'to the ἀποκεκομμένος answers Hebrew keruth shophkah, rightly rendered in the Vulgate and in our English Bible (cf. Gesenius's 'Thesaurus,' and Furst, under shophkah). "This meaning is assigned to ἀποκόψονται," observes Bishop Lightfoot, "by all the Greek commentators, I believe, without exception (the Latin Fathers, who read ' abseimtantur' in their text had more latitude), and seems alone tenable." (See Grotius, in Peele's ' Synopsis.' ) This interpretation gives its full force to καί ("not only circumcise, but even," etc.): it explains the form of the aspiration as one not likely to be realized; whereas the excision from the Church of these extremely aberrant members, falling nearly if not quite under the anathema of the first chapter, was a thing quite within the apostle's own power: it harmonizes with the intense resentment which colours the phrase, οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ἡμᾶς (see below). The sentiment, it is true, seems one which it would be impossible for a public speaker, or even a writer, amongst ourselves to give such open expression to. Nevertheless, when viewed as framed in amid the surroundings which environed it at the time, it wears none of that aspect of coarseness which would confessedly be felt to attach to it under the conditions of modern life. That the worship of Cybele at Pessinus, one of the principal cities of Galatia, was deformed by the practice of such self-mutilation on the part of some of its devotees, was a matter of universal notoriety, and we may confidently assume that the apostle, when in the neighbourhood, heard frequent mention of those apocopi as they were called, and thus was led now to allude to it as he seems to do in this malediction. For it is a malediction, as Chrysostom describes it; a malediction, however, which in severity falls far short of the anathema which has been previously pronounced. Good were it (he means) for the Church, and even perhaps themselves, if they would have the rashness to go a little further with what they call "circumcision," which in their case is mere concision (Philippians 3:2), and make it clear to all men how purely senseless and unchristian their action in this matter is. "Casting you out of country and home." The verb ἀναστατοῦν occurs besides only in Acts 17:6 ("turned upside down" ) and Acts 21:38 ("madest an uproar" ). It is not found in classical Greek, in which we have in its stead ἀναστάτους ποιεῖν ορ τιθέναι: the verbal adjective ἀνάστατος, when it is applied, as it frequently is, to populations, meaning, "made to rise up and depart," "driven from house and home;" applied to cities, "ruined," "laid waste" (Liddell and Scott). Chrysostom observes, "Well does he say, ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς: for they compelled them to abandon their own proper country and liberty and heavenly kindred, and to seek an alien and strange one; casting them out of ' Jerusalem which is above and free,' and forcing them to wander abroad as captives and perforce emigrants." The present tense of the participle points to the action of these perverters as one which. if successful, would have this result; which (ver. 10) the apostle hopes to defeat. The selection of this particular verb, which goes far beyond the ταράσσοντες before used, and which the word "unsettle" adopted here by the Revisers, does not, as commonly used, completely represent, betokens the apostle's intense feeling of the ruinous consequences of the proposed Judaizing reaction. It shows that he adds the words aetiologically, that is, to justify his strong words, ὄφελον ἀποκόψονται. The energy of both expressions suggests the feeling that probably the apostle would not have written as he has here done except for his burning resentment on behalf of Christ's people threatened with so great a hurt. In 1 Car. 6:4 indignant feeling carries him away beyond himself to an utterance which in the next verse he virtually retracts, remarking, "I say it to move you to shame." Perhaps we have here something of the same kind.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
As for those who
οἱ (hoi)
Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

are agitating
ἀναστατοῦντες (anastatountes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 387: From a derivative of anistemi; properly, to drive out of home, i.e. to disturb.

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

I wish
Ὄφελον (Ophelon)
Interjection
Strong's 3785: First person singular of a past tense of opheilo; I ought, i.e. oh that!

they would proceed to emasculate themselves!
ἀποκόψονται (apokopsontai)
Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 609: From apo and kopto; to amputate; reflexively to mutilate.


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NT Letters: Galatians 5:12 I wish that those who disturb you (Gal. Ga)
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