{"id":595,"date":"2010-02-19T16:31:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-19T21:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/blog\/?p=595"},"modified":"2010-02-19T16:31:52","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T21:31:52","slug":"flesh-is-not-human-effort-in-gal-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/bible\/flesh-is-not-human-effort-in-gal-33\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFlesh\u201d is not \u201cHuman effort\u201d in Gal 3:3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Carlson has put up a good post<\/a> on why the translation of \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as anything other than “flesh” in Gal 3:3 is “weak tea.” Carlson observes that Paul is making a point concerning literal flesh\u2014the foreskin\u2014but many translations unfortunately treat Paul’s language as metaphoric, translating \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as “human effort” or other related phrases.<\/p>\n

I’ll repeat my comment from Carlson’s blog here: In addition to spoiling the vividness of Paul’s speech, these translations import additional theological problems into the passage. I find no evidence anywhere in the letters that Paul has any issues with “human effort”; sure, he wants these efforts in conformity with \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2, but he even points to his own efforts at times as an example of how to live. These translations import an a works\/grace dichotomy that Paul doesn’t hold. As you know, the distinction is between works of Law and Grace as entrance points to righteousness, not suggesting all human effort is bad. It’s unfortunate that by their translation of \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be here, Paul’s overarching theme is badly distorted. Some of these minor translation bugs are bigger theological problems than many want to admit.<\/p>\n

There’s a pretty good string of comments going as well; it’s well worth the brief read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Carlson has put up a good post on why the translation of \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as anything other than “flesh” in Gal 3:3 is “weak tea.” Carlson observes that Paul is making a point concerning literal flesh\u2014the foreskin\u2014but many translations unfortunately treat Paul’s language as metaphoric, translating \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as “human effort” or other related phrases. I’ll…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[119,138,177,725,239,291,339,353],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cFlesh\u201d is not \u201cHuman effort\u201d in Gal 3:3 - Jason Staples<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/bible\/flesh-is-not-human-effort-in-gal-33\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cFlesh\u201d is not \u201cHuman effort\u201d in Gal 3:3 - Jason Staples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Carlson has put up a good post on why the translation of \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as anything other than “flesh” in Gal 3:3 is “weak tea.” Carlson observes that Paul is making a point concerning literal flesh\u2014the foreskin\u2014but many translations unfortunately treat Paul’s language as metaphoric, translating \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be as “human effort” or other related phrases. 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