Bible Strands
Galatians 3:1
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Galatian churches while confronting their sudden departure from the gospel, immediately preceding his inquiry about how they received the Spirit.
The words — The text uses ἐβάσκανεν (ebaskanen), literally “has bewitched,” and ἀνόητοι (anoētoi), literally “foolish,” to describe their spiritual confusion.
The thread — This theme of deception and obstruction appears in Galatians 5:7, where a speaker asks who hindered their progress toward the truth, and in 2 Corinthians 11:3, where Paul warns against minds being led astray from sincere devotion.
Why it lands — The passage demands that readers examine whether their faith rests on the clear proclamation of Christ’s crucifixion or on human effort, requiring an immediate return to the original message.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Cross-references
- Galatians 5:7 You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth?
- 2 Corinthians 11:3 I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
- Galatians 1:6 I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
- Revelation 2:20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
- Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?
- Galatians 4:9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.
- 1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
- 1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.