Bible Strands
Galatians 4:21
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses Galatian believers who desire to live under the Mosaic covenant, speaking from a posture of pastoral perplexity immediately before introducing the Abraham narrative.
The words — ὑπὸ (hupo) means under and νόμον (nomon) means Law, forming the phrase ὑπὸ νόμον (under the law) that identifies the specific group Paul addresses.
The thread — The authority of written Scripture and the condition of being under the law appear in Galatians 3:10, Romans 3:19, and Matthew 22:29.
Why it lands — It demands that the reader test their theological assumptions against the explicit content of Scripture rather than personal desire or tradition.
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
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Cross-references
- Galatians 3:10 All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
- Galatians 3:23 Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- 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?
- John 5:46 If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.
- John 15:25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
- Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
- Romans 7:5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
- Romans 10:3 Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.