GAL 5:22 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 5:13–26: Let the Spirit of God lead you

In this section, Paul talked about what freedom means. He no longer focused on how a person is made righteous. He focused on how a person who has received the righteousness of Christ should live.

Paul told the Galatians that choosing to live their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit would keep them from living sinful lives. It would keep them from living as slaves to the law. A life lived in the Spirit is a life of love for each other.

Some other possible headings for this section are:

Follow closely the Spirit of God

Obey God’s Spirit, not your sinful desires

Paragraph 5:22–23

In this paragraph, Paul reminded the Galatians that following the Spirit results in godly character. That godly character is in contrast to the works of the sinful nature.

5:22a

But the fruit of the Spirit is

¶ But what comes from the Spirit is
¶ However, the Spirit causes a person to
¶ But when the Spirit of God leads a person, that person

But: There is a contrast between 5:19–21 and 5:22. The contrast is between the “the acts of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit.” The BSB indicates this contrast with the word But.

Some other ways to show this contrast are:

In contrast

However

the fruit of the Spirit is: Here the word fruit is used in a figurative sense. It refers to the characteristics of a person whom the Spirit leads. The Holy Spirit living in a person produces these characteristics. In most languages, it will not be possible to use the word fruit in this figurative way.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

the Spirit causes a person to

if a person is led by the Spirit, he is

what comes from the Spirit is

when the Spirit leads/guides a person, that person has the following behavior/characteristics:

5:22b–d

In this list, the focus is on Christian character. It is not a list of actions. In some languages, there are idioms for these characteristics.

Some of these words are similar, and some languages may have a term that covers two of these Greek words.

5:22b

love, joy, peace,

love, joy/happiness, peace/harmony,
love others, rejoice, be at peace with others,
loves others, he is joyful/happy, he lives in peace/harmony with others,

love: Here the word love refers primarily to loving other people.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to love others

he loves others

joy: The Greek word that the BSB translates as joy means “gladness” and “happiness” that come from the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to rejoice

gladness

he is happy

peace: The Greek word that The BSB translates as peace refers to harmony and well-being.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to be at peace

calmness

he lives in harmony with others

5:22c

patience, kindness, goodness,

patience, helpfulness, goodness,
be patient with others, be kind, be good,
he endures whatever happens, he is kind, he is good/generous to others,

patience: The Greek word that the BSB translates as patience refers to endurance or longsuffering. It characterizes a person who does not easily become angry, even when he is insulted. He is ready to forgive other people when they do wrong to him. He does not complain.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to be patient

tolerant with others

he endures whatever happens

kindness: The Greek word that the BSB translates as kindness refers to kind actions towards other people.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to be kind to others

he is helpful/generous

to be considerate of people

goodness: The Greek word that the BSB translates as goodness is similar to kindness. This word refers to moral excellence, an upright character. Nothing bad can be said about such a person. It also includes generosity.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

uprightness

generosity

he does good to others

5:22d

faithfulness,

trustworthiness,
be faithful,
he does what he says he will do,

faithfulness: The Greek word that the BSB translates as faithfulness refers to dependability and reliability.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

to be faithful

he is dependable/reliable

people can trust him

he does what he says he will do

See faith, Meaning 3 in the Glossary for more information.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

ὁ & καρπὸς τοῦ Πνεύματός

the & (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὁ Δέ καρπός τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐστίν ἀγάπη χαρά εἰρήνη μακροθυμία χρηστότης ἀγαθωσύνη πίστις)

Paul is using the possessive form to describe the fruit that the Spirit gives to believers. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state this explicitly. Alternate translation: [the fruit that the Spirit gives]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

ὁ & καρπὸς

Here, fruit refers to a result or outcome. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [the product] or [the result]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns

ἀγάπη, χαρά, εἰρήνη, μακροθυμία, χρηστότης, ἀγαθωσύνη, πίστις

love joy peace patience kindness goodness faith

If your language does not use abstract nouns for the ideas of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, you could express the same ideas in another way. Alternate translation: [acting lovingly, joyfully, peacefully, patiently, kindly, in a good manner, faithfully]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

εἰρήνη

peace

Here, peace could mean: (1) a peaceful feeling. Alternate translation: [feeling peaceful] (2) a peaceful relationship with other people. Alternate translation: [peace with others]

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.

OET interlinear GAL 5:22

SR Greek word order

Section 5:13–26: Let the Spirit of God lead you

Paragraph 5:22–23

5:22a

5:22b–d

5:22b

5:22c

5:22d

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)