Faith + Works of the Law = Severed from Christ (A look @ Galatians 5, its meaning in context, and how the TNIV/NIV muddies the meanings yet again)

The more and more I try to like the TNIV, the more and more I find that I dislike it.  And the more I discover I dislike it, the more I realize that my disdain is not limited merely to the TNIV… but extends to the Evangelical’s favored version: the NIV.

A while back, I published a brief article on one of the many reasons someone should avoid (or rather use with caution) Today’s New International Version.  After I hit the PUBLISH button, I thought I should double-check and see if the same translation error made in the TNIV was present in the NIV.  It was.  So today when I encountered yet another translation biff, I decided to check in advance.  And guess what – it was poorly translated both in the TNIV and NIV.  At least I know in advance. 

Now once again, I am not accusing anyone who uses the NIV (or even the TNIV) of being a heretic.  It is, after all, a translation of God’s Word.  Neither the NIV nor the TNIV are among the absolute WORST Bible versions offered today (and I pray the same applies to the 2011 revision of the NIV, which will replace both the ‘84 NIV and the ‘05 TNIV).  I would say in a lot of cases they are OK or even decent.

And yet I continue to run into issues in the translated text… ones that are important for understanding exactly what God said.  Today I encountered a muddied-meaning… but in a slightly different capacity than the last one.

The confusion comes from how both the NIV and TNIV handle Galatians 5.

 

While the last entry on the TNIV dealt with a glossing over of a theological hot-button issue like God’s foreknowledge, this issues is concerned with subtle nuance being lost on the reader of the Biblica-translated versions (TNIV & NIV).  All because the committee chose to use a weaker word: “alienated.”

 

Context

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia are clearly concerning the necessity of the sufficiency of the Good News that God’s people are saved by the sovereign work of God alone – that we add nothing to God’s work.  Anyone who preaches a gospel that involves faith + ANYTHING… even the circumcision commanded previously are required by Jews… are anathema – damned – under God’s wrath (Gal 1:6-10).  No, we who are justified are “justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16).

 

However, it is clear that within the churches in Galatia, some had begun teaching Faith + something… in this case: circumcision.  Circumcision is, of course, the act of cutting off the foreskin, in accordance with the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 17.  “Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant” (Gen 7:14).  This mark of the covenant was binding for the Jew.  Yet in Galatia, certain individuals were proclaiming that Gentile believers, to truly be Christian, MUST be circumcised in the flesh also.  Only by this will they truly be close to Christ.

 

Sarah vs Hagar – Who is enslaved, and who is free?

Paul dramatically, as we have seen, disagrees with this imposing the Law on the Gentiles for entrance into the New Covenant.  We see in Galatians 4 that the Jews, thinking they were the children of the promise from Sarah, are allegorically children of Hagar – the slave.  A slave to what?  A slave to the Law!  And it is the one who is in Christ who is truly free!  The Jews, priding themselves on being children of the promise are actually in slavery rather than freedom.

 

Galatians 5:  Cut Off

 

The Law = slavery.  Any attempt to earn justification by ANY OTHER MEANS apart from the grace of God through faith is the very opposite of the good news.  There is no good news in this – only slavery to the Law.  In Galatians 5:1-4 we read:

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  Look:  I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.  I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.  You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

If you want to try to add a little bit of the Law to the work of Christ you must add the ENTIRE LAW!  If you desire to justify yourself to God as a result of even the slightest bit of your good deeds then you actually must follow the law in its entirety.   Those who insisted circumcision + faith= salvation were preaching a damnable heresy.  The Jew insisted the Gentile severe the piece of foreskin to be acceptable before Christ… to be close to Him.  Yet, from verse 4, we see that this person has NOT, by his act of cutting, brought him closer to Christ.  It has actually SEVERED him from Christ!  The cutting did nothing to please God – it rather cut them off from Christ.  Attempting justification through the law, rather than trusting entirely on God’s glorious grace, will result in being cut off from Christ – like the act of hacking off a limb.

 

A disturbing/shocking picture indeed.  (If you want to see just HOW disturbing this severing is… feel free to search Google Images for “severed.”)

 

Where the TNIV/NIV Falls Short in Galatians 5

 

I realize that I have written quite a lot of background, going over briefly the argument in Galatians up to Galatians 5.  I actually have since gone back to earlier in the article to give a taste of where I would be going… and now I wish to go there.

 

This discussion now turns to the translation of the Greek word καταργέω in Galatians 5:4, particularly paying attention to the context in which Paul is writing.

 

See how the this verse is rendered in the TNIV/NIV:

“You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

There is nothing exactly wrong with this translation in and of itself.  Certainly “alienation” does carry with it the notion of distance and being put out of or away from.  The one who trusts in his own works to save, rather than in Christ’s finished work is put away from Christ.

 

But in the context… there is a better translation choice.  This is the choice made by the ESV and the NASB.  Rather than being “alienated” from Christ, these translations convey our being “severed” from Christ, emphasizing a violent cutting off.  Even the NRSV, which I do not generally recommend, translates this being as being “cut off from Christ.”

 

So what?

Some of you reading this (if you have made it this far) may be wondering what the big deal is.  Both “alienate” and “severed” convey the notion of separation.  Yes.  However, the NASB/ESV, being literal translations rather than functional translations, both convey a subtle nuance that is just not present in the TNIV/NIV.

 

The discussion throughout the letter is circumcision.  The severing of the foreskin.  By doing this to earn merit before Christ, the individual is doing the opposite… he is instead severing himself off from Christ.  The theme of cutting/severing is carried throughout in these literal translations.  The TNIV/NIV, wishing to be a more functional and easily-understandable (though I’m not sure how being alienated is more understandable than being cut off or severed from Christ) drops the more violent notion of being severed from Christ in favor of a somewhat less-offensive “alienation” theme, which does not flow literarily from Paul’s earlier discussion of circumcision.

 

In Conclusion

 

I am not meaning to make a “whole lot about nothing.”  However I think that Paul’s point in Galatians 5 is more correctly conveyed in the NASB, the ESV, and even the NRSV.  The notion that we are alienated or even shunned from Christ does not carry… the kick of being cut off – severed – from Christ.  It is a shocking thought – being as cut off from Christ as Luke was from his hand in The Empire Strikes Back.  And yet, that is the comparison that Paul (and the Holy Spirit) conveyed to us.  Shocking and even offensive?  Yes.  But the literal translations correctly paint a picture of how important it is to not add anything to the gospel – be it circumcision, baptism, or any other works of the Law.

**For further discussion on Galatians, head on over to the White Horse Inn.  Michael Horton and the gang recently did a 5-part series on Galatians, which was what I was listening to just before I began this post.**