Galatians 5:20

ἔρις אABD* syrPesh. ἔρεις Text. Rec. with CDbcG etc. latt. syrHarcl. Westcott and Hort margin.

ζῆλος BDgrGgr*syrPesh., ζῆλοι Text. Rec. with אCDbc etc. vulg. syrHarcl., Westcott and Hort margin.

20. εἰδωλολατρία. The connexion of immorality with heathen worship readily leads St Paul to mention idolatry.

φαρμακία, “sorcery.” The use of drugs not as medicines but as media in magic; veneficia Vulg. So in Exodus 7:11 al. of the “enchantments” whereby the Egyptian magicians performed their wonders. Cf. Revelation 9:21; Revelation 18:23. Lightfoot points out the “striking coincidence, if nothing more,” that sorcery was condemned at the Council of Ancyra, the capital of North Galatia, about A.D. 314. For the connexion of such magic with idolatry see Revelation 21:8.

ἔχθραι. Even if St Paul had the threefold grouping of these various faults in his mind (vide supra) “sorcery,” as often directed against persons, would readily suggest ἔχθραι. The plural occurs here only in the New Testament. On the ascending scale of the faults as far as φθόνοι see Lightfoot.

ἔρις, “dissension.” See notes on Textual Criticism. On the var. lect. ἔρεις, not ἔριδες, 1 Corinthians 1:11, see Win.-Schm. § 9. 8.

ζῆλος, “rivalry.” With ἔρις in Romans 13:13 and, also with θυμοί, in 2 Corinthians 12:20.

θυμοί, “  ‘wraths,’ a more passionate form of ἔρις,” Lightfoot.

ἐριθίαι, not “factions,” with the connotation of the vice of the followers of a party, but “ambitions,” “rivalries,” the vice of a leader of a party created for his own pride. Derived from ἔριθος, “hireling,” it acquired the meaning of bribery and winning over followers, and so of seeking followers (cf. Philippians 1:17). See Hort’s important note on James 3:14.

διχοστασίαι, “divisions.” Romans 16:17; 1Ma 3:29[144]. Not so permanent as αἱρέσεις. In the parallel passage, 2 Corinthians 12:20, ἀκαταστασίαι (“tumults”).

[144] Is affixed it means that all the passages are mentioned where the word occurs in the Greek Bible.

αἱρέσεις. So too stronger than σχίσματα in 1 Corinthians 11:18-19. The word seems to denote not only external separation, but internal in aim and purpose, mind and heart. It thus readily suggests φθόνοι. A still stronger use of αἵρεσις is found in 2 Peter 2:1, where see Bigg’s note. See also Moulton and Milligan in Expositor, VII. 5, 1908, p. 171.