Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 5:7

ἐνέκοψεν אABCD etc. ἀνέκοψε[135] Text. Rec. with a few cursives.

[135] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

7. ἐτρέχετε καλῶς (“Ye were running finely”). τίς, contemptuous. No one had the right to do so, Galatians 3:1; cf. Romans 14:4; James 4:12.

ὑμᾶς ἐνέκοψεν. See notes on Textual Criticism. The metaphor of the race is continued.

Who made your way impassable? ἐγκόπτω was used originally of cutting into a road, breaking it up (not, as it seems, of cutting obstacles down into it), but “it came to mean ‘hinder’ generally (Hesych. ἐμποδίζω, διακωλύω),” Milligan on 1 Thessalonians 2:18.

It always takes the accusative of the person in the N.T., but the dative which is more natural is sometimes found elsewhere.

ἀληθείᾳ: “truth” as such, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. St Paul here exchanges the figure of a race for the reality of his subject.

μὴ. On the negative with verbs of hindering see Burton, Tenses, § 402, “μὴ may be used or omitted with the infinitive without difference of meaning.” In Romans 15:22 the negative is omitted after ἐνεκοπτόμην.

πείθεσθαι, Romans 2:8. G and a few Latin MSS. mentioned in Zahn add μηδενὶ πείθεσθε. Zahn strangely separates these three words from ἐνέκοψεν because of (1) the cessation of the metaphor, (2) the presence of μή, and reads ἀληθείᾳ μὴ πείθεσθαι μηδενὶ πείθεσθε “Listen to no one that ye should not listen to truth.” He refers to Blass’ Gram. Add. and Corr. p. xii., German 2nd edit. But is there any similar sentence in St Paul’s writings?

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 5:7

Old Testament

New Testament