Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 6:7

7. The connexion is: If you spare yourselves and do not help others, e.g. your teachers as I have just said, you are living for the flesh, not the spirit, however much you deceive yourselves (Galatians 6:3).

μὴ πλανᾶσθε, “do not err.” The phrase occurs elsewhere in the N.T. only in 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:33; James 1:16. The context here suggests that the verb is in the middle as certainly in Mark 12:24; Mark 12:27.

θεὸς. Suddenly introduced because their pretence to piety is really mocking Him. No article, because St Paul is contrasting His nature and position with those of men. Compare Galatians 2:6.

οὐ μυκτηρίζεται[163], “is not mocked,” 2 Chronicles 36:16; Proverbs 1:30. Cf. ἐκμυκτηρίζω, Luke 16:14; Luke 23:35[164], in each case Christ being the object. The verb properly means “turn up the nose” (so “mock,” also = “wipe the nose”). It means “the open gesture of contempt for one who is an easy dupe” (Perowne).

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

ὃ γὰρ ἐὰν (Galatians 6:17) σπείρῃ. A proverbial saying, see below, but perhaps here suggested by St Paul’s reminiscence of his recent words to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 9:6. On the relation of this passage to the collection for the saints at Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1) see the Introduction, p. xxi. sq.

ἄνθρωπος. Unlike Galatians 6:1, where see note.

τοῦτο καὶ θερίσει, cf. Job 4:8. Wetstein quotes Aristotle, Rhet. III. 3 σὺ δὲ ταῦτα αἰσχρῶς μὲν ἔσπειρας, κακῶς δὲ ἐθέρισας, and Cicero, de Orat. II. 65 ut sementem feceris, ita metes.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 6:7

Old Testament

New Testament