complete verse (Galatians 5:12)

Following are a number of back-translations of Galatians 5:12:

  • Uma: “It is better for those people who are shaking your faith to be not just circumcised, it is better for them to actually be castrated!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If (only) those people who trouble you would not only be circumcised but continue-on to castrate themselves.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for those people who are troubling you by means of their false teaching, I wish that they would not only observe circumcision but that they would also observe castration!” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Now as for those-aforementioned who are confusing you, if circumcision is extremely-valuable to them, they should also go and get-castrated!” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Really, those ones bothering you, it would be good if they not only had themselves circumcised, but had themselves castrated!” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The men who are getting after you saying that is it necessary to mark you bodies by cutting, why don’t these men cut themselves good until they are castrated?” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Galatians 5:12

Once again Paul refers to the false teachers in the plural, describing them as the people who are upsetting you, that is “unsettle, disturb, agitate” (used only here by Paul). He even expresses a strong wish that they would go all the way (that is, go beyond circumcision) and castrate themselves. Most scholars understand Paul here to be referring to actual self-emasculation, similar to the practices of the priests of certain mystery cults with which the Galatians would be familiar. This sense is found in most translations (for example, New English Bible “had better … make eunuchs of themselves”; Revised Standard Version “would mutilate themselves”; Knox “should lose their own manhood”). One may also translate “cut off their male organs.”

A possible alternative interpretation is that Paul may have had in mind the Old Testament understanding of castration which involved exclusion from God’s people (Deut 23.1). This would mean, therefore, that Paul here is using the figure of self-mutilation to speak of an intended result, which is exclusion from the church. This interpretation is followed by Phillips: “would cut themselves off from you altogether.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .