Galatians a la ESV

I decided I wanted to use the ESV version next to read through Galatians and found a website that had the ESV in audio format, so I listened to the book of Galatians today.  It was nice to hear the word out loud and not be distracted by footnotes, verse numbers, and section heading.  Since this was the way most people originally heard the letter to the Galatians, I think it was a worthwhile exercise.  I may go back and do some of the other versions over again in audio format if I can find them online.  A few things that stuck out to me while listening to Galatians in the ESV:

1:16 – The ESV talks about God revealing Christ to Paul, not in Paul, as the HCSB did.  Quite a significant difference.

Chapter 3 – For some reason I never noticed what Paul was saying here.  It appears that he is saying that grace preceded law in God’s promise to Abraham and was not nullified when the law was given.  Indeed, God did fulfill his promise to Abraham through Jesus.  So, the inheritance is still by the promise given to Abraham, not by the keeping of the law.  Paul says the law was “added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary” (3:19).

Chapter four still seems to be saying that we were children of God and under “guardians and managers” until the date set by the Father, even though there was no difference in between us as children and a slave.