SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:20
idolatría, hechicerías, enemistades, pleitos, celos, iras, contiendas, disensiones, herejías,
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Galatians 5:20
Verse 20. Idolatry] Worshipping of idols; frequenting idol festivals; all the rites of Bacchus, Venus, Priapus, &c., which were common among the Gentiles. Witchcraft] farmakeia, from farmakon, a drug or poison; because in all spells and enchantments, whether true or false, drugs were employed.
As a drug, farmakon, might either be the means of removing an evil, or inflicting one, etymologists have derived it from feron akov, bringing ease, or feron acov, bringing pain. So spells and incantations were used sometimes for the restoration of the health; at others, for the destruction of an enemy. Sometimes, these farmaka were used to procure love; at other times, to produce hatred.
Hatred] ecqrai? Aversions and antipathies, when opposed to brotherly love and kindness.
Variance] ereiv? Contentions, where the principle of hatred proceeds to open acts; hence contests, altercations, lawsuits, and disputes in general.
Emulations] zhloi? Envies or emulations; that is strife to excel at the expense of another; lowering others to set up one's self; unholy zeal, fervently adopting a bad cause, or supporting a good one by cruel means.
Inquisitions, pretending to support true religion by torturing and burning alive those who both profess and practice it.
Wrath] qumoi? Turbulent passions, disturbing the harmony of the mind, and producing domestic and civil broils and disquietudes.
Strife] epiqeiai? Disputations, janglings, logomachics, or strife about words.
Seditions] dicostasiai? Divisions into separate factions; parties, whether in the Church or state.
Heresies] aireseiv? Factions; parties in the Church separating from communion with each other, and setting up altar against altar. The word, which is harmless in itself, is here used in a bad sense. In stead of aireseiv the Slavonic has skandala, scandals, offenses or stumbling- blocks.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 20. Idolatry , etc..] Which some understand of covetousness, which is so called; but rather it means the worshipping of other gods, or of graven images: witchcraft ; any real or pretended league and association with the devil, seeking to converse with familiar spirits, to gain unlawful knowledge, or to do hurt to fellow creatures; which, as it is doing honour to Satan, detracts from the glory of God, and rightly follows idolatry; conjuration, soothsaying, necromancy, and all kind of magic are included and condemned hereby: hatred : internal hatred of any man's person, even of our very enemies, is forbidden; in the original text it is enmities: as the carnal mind is nothing else but enmity against God and Christ, against law and Gospel, and all good men, and everything that is good: variance , or contentions; fighting and quarrelling, by words scandalous and reproachful, what we commonly call scolding: emulations or zeals; not good, but bad: a boiling and rising up of the spirits and passions, at the honour and happiness of another: wrath or wraths violent emotions of the mind, moving to revenge, and seeking the hurt and mischief of others: strife or strifes; perpetual contradictions and cavilings, either expressed by words, or working in the mind; for this strife may be in a man's heart, according to ( James 3:14,16) seditions or divisions: schisms and factions, dissensions in things domestic, civil, and religious: heresies ; bad principles and tenets, relating to doctrine, which are subversive of the fundamentals of the Gospel and the Christian religion; and are the produce of a man's own invention, and the matter of his choice, without any foundation in the word of God; and these are works of the flesh, for they spring from a corrupt and carnal mind, and are propagated with carnal views, as popular applause, worldly advantage, and indulging the lusts of the flesh.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 16-26 - If it be our care to act under the guidance and power of the blesse Spirit, though we may not be freed from the stirrings and opposition of the corrupt nature which remains in us, it shall not have dominio over us. Believers are engaged in a conflict, in which they earnestl desire that grace may obtain full and speedy victory. And those wh desire thus to give themselves up to be led by the Holy Spirit, are no under the law as a covenant of works, nor exposed to its awful curse Their hatred of sin, and desires after holiness, show that they have part in the salvation of the gospel. The works of the flesh are man and manifest. And these sins will shut men out of heaven. Yet what numbers, calling themselves Christians, live in these, and say the hope for heaven! The fruits of the Spirit, or of the renewed nature which we are to do, are named. And as the apostle had chiefly name works of the flesh, not only hurtful to men themselves, but tending to make them so to one another, so here he chiefly notices the fruits of the Spirit, which tend to make Christians agreeable one to another, a well as to make them happy. The fruits of the Spirit plainly show, tha such are led by the Spirit. By describing the works of the flesh an fruits of the Spirit, we are told what to avoid and oppose, and what we are to cherish and cultivate; and this is the sincere care an endeavour of all real Christians. Sin does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so that they obey it, Ro 6:12, for they seek to destro it. Christ never will own those who yield themselves up to be the servants of sin. And it is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which guides and governs us, Ro 8:5. We must se ourselves in earnest to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life. Not being desirous of vain-glory, or unduly wishin for the esteem and applause of men, not provoking or envying on another, but seeking to bring forth more abundantly those good fruits which are, through Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ειδωλολατρεια 1495 φαρμακεια 5331 εχθραι 2189 ερεις 2054 ζηλοι 2205 θυμοι 2372 εριθειαι 2052 διχοστασιαι 1370 αιρεσεις 139
Vincent's NT Word Studies
20. Witchcraft (farmakia). Or sorcery. Elsewhere only Revelation xviii. 23. From farmakon a drug. In LXX, see Exod. vii. 11; Wisd. xii. 4; Isa. xlvii. 9. Comp. Acts xix. 19, perierga curious arts, note.
Wrath (qumoi). Lit. wraths. See on John iii. 36.
Strife (eriqiai). More correctly, factions. From eriqov a hired servant. Eriqia is, primarily, labor for hire (see Tob. ii. 11), and is applied to those who serve in official positions for hire or for other selfish purposes, ;and, in order to gain their ends, promote party spirit or faction. Seditions (dicostasiai). Better, divisions. Only here and Romans xvi. 17. Once in LXX, 1 Macc. iii. 29.
Heresies (aireseiv). In Paul only here and 1 Cor. xi. 19. See on 2 Peter ii. 1. Parties, into which divisions crystallize.
