Galatians 2:18

New King James Version

For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Parallel Translations

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Simplified Cowboy Version
I'd really be a sinner if I tried to make people do the things that I gave up when I signed on to ride for Jesus.

Bible in Basic English
For if I put up again those things which I gave to destruction, I am seen to be a wrongdoer.

Darby Translation
For if the things I have thrown down, these I build again, I constitute myself a transgressor.

Christian Standard Bible®
If I rebuild the system I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

World English Bible
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Weymouth's New Testament
Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor;

King James Version (1611)
For if I build againe the things which I destroyed, I make my selfe a transgressour.

Literal Translation
For what if I build again these things which I destroyed, I confirm myself as a transgressor.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For yf I buylde agayne yt which I haue destroyed, then make I my selfe a trespacer.

Mace New Testament (1729)
on the contrary, if I re-establish what I have demolish'd, I show myself a prevaricator.

Amplified Bible
"For if I [or anyone else should] rebuild [through word or by practice] what I once tore down [the belief that observing the Law is essential for salvation], I prove myself to be a transgressor.

American Standard Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

Revised Standard Version
But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For yf I bylde agayne yt which I destroyed. then make I my selfe a treaspaser.

Update Bible Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

Webster's Bible Translation
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Young's Literal Translation
for if the things I threw down, these again I build up, a transgressor I set myself forth;

New Century Version
But I would really be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up.

New English Translation
But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God's law.

Berean Standard Bible
If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.

Contemporary English Version
But if I tear down something and then build it again, I prove that I was wrong at first.

Complete Jewish Bible
Indeed, if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed, I really do make myself a transgressor.

English Standard Version
For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For if I build againe the things that I haue destroyed, I make my selfe a trespasser.

George Lamsa Translation
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I will prove myself to be a transgressor of the law.

Hebrew Names Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

International Standard Version
For if I rebuild something that I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a wrongdoer.

Etheridge Translation
For, if those things which I destroyed I build again, I make it manifest of myself that I transgress the commandment.

Murdock Translation
For if I should build up again the things I had demolished, I should show myself to be a transgressor of the precept.

New Living Translation
Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.

New Life Bible
But if I work toward being made right with God by keeping the Law, then I make myself a sinner.

English Revised Version
For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

New Revised Standard
But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, if, the things that I pulled down, these, again, I build, a transgressor, I prove, myself, to be.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if I build up again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator.

King James Version
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Lexham English Bible
For if I build up again these things which I destroyed, I show myself to be a transgressor.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For yf I builde agayne the thynges which I destroyed, then make I my selfe a trespasser.

Easy-to-Read Version
But I would be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up.

New American Standard Bible
"For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a wrongdoer.

Good News Translation
If I start to rebuild the system of Law that I tore down, then I show myself to be someone who breaks the Law.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
God forbede. And if Y bylde ayen thingis that Y haue distruyed, Y make my silf a trespassour.

Contextual Overview

¹¹ Now when Peter [fn] had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; ¹² for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. ¹³ And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you [fn] compel Gentiles to live as Jews? [fn] ¹⁵ We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, ¹⁶ knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. ¹⁷ "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. ¹⁹ For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Galatians 2:4, Galatians 2:5, Galatians 2:12-16, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 4:9-12, Galatians 5:11, Romans 14:15, 1 Corinthians 8:11, 1 Corinthians 8:12

Reciprocal: Romans 6:15 - shall we

Cross-References

Genesis 1:31
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:11
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Genesis 2:12
And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 3:12
Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

Ruth 3:1
Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you?

Proverbs 18:22
He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD.

1 Corinthians 7:36
But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of youth, and thus it must be, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin; let them marry.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For if I build again the things which I destroyed,.... Which must be understood not of good things, for formerly he destroyed the faith of the Gospel, at least as much as in him lay, and now he built it up, established, and defended it; in doing which he did no evil, or made himself a transgressor, but the reverse; he showed himself a faithful minister of Christ: but of things not lawful, such as the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, which were now abrogated, and he had declared to be so all over the Gentile world; and therefore should he go about to establish these things as necessary to salvation, or teach men to join the observance of them with Christ's righteousness for justification, then, says he,

I make myself a transgressor: for he could not be otherwise, be the case how it would with respect to the abrogation, or non-abrogation of the law; for if the law was not abolished, then he made himself a transgressor of it; by neglecting it himself, and teaching others to do so; and if it was abolished, then it must be criminal in him to enforce the observance of it as necessary to a sinner's justification before God. Now though the apostle transfers this to himself, and spoke in his own person to decline all invidious reflections and characters; yet he tacitly regards Peter, and his conduct, who had been taught by the vision the abrogation of the ceremonial law, and acted accordingly by conversing and eating with the Gentiles, and had declared that law to be an insupportable yoke of bondage, which the Gentiles were not obliged to come under; and yet now, by his practice and example, built up and established those very things he had before destroyed, and therefore could not exculpate himself, from being a transgressor: or these things may regard sins and immoralities in life and conversation; and the apostle's sense be, that should he, or any other, take encouragement to sin from the doctrine of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, as if he was the author and minister of sin, and allowed persons in it; this would be to establish sin, which the righteousness of Christ justifies from, and engage in a living in sin, to which, by Christ's righteousness, they are dead unto; than which, nothing can be, a greater contradiction, and which must unavoidably make them not only transgressors of the law, by sinning against it, but apostates, as the word παραβατης here used signifies, from the Gospel; such must act quite contrary to the nature, use, and design of the Gospel in general, and this doctrine in particular, which teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that being dead to sin, they should live unto righteousness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if I build again the things which I destroyed - Paul here uses the first person; but he evidently intends it as a general proposition, and means that if anyone does it he becomes a transgressor. The sense is, that if a man, having removed or destroyed that which was evil, again introduces it or establishes it, he does wrong, and is a transgressor of the Law of God. The particular application here, as it seems to me, is to the subject of circumcision and the other rites of the Mosaic law. They had been virtually abolished by the coming of the Redeemer, and by the doctrine of justification by faith. It had been seen that there was no necessity for their observance, and of that Peter and the others had been fully aware. Yet they were lending their influence again to establish them or to build them up again. They complied with them, and they insisted on the necessity of their observance. Their conduct, therefore, was that of building up again that which had once been destroyed, destroyed by the ministry, and toils, and death of the Lord Jesus, and by the fair influence of his gospel. To rebuild that again; to re-establish those customs, was wrong, and now involved the guilt of a transgression of the Law of God. Doddridge supposes that this is an address to the Galatians, and that the address to Peter closed at the previous verse. But it is impossible to determine this; and it seems to me more probable that this is all a part of the address to Peter; or rather perhaps to the assembly when Peter was present; see the note at Galatians 2:15.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. For if I build again the things which I destroyed — If I act like a Jew, and enjoin the observance of the law on the Gentiles, which I have repeatedly asserted and proved to be abolished by the death of Christ, then I build up what I destroyed, and thus make myself a transgressor, by not observing the law in that way in which I appear to enjoin the observance of it upon others.