Galatians 4:12
New International Version
I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

New Living Translation
Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws. You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you.

English Standard Version
Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.

Berean Standard Bible
I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.

Berean Literal Bible
I implore you, brothers, become as I am, because I also have become as you. You have wronged me in nothing.

King James Bible
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

New King James Version
Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.

New American Standard Bible
I beg of you, brothers and sisters, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;

NASB 1995
I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;

NASB 1977
I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;

Legacy Standard Bible
I beg of you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong.

Amplified Bible
Believers, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I have become as you are [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [when I first came to you; do not do it now].

Christian Standard Bible
I beg you, brothers and sisters: Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not wronged me;

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I beg you, brothers: Become like me, for I also became like you. You have not wronged me;

American Standard Version
I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Be like me because I also have been like you, my brethren, I beg of you. You have wronged me in nothing,

Contemporary English Version
My friends, I beg you to be like me, just as I once tried to be like you. Did you mistreat me

Douay-Rheims Bible
Be ye as I, because I also am as you: brethren, I beseech you: you have not injured me at all.

English Revised Version
I beseech you, brethren, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye did me no wrong:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Brothers and sisters, I beg you to become like me. After all, I became like you were. You didn't do anything wrong to me.

Good News Translation
I beg you, my friends, be like me. After all, I am like you. You have not done me any wrong.

International Standard Version
I beg you, brothers, to become like me, since I became like you. You did not do anything wrong to me.

Literal Standard Version
I implore you, brothers, become as I [am]—because I also [am] as you; you did not hurt me;

Majority Standard Bible
I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.

New American Bible
I implore you, brothers, be as I am, because I have also become as you are. You did me no wrong;

NET Bible
I beg you, brothers and sisters, become like me, because I have become like you. You have done me no wrong!

New Revised Standard Version
Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong.

New Heart English Bible
I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

Webster's Bible Translation
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

Weymouth New Testament
Brethren, become as I am, I beseech you; for I have also become like you. In no respect did you behave badly to me.

World English Bible
I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

Young's Literal Translation
Become as I am -- because I also am as ye brethren, I beseech you; to me ye did no hurt,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul's Fears for the Galatians
11I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain. 12I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. 13You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.…

Cross References
2 Corinthians 6:11
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our hearts are open wide.

2 Corinthians 6:13
As a fair exchange, I ask you as my children: Open wide your hearts also.

Galatians 4:11
I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.

Galatians 4:13
You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.

Galatians 6:18
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.


Treasury of Scripture

Brothers, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as you are: you have not injured me at all.

be.

Galatians 2:14
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Galatians 6:14
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Genesis 34:15
But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;

ye.

2 Corinthians 2:5
But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

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Badly Beg Behave Beseech Desire Hurt Injured Plead Respect Wrong Wronged
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Badly Beg Behave Beseech Desire Hurt Injured Plead Respect Wrong Wronged
Galatians 4
1. We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under the guardian till he be of age.
5. But Christ freed us from the law;
7. therefore we are servants no longer to it.
14. Paul remembers the Galatians' good will to him, and his to them;
22. and shows that we are the sons of Abraham by the freewoman.














(12-16) Let me beg of you: cast off the bondage of Judaism as I have done, just as I gave p its privileges to place myself on a level with you. I have no complaint to make against you. You remember the illness which detained me among you, and led me first to preach to you the gospel. You received me kindly and warmly enough then, though my bodily infirmities might well have tempted you to despise me. You treated me as if I had been a messenger direct from heaven. You thought yourselves "blest" by my teaching. You would have done anything for me; you would have given me even your eyes. What has become of all this now? Why do you consider yourselves "blest" no more? Why do you treat me as an enemy, merely for telling you the truth?

(12) Be as I am.--Use the same Christian freedom that I use.

For I am as ye are.--I lay no stress on my pure Jewish descent. I claim no privileges because I was circumcised the eighth day. I do not count myself holier than you because I belonged to the strictest of all sects, the Pharisees. I stripped myself of all this, and became a Gentile among Gentiles.

Ye have not injured me at all.--Ye did me no wrong. There is a transition of subject at this clause. The Apostle goes back in thought to his first visit to Galatia. He had no complaint to make of the Galatians then. They did him no injury, showed him no unkindness, but, on the contrary, received him gladly.

Verse 12. - Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are (γίνεσθε ὡς ἐγώ ὅτι κἀγὼ ὡς ὑμεῖς ἀδελφοί δέομαι; be ye as I; because I on my part an as ye; brethren, I entreat. We may compare 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, even as on my part I am of Christ (μιμηταί μου γίνεσθε καθὼς κἀγὼ Ξριστοῦ)." There is no need in respect to γίνεσθε to accentuate the notion of change this verb often means simply "show one's self, act as;" as e.g. 1 Corinthians 14:20, Μὴ παιδία γίνεσθε... ταῖς δὲ φρεσὶ τέλειοι γίνεσθε: 1 Corinthians 15:58, and often. "Be as I;" to wit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus as our sole and all-sufficing Righteousness before God, and in that faith letting go all care about rites and ceremonies of the Law of Moses, or indeed ceremonialism of any kind, as if such things mattered at all here, in the business of being well-pleasing to God, whether done or forborne. "Because I on my part am as ye." I, a born Jew, once a zealous worker - out of legal ceremonial righteousness, have put that aside, and have placed myself on the footing of a mere Gentile, content to live like a Gentile (ἐθνικῶς καὶ οὐκ Ἰουδαῖκῶς, Galatians 2:14), trusting in Christ like as any Gentile has to de who was bare alike of Jewish prerogative and of ceremonial righteousness. This "for" or "because" is an appeal to them for loving sympathy and fellow-working. What was to become of him if Gentiles withheld from him their practical sympathy with his religious life? To what other quarter could he look for it? From Jewish sympathy he was an utter outcast. The ἀδελφοί δέομαι, "brethren, I entreat," comes in here as a breathing forth of intense imploring. And a remarkable instance is here afforded of that abrupt, instantaneous transition in the expression of feeling which is one great characteristic of St. Paul when writing in one of his more passionate moods. Compare for this the flexure of passionate feeling prevailing through the tenth and three following chapters of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Just before, in this chapter, vers. 8-11, the language has been that of stern upbraiding, and, indeed, as if de haut en bas; as from one who from the high level of Israelite pre-eminence was addressing those who quite recently were mere outcast heathens. But here he seems suddenly caught and carried away by a flood of passionate emotion of another kind. The remembrance comes to his soul of his own former sorrows, when he "suffered the less of all things," as he so pathetically tells the Philippians (Philippians 3:4-14); when in the working out of his own salvation, and that of the Gentiles to whom he had been appointed to minister, he had cut himself off from all that he had once prized, and from all the attachments of kindred and party and nation. A terrible rending had it been for him when he had ceased to be a Jew; his flesh still quivered at the recollection, though his spirit rejoiced in Christ Jesus. And now this mood of feeling prompts him to cast himself almost as it were at the feet of these Gentile converts, adjuring them not to turn away from him, not to bereave him of their fellowship and sympathy. Ye have not injured me at all (οὐδέν με ἠδικήσατε); no wrong have ye done me. This commences a new sentence, which runs on through the next three verses. The apostle is anxious to remove from their minds the apprehension that he was offended with them on the ground of unkindness shown by them towards himself. It was true that he had been writing to them in strong terms of displeasure and indignation; but this was altogether on account of their behaviour towards the gospel, not at all on account of any injury that he had himself to complain cf. He is well aware of the virulent operation of the sentiment expressed by the old maxim, "Odimus quos laesimus;" and is therefore eager and anxious to take its sting out of the mutual relations between himself and them. When the apostle is writing under strong emotion, the connecting links of thought are frequently difficult to discover; and this is the case here. But this seems to be the thread of connection: the Galatian Christians would not be ready to accord him any sympathetic compliance with his entreaty that they would "be as he was," if they thought he entertained towards them sentiments of soreness or resentment on personal grounds. There was no reason, he tells them, why they should; they had done him no wrong. There is no reason for supposing that the time of the action referred to in οὐδέν με ἠδικήσατε is identical with that indicated by the aorists of the two next verses. From the words, τὸ πρότερον, "the first time," in ver. 13, it is clear, as critics have generally felt, that there had been a second visit after that one. If so, a disclaimer of offence taken during the first visit would not have obviated the suspicion of offence taken during a later one. The aorist of ἠδικήσατε must, therefore, cover the whole period of intercourse. Perhaps thus: whatever wrong you may suspect me of charging you with, be assured I do not charge you with it; there was no personal affront then offered me. In what follows, it is true, he dwells exclusively upon the enthusiastic demonstration which they made of their personal attachment to him when he first visited them; but though the assertion here made is not to its full extent proved good by the particulars given in vers. 13 and 14, and though the enthusiasm of personal kindness there described must, under the circumstances, have very considerably abated; yet, very supposably, nothing may have occurred since then - nothing, for example, during his second visit - which would show that they now disowned those feelings of love and respect. At all events, he refuses to allow that there had. No personal affront had he to complain of; while, on the other hand, their former intense kindness had laid up as it were a fund of responsive affection and gratitude in his bosom which could not be soon exhausted.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
I beg
δέομαι (deomai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1189: To want for myself; I want, need; I beg, request, beseech, pray. Middle voice of deo; to beg, i.e. Petition.

you,
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

brothers,
ἀδελφοί (adelphoi)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 80: A brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian. A brother near or remote.

become
Γίνεσθε (Ginesthe)
Verb - Present Imperative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

like
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

me,
ἐγώ (egō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

for
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

I became
κἀγὼ (kagō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2504: To also, I too, but I. From kai and ego; so also the dative case kamoi, and accusative case kame and I, me.

like
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

you.
ὑμεῖς (hymeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

You have done me no wrong.
ἠδικήσατε (ēdikēsate)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 91: To act unjustly towards, injure, harm. From adikos; to be unjust, i.e. do wrong.


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NT Letters: Galatians 4:12 I beg you brothers become as (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 4:11
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