Galatians 2:19, Died to the law. For this chapter, the heading in the New King James Bible says, “No return to the law.”

Is this really the point that Paul is making in this chapter as this, to many Christians, seems to indicate?  In determining the exact meaning of a Bible verse that is open to several possible meanings, it is important to keep a key concept in mind. Both in the initial written language or subsequently translating from one language to another several factors determine the author’s true meaning. These include word order (syntax), punctuation, the multiple meanings of a particular word, and, finally, the specific word/s a translator chooses when translating, not to mention the translators pre-existing biases (called translation bias). For example, it a translator already believes that the law of Moses has been done away with because this is what normative Christianity teaches, then this view or biases will likely inform how he translates a Bible verse. The is also the profit motive and acceptability of one’s peers can also be a major influence. For example, if an individual translator or team of translators spends years translating a Bible, they may hope to eventually sell this Bible in order to be remunerated for their time and effort. Thus, in consideration will be the marketing of the product. With regard to the Bible, what will be the largest potential market to purchase your Bible? Those who believe that the law of Moses is valid today or those who believe that it is not? The answer is obvious. All of these factors can drastically effect how a Bible verse is translated, the words chosen in the process and the subsequent meaning of a sentence. 

Verse 19 is a case in point.

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (vv. 19–20, KJV)

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. (NKJV, NASB)

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. (NIV)

The way this verse reads, along with extra-biblical chapter heading that suggests that the law has been abrogated, can cause one to come to the conclusion the law of Elohim is now, to one degree or another, invalid. But is this what Paul is really saying in this verse? First, let’s read how some other Bibles translate this verse to determine if this is the only translation option.

For through the Law I died to the Law and its demands on me [because salvation is provided through the death and resurrection of Christ], so that I might [from now on] live to God. (AMP)

For under the Law I “died”, and now I am dead to the Law’s demands so that I may live for God. (Phillips)

for I through law, did die, that to God I may live; (YLT)

I through law to law died, that to God I might live. (J.P. Green)

For through Torah I died Torah, in order to life to Elohim. (The Scriptures)

For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God. (CJB)

For under the Law I “died”, and now I am dead to the Law’s demands so that I may live for God. (J.B. Phillips)

When I tried to obey the laws in the Scriptures, those laws killed me. As a result, I live in a relationship with God. (Names of God Bible)

For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. (NLT)

For I am in the Torah. To the Torah I die that to Eloah I live. (Hebraic-Roots Version from the Aramaic by James Trimm)

Besides, I through law Law died by Law, so that I might live by God. (Diaglott, 1942 by Benjamin Wilson)

For through the Law I died to the Law that I might live for God. (James Moffatt, 1924)

car c’est par la loi que je suis mort à la loi, a fin de [in order to] vivre pour Dieu. (Louis Segond—French)

porque [because] yo por [for, by, on behalf of, because of] la ley soy muerto para [to] la ley, al fin [finally] de vivir para [to live for] Dios. (Reina-Valera 1569, 1960—Spanish)

Next, let’s look at the actual meanings of the words in the original language.

For I through/after/by means of/on account of [the] law died to [the] law that/so that/in order that I might live to/for God.

From all of these various translations and alternate word meanings, we see that this verse could read very differently than, for example, how the NKJV and KJV translators render it. What do we make of this? What is the truth of the Bible?

Let’s return to the basics to gain understanding, and then to rightly “divide” or interpret this verse. 

The Bible tells us that sin is the violation of YHVH’s Torah-law and that the wages of sin is death, thus we are all legally dead because we all have sinned. Yet we know that Yeshua has paid the wages or death penalty for our sin, and thus we are freed not from obeying the law, the violation of which brought upon us the death penalty to begin with, but from the penalty of the law. That is to say, the penalty for violating the law and obedience to the law are two completely separate or different concepts. Normative Christianity conflates these two. It asserts that because we have been redeemed or freed from the penalty of the law, we are now freed from the law itself. This, of course is an absurd and illogical conclusion that violates the rest of Scripture, including the writings of Paul, which upholds the validity of YHVH’s Torah-law in numerous places as the standard of righteous and love that all saints are to follow.

To say that the law has been done away with because Yeshua died on the cross is like saying that because someone paid the fine for my speeding violation, I am now legally free to speed as fast and as often as I like because the speeding law is now invalid. What? This makes no sense! How did the payment of my fine for violating the speeding invalidate the speeding law? It did not! The penalty and the law itself are two different things. The same is true for YHVH’s Torah law as it relates to Yeshua’s dieing on the cross to pay for our sins.