Galatians 4:13
New International Version
As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you,

New Living Translation
Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News.

English Standard Version
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first,

Berean Standard Bible
You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.

Berean Literal Bible
Now you know that in weakness of the flesh I proclaimed the gospel the first time to you.

King James Bible
Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

New King James Version
You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.

New American Standard Bible
but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;

NASB 1995
but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;

NASB 1977
but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;

Legacy Standard Bible
But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I proclaimed the gospel to you the first time;

Amplified Bible
On the contrary, you know that it was because of a physical illness that I [remained and] preached the gospel to you the first time;

Christian Standard Bible
you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness of the flesh.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a physical illness.

American Standard Version
but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For you know that in the illness of my flesh from the first I have preached The Good News to you.

Contemporary English Version
when I first preached to you? No you didn't, even though you knew I had come there because I was sick.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And you know, how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel to you heretofore: and your temptation in my flesh,

English Revised Version
but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
You know that the first time I brought you the Good News I was ill.

Good News Translation
You remember why I preached the gospel to you the first time; it was because I was sick.

International Standard Version
You know that it was because I was ill that I brought you the gospel the first time.

Literal Standard Version
and you have known that through weakness of the flesh I proclaimed good news to you at the first,

Majority Standard Bible
You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.

New American Bible
you know that it was because of a physical illness that I originally preached the gospel to you,

NET Bible
But you know it was because of a physical illness that I first proclaimed the gospel to you,

New Revised Standard Version
You know that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you;

New Heart English Bible
but you know that in physical weakness I preached the Good News to you the first time;

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye know that in infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first.

Weymouth New Testament
And you know that in those early days it was on account of bodily infirmity that I proclaimed the Good News to you,

World English Bible
but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time.

Young's Literal Translation
and ye have known that through infirmity of the flesh I did proclaim good news to you at the first,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul's Fears for the Galatians
12I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. 13 You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14And although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself.…

Cross References
Matthew 4:23
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

2 Corinthians 10:10
For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account."

Galatians 4:12
I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.

Galatians 4:14
And although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself.

Galatians 4:18
Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose--at any time, and not only when I am with you.


Treasury of Scripture

You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first.

through.

1 Corinthians 2:3
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

2 Corinthians 10:10
For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

2 Corinthians 11:6,30
But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things…

at.

Galatians 1:6
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Acts 16:6
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

Jump to Previous
Account Ailment Announced Bodily Body Early Feeble First Flesh Glad Good Gospel Illness Infirmity News Preached Proclaim Proclaimed Tidings Time Weakness
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Account Ailment Announced Bodily Body Early Feeble First Flesh Glad Good Gospel Illness Infirmity News Preached Proclaim Proclaimed Tidings Time Weakness
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.














(13) Through infirmity of the flesh.--Rather, because (or, on account) of infirmity of flesh--i.e., some bodily weakness or ill-health. We should gather from this that St. Paul was detained in Galatia accidentally by illness, and that this led to his preaching the gospel there.

At the first.--The first time; on my first visit. This would be the one mentioned in Acts 16:6, in distinction from that referred to in Acts 18:23. (See Introduction.)

Verse 13. - Ye know (οἴδατε δέ); and ye know. The apostle very often uses the verb οἵδαμεν, or οἴδατε, conjoined with either δέ, γάρ, or καθώς, when recalling some circumstance of personal history (1 Corinthians 16:15; Philippians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:1, 2, 5, 11; 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:15) or to introduce the statement of a doctrine as one which would be at once recognized as certain or familiar (Romans 2:2; Romans 3:19; Romans 8:28; 1 Timothy 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:6). The phrase as so used is equivalent to "We [or, 'you'] do not need to be told," etc.; and with δὲ is simply a formula introducing such a reminiscence, this conjunction having in such cases head versative force, but being simply the δὲ of transition (meta-batic); equivalent to "now" or "and," or not needing to be represented at all in translation; so that the Authorized Version is perfectly justified in omitting it in the present instance. The phrase may be taken as meaning "And you will well remember." If the apostle had intended to introduce a statement strongly adversative to the last preceding sentence, he would probably have written ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον (ch. 2:7) or some such phrase. How through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you (ὅτι δἰ ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you. "An infirmity of the flesh;" that is, a bodily illness. The noun ἀσθένεια is used for "illness" in John 11:4; Acts 28:9; 1 Timothy 5:23; Matthew 8:17. It also denotes a nervous disablement, as Luke 13:11, 12; John 5:5. The verb ἀσθενέω is the common word for "being sick," as Luke 4:40; Luke 7:10; John 11:3, etc. It is possible that the apostle meant to say that the Galatians might not unnaturally have thought themselves treated slightingly in that his remaining among them so long was owing to illness and not to his own choice; but that yet, for all that, they had shown themselves most eager in welcoming their involuntary visitor. The words, however, do not require to be thus construed, and in all probability intend no more than to bring back to their remembrance the disorder under which he was then suffering. The illness would seem to have been of a nature to make his personal appearance in some way unsightly, and even repulsive; for the ἐξεπτύσατε, spat out, of the next verse suggests even the latter idea. Evidently this disorder, as also the one noted in 2 Corinthians 12:7, 8, did not disqualify him for ministerial work altogether. He adverts to the circumstance, as making it yet more remarkable and more grateful to his feelings, that, notwithstanding the disagreeable aspect which in some way his disorder presented to those about him, they had cherished his presence among them with so much kindness as they did and also with such reverential respect. How it was that his illness brought about this protracted stay, whether it was that he fell ill while journeying through the country so as to be unable to pursue his way to his ulterior destination, or whether the remarkable healthiness of the climate either first attracted him thither or detained him there for convalescence (see Bishop Lightfoot, 'Galatians,' p. 10, note 2, for the character of the climate at Angora, the ancient Ancyra), it is impossible for us to determine. It is noticeable that St. Chrysostom's comments on the passage appear to show that he considered the apostle to be simply stating the circumstances under which and not those in consequence of which he preached the gospel to them; and so also OEcumenius and Theophylact paraphrase δἰ ἀσθένειν by μετὰ ἀσθενείας, suggesting the conjecture that they and St. Chrysostom understood the words as equivalent to "during a period of infirmity of the flesh." But this gives to διὰ with an accusative a sense which, to say the least, is not a common one. Is this illness of body to be connected with the affliction, most probably a bodily affliction, mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:7, 8, "the stake in the flesh"? This latter affliction has been discussed very fully by Dean Stanley and Meyer on the Corinthians, by Bishop Lightfoot in his commentary on the Galatians, and by Dr. Farrar in his ' Life of St. Paul.' It appears to have first befallen the apostle after the "revelations" accorded to him fourteen years before he wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which he is supposed to have done in the autumn of A.D. . This would bring us back to about A.D. . The apostle's first visit to Galatia, according to Bishop Lightfoot, p. 22, took place about A.D. . When we consider that no doubt many of those wearing labours and hardships, interspersed with frequent suffering of gross personal outrage, recounted in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, had been undergone in the eight first of those fourteen years (the stoning at Lystra certainly had), it must seem very precarious to conjecture that the malady here referred to was a recurrence of just that particular disorder experienced eight years before. How many other ailments might not the apostle have been subject to, amid the cruel allotment of suffering and hardship which prevailingly marked his course! It is quite as probable, to say the least, that he may then have been suffering in health or in limb from some assault of personal violence recently undergone. St. Luke gives no particulars whatever of this portion of St. Paul's journey, which is only just mentioned in Acts 16:6. The apostle visited Corinth for the first time not many months after this first sojourn in Galatia; and it is interesting to observe that he speaks of his having then ministered to them in "feebleness" (ἀσθενείᾳ, 1 Corinthians 2:3), in a manner strongly suggestive of bodily weakness. At the first (τὸ πρότερον); the first time - an expression plainly implying that there had been a subsequent sojourn. Respecting this latter visit, all we know is what we have so cursorily stated in Acts 18:23; unless, perchance, we may be able to draw some inferences relating to it from what we read in this Epistle itself. Chronologers are pretty well agreed in placing the commencement of this third apostolical journey about three years after the commencement of the second.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
You know
Οἴδατε (Oidate)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1492: To know, remember, appreciate.

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

it was because of
δι’ (di’)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

an illness
ἀσθένειαν (astheneian)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 769: From asthenes; feebleness; by implication, malady; morally, frailty.

[that] I first preached the gospel
εὐηγγελισάμην (euēngelisamēn)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2097: From eu and aggelos; to announce good news especially the gospel.

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


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NT Letters: Galatians 4:13 But you know that because of weakness (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 4:12
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