Galatians 4:6 - Who are God's children?
You can usually count on Paul to give you some nice, complicated grammar to argue about, but this one is not even a little bit ambiguous.
“And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
But are we children? There seems to be some confusion about that.
| Translation/Language: | Date: | Phrase: | Approach (People): | Approach (God): |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Greek text | este uioi | |||
| Popular translations: | ||||
| King James Version (KJV) | 1611 | ye are sons | Male | |
| American Standard Version (ASV) | 1901 | ye are sons | Male | |
| The Living Bible (TLB) | 1971 | we are his sons | Male | Male |
| New King James Version (NKJV) | 1982 | you are sons | Male | |
| New International Version – 1984* | 1984 | you are sons | Male | |
| New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) | 1989 | you are children | Inclusive | |
| Good News Translation (TEV/GNB/GNT) | 1992 | you are his children | Inclusive | Male |
| New American Standard Bible (NASB) | 1995 | you are sons | Male | |
| Contemporary English Version (CEV) | 1995 | we are his children | Inclusive | Male |
| New Living Translation (NLT) | 1996 | we are his children | Inclusive | Male |
| New International Version (NIV) | 2011 | you are his sons | Male | Male |
| Contemporary English Bible (CEB) | 2011 | you are sons and daughters | Inclusive | |
| English Standard Version (ESV) | 2016 | you are sons | Male | |
| Christian Standard Bible (CSB) | 2017 | you are sons | Male | |
| The Message (MSG) | 2018 | you are…his own children | Inclusive | Male |
| New American Standard Bible (NASB) | 2020 | you are sons | Male | |
| NRSV Updated Edition (NRSVUE) | 2021 | you are children | Inclusive | |
| Specialty translations: | ||||
| God’s Word (GW) | 1995 | you are God’s children | Inclusive | Inclusive |
| New Century Version (NCV) | 2005 | you are God’s children | Inclusive | Inclusive |
| The Inclusive Bible (TIB) | 2009 | community | Inclusive | |
| Expanded Bible (EXB) | 2011 | you are God’s children | Inclusive | Inclusive |
| Names of God (NOG) | 2011 | you are God’s children | Inclusive | Inclusive |
| New Testament for Everyone (NTE) | 2011 | you are sons | Male | |
| The Passion Translation (TPT) | 2011 | we are his true children | Inclusive | Male |
| New English Translation (NET) | 2011 | you are sons | Male | |
| First Nations Version (FNV) | 2021 | [this] | Paraphrase |
The word we are translating here is “uioi”, which, in Koine Greek, can refer to children in general, or specifically to male children (sons).
In English, “sons” refers to male children. Nobody refers to their daughters as their sons.
Since Paul was writing this letter to all the churches in the whole region of Galatia, I’m pretty sure he expected his audience to include women and girls. “Sons” does not include women and girls, so it’s a mistranslation.
Nope, sorry, it doesn’t look any better from this angle, either.
It’s mostly the usual suspects that do this, but, alas, this time the updated NIV has decided to join them, and so has N.T. Wright in his New Testament for Everyone, which I guess needs an * after the “everyone” now.
My best guess is that the justification excuse is that the Greek word for “[God’s] Son” is the same as the Greek word for “[God’s] children”. But, I’m just not convinced that retaining the word-play in the original is sufficient justification for excluding half the world’s population.
For extra fun, some translations have decided to "clarify” what Paul wrote by adding a possessive to specify whose children we (or possibly just the guys) are. I think Paul already made that pretty clear from context, but okay, if you insist.
However, although normally male pronouns for God are beyond the scope of this project, adding them out of thin air is a choice. I have put this into a separate column, though, so you can form your own judgment about how bad that choice is.