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Eti "Yet"
A | 1: 10. "For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
B | 2: 20. "Yet not I (lit. live no more I), but Christ liveth in me."
C | 3: 18. "If . . . of the law, it is no more of promise."
D | 3: 25. "After faith . . . no longer under a schoolmaster."
C | 4: 7. "Thou art no more a servant, but a son."
A | 5: 11. "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision."
B | 5: 11. "Why do I yet suffer persecution?"
Thayer groups the usage of eti in Gal. 5: 11 with Rom. 3: 7; 6: 2 and 9: 19 under
the explanatory heading `further, longer (where it is thought strange that, when one thing
has established itself, another has not been altered or abolished, but is still adhered to or
continued).
Dr. Bullinger gives as the meaning of eti "Yet, still, implying duration, hitherto; also
as implying accession or addition, etc.; yet, further, besides". We are, therefore, under
no necessity to say that Paul had once preached circumcision, but is doing it no more,
what he means is that never has he added to his preaching the rite of circumcision as
these troublers have done. The same difficulty is met in the use of `yet' in his opening
defence of Gal. 1: 10. "If I pleased men" can mean "if I, further to the endeavour to
please God, seek to please men".
The first and last references to eti have to do with the `troubler' and any who might
preach any other gospel. "Let him be accursed" (Gal. 1: 8). "He shall bear his judgment"
(Gal. 5: 10).
"I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (Gal. 5: 12).
These words have given rise to no little discussion among commentators. The `cutting
off' being taken as a reference to the rite of circumcision, and as Lightfoot puts it:
"Why do they stop at circumcision?" he asks indignantly.
"Why do they not mutilate themselves, like your priests of Cybele?"
Yet there is something indelicate about such a remark, something so unlike the general
attitude of Paul, that it cannot be accepted, even though it was held by almost all the
ancient interpreters. Instead of "a sarcastic paranomasia between peritemnesthai
(circumcision) and apokopsasthai (cut off)" there is a more natural contrast discoverable.
In verse 7 the Apostle said `who did hinder you' where the word used is enekopse; he
now contrasts this by using the word apokopsontai `I would that, instead cutting in to
your path and so hindering you, they would cut themselves out of the way, and so set you
free'.
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Gal. 5: 13).