Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Who did bewitch you? (tiv umav ebaskanen). Somebody "fascinated" you. Some aggressive Judaizer (Galatians 5:7), some one man (or woman). First aorist active indicative of baskainw, old word kin to faskw (baskw), to speak, then to bring evil on one by feigned praise or the evil eye (hoodoo), to lead astray by evil arts. Only here in the N.T. This popular belief in the evil eye is old (Deuteronomy 28:54) and persistent. The papyri give several examples of the adjective abaskanta, the adverb abaskantwv (unharmed by the evil eye), the substantive baskania (witchcraft).
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified (oiv kat ofqalmouv Ihsouv Xristov proegrafh estaurwmenov). Literally, "to whom before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified." Second aorist passive indicative of prografw, old verb to write beforehand, to set forth by public proclamation, to placard, to post up. This last idea is found in several papyri (Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary) as in the case of a father who posted a proclamation that he would no longer be responsible for his son's debts. Grafw was sometimes used in the sense of painting, but no example of prografw with this meaning has been found unless this is one. With that idea it would be to portray, to picture forth, a rendering not very different from placarding. The foolish Galatians were without excuse when they fell under the spell of the Judaizer. Estaurwmenov is perfect passive participle of staurow, the common verb to crucify (from staurov, stake, cross), to put on the cross (Matthew 20:19), same form as in I Corinthians 2:2.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Galatians 3:1:
Romans 15:4
1 Corinthians 1:23
Ephesians 3:3
1 Timothy 6:9
Jude 1:4
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