Galatians 4:7

Galatians 4:7 dia. qeou/ {A}

Of the several variant readings, the unusual and unexpected expression, klhrono,moj dia. qeou/, which is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (î⁴⁶ a* A B C*^vid 33 it^{g, r} vg cop^bo Clement al), seems to account best for the origin of the other readings. In the context one would expect that dia, would be followed by the genitive of Cristou/ as the Mediator, rather than qeou/ as the source of the inheritance (nevertheless, on occasion Paul does use dia, with qeou/, e.g. Galatians 1:1 and 1 Corinthians 1:9). The less frequent expression was altered by copyists in various ways:

(a) qeou/ (“[an heir] of God”), 1962 arm eth^ro

(b) dia. qeo,n (“[an heir] on account of God”), G^gr 1881

(c) dia. Cristou/ (“[an heir] through Christ”), 81 630 syr^pal cop^sa Jerome

(d) dia. VIhsou/ Cristou/ (“[an heir] through Jesus Christ”), 1739 ù⁵⁵

(e) qeou/ dia. Cristou/ (“[an heir] of God through Christ”), the Textus Receptus, following a^c C² D K P 88 104 614* Byz Lect it^{d, 61} goth al

(f) qeou/ dia. VIhsou/ Cristou/ (“[an heir] of God through Jesus Christ”), 326 614^c 2127 2495 syr^{p, h} eth^pp Theodoret

(g) dia. qeou/ evn Cristw|/ VIhsou/ (“[an heir] through God in Christ Jesus”), cop^boms

(h) me.n qeou/ sugklhrono,moj de. Cristou/ (“[an heir] of God, and fellow heir with Christ”), Y 1984 1985 Theodoret Theophylact.

The influence of Romans 8:17 is apparent in variant reading (h).