Yesterday, I preached from Galatians 5:1-6 using the Legacy Standard Bible, and the title of my sermon was “Severed from Christ.” This comes from verse 4:
“You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace!” (Galatians 5:4)
Here’s something I did not bring out in my sermon but I mentioned it afterwards –
That word severed is καταργέω (katargeō) in the Greek. The ESV translators also use the word severed, the NKJV uses the word estranged, the NIV uses the word alienated.
The King James translates it like this:
“Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
Looking at Strong’s and Vine’s, digitally in Logos Bible Software:
Indeed, while someone who is more familiar with the old King James rendering of Galatians 5:4 might be shocked to read from a newer translation such as the Legacy Standard, “You have been severed from Christ…” rest easy it is an accurate translation. In fact, the NKJV, ESV, and even the NIV are all also accurate here too.
Not only are they accurate, but they bring more clarity to the text.
I believe the KJV translators would agree, just do some deeper studying into the ways they themselves translated the same word into English in their translation in other passages:
This illustrates there are multiple ways to translate a word from one language to another, and a word choice is not wrong just because it is different from a word choice made 400 years ago.