Galatians 6:3
New International Version
If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.

New Living Translation
If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

English Standard Version
For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Berean Standard Bible
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Berean Literal Bible
For if anyone thinks himself to be something being nothing, he deceives himself.

King James Bible
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

New King James Version
For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

New American Standard Bible
For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

NASB 1995
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

NASB 1977
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Amplified Bible
For if anyone thinks he is something [special] when [in fact] he is nothing [special except in his own eyes], he deceives himself.

Christian Standard Bible
For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

American Standard Version
For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For if a man thinks he is something when he is not, he deceives himself.

Contemporary English Version
If you think you are better than others, when you really aren't, you are wrong.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if any man think himself to be some thing, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

English Revised Version
For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So if any one of you thinks you're important when you're really not, you're only fooling yourself.

Good News Translation
If you think you are something when you really are nothing, you are only deceiving yourself.

International Standard Version
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is only fooling himself.

Literal Standard Version
for if anyone thinks [himself] to be something—being nothing—he deceives himself;

Majority Standard Bible
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

New American Bible
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is deluding himself.

NET Bible
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

New Revised Standard Version
For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.

New Heart English Bible
For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Webster's Bible Translation
For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Weymouth New Testament
For if there is any one who thinks himself to be somebody when he is nobody, he is deluding himself.

World English Bible
For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Young's Literal Translation
for if any one doth think himself to be something -- being nothing -- himself he doth deceive;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Carry One Another's Burdens
2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.…

Cross References
Acts 5:36
Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.

1 Corinthians 3:18
Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

2 Corinthians 12:11
I have become a fool, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those "super-apostles," even though I am nothing.

Galatians 2:6
But as for the highly esteemed--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism--those leaders added nothing to me.

Galatians 2:9
And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John--those reputed to be pillars--gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.


Treasury of Scripture

For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

if.

Galatians 2:6
But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

Proverbs 25:14
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.

Proverbs 26:12
Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

when.

1 Corinthians 13:2
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

2 Corinthians 12:11
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

he deceiveth.

1 Corinthians 3:18
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

2 Timothy 3:13
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

James 1:22,26
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves…

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Galatians 6
1. He moves them to deal mildly with a brother who has slipped,
2. and to bear one another's burden;
6. to be generous to their teachers,
9. and not weary of well-doing.
12. He shows what they intend that preach circumcision.
14. He glories in nothing, save in the cross of Christ.














(3) He deceiveth himself.--A peculiar word, perhaps coined by St. Paul: puts himself under an hallucination; persuades himself of the existence of that which has no reality.

Verse 3. - For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself (εἰ γὰρ δοκεῖ τις εϊναί τι μηδὲν ὤν φρεεναπατᾷ ἑαυτόν [Receptus, ἑαυτὸν φρεναπατᾷ; for if a man is nothing and thinketh himself to be something, he is deceiving his own soul. The conjunction "for" points back to the practical direction just given to the "spiritual;" meaning that for those who wished to be, and also perhaps to be thought to be, fulfilling Christ's law, this was the behaviour which they were to carry out, and without which their claim was mere self-delusion. The phrase, δοκεῖ εϊναί τι μηδὲν ὤν, is well illustrated by the passage cited by critics from Plato's 'Apologia,' p. 41, E: Ἐὰν δοκῶσί τι εϊναι μηδὲν ὄντες ὀνειδίζετε αὐτοῖς... ὅτι,... οἴονταί τι εϊναι ὄντες οὐδενὸς ἄξιοι "Something" is, by a common meiosis, put for "something considerable" (cf. Galatians 2:6). The especial form of eminence, the claim to which is here referred to, is eminence in spirituality and consistency as a servant of Christ. Possibly the apostle has in his eye certain individuals among the Galatians that he had heard of, who, professing much, were, however, self-complacently bitter and contemptuous towards brethren who had gone wrong in moral conduct or who differed from themselves in the disputes then rife in those Churches. The phrase, μηδὲν ὤν, "being nothing," is a part of the hypothesis relative to the individual case spoken of, not a statement putting forth the aphorism that no one is really anything. The passage quoted above from Plato shows, that in the latter case we should have had οὐδὲν and not μηδέν. Some men, by the grace of God, are "something;" but these persons only fancy themselves to be so. Whether any man is really "something" or not is determined by his practical conduct - his "work" as the apostle expresses it in the next verse. The verb φρεναπατᾷν occurs in the New Testament only here, though we have the substantive φρεναπάτης, deceivers, in Titus 1:10. St. James (James 1:26) speaks of a man "deceiving his heart ' in seemingly just the same sense. In both passages it appears to be meant that a man palms off upon his own mind fancies as if they were just apprehensions of real facts; in both also these fancies are but illusive notions of one's own religious character - here, as being "spiritual;" in James, as being "religious" or "devout" (θρῆσκος) - the activity of practical benevolence being in both cases wanting; for "the bridling not his tongue" in ver. 26 is proved by the contrasted behaviour spoken of in the next verse to refer to those sins of the tongue which are implicitly condemned in vers. 19-21.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
If
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

anyone
τις (tis)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object.

thinks
δοκεῖ (dokei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1380: A prolonged form of a primary verb, doko dok'-o of the same meaning; to think; by implication, to seem.

he is
εἶναί (einai)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

something
τι (ti)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object.

when he is
ὤν (ōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

nothing,
μηδὲν (mēden)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3367: No one, none, nothing.

he deceives
φρεναπατᾷ (phrenapata)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 5422: To deceive the mind, impose upon. From phrenapates; to be a mind-misleader, i.e. Delude.

himself.
ἑαυτόν (heauton)
Reflexive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1438: Himself, herself, itself.


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NT Letters: Galatians 6:3 For if a man thinks himself (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 6:2
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