Galatians 3:8-10

3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, ¹  saying, “All the nations ²  will be blessed in you.” ³  3:9 So then those who believe ⁴  are blessed along with Abraham the believer. 3:10 For all who ⁵  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ⁶ 

Galatians 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ⁷  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ⁸  until the coming faith would be revealed.

[3:8]  ¹ tn For the Greek verb προευαγγελίζομαι (proeuangelizomai) translated as “proclaim the gospel ahead of time,” compare L&N 33.216.

[3:8]  ² tn The same plural Greek word, τὰ ἔθνη (ta eqnh), can be translated as “nations” or “Gentiles.”

[3:8]  ³ sn A quotation from Gen 12:3; 18:18.

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “those who are by faith,” with the Greek expression “by faith” (ἐκ πίστεως, ek pistew") the same as the expression in v. 8.

[3:10]  ⁵ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ⁶ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

[3:23]  ⁷ tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ⁸ tc Instead of the present participle συγκλειόμενοι (sunkleiomenoi; found in Ì⁴⁶ א A B D* F G P Ψ 33 1739 al), C D¹ 0176 0278 Ï have the perfect συγκεκλεισμένοι (sunkekleismenoi). The syntactical implication of the perfect is that the cause or the means of being held in custody was confinement (“we were held in custody [by/because of] being confined”). The present participle of course allows for such options, but also allows for contemporaneous time (“while being confined”) and result (“with the result that we were confined”). Externally, the perfect participle has little to commend it, being restricted for the most part to later and Byzantine witnesses.