Verse 8 is a parenthetical statement and can be literally translated “for he who worked in Peter into apostleship to the circumcision worked also in me to the Gentiles.” The “he” may refer to Christ, but more likely it refers to God, for it is Paul’s practice to speak of God as the source of his apostleship and Christ as the agent or mediator. Accordingly, God is mentioned as the agent in Good News Translation (but see also New English Bible, which explicitly makes God the subject).

Instead of mentioning God as the agent in a phrase such as by God’s power, it is possible to introduce God as the causative subject, for example, “God made me an apostle to the Gentiles.” And the last clause of this verse may be rendered as “in the same way that he made Peter an apostle to the Jews.” In some languages, however, it may be difficult to speak of “making an apostle,” and therefore one may say “caused me to become an apostle,” or “sent me as a special messenger to the Gentiles.” The expression “worked in” could be understood in two ways: (1) It could refer to the inner experience by which Peter and Paul were commissioned for their work, that is, their experience of being called to be apostles, or (2) it could refer to the known results of their apostleship, that is, God’s working through both of them and making their mission successful. The first interpretation is followed by Good News Translation (Jerusalem Bible “the same person whose action had made Peter the apostle of the circumcised had given me a similar mission to the pagans”; New English Bible “For God whose action made Peter an apostle to the Jews, also made me an apostle to the Gentiles”). The second alternative is preferred by New American Bible (“for he who worked through Peter as his apostle among the Jews had been at work in me for the Gentiles”; compare Phillips “for the God who had done such great work in Peter’s ministry for the Jews was plainly doing the same in my ministry for the Gentiles”).

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .