This verse is one sentence in the Greek: a participial phrase and a main clause, with two embedded so-called substantive clauses. This form is retained in most translations, but Good News Translation restructures it into two sentences. The basic argument that Paul sets forth here, obviously in response to his opponents’ assertions, is that the blessing of the nations through Abraham is not achieved by either physical descent or by the legal rite of circumcision. Rather, it is given by God in the same way that it was given to Abraham, namely, through faith.

The scripture usually denotes a particular passage of the Old Testament. Here the quotation is from Genesis 12.3 and follows the rendering in the Septuagint but with some slight differences. The translator must translate the quotation as Paul quoted it, rather than try to render it from its Old Testament Hebrew form.

In this passage, the scripture is personified, and most translations keep the personified form. It is possible, however, to translate in such a way that the emphasis is not on scripture personified, but on the particular passage being referred to (Knox “There is a passage in Scripture”). In many languages it is impossible to personify a passage of scripture and to say “the scripture predicted.” But it may be possible to say “One may read in a passage of scripture that God would put the Gentiles right….”

As personified, scripture predicted, that is, saw or declared ahead of time, long before the coming of the Good News in Jesus Christ. What had scripture foreseen? That God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith—literally, “that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.” The word “justify” means God’s act of putting people in the right, or, more correctly, in putting people in proper relationship with himself. Through faith has reference not to God’s faith, but to the attitude of the Gentiles, an attitude characterized by faith and trust in God.

Continuing the personification of scripture, Paul now asserts that it announced the Good News. Good News has reference to God’s act of putting man right with himself.

In a number of languages it is almost meaningless to say that the scripture announced the Good News, since only a person can engage in such an activity. It is sometimes possible to speak of “words telling about,” and one may be able to render the second sentence of verse 8 as “And so in the Scriptures there are words about how the good news was told to Abraham even before what was talked about took place.”

As already indicated, the quotation is from Genesis 12.3. Paul quotes it in a passive form: “all nations shall be blessed.” The implicit subject is God, and Good News Translation makes this explicit: God will bless. “Nations” refers not to political states, but to peoples, hence the Good News Translation rendering: all mankind.

A phrase such as through you in some languages must be understood as a secondary agent in a causative expression. The corresponding rendering is “God will cause you to bless all mankind.” This makes God the primary causative agent and Abraham the secondary agent. In other languages the same relations are expressed by a formula such as “God will use you to bless all the people on earth,” or “You will be the means by which God will bless all the people on earth.”

In this type of context bless is often rendered as “to cause kindness to,” “to show favor to,” or “to cause goodness to come to.”

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 .