Galatia 1:23

1:23 They were only hearing, “The one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news ¹  of the faith he once tried to destroy.”

Galatia 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ²  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ³  until the coming faith would be revealed.

Galatia 3:25

3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. ⁴ 

[1:23]  ¹ tn The Greek verb here is εὐαγγελίζεται (euangelizetai).

[3:23]  ² tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ³ 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.

[3:23]  tn Grk “being confined.”

[3:25]  ⁴ tn See the note on the word “guardian” in v. 24. The punctuation of vv. 25, 26, and 27 is difficult to represent because of the causal connections between each verse. English style would normally require a comma either at the end of v. 25 or v. 26, but in so doing the translation would then link v. 26 almost exclusively with either v. 25 or v. 27; this would be problematic as scholars debate which two verses are to be linked. Because of this, the translation instead places a period at the end of each verse. This preserves some of the ambiguity inherent in the Greek and does not exclude any particular causal connection.