Verses 3-5 amplify the content of the greeting. Pauline greetings usually start with grace and peace, continue with a description of what God has done in Jesus Christ, and conclude with an expression of praise to God.

In the Greek text the greeting starts with “grace to you and peace” at the beginning of verse 3. Grace is primarily a Christian word, a comprehensive term which describes God’s undeserved love, God’s limitless favor towards man. Peace is essentially a Jewish term, and it connotes total well-being, total health. Some commentators take these two words in their full theological import. While this can be justified, it should be borne in mind that what we have here is a greeting formula which should be considered as a single unit.

The content of verse 3 is essentially a petition or prayer, and in many languages it must be introduced by a corresponding verb of speaking, for example, “I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ may give you grace and peace,” or “I ask God … to give you grace and peace.”

In a number of languages one cannot speak of “giving grace and peace.” One can, however, “show kindness to,” “be very good to,” or even “show undeserved favor to” as an expression of grace. In connection with the term peace, it may be necessary to use a causative, for example, “cause you to have peace,” or “cause you to be well in every respect.” In some other languages an idiomatic expression may be employed, for example, “to cause you to sit down in your hearts.” Such an idiom suggests that one is in such a state of well-being that there is no need for anxiety of any kind.

A comparison between Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version shows a difference which is caused by a textual problem. Basically the question is, does the pronoun our go with Father or with Lord? While the reply does not materially affect the meaning of the passage, we are still interested in ascertaining what Paul really wrote. There is much evidence favoring the text followed by the Revised Standard Version (“God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ”), and many translations follow the same reading (for example, New English Bible, Phillips). However, the textual evidence seems to favor the solution followed by Good News Translation, that the our goes with Father rather than with Lord (see also New American Bible).

In place of the appositional construction God our Father, it may be necessary in some languages to use a relative clause, for example, “God who is our Father.”

The name Jesus Christ should normally be treated in this type of context as simply a proper name consisting of two parts. Some translators always want to render Christ as “Messiah.” In this particular context the focus is not upon Christ’s Messiahship, as in some instances in the Synoptic Gospels, but here the term Jesus Christ is used essentially as a proper name.

In a number of languages it is not possible to use a translation of Lord as merely a title in combination with a name such as Jesus Christ. The only satisfactory equivalent may be “Jesus Christ who is our Lord.” However, in some languages one cannot use a possessive pronoun with “Lord,” for one does not possess a person who controls, and “Lord” may be equivalent to “the one who controls us” or “the one who commands us.” Accordingly, the Lord Jesus Christ may be essentially equivalent to “Jesus Christ who commands us.”

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 .