The expression Jews by birth accents the Jew’s claim to privilege by virtue of his being born a Jew. We are Jews by birth must be expressed in some languages as “our parents were Jews,” or “our forefathers were Jews.”

In this context sinners refers not to persons who have committed sin or wrong, but to those who are outside the Law. The term is therefore used by Jews as synonymous with “Gentiles.” Jews regarded the Gentiles as inherently sinful, since they were born outside of the Law. But literal translation of not Gentile sinners without some indication of this being a quotation can be quite misleading, for it might be understood to mean “not Gentiles, who are sinners,” thus declaring that all Gentiles were evil people, rather than indicating their position outside the Law. Since the expression “Gentile sinners” was a more or less traditional name used by Jews to refer to Gentiles, it may be possible to indicate this fact by translating “and not so-called ‘Gentile sinners,’ ” or “and not what Jews speak of as ‘Gentile sinners.’ ” This would mean that the phrase would be then interpreted as a way in which Jews spoke of Gentiles rather than as a description of all 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 .