Summary of Galatians, Chapter 1

Paul who is an Apostle, not sent out by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, along with his companions, wishes grace and peace to the churches of Galatia, from Jesus Christ who died for our sins, to free us from the present wicked age.

Paul is surprised that the Galatians can be so easily separated from the one who called them, into a different Gospel -- which, yet, is not another Gospel, for there is only one. But there are certain people disturbing the Galatians, and trying to change the Gospel of Christ. However, no matter who would try to change the Gospel -- whether it be Paul, or even an angel from the sky -- cursed be such an angel! Paul repeats: If anyone tries to change the Gospel, let him be cursed!

Paul insists that he does not preach in such a way as to try to please humans, but God. To try to please humans instead of God would make him no slave of Christ. For he did not receive what he preaches from men, nor from teaching -- he got it by revelation from Jesus Christ (on the road to Damascus). He recalls how zealous he had been for Judaism, more than his associates, even to the point of trying to overthrow the Christian Church. But then it pleased God, who had planned for it even before his birth, and called him in love, to reveal His Son to Paul so he would preach Christ among the gentiles. Paul did not right away go to consult any human being, not even the Apostles in Jerusalem. Rather, he went to Arabia for a time, then came back to Damascus. Then after three years he traveled to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, with whom he stayed 15 days. While in Jerusalem he did not see any other Apostle except James, the brother of the Lord. Paul swears he is telling the truth. After that he went north to Syria and Cilicia. The churches in Judea did not know what he looked like. But they had heard he who once was a persecutor had turned to preaching the Gospel he once tried to destroy. So they praised God because of Paul.

Comments on Chapter 1

We notice how excited Paul is in opening this letter. He usually says some nice things to the recipients, to put them in a receptive frame of mind. Here he is excited by the false charges against him, and so he omits all that and starts at once to say he is an Apostle sent out directly by Christ -- not sent out just by men. Christ is the one who died to free us from our sins, and from the present evil aeon. That word aeon is ambiguous. He most likely means here the present evil period of time, when Satan exerts so much influence, but yet the time in which Christ has indeed died for us, and so begun our liberation, but that freedom and salvation will not be complete until the age to come. The world does not really operate on the principles of Christ.

It can also, less likely, mean aeon, which refers to a type of spiritual being imagined by the Gnostics. God himself produced the first pair of aeons, male and female. They produced the second, and so on, each pair less perfect, until one pair went bad, and was thrown out of the pleroma, the full assembly of the aeons. This initiated a line that created our world. Paul often has to combat various errors. In Colossians it is fairly likely, even though not certain, that he is writing against such opponents. It is not very likely that he had such opposition in Galatia.

He next goes right into the chief message of this letter -- about the Judaizers, who try to teach a different Gospel. Even though they claimed they were Christian, and merely wanted to add a requirement of keeping the Mosaic law, yet Paul speaks strongly against them. He means that if they are right, then Christ is not sufficient, for we would have to add to faith in Christ the keeping of the old law as well. So he vehemently imagines an angel coming down from the sky with a different Gospel than what he preaches. Such a Gospel would be false. Hence, he curses the imaginary angel and even repeats the curse.

Then he returns to defending himself, and says he learned Christianity not from any man, not even the Apostles, but from the appearance of Christ on the road to Damascus. He compares himself by implication to Jeremiah (cf. Jer 1:5) of whom God said: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you . . . I dedicated you as a prophet to the nations." After this vision, Paul did not feel any need to consult the Apostles in Jerusalem.

Even though the Acts of the Apostles (9:3-19; 22:6-16; 26:12-18) reports few words were said by Jesus to Paul in that vision, yet Paul learned all Christianity from it. How? Throughout the centuries, many holy people have experienced what are called interior locutions. In them it is as if God touches the brain. By one touch He can convey any amount of information He wishes.²

Instead of consulting others, he went to Arabia. We do not know what area he has in mind -- the name covered much territory. Perhaps he made a pilgrimage to Mt. Sinai. Perhaps he merely went into the area across the Jordan. Nor does he tell us how long a time he spent in Arabia. After that he went back to Damascus. After three years he went to Jerusalem. Does he mean three years after his conversion or three years after returning from Arabia? We cannot tell. And more chronological vagueness will follow in chapter 2. No wonder there is a problem of figuring out the timetable for Paul's activities!

He says he went to Jerusalem to historesai Cephas. (He regularly says Cephas for Peter). That word could mean to consult him -- or just to visit him and get to know him. The second is what he must mean, for he is stressing that he did not learn Christianity from any human. He stayed with Peter for fifteen days, during which time he saw no other Apostle but he did see James. We could also have translated: "I did not see any other Apostle [except Peter], I just saw James, the brother of the Lord." There was a James, the brother of the Lord, who seems to have acted as Bishop of Jerusalem. But he was not one of the twelve. However, the word 'Apostle' often is used more broadly than to apply only to the twelve. As to the word 'brother' of the Lord, it means only some kind of relative, not another son of Mary. The Hebrew word for brother is very broad -- for that matter, so is our English word. We can call everyone in a fraternity brother, etc. Hebrew has no word for cousin, or for most kinds of special relatives. And even though the New Testament is in Greek, which does have such words, yet the writers of the New Testament often are affected by their Hebrew habits. Thus Paul who knows Greek well, could say in 1 Corinthians 1:17: "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach." Then why did he baptize? There is a Hebrew way of thinking showing up, which lacks the degrees of comparison -- even though Greek has them -- and so instead of saying more for preaching than for baptizing, he says not for the one, but for the other. And there are numerous other instances.

Then he went up to Cilicia -- his home-town, Tarsus was there. He also went to, or passed though, Syria, in which was Antioch, which was to become an important base of operations for him soon.