Galatians 1 Footnotes

1:11-12 This thesis statement focused the persuasive point of the 1:11–2:21 narrative on the universal nature of the gospel Paul preached (i.e., without Judaistic restrictions). His gospel was not a human message, nor of human origin, nor transmitted by human (particularly Jewish) means. Rather, he received his gospel by revelation from the resurrected Messiah. Paul contrasted his gospel with the nature and transmission of his opponents’ false gospel.

1:13-17 Paul’s radically changed life served as powerful evidence of the truthfulness and reality of the gospel he received, altering his insulated identity and behavioral pattern as a zealous, rapidly advancing Jewish rabbi (vv. 13-14). It was not other apostles (vv. 15-17), but rather the universal nature of the gospel, that caused these changes in Paul’s life.

1:18–2:21 The gospel’s universal nature was repeatedly confirmed by the broader church and the Jerusalem apostles: The first (1:18-24) was in a fifteen-day visit to Jerusalem followed by the Judean churches confirming Paul’s preaching of the faith. The second was fourteen years later when the non-Judaistic gospel was confirmed by the Jerusalem apostles (2:1-10 = famine relief visit of Ac 11:27-30). Peter’s reception of Paul’s rebuke for his Judaistic separation from Gentiles in Antioch confirmed a third time the “truth of the gospel” (2:5,14) that Paul preached in 2:11-21.