Galatians 1 Study Notes

1:13-14 Paul communicated three things to his readers: (1) he had advanced much farther in Judaism than those who had distorted the gospel, (2) he was far more zealous for the Jewish traditions than these false teachers, and (3) ironically, Paul’s zeal and advancement in Judaism led him to persecute the church before his conversion.

1:15 The phrase God, who . . . set me apart and called me sounds like Is 49:1, which refers to the messianic servant, and Jr 1:5, which refers to the prophet Jeremiah. Paul knew that his callings to salvation and apostleship were both undeserved (Rm 1:5).

1:16-17 On reveal his Son in me, see note at vv. 11-12. On Paul’s calling to preach Christ among the Gentiles, see Ac 9:15; 26:17-18; Rm 1:5; 16:26. After his conversion (Ac 9:3-9), Paul did not feel any compulsion to travel immediately from Damascus to Jerusalem to consult with the authorities on the gospel. He went to Arabia (see Ac 9:23-25; 2Co 11:32-33), then back to Damascus.

1:18 Because of how time was computed in Paul’s day, it cannot be known whether the three years in this verse speaks of three full calendar years or one full year plus portions of two additional years. It is also not known whether the three years is figured after: (1) Paul’s conversion (vv. 15-16), (2) his departure for Arabia (v. 17), or (3) his return from Arabia to Damascus (v. 17). His trip to Jerusalem was to get to know the apostle Peter (the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic Cephas, meaning “rock”; Mt 16:18). If there were differences between Paul and Peter over the gospel message, they would have come out during this visit.

1:19 James, the brother of Jesus (Mt 13:55; Jms 1:1), is nowhere else listed as one of the twelve apostles (i.e., the Eleven, without Judas Iscariot, who was replaced by Matthias; Ac 1:23-26). But since he was in the upper room before Pentecost (Ac 1:13-14) and was the senior pastoral figure in the church at Jerusalem (see Ac 15:13; 21:18), James was considered to be virtually an “apostle.”

1:20 If anyone in Galatia doubted that Paul had previously had a harmonious discussion about his gospel message with Peter, and possibly with James, he solemnly affirmed in this verse that it was true.

1:21 Paul probably spent most of his time in Antioch and Tarsus.

1:22 That Paul was personally unknown to the Judean churches agrees with the silence about him in Acts from when he went to Tarsus (Ac 9:30) until Barnabas went there to bring him to be involved in the church in Syrian Antioch (Ac 11:25-26).

1:23-24 Since the Judean churches glorified God because Paul was preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, it is clear that they did not disagree with the gospel as he preached it.