Galatians 1:1-2:14
New Catholic Bible
Paul Defends His Apostolate[a]
Chapter 1
Address
Paul Commissioned by Christ Himself.[b] 1 Paul, an apostle[c]—commissioned not by human authority or by any human being, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brethren[d] who are with me, to the Churches of Galatia. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age[e] in accordance with the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.[f]
One Gospel, One Revelation, One Apostolate[g]
Loyalty to the Gospel. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. 7 In reality, there is not another one, but there are some who are troubling you by perverting the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than the one we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! 9 We have said this before, and now I repeat it: if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you received, let him be accursed![h]
10 Does it now appear to you that I am trying to gain the approval of human beings rather than the approval of God? Am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 Paul’s Gospel Revealed to Him by Christ.[i]Brethren, I want you to be assured that the gospel I preached to you is not human in its origin. 12 I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 Undoubtedly you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism,[j] how I fiercely persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I progressed in Judaism far beyond many of my contemporaries, inasmuch as I was much more zealous in upholding the traditions of my ancestors.
15 Paul’s Early Years as a Christian. However, when God, who had set me apart even before my birth, called me through his grace and chose 16 to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood,[k] 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before me. Rather, I went off to Arabia, and afterward I returned to Damascus.
18 Paul’s First Meeting with Peter.[l] Then after three years, I did go up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 However, I did not set eyes on any of the other apostles, except for James, the brother of the Lord.[m] 20 I declare before God that I am not lying in anything I have written.
21 Afterward, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.[n] 22 I was still unknown by sight to the Churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They had only heard it said, “The one who was formerly persecuting us is now preaching the faith that he had once tried to destroy.” 24 As a result, they gave glory to God because of me.
Chapter 2
The Council of Jerusalem[o]
Confirmation of Paul’s Gospel and Mission. 1 Fourteen years later, I traveled up to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas, and I also took along Titus. 2 I went up in response to a revelation, and I set before them the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles—in a private meeting with the leaders—to ensure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.
3 Yet not even Titus, who was accompanying me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 Yet some false brethren were secretly brought in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might reduce us to slavery. 5 But not for a single moment did we submit to them, in order that the truth of the gospel might remain untouched for you.
6 As for those who were regarded as men of importance—whether or not they actually were important makes no difference to me, nor does it matter to God—these men did not add anything further to my message. 7 On the contrary, they realized that I had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the circumcised ( 8 for the one who worked through Peter in his mission to the Jews was also at work in me in my mission to the Gentiles).
9 Therefore, when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged as pillars of the community, recognized the grace that had been bestowed upon me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles while they concentrated on the Jews. 10 They asked only one thing: that we remember the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Rebukes Peter[p]
11 Peter’s Inconsistency at Antioch. However, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong. 12 For until some people came from James,[q] he had been eating with the Gentiles; but when they arrived, he drew back and kept himself apart because he was afraid of the circumcised. 13 And the rest of the Jews[r] carried out the same pretense that he did, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their pretense.
14 Paul’s Rebuke. But when I saw that their conduct was not in accordance with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of all of them, “You are a Jew, yet you are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How then can you require the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Footnotes
- Galatians 1:1 Without preliminary, Paul gets right to the point. He distinguishes two problems that his detractors, in order to inflame the conflict, cleverly intermingle: a question of persons and a question of ideas. First of all, Paul furnishes proofs of the authenticity of his apostolate. He specifies that his call comes directly from Christ and the Father. He received his Gospel by an immediate revelation from Christ, began at once to proclaim it without asking for the authorization of any human person, and on coming to Jerusalem interacted on an equal plane with the apostles, who approved his evangelization of the Gentiles. Finally, in the incident at Antioch, he showed his independence of Peter. This first part of the Letter is one of our best sources of information about the history of the newborn Church and the life of Paul.
- Galatians 1:1 Without taking the time for another introduction, Paul tells us how he sees his apostolate in Christ’s work of salvation. One must read these lines in order to understand what constitutes a mission of the Church. This Letter will be the “Gospel of the Cross.”
In his address, Paul sets forth his name, his mission as apostle, and the name of those to whom he is writing as well as the central teaching of the Christian faith—the Resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 17:18; Rom 1:4; 1 Cor 15:20; 1 Pet 1:3). - Galatians 1:1 Apostle: see note on 1 Cor 1:1-9.
- Galatians 1:2 Brethren: i.e., fellow Christians (see Gal 3:15; 4:12; 5:11; 6:18). Galatia: probably the Roman province of Galatia and an extended area southward, through which Paul traveled on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:14—14:23).
- Galatians 1:4 The present evil age: that is, the age in which sin reigns and Jesus Christ has not been accepted.
- Galatians 1:5 For similar doxologies, see Rom 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; Eph 3:21; 1 Tim 1:17.
- Galatians 1:6 Paul stresses that there is only one Gospel, one revelation, and one apostolate—all of which he shares with the original apostles. He discussed this apostolate and what it means first at Jerusalem with Peter (Cephas) and James and then at Antioch with Peter.
- Galatians 1:9 Accursed: “anathema,” a term signifying condemnation.
- Galatians 1:11 For Paul, everything begins with the event that took place on the road to Damascus. He does not describe it here but expresses its meaning. It was for him the revelation of the risen Lord in all his glory as well as the investiture that established Paul as the prophet of the last times, charged by divine authority to proclaim the mystery of salvation and to introduce the Gentiles into the new world where the Spirit is at work (see Is 49:1; Jer 1:5). This mission is clear; Paul has no need of consulting with “flesh and blood,” i.e., to embrace other human considerations or instructions. His destiny is laid out by the Lord himself.
- Galatians 1:13 Judaism: i.e., the Jewish faith and way of life that developed during the intertestamental period. The word comes from “Judah,” the name of the southern kingdom that existed from the tenth to the sixth century B.C. and ended with the Babylonian Exile.
- Galatians 1:16 Flesh and blood: a phrase that in the New Testament always connotes human weakness or ignorance (see Mt 16:17; 1 Cor 15:50; Eph 6:12). Paul’s teaching came not from any human person but directly from God.
- Galatians 1:18 Paul visited Jerusalem to become acquainted with the head of the apostles (see Acts 9:23-31), whom he calls “Cephas” (Aramaic for “Rock”), the name given to Peter by Jesus himself (see Mt 16:18). He then went to Syria and Cilicia (including his hometown Tarsus) and probably did some evangelizing there. He was known to Christians in Judea only by reputation.
- Galatians 1:19 James, the brother of the Lord: i.e., the cousin of Jesus, who was head of the Church of Jerusalem after the scattering of the apostles; see Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18.
- Galatians 1:21 For Paul’s time in Syria (Antioch) and Cilicia (Tarsus) see Acts 9:30; 11:25-26.
- Galatians 2:1 Despite slight differences of detail, the passage speaks of the same assembly in Jerusalem that Acts 15 narrates: the same apostles, the same opponents, the same discussions, the same results in essentials. Paul was with Barnabas, who had an important place in the early stages of his mission (Acts 9:27; 11:25; 13:2; 15:2). When Paul wrote this Letter, about seven years after the events, he was completing the collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem; this collection was for him a sign of unity (see 1 Cor 16:1; 2 Cor 8–9).
- Galatians 2:11 The Council of Jerusalem had acknowledged the freedom of Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law, but the question of table fellowship between Jewish Christians and Gentile believers was not yet settled. When Peter came to Antioch, he at first ate with non-Jews, since faith in Christ brings all people together. But when Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem, he gave up doing so. Paul rebuked Peter’s inconsistency in an important religious matter. Peter’s behavior was clearly wrong, and even grievously wrong if the table fellowship in question involved the meal at the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor 11:17-25). The reason why Jews would not eat with Gentiles was that they were considered to be unclean. If Peter was refusing to eat with Gentile Christians, he was implicitly saying that they were still in sin, which would mean that their Baptism had no effect, which meant that their cross did not redeem them.
- Galatians 2:12 Some people came from James: i.e., Jewish Christians who still believed in the Law and in circumcision (Acts 15:1, 5; 21:20f) and either came from James or claimed to be from him. Circumcised: i.e., Jewish Christians.
- Galatians 2:13 Jews: i.e., Jewish Christians.
