Galatians

by Cardinal Albert Vanhoye

  Reading between the lines, we can perceive that Paul’s questions allude to accusations against him that he is indignantly rejecting. Paul has been accused of not telling the whole truth in his preaching and of concealing some of God’s requirements. The implication is that he adapted his message to the ideas and tastes of his audience in order to obtain for himself a greater missionary success. Apparently, after Paul’s departure, other preachers came among the Galatians and said something like this: “The gospel Paul proclaimed to you is incomplete. He kept back from you some important requirements, such as circumcision, in an attempt to be diplomatic. We, however, are bringing you the whole gospel truth, the full message of salvation. You should not rely on Paul so much.”

  To counter such fraudulent accusations, Paul launches the two crushing anathemas and then asks, in effect, “Have you heard these anathemas? In light of these, who can still say I am too diplomatic? Am I trying to please people by such anathemas? Obviously, I am not.”

  Reflection and Application (1:10)

  The offense that Paul’s opponents falsely accuse him of—changing, diluting, or downplaying the requirements of the gospel to make it more palatable—can be a very real temptation for preachers, teachers, and all Christians. The pressure to alter our message is greatest precisely at the points where the teaching of Christ and his Church diverges most sharply from the beliefs and practices of the surrounding culture. The topics about which Christians today are tempted to change the message or remain silent vary, but include the uniqueness of Christ, the reality of hell, Scripture’s teaching about sexual morality, Christ’s teaching about marriage, and the sacredness of human life. Among the devout it is tempting not to speak about gossip, judging others, God’s mercy toward sinners, leadership as service, Jesus’ teaching about money, and Christ’s call to move beyond our circle to seek the lost.

  It is easy for us in church leadership roles, whether lay or ordained, to become overly concerned with pleasing others to the neglect of pleasing Christ. For people in ministry, the visible approval of other people can subtly replace the invisible approval of God as the goal of our labors. Some people will esteem us because we hold a high position, attract a large following, or manage to avoid conflict, and we may be tempted to evaluate ourselves the same way. But serving Christ often requires taking a stand that will not please others, that makes us unpopular, or that will cost us promotions. Paul’s words remind us whose approval we must seek: “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.”

  1. The NABRE uses brackets in the text to indicate words that are absent from some important ancient manuscripts.

  Part 1

  Paul Defends His Gospel by Telling His Story

  Galatians 1:11–2:21

  Paul’s Call to Preach Came by Divine Revelation

  Galatians 1:11–24

  After a very energetic introduction (1:6–10), Paul begins the first part of the letter, which presents evidence from his own life story to show that the †gospel he proclaims is authentic. His presentation divides into three sections. In the first section (1:11–24), Paul shows that the gospel he preaches comes from a divine revelation of Christ and not from human teaching. In the second (2:1–10), Paul reports on his meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem and records its conclusion: the authenticity of his gospel was officially recognized.1 In the third (2:11–21), he recounts a confrontation with Cephas (Peter) in defense of the gospel as he taught it. Paul uses that occasion to establish the fundamental point of the letter: †justification comes through †faith in Christ and not through works of the †law (2:16–21).

  The Divine Origin of Paul’s Gospel (1:11–12)

  11Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

  NT: Matt 11:25–27; 1 Cor 15:1–9

  Catechism: divine origin of the gospel, 74–75

  Lectionary: 1:11–20: Vigil of Sts. Peter and Paul

  [1:11–12]

  After the explosion of anathemas in verses 8–9, Paul adopts a calmer tone to make his case. He addresses the Galatians as brothers (to be understood inclusively as “sisters and brothers”), a term used among Jews and taken up by Christians. Among Christians, however, it refers no longer to a kinship due to race, but rather to a brotherly relationship based on our relationship to Christ and our adoption as children of God (1:4; 3:26–28; 4:5–7).

  Paul’s principal affirmation concerns the nature of the gospel preached by me: it is not of human origin. It is not a message devised by a human being or conformed to the tastes of human beings. In support of this, the second sentence explains the divine origin of this †gospel. Paul specifically denies that in his own case the gospel was received through the teaching of a human being. According to Acts 2:42, the first Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles.” All subsequent generations of Christians have heard the gospel of Christ through the apostles’ teaching, transmitted through Scripture and Tradition. But the Apostle Paul did not learn the gospel this way; rather, he received it directly through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

  The word “revelation” here translates the Greek word apokalypsis and indicates God’s disclosing something previously unknown.2 Here Paul is speaking not about the literary genre of apocalypse but rather about a divine initiative to reveal something by vision or prophecy.

  Paul calls it a “revelation of Jesus Christ.” The phrase could mean that Jesus is the person who does the revealing or that he is the person who is revealed. Here it means both, because Jesus revealed himself to Paul (Acts 9:3–5), and a few verses later Paul says it was God who “was pleased to reveal his Son to me” (Gal 1:15–16). There is no contradiction, since at the same time that Christ revealed the gospel about himself, God was revealing his Son to Paul.3

  So in verses 11–12, Paul gives an initial defense of his gospel: he denies it has a human origin and declares its divine origin. In itself this second point is the more important, and we would therefore expect it to be the main topic of the first part of the letter (1:11–2:21). However, in the verses that follow, Paul says very little about the revelation he received, but rather expands on the negative part of his statement, in which he denies any dependence on human beings for the content of his gospel.

  Figure 5. St. Paul Preaching at Athens (Raphael, 1515). [Public domain]

  From Persecutor to Apostle (1:13–17)

  13For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, 14and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions. 15But when [God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus.

  OT: Isa 49:6; Jer 1:5

  NT: Mark 7:3–13; Acts 7:58–8:3; 9:1–31; 13:47; 22:3; Rom 1:13; Phil 3:4–6

  Catechism: Christ’s divine sonship and faith, 442; uniqueness of Paul’s apostleship, 659

  Lectionary: 1:11–20: Vigil of Sts. Peter and Paul

  The autobiographical part of the letter begins here. Paul is about to tell his readers the story of his conversion. Scholars and ordinary readers alike are interested in comparing what Paul himself writes about this period of his life with the account that Luke gives (Acts 7:58–8:3; 9:1–31). But Paul writes about himself and what he did in the past, not for the sake of autobiography, but rather to make a point. Consequently, he does not attempt to report everything thoroughly, but selects the facts that are useful for his purpose, the defense of his †gospel.

  [1:13–14]

  The first fact is his former way of life in Judaism,
which did not in any way dispose him to become an apostle of Christ. Elsewhere Paul tells us that he belonged to the party of the Pharisees (Phil 3:5), a group that the Gospels depict as fiercely opposed to Jesus. The Pharisees strictly separated themselves from †Gentiles in order to maintain their particular understanding of †ritual purity. The fact that Paul became an apostle of Jesus Christ, and especially to Gentiles, was due to an extraordinary act of God’s †grace and power. Although Paul does not say so explicitly, his amazing transformation confirms the divine origin of the gospel he proclaims and undermines the allegations of his opponents who are contesting his apostolic standing.

  Verses 13 and 14 reveal Paul’s passionate temperament. Fierce language like persecuted, beyond measure, and destroy describes his former behavior. These terms show that Paul is not trying to soft-pedal or excuse his actions as a persecutor. On the contrary, by saying that he persecuted the church of God, he underscores the gravity of his conduct. When he refers to zeal for his ancestral traditions, he displays a flash of pride, an attitude that other passages in his letters confirm (1 Cor 15:10; Phil 3:6).

  When he begins by saying, You heard of my former way of life, he implies that the Galatians heard his story when they were first evangelized. Either Paul or one of his apostolic companions had told it, and he does not need to repeat it. He limits himself to recounting the facts that are relevant for his argument. The first part of Paul’s life was in Judaism, an expression not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The word “Judaism” (in its Greek form) made its appearance at the time of the Maccabees (see 2 Macc 2:21; 8:1; 14:38 RSV). When Antiochus IV wanted to impose a Greek way of life (“Hellenism” in 2 Macc 4:13) on the Jews, many Jews heroically resisted in order to maintain a lifestyle in conformity to the laws of Moses and their traditions. At that time, faithful Jews faced persecution at the hands of Gentiles. In Paul’s case, however, a Jew became a persecutor of his own people who formed—although he did not yet know it—the Church of God.

  Initially, Paul perceived Christianity to be a grave threat to Judaism and reacted with extreme intensity. He persecuted the followers of Jesus “beyond measure.”4 In Acts where details of this persecution are given, Luke writes,

  Saul . . . was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment. (Acts 8:3)

  Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, . . . asked . . . for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. (Acts 9:1–2)

  To describe Paul’s actions, Luke uses the same Greek word as Paul does here and in 1:23 for “destroy”—a word meaning “to ravage or annihilate.” It is used in the New Testament exclusively of Paul, “who in Jerusalem ravaged those who call upon this name” (Acts 9:21).

  To explain the motive for this fierce persecution, Paul adds that he surpassed many of his contemporaries in Judaism. We would like to know how old Paul was at that time, but we are not given that information. When describing his fervent Jewish practice, Paul says he was even more a zealot than others his age for his “ancestral traditions.” To practice Judaism includes not only keeping the †law but also observing a whole way of life entailing many traditions. The first Christians, although they were Jews, did not follow all these traditions. Jesus’ teaching gave them a certain freedom with respect to “the tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:1–13; see Matt 15:2–6), and they were therefore accused of speaking against the law (Acts 6:13–14). Paul’s zeal for the ancestral traditions—he calls them “my ancestral traditions”—drove him to persecute Christians relentlessly.

  All of this clearly shows that Paul was in no way disposed to receive the gospel from the Church, much less to preach it. Paul’s proclamation of the gospel—especially a gospel freed from the traditions of the elders to which Jews felt bound—cannot be explained by human influence.

  [1:15]

  After a vigorous description of his previous negative condition, one might expect a sharp contrast through a detailed account of the positive side, the “revelation of Jesus Christ” that Paul received (v. 12). That expectation, however, is unfulfilled. Paul does not even minimally describe the content of the revelation he received. Elsewhere he says that Christ “appeared to me” (1 Cor 15:8), and thus he has “seen Jesus our Lord” (1 Cor 9:1), but of this he here says only a little (Gal 1:16).

  Nevertheless, there is something very solemn about the words Paul uses to refer to the divine revelation he received that shows the exceptional importance of the event. Paul uses two verbs to describe God’s initiative in his life. God, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me, is the one who determined Paul’s vocation. Both verbs solemnly affirm the divine character of Paul’s vocation and thus implicitly the divine origin of his gospel.

  The way Paul refers to his vocation connects it to both that of the prophet Jeremiah and that of the “servant of the Lord” in Isaiah. God said to Jeremiah,

  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

  before you were born I dedicated you,

  a prophet to the nations I appointed you. (Jer 1:5, italics added)

  Paul’s awareness of being “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13) and of being called to “proclaim [Christ] to the Gentiles” (Gal 1:16) would have naturally led him to meditate on Jeremiah’s vocation to be “a prophet to the nations,” since in both Greek and Hebrew the word for “†nations” is the same as the word for “†Gentiles.” Paul realized that his own calling was not an afterthought but was, like Jeremiah’s, the result of a divine choice before he was born. Instead of using the verb “dedicate” or “appoint,” as in Jer 1:5, Paul uses “set apart” as he does in Rom 1:1. The same verb is also used in Acts 13:2 for the missionary vocation of Barnabas and Paul, where it refers to God’s choice of someone for a special mission.

  While Jeremiah does not speak of God “calling” him, Isaiah’s second Song of the Servant of the Lord does speak of being called:

  Before birth the LORD called me,

  from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. (Isa 49:1, italics added)

  This prophecy would have caught Paul’s attention because it declares God’s plan for the Gentiles:

  It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,

  to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

  and restore the survivors of Israel;

  I will make you a light to the nations,

  that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. (Isa 49:6)

  Acts records that Paul applied this text to his own apostolate to the Gentiles (Acts 13:47).

  Paul indicates the completely gratuitous nature of God’s choosing him: it was through his grace. He is very aware that his vocation is not due to his merits. How could a persecutor deserve to be called an apostle? Paul recognizes he is the beneficiary of the very generous love of God.

  [1:16]

  Although similar to the vocations of the greatest prophets, Paul’s vocation is greater since God did not reveal “his Son” to any of them. But Paul reports that God was pleased to reveal his Son to me. The word “pleased” emphasizes God’s affectionate favor toward Paul.

  The revelation is doubly divine because its author is God and its content is the Son of God. The divine sonship of Christ is the principal doctrinal element of the revelation the Apostle received, but here Paul receives a revelation of the person of God’s Son. A personal relationship with Christ the Son of God is Paul’s greatest treasure (2:20). In Phil 3:7–8 Paul affirms, “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

  The Bible uses the expression “son of God” in a variety of senses. The fact that here Paul refers to Jesus as the Son of God in the strongest sense of the term—that is, as fully divine—is clear
for a few reasons. First, the fact that Jesus’ sonship is divinely revealed implies it is a divine mystery. Second, the fact that in the Greek text Paul uses the definite article, literally saying, “the Son of him,” lets us know that the sonship of Jesus Christ is unique (see the sidebar, “‘Son of God’ in the Bible,” below). A third indication is the contrast observed in 1:1 and 1:12 between “human beings” and “Jesus Christ” that places Jesus on the divine side of the contrast. Finally, we have noted how Paul links Jesus Christ with God the Father in 1:1 and 1:3, unexpectedly using a single preposition to introduce both of their names.

  Rather than speak of the revelation “to me,” as the NABRE and most translations render this phrase, Paul literally says that God revealed his Son “in me,” indicating the interior effect of this revelation. What happened to Paul was not only something external that had the objective result of changing his mind. Rather, as in every divine vocation, Paul experienced an inner attraction that captured him in the depths of his soul. The revelation Paul received had an apostolic purpose: so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles.