Greetings from Paul
1 Paul, an emissary (sent not from men or by man, but by Yeshua the Messiah and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brothers with me.
To Messiah’s communities of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and our Lord Yeshua the Messiah— 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father— 5 to Him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
No Other Gospel
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from the One who called you by the grace of Messiah, to a different “good news”— 7 not that there is another, but only some who are confusing you and want to distort the Good News of Messiah. 8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should announce any “good news” to you other than what we have proclaimed to you, let that person be cursed! 9 As we have said before, so I now repeat: if anyone proclaims to you “good news” other than what you received, let that person be under a curse! 10 Am I now trying to win people’s approval, or God’s? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Messiah.
How Paul Was Sent Out
11 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Good News proclaimed by me is not man-made. 12 I did not receive it from any human, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Yeshua the Messiah.
13 For you have heard of my earlier behavior in Judaism—how I persecuted God’s community beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 I was even advancing within Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, being a more extreme observer of my fathers’ traditions. 15 But when God—who set me apart from birth and called me through His grace[a]—was pleased 16 to reveal His Son to me so I would proclaim Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with any human. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were emissaries before me, either. Instead I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to visit with Peter, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw no other emissaries except Jacob, the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I’m writing you, before God, I do not lie.)
21 Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 But I was personally unknown to Messiah’s communities of Judea; 23 they only kept hearing, “The one who once persecuted us now proclaims the Good News he once tried to destroy!” 24 So they were praising God because of me.
Footnotes
- Galatians 1:15 cf. Isa. 49:1, 5; Jer. 1:5.