Galatians chapter 1 part 3

*Verses 11 and 12: Paul wants the Galatians to know that the gospel he preached to them was not something a man made up or something he got from some other man. Oh, no, he got it by revelation from Jesus Christ himself! Jesus, if he existed, should have been quite dead. Think of what that means. Paul heard a voice that no one else heard with a message that no one else recieved. Paul believed it came from the messiah named Jesus. Paul is asking, and expects, his readers to believe this solely on his word,  without evidence. Personally, I side with Thomas Paine who pointed out that a revelation to one man is not necessarily a revelation to all. Why should we believe Paul?

*Verses 13-17: Paul tells the readers about his former life. He intensely persecuted those of the church or assembly of God and tried to destroy it. Were these christian churches? This would have been within 10 years of Jesus's death, if he actually lived and died as reported in the first 4 books of the New Testament, which were written decades after this book. Or were they just Jewish meet up groups that followed the teachings of a particular rabbi? There are no christian writings preserved from those early days before Paul. Paul believed he was specially appointed by God to preach to the Gentiles (non jews) about the revelation he recieved about god's son. He emphasizes that he didn't consult anyone else, especially any of the apostles  in Jerusalem, after he recieved his revelation, but went straight to Arabia, then later returned to Damascus. The apostles in Jerusalem would have been much more knowledgable about Jesus and his teachings, but Paul seems to think it is important to show that he was not influenced by them. In the next couple of posts we will compare all the accounts of the event of Paul's special revelation.

* Verses 18-24: We are not told here how long Paul was in Arabia or what he did there. Three years after he returned to Damascus, he went to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter. The only other apostle he saw was James, who he calls "the lord's brother." Was this James one of the original twelve disciples or an actual sibling of Jesus? No one can say for sure. After meeting with Peter and James, Paul went to Syria and Cilicia. For some reason Paul thinks it is important to stress how few people in Judea had ever met him.  All they knew about him was he was once persecuting them, now he was preaching the faith.