Galatians 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around AD 48 to 55, within about twenty years of Jesus's death
Location
Written by Paul to churches in the Roman province of Galatia in central Asia Minor, modern Turkey
Audience
Mostly non-Jewish converts whom Paul had personally led to faith, now being pressed to adopt Jewish law
Situation
Paul opens without his usual thanksgiving and instead expresses shock that the Galatians are deserting the message he preached. He defends the origin of that message by recounting his violent past, his sudden turnaround, and how little contact he had with the Jerusalem apostles afterwards.
Key Background
Ancient letters normally opened with warm praise of the recipients, so the missing thanksgiving would have landed on the first hearers like a slap. Paul's opponents seem to have argued that he was a second-hand apostle who had watered down a message he learned from Jerusalem, so his detailed travel itinerary functions as evidence in a dispute about authority. Letters like this were read aloud to the whole assembly by a courier who could answer questions, which is why the tone is closer to a speech than to private correspondence.
From Paul — an not appointed by any human committee or commissioned through any person, but through Jesus, The and God the Father, who from the —
along with all the and here with me — to the across
May and be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, The One.
He gave himself for our to us out of this present — exactly as God our Father wanted.
To God be the forever and ever.
I'm that you're so quickly walking away from the one who called you by the undeserved kindness of The One, and chasing after a completely different —
which isn't really good news at all. Some people are just with and trying to the good news of The One into something it's not.
But even if we — or an from heaven — were to announce a different version of the good news than what we originally brought you, let that person be
I'll say it again: if anyone is announcing a version of good news that contradicts what you already received, let that person be cut off.
Am I trying to win people's right now, or God's? Am I trying to make people happy? If I were still a people-pleaser, I wouldn't be a of The One.
Here's what I want you to know, brothers and sisters: the good news I announced isn't something humans made up.
I didn't receive it from any person, and nobody taught it to me. It came through a direct from Jesus, The One.
You've heard about how I used to live when I followed the — how I violently attacked the of and tried to wipe it out.
I was advancing in the Jewish religion beyond many of my own generation, way more to my than they were.
But God — who me before I was even born and called me through his —
chose to his Son in me so I could announce him among the When that happened, I didn't immediately consult with anyone.
I didn't even go up to Jerusalem to see the who came before me. Instead, I went away into and then came back to
It wasn't until three years later that I went up to Jerusalem to to and I stayed with him for fifteen days.
I didn't see any of the other ambassadors — only the
I swear before God that what I'm writing to you is not a lie.
After that, I went to the regions of and
The of The One in had never even met me in person.
They only kept hearing, "The man who used to attack us is now announcing the very he once tried to destroy."
And they because of me.