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“To: The Assemblies in Galatia”
1 From: Paul—an apostle, appointed and sent not by mere men or by any human authority, but by Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
2 and all the brothers who are with me.
To: The assemblies in Galatia.
3 To all of ᵖyou+ grace, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah,
4 who gave himself to atone for our sins, in order to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be the glory into the ages of the ages. Amen.
“I Am Shocked”
6 I am shocked at just how quickly you are deserting the one who summoned you by the gift of the Messiah and are turning to a different gospel,
7 which is really no gospel at all. Apparently there are certain people who are throwing you into confusion and are set on distorting the gospel about the Messiah.
8 Yet even if we ourselves, or a very angel from heaven, should proclaim a gospel to you at variance with the one we proclaimed to you, let him be set apart for utter destruction—cursed!
9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel different from the one you received, let this be his fate: Cursed to utter destruction.
10 In talking like this is it mere men, after all, whose applause I am trying to win, or God’s? Or am I seeking to please mere men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of the Messiah.
“The Gospel That Was Proclaimed by Me Is Not of Human Origin”
11 Now I want to make it perfectly clear to you, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.
12 Indeed, it wasn’t a human source from which I received it, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.
13 You have heard, after all, about my former conduct in Judaism, how fiercely I persecuted God’s assembly and tried to destroy it;
14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions passed down by my ancestors.
15 Yet when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and summoned me through his gift, gladly chose
16 to reveal his Son to me, so that I could proclaim the gospel about him among the Gentiles, I didn’t rush off to seek advice from mere flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who had been appointed as apostles before I was. No, I went away to Arabia, and later returned to Damascus.
18 It wasn’t until three years later that I went up to Jerusalem to visit and get information from Kefa, Peter, and I remained with him for only fifteen days.
19 I didn’t see, however, any other of the apostles, except for James, the Lord’s brother.
20 (As for these things I am telling you, I assure you before God that they are completely true.)
21 Afterward I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 Yet I remained personally unknown to the assemblies of Judea that are united with the Messiah.
23 All they knew was what others were saying: “The man who persecuted us in the past now is proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!”
24 And they glorified and glorified God because of what had happened to me.