Galatians 1

GREETING

1Paul,^a an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father^b who raised him from the dead^c—²and all the brothers who are with me:

To the churches of Galatia.^d

³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord^A Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins^e to rescue us from this present evil age,^f according to the will of our God and Father.^{g 5}To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

NO OTHER GOSPEL

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called^h you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—⁷not that there is another gospel,ⁱ but there are some^j who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel^k from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you,^l a curse be on him!^{B 9}As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received,^m a curse be on him!

¹⁰For am I now trying to persuade people,^C or God?ⁿ Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

THE ORIGIN OF PAUL’S GOSPEL

¹¹For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. ¹²For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation^o of Jesus Christ.^p

¹³For you have heard about my former way of life^q in Judaism:^r I intensely persecuted^s God’s church and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.^{t 15}But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called^u me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal his Son^v in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.^{D 17}I did not go up to Jerusalem^w to those who had become apostles^x before me; instead I went to Arabia^y and came back to Damascus.^z

¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem^aa to get to know Cephas,^Eab and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James,^ac the Lord’s brother. ²⁰I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

²¹Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria^ad and Cilicia.^{ae 22}I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. ²³They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted^af us now preaches the faith^ag he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.^A