Galatians 1:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

NIV: I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

NASB: For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

CSB: For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

NLT: I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

KJV: For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

NKJV: For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul's authority was under attack. Paul is writing to Galatian Gentiles who initially received the gospel as he taught it to them. Afterwards, a group called the Judaizers came along to claim Paul was wrong. According to these false teachers, it wasn't enough to just receive God's grace through faith in Christ; you had to follow the law of Moses to truly be saved.

The Judaizers apparently argued that Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles trained by Jesus during his time on earth. Paul is defending himself, insisting that he received the truth of the gospel in a direct revelation from Jesus as well.

In the previous verse, he said that what he taught the Galatians about Jesus was not a man-invented religion. Now he goes on: I didn't hear it from another person. I wasn't taught about it by someone else, as the Galatians were taught about it by him. Paul did not back down: He received this gospel truth that he taught to them straight from Jesus Himself through special revelation.

Galatians 1:11–24 begins with Paul's statement that he did not receive the gospel which he taught to the Galatians from any man-made religion, nor training from other people. He received it from Christ Himself. God revealed His Son Jesus to Paul, by His grace, even after Paul spent years as a Pharisee trying to destroy the Christian church. After Christ commissioned Paul to preach the good news to the Gentiles, he went off by himself for a few years and came to know the gospel through Christ directly.

Paul begins his letter to the Galatian churches abruptly, compared to his other writings. He has heard they are deserting the gospel which he preached and they believed: the good news that Jesus died to fully pay for all our sins on the cross. The Judaizers taught that these Gentiles must also follow the law of Moses to be saved and openly questioned Paul's authority. Paul makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ, who appeared to him and revealed the truth to him apart from the other apostles.

Galatians 1 begins one of the most-loved books about God's grace in all of Scripture. This and the following chapter detail Paul's biography, as he makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ and therefore his message is trustworthy. Chapters 3 and 4 go into depth about exactly what the gospel of God's grace is and why it is true. In chapters 5 and 6, Paul teaches about how Christians should live in the world as people who have received the grace of God through faith in Christ.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.

Accessed 5/8/2024 6:18:38 AM