Galatians 1:21 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

NIV: Then I went to Syria and Cilicia.

NASB: Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

CSB: Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

NLT: After that visit I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia.

KJV: Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

NKJV: Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Writing to Christians in Galatia, Paul continues to show, using his personal story, why the group known as Judaizers are wrong about him. This sect had been saying Paul was not qualified to call himself an apostle. The role of apostle was a significant one reserved for those who had seen Jesus and who had been sent out by Him. The Judaizers seem to have been saying that Paul was merely trained by other apostles and was therefore lying about his status and authority.

Paul has gone to lengths to show that he only had brief contact with Peter and Jesus' brother James, and only some three years after his conversion. The apostles did not train him. Paul, in fact, saw Jesus Himself and was sent out to preach to the Gentiles by Jesus. He was truly an apostle and his message was trustworthy.

In fact, Paul says, after meeting with Peter and James, he went to preach in Syria and Cilicia, far from where the apostles were in Jerusalem. In the next verse, he will make the point that they didn't even know him personally until after that. They were not his teachers; Christ was.

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 5/2/2024 5:58:00 PM