Galatians 1:1-2

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Galatians 1:1 Without preliminary, Paul gets right to the point. He distinguishes two problems that his detractors, in order to inflame the conflict, cleverly intermingle: a question of persons and a question of ideas. First of all, Paul furnishes proofs of the authenticity of his apostolate. He specifies that his call comes directly from Christ and the Father. He received his Gospel by an immediate revelation from Christ, began at once to proclaim it without asking for the authorization of any human person, and on coming to Jerusalem interacted on an equal plane with the apostles, who approved his evangelization of the Gentiles. Finally, in the incident at Antioch, he showed his independence of Peter. This first part of the Letter is one of our best sources of information about the history of the newborn Church and the life of Paul.
2. Galatians 1:1 Without taking the time for another introduction, Paul tells us how he sees his apostolate in Christ’s work of salvation. One must read these lines in order to understand what constitutes a mission of the Church. This Letter will be the “Gospel of the Cross.”
   In his address, Paul sets forth his name, his mission as apostle, and the name of those to whom he is writing as well as the central teaching of the Christian faith—the Resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 17:18; Rom 1:4; 1 Cor 15:20; 1 Pet 1:3).
3. Galatians 1:1 Apostle: see note on 1 Cor 1:1-9.
4. Galatians 1:2 Brethren: i.e., fellow Christians (see Gal 3:15; 4:12; 5:11; 6:18). Galatia: probably the Roman province of Galatia and an extended area southward, through which Paul traveled on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:14—14:23).