Galatians 1

International Standard Version

Greetings from Paul

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

To: The churches in Galatia.

³ May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,^[d] be yours! ⁴ He gave himself for our sins in order to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. ⁵ To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

There is No Other Gospel

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of the Messiah^[e] and, instead, are following^[f] a different gospel, ⁷ not that another one really exists. To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah.^{[g] 8} But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you^[h] a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned! ⁹ What we have told you in the past I am now telling you again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be condemned! ¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be the Messiah’s^[i] servant.^[j]

Jesus Himself Gave Paul His Message

¹¹ For^[k] I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin. ¹² For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.^{[l] 13} For you have heard about my earlier life in Judaism—how I kept violently persecuting God’s church and was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, because I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with another human being^[m] at any time, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see^[n] those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas,^[o] and I stayed with him for fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Before God, what I’m writing to you is the truth.)^{[p] 21} Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² But the churches of the Messiah^[q] that are in Judea did not yet know me personally. ²³ The only thing they kept hearing was this: “The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!” ²⁴ So they kept glorifying God for what had happened to^[r] me.