Section 1:1–5
Paul greeted the Christians in Galatia
This section is the introduction to Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In this introduction, Paul followed the customs of that time for writing a letter. The custom was to put the writer’s name first and then write the names of the people to whom the letter was sent. After that the writer greeted them with a wish for their well-being. So, Paul began this letter with his own name in 1:1. Then in 1:2 he mentioned the people to whom he was sending the letter. In 1:3 he greeted these people with a wish for their well-being. Among Christians, this wish was often a prayer for God’s blessing.
In this section, Paul briefly introduced two main themes of his letter.
(a) It was God and Jesus who had made Paul an apostle. It was not other people who had called him to become an apostle. That gave him very high authority. This authority is one of the themes of his letter, and he discussed it more fully in chapter 2.
(b) In 1:4, Paul reminded the Galatians that we Christians are saved because Jesus died for our sins. The main theme of the whole letter to the Galatians is that we are saved by the grace of God and by believing in Jesus.
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Greeting
-or-
Greetings from Paul
Paragraph 1:1–2
1:1a
Paul: Paul began this letter with his name. He did not use a verb. But you may need to add a verb to help your readers understand that Paul was the person who wrote the letter. For example:
This letter is from Paul (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
?I,? Paul, ?am writing this letter? ?to you? .
an apostle: The word apostle refers to a person whom someone sends with his authority. He sends him to give a message or to accomplish a particular task. Here, the word apostle refers to a man whom Jesus chose and gave authority. After Jesus returned to heaven, his apostles were the leaders of the people who believed in him.
If you have already translated the Gospels, you can probably use the same term for apostle as you used there.
Some ways to translate apostle are:
a ?special? messenger
-or-
a representative
-or-
a person with authority ?from Jesus?
-or-
a chief leader ?of Jesus’s work?
See also apostle in the Glossary for more information.
1:1b
sent: In Greek, there is no verb in 1:1b. Many languages may need to supply a verb here as the Berean Standard Bible does. Here are some other examples of English versions that supply a verb here:
not sent from men (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
I was not chosen to be an apostle by human beings (New Century Version)
-or-
I was not appointed by any group (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
whose call to be an apostle did not come from human beings (Good News Translation)
not from men nor by man: There are at least two ways to interpret these two phrases:
(1) The focus is on the difference in meaning indicated by the two prepositions from and by. According to this interpretation, the phrase not from men means that no human being chose/commissioned Paul to be an apostle. The phrase nor by man means that there was no intermediary between God/Jesus and Paul when he chose/commissioned Paul to be an apostle. On the road to Damascus, Jesus spoke directly to Paul without going through any human being. For example:
It was not men who made me an apostle. It was not an intermediary who made me an apostle.
(2) The focus is on the plural and singular nouns men and man. According to this interpretation, the first phrase means that no group of men (such as the church in Antioch or Jerusalem) chose/commissioned Paul to be an apostle. The second phrase means that no individual man (such as Ananias, Peter, Barnabas, or James) chose/commissioned him to be an apostle. For example:
?chosen? not by any group or individual (God’s Word)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). This is the interpretation that most English commentaries follow.
Some other ways to translate these phrases are:
?My call to be an apostle did? not ?come? from men. ?It did not come? through an intermediary
-or-
Men did not ?commission me to be an apostle? . ?Jesus? did not use an intermediary ?to chose/appoint me? .
1:1c
but: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between those (in 1:1b) who did not send Paul and God, who did send him. Languages have different ways to indicate this negative-positive type of contrast. Some of the ways are:
• With the conjunction “but.”
• With a conjunction other than “but.” This is a common way in English to show this type of contrast. For example:
rather
-or-
on the contrary
-or-
instead
• With no conjunction. For example:
b I was not chosen to be an apostle by human beings, nor was I sent from human beings. c I was made an apostle through Jesus Christ… (New Century Version)
by Jesus Christ and God the Father: This phrase means that Paul was chosen and sent through/by Jesus Christ and God the Father. His authority as an apostle came directly from God.
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Jesus Christ and God the Father ?chose me? ?to be an apostle?
Jesus Christ: In the phrase Jesus Christ, Jesus is a personal name, and Christ is his title. Christ is not the surname of Jesus.
One way to show this is:
Jesus the Christ/Messiah
In some languages, people say the title before the name. For example:
Christ Jesus
Christ: The title Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah.” The Jews used this title to refer to the person whom God had appointed and promised to send as king and savior.
Some ways to translate Christ are:
• Use a title or a descriptive phrase in your language that has the same meaning as Christ. For example:
the Messiah
-or-
the Promised Deliverer
-or-
the Rescuer/Ruler whom God appointed
• Transliterate Christ and include a phrase that explains the meaning. For example:
Christ, the appointed one
-or-
Cristo, the Savior whom God promised to send
-or-
Christ, he comes from God
• Transliterate Christ and indicate in some way that it is a title. For example:
the Christ
-or-
Kirisita
If you do not indicate the meaning of Christ in the text, you may want to include a footnote to explain it. Or you may want to explain the meaning in a glossary. For example:
The word/title “Christ” refers to the one whom God had promised to send. He would be both king/ruler and savior.
God the Father: In some languages, it may be more natural to translate God the Father as:
Father God
-or-
God our Father
1:1d
who raised Him from the dead: This is a relative clause. In some languages, a literal translation of this relative clause may imply a wrong meaning. It may imply that there is one God who raised Jesus from the dead, and another God who did not raise Jesus. If this is true in your language, you should translate this clause as a separate sentence. For example
He raised Him from the dead
-or-
He made Jesus to live again
General Comment on 1:1b–d
In some languages, it may be more natural to change the order of some of the clauses in 1:1b–d. For example:
1c I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, 1d who raised him from death. 1b No mere human chose or appointed me to this work. (Contemporary English Version)
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