Galatians 1:11-24, Gospel from Revelation

I recently read the story of a woman, Olive Oatman, whose Mormon family left Illinois for Oregon on the strength of a revelation to their leader that God was going to give this land to them and prosper them there. The journey was very difficult and dangerous and on the way the leader got another revelation that contradicted the previous one and he and several of the families split off from this woman’s family. Her family was continuing to Oregon when native Americans attacked and killed all of her family except her and her younger sister, whom they took as slaves. She grew up in an entirely new culture, learned their language, and spent many years with them before being returned to her culture. How do you evaluate the claim of the revelation that led her and her family on this journey? How do you evaluate Paul’s claim that the gospel he preached was revealed to him by Christ?

11 Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that was preached by me, that it is not from men. 12 For neither did I receive it from a man nor was I taught it, but I received it by a revelation from Jesus Christ. 13 You heard about my life when I was in Judaism, how extremely I persecuted the church of God and sought to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, because I was exceptionally zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach the gospel to the Gentiles, I immediately did not consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those made apostles before me, but went to Arabia and then returned back to Damascus. 18 Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 I did not see any other apostles except James, the brother of our Lord. 20 In what I am writing to you I swear before God that I am not lying. 21 Then I came to the region of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea that are in Christ, 23 they had only heard that “the one who persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God on account of me. (Galatians 1:11-24)

It is apparent that those preaching the false gospel which has infected the Galatian churches have accused Paul of getting his gospel from other humans.

By “mirror reading” we can legitimately infer from Paul’s focus and tone in 1:10-2:21 that the opponents of Paul were bent on demonstrating that Paul’s gospel ultimately derived from Jerusalem and from the early Jewish apostles who operated out of Jerusalem. By proving that each presentation of the gospel derived from Jerusalem, including Paul’s, the Judaizers could then argue that they, too, represented Jerusalem. Perhaps they even argued that they represented the latest expression of the gospel from Jerusalem. Thus they could correct, modify, and supplement Paul’s gospel with what they would argue to be the correct tradition. In fact, they may have argued that Paul’s gospel was an abbreviated form of the true gospel; they would then have continued their argument that Paul abbreviated the authentic gospel in order to make it more attractive to the Gentiles in Galatia. (NIV Life Application Commentary)

Paul used to be a persecutor of the church, living out his zeal for the Judaism of his fathers by extreme opposition to the new sect of Jews who followed Jesus of Nazareth. He became a heretic hunter. Paul was as far from the gospel as one could be. But God purposed to convert him to Christ, what he terms revealing God’s Son in Paul. Paul was going from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest Christians when this happened (Acts 9), but instead of going back to Jerusalem, where the church had been born, and visiting with the church’s leaders, those made apostles before him, Paul went to Arabia “i.e., Nabatea, ruled by King Aretas IV, alluded to in 2 Cor. 11:32–33” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary). In other words, Paul had no contact with the Jerusalem church or its leaders, but preached the gospel revealed to him by Christ. And his particular field of ministry was preaching to the Gentiles.

When Paul did go to Jerusalem, it wasn’t to get the gospel, but to “visit” Cephas (the apostle Peter), and that was only for fifteen days. Paul also saw James, Jesus’ brother. Neither one called Paul on the carpet for the gospel he was preaching. The time Paul spent just prior to his coming to the Galatians and preaching the gospel to them, was spent in Cilicia and Syria.

Tarsus, Paul’s hometown, was in Cilicia. Barnabas went there to get Paul when he needed his help for the work in Antioch (Ac 11:25), the capital of Syria. There Paul carried on a long and fruitful ministry. (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

Paul was so absent from Jerusalem and Judea that people only knew of him by reports of his conversion. Paul did not get his gospel from Jerusalem, but by Revelation. There was nothing wrong with getting the gospel from Jerusalem, but Paul did not.

If Paul’s gospel were indirect (from Jerusalem), it could still be correct but it would need to be confirmed by Jerusalem. But since Paul’s gospel is a direct revelation, it does not need to be confirmed by Jerusalem. In fact, the gospel emanating from Jerusalem could be wrong and, to reverse the trend, in need of being confirmed by the Pauline expression. (NIV Life Application Commentary)

Unless the Galatians are willing to accuse Paul of lying, it is plain that the false teachers are incorrect that Paul got his gospel from Jerusalem and perhaps modified it some for preaching to Gentiles.