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Galatians

About this book
Chapter 1

1 From Paul, an apostle (not from men, nor by human agency, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead) 2 and all the brothers with me, to the churches of Galatia. 3 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever! Amen.⁠ 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel— 7 not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! 9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! 10 Am I now trying to gain 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 a slave of Christ! 11 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it or learn it from any human source; instead I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.⁠ 15 But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased⁠ 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, but right away I departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and get information from him, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you that, before God, I am not lying about what I am writing to you! 21 Afterward I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 But I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.⁠ 23 They were only hearing, “The one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 So they glorified God because of me.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jeremiah 1:5 and Galatians 1:15

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

In Galatians, Paul describes himself as a prophet with a commission, echoing texts such as Jeremiah where the prophet is set apart from the womb for a mission to the nations, attempting to establish his own authority in continuity with the Hebrew Bible.

Passages

Jeremiah 1:5

Hebrew Bible
3 It also came in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile in the fifth month of that year. 4 The Lord’s message came to me, 5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” 6 I answered, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, Really I do not know how to speak well enough for that, for I am too young.” 7 The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

Galatians 1:15

New Testament
13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, but right away I departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.
48–55 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Galatians

References

"... It can hardly be doubted that in Galatians 1:15–16 the apostle is alluding to Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”) and Isaiah 49:1-6 (“Pay attention, you Gentiles . . . from my mother’s womb he called my name”). In the latter passage the Servant is further told, “I have made you a covenant for a race, a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth” (49:6 LXX, quoted in Acts 13:47). In the view of some scholars, the allusion to Isaiah indicates that Paul was selected to continue the work of the Servant (compare Romans 15:21). In any case, Paul must have seen his own ministry as integrally related to the work of the Old Testament prophets, and in some sense even as its culmination ..."
Moisés Silva, "Galatians" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 1810.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jeremiah 1:5 and Galatians 1:15

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