Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

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).
5. Galatians 1:4 The present evil age: that is, the age in which sin reigns and Jesus Christ has not been accepted.
6. Galatians 1:5 For similar doxologies, see Rom 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; Eph 3:21; 1 Tim 1:17.
7. Galatians 1:6 Paul stresses that there is only one Gospel, one revelation, and one apostolate—all of which he shares with the original apostles. He discussed this apostolate and what it means first at Jerusalem with Peter (Cephas) and James and then at Antioch with Peter.
8. Galatians 1:9 Accursed: “anathema,” a term signifying condemnation.
9. Galatians 1:11 For Paul, everything begins with the event that took place on the road to Damascus. He does not describe it here but expresses its meaning. It was for him the revelation of the risen Lord in all his glory as well as the investiture that established Paul as the prophet of the last times, charged by divine authority to proclaim the mystery of salvation and to introduce the Gentiles into the new world where the Spirit is at work (see Is 49:1; Jer 1:5). This mission is clear; Paul has no need of consulting with “flesh and blood,” i.e., to embrace other human considerations or instructions. His destiny is laid out by the Lord himself.
10. Galatians 1:13 Judaism: i.e., the Jewish faith and way of life that developed during the intertestamental period. The word comes from “Judah,” the name of the southern kingdom that existed from the tenth to the sixth century B.C. and ended with the Babylonian Exile.
11. Galatians 1:16 Flesh and blood: a phrase that in the New Testament always connotes human weakness or ignorance (see Mt 16:17; 1 Cor 15:50; Eph 6:12). Paul’s teaching came not from any human person but directly from God.
12. Galatians 1:18 Paul visited Jerusalem to become acquainted with the head of the apostles (see Acts 9:23-31), whom he calls “Cephas” (Aramaic for “Rock”), the name given to Peter by Jesus himself (see Mt 16:18). He then went to Syria and Cilicia (including his hometown Tarsus) and probably did some evangelizing there. He was known to Christians in Judea only by reputation.
13. Galatians 1:19 James, the brother of the Lord: i.e., the cousin of Jesus, who was head of the Church of Jerusalem after the scattering of the apostles; see Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18.
14. Galatians 1:21 For Paul’s time in Syria (Antioch) and Cilicia (Tarsus) see Acts 9:30; 11:25-26.
15. Galatians 2:1 Despite slight differences of detail, the passage speaks of the same assembly in Jerusalem that Acts 15 narrates: the same apostles, the same opponents, the same discussions, the same results in essentials. Paul was with Barnabas, who had an important place in the early stages of his mission (Acts 9:27; 11:25; 13:2; 15:2). When Paul wrote this Letter, about seven years after the events, he was completing the collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem; this collection was for him a sign of unity (see 1 Cor 16:1; 2 Cor 8–9).
16. Galatians 2:11 The Council of Jerusalem had acknowledged the freedom of Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law, but the question of table fellowship between Jewish Christians and Gentile believers was not yet settled. When Peter came to Antioch, he at first ate with non-Jews, since faith in Christ brings all people together. But when Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem, he gave up doing so. Paul rebuked Peter’s inconsistency in an important religious matter. Peter’s behavior was clearly wrong, and even grievously wrong if the table fellowship in question involved the meal at the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor 11:17-25). The reason why Jews would not eat with Gentiles was that they were considered to be unclean. If Peter was refusing to eat with Gentile Christians, he was implicitly saying that they were still in sin, which would mean that their Baptism had no effect, which meant that their cross did not redeem them.
17. Galatians 2:12 Some people came from James: i.e., Jewish Christians who still believed in the Law and in circumcision (Acts 15:1, 5; 21:20f) and either came from James or claimed to be from him. Circumcised: i.e., Jewish Christians.
18. Galatians 2:13 Jews: i.e., Jewish Christians.
19. Galatians 2:15 Paul has explained his view of the apostolate; almost by degrees he now passes on to the defense of freedom for the new converts. He reverses the accusation brought against him. Indeed, one can falsify the Gospel by making the practices of the Jewish Law a prerequisite for becoming Christian. Faith in Christ, and it alone, saves believers and sets them free. Paul sketches his thinking about Baptism and about the indissoluble bond that must exist between faith and the Sacrament.
20. Galatians 2:15 Law or faith: the famous antithesis. Two religious outlooks are opposed: to accept the one is to reject the other. Christianity’s purpose is not to produce a better Law but to offer faith. On one side, there is an objective, external norm of good and evil, and even a slavery; on the other side, there is a principle of internal action, a spiritual dynamism, a call, even more the very life of God in the heart of human beings, a freedom.

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    Christianity cannot shut itself up in a code, no matter how noble; it is a Person, and Christians are those in whom Christ lives (Gal 2:20) and the Spirit acts (Gal 4:6). If there is a moral for Christians, a “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), it can only be the living and free expression of the love that God inspires in the human heart: “You shall love!”

21. Galatians 2:15 The baptized must not look elsewhere: Christ has become their very self, and faith lays hold of and permeates their entire life. This statement of Paul is at the same time a self-revelation of a highly mystical nature.
22. Galatians 2:15 Gentile sinners: a usual formula for describing pagans as opposed to the chosen people. In this passage it has no pejorative meaning; Paul will in fact say that Jews and Gentiles alike are sinners and in need of redemption (see Rom 3:23f).
23. Galatians 2:19 I died to the Law: the formula is obscure because it is overly concise. Christians have died to the Law because it left them frustrated since it helped them recognize their brokenness but did not liberate them from that brokenness. Only the love of Jesus can do that.