The Gospel Received by Direct Revelation From the Lord (Galatians 1:11–16)

The false teachers, in order to have greater success among the Galatians, were diminishing Saint Paul in their eyes, saying that he did not see the Lord Himself, but learned the Gospel from other Apostles, and afterward departed from them and, having composed his own teaching about the unnecessary nature of the Mosaic Law, began to teach in disagreement with them; and moreover, in order to conceal their different teaching, when he was with the other Apostles, he speaks and acts as they do, that is, he condescends to the works of the Law. Against such wrongful insinuations Saint Paul directs his speech at the beginning; for otherwise the prejudices aroused in the souls of the Galatians against him would prevent them from accepting the proofs of the truth of Gospel teaching which he intended to offer them on the basis of Divine Scripture and a rational understanding of the conditions for the salvation of fallen man. He says: 1) that the Gospel which I preach was not received by me from men, nor did I myself devise it, but was taught it by the Lord Himself (Gal. 1:11–16); 2) that from other Apostles, or from believers in general, I could not have learned this Gospel, as you see from the circumstances of my life (Gal. 1:17–24); 3) that I teach not at all differently from the other Apostles; on the contrary, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas for exactly this teaching (Gal. 2:1–10); 4) that I do not at all adapt myself to others; on the contrary, I directly opposed even Peter when I saw that he was acting in complete disagreement with the Gospel (Gal. 2:11–21). By these evident proofs Saint Paul dispelled the wrongful insinuations against himself and restored his dignity as a true teacher. His goal, however, is not to defend himself, but to restore in the hearts of the Galatians the conviction that the Gospel preached to them is from above, and therefore is unquestionably true and cannot be changed. Saint Chrysostom, as has already been noted, thus understands that Saint Paul recounts the circumstances of his life in order to prove that he preaches the truth. “He could have,” continues the holy Father, “drawn proofs from another source to confirm the truth of his preaching, such as: from signs… miracles… but he arranges his discourse in another way.”

1) On the direct revelation of the Gospel to Saint Paul by the Lord Himself (Gal. 1:11–16)

Saint Paul conveys this truth: a) by his Apostolic authority “I assure you”… (Gal. 1:11–12) and confirms it: b) by his sudden change from persecutor to defender (Gal. 1:13–16). So Saint Chrysostom regards this: “See how he proves from both what is highest and what is lowest that he was a disciple of Jesus Christ, who Himself, without human mediation, deigned to reveal to him the understanding of all things. How else would you prove to unbelievers that God Himself revealed to you those unspeakable mysteries without human mediation? This is proved, he says, by my former way of life and thoughts and my sudden change. For if God had not revealed those mysteries to me, I could not have changed so suddenly and quickly. With those learning from men, when they hold their contrary opinions firmly and fervently, much time and effort are needed for them to be persuaded otherwise. Therefore, whoever changed so suddenly and, being at the very height of folly, came to such genuine awareness; it is evident that by God’s revelation and instruction he so suddenly returned to sound mind. This is what caused him to mention his former life and conversion, and to call them as witnesses to what happened with him.”

a) He proves this by his authority (Gal. 1:11–12)

Gal. 1:11–12. For I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

By these words the Apostle “opens the beginning of the Epistle itself and says that he learned the Gospel from the Son of God through a revelation, when after the resurrection He was already in heaven, and that what he learned corresponds to the greatness of Him from whom he learned” (Ambrosiaster).

“I assure you”—a solemn affirmation of the truth of his word. It is given to understand that what is about to be said is not subject to doubt, that he vouches for it with all his authority. It was customary for Saint Paul to speak thus, and he uses this form of speech especially in important matters, as for instance in his Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:1 and following), where he briefly sets forth the essential points of the Gospel. For us it is enough to hear such a word from the lips of the Apostles to believe that their teaching is indeed all from above. For they were bearers of the full truth and gave themselves wholly as a sacrifice to it. Blessed Jerome makes precisely such a deduction at this point: “Is the Gospel, received by Churches throughout the world, divine or human? We answer that when those who say of themselves: either ‘Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3) and: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20), when such speak, then it is not they who speak, but the Lord Himself speaks through them. Therefore, when Paul and Peter speak, they deliver the divine Gospel, not the human.”

“Brethren”. Although he did not praise them and knew that they had opened their ears to the words of false brothers; yet he still regards them as remaining in communion with him and writes to them as to brothers in Christ, certainly in hope of their correction and as an exhortation to it. Error does not yet separate the one who errs from the community of those who hold the truth; obstinacy in it does.

“The Gospel which was preached by me”—not as I everywhere preach it, but as I preached it to you, in the form, sense, and meaning as I conveyed it to you and as you received it; similarly as he said earlier (Gal. 1:8–9): we have preached, you have received. The Apostle’s view is limited to the Galatians alone, and he directs them to concentrate all attention on what they were taught. For us, however, this is all one, as if the Apostle had said: the Gospel which I preach; for he preached the same everywhere.

“Which is not according to man”. If one looks at it abstractly, considering only its content, one cannot fail to conclude that it is not the work of human wisdom. This expression is similar to how we speak: in human fashion, in angelic fashion, in divine fashion. Every class of beings has its own circle of properties inherent to it, of powers and actions, of means and ends, of actualities and possibilities. Based on these, one can determine in advance whether something belongs to a certain class or not. This is what Saint Paul is now saying—that the Gospel he preached is not from the sphere of human affairs, is not within the power of man, and one cannot expect that man could devise it with his mind. “It is not composed according to human reasoning” (blessed Theodoret). “Not according to man, for it is according to God, that is, according to God’s revelation” (Ecumenius).

“For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it”. After: “not according to man”—one would expect: but according to God or according to the revelation of Jesus Christ. But Saint Paul had a special reason to set before the Galatians that the Gospel is not only not human, but also, being divine, came to him not through man, but was received by him personally from the Lord Himself. Without this assurance the Galatians could still be swayed by the thought that Saint Paul received the Gospel from others, reinterpreted it in his own way, and teaches differently from how the Lord Himself taught the first Apostles (Saint John of Damascus, Ecumenius). In refutation of this they would have needed to check it against how the eyewitnesses of the Word taught. But when Saint Paul assured them that he received the Gospel not from man but directly from the Lord: the thoughts of the Galatians had to take on another direction. It became evident that if the Lord commanded to teach thus, then Saint Paul could not teach otherwise. Whatever might now be said about the first Apostles, for the Galatians it was manifest that Paul’s word is God’s word, that there was no need to verify it with those living so far from them, for the Lord is everywhere one and the same, that they hear the truth as if directly from the Lord Himself.

In the words: “received”—and: “taught”—some see one and the same thought, while others see an indication of different degrees of understanding and assimilation of the Gospel: in: “received”—initial instruction, acceptance of truth in general outlines; in: “taught”—penetration into the circle of revealed truths, complete study of them. So blessed Jerome: “Between ‘receive’ and ‘be taught’ there is such a distinction, that the Gospel is received by him to whom it is imparted for the first time, who is brought only to faith in it; but is taught he who knows all its mysteries.” Others see in: “taught”—personal study of the Gospel being revealed—and extend it to the point that in: “taught”—they see a contrast to “received.” We have two human sources of knowledge: some things we receive from others, to other things we arrive ourselves through our own reasoning. Saint Paul denies both sources for his Gospel. He speaks as if: I did not receive it ready-made from man, nor did I myself devise it; in which case: “nor was I taught”—would be the same as: I did not invent it myself. This last thought is very important in that it rejects the speculation of those who suppose that the teaching of Saint Paul is his personal understanding of the Gospel. Here he assures us that his Gospel in its complete composition is from above, nothing has been contributed to it from his own personal reasoning, although of course one cannot deny such reasoning in the further applications of revealed truths, though even these occurred in his divinely-graced mind not without the guidance and guardianship of the Spirit of God.

It seems to some that in the phrase “nor I” is heard: for I too did not receive from man; that is: I like the other Apostles. But the flow of the discourse does not support this; although the thought is not far from the intention with which Saint Paul speaks these words.

“But through a revelation of Jesus Christ”—that is, I received the Gospel directly from the Lord Himself. Our Slavonic translation directs attention to the manifestation of the Lord to Saint Paul on his way to Damascus and gives to understand that at this moment he grasped the power of the Gospel, although at this time he heard only: “I am Jesus: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks”—and: “Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that you are appointed to do” (Acts 9:5–6). So blessed Jerome: “here he points to that revelation, when on his way to Damascus he was deemed worthy to hear the voice of Christ on the way, and when he, being blinded, saw the true Light of the world.” And Theodoret: “very wisely (Saint Paul) used the word ‘revelation’; for the Master Christ had ascended to heaven at that time and was no longer seen in the same way by everyone; but He appeared to him on the way and deemed him worthy of the ministry of preaching.‘But meanwhile one cannot fail to see that here only the seed of the Gospel was laid, which was destined to develop into the whole tree of New Testament truths. Although for a Jew, especially a learned one, much is already said by the very fact that Jesus Christ is indeed what is proclaimed about Him—the promised Savior of the world to Israel. At this point all those characteristics should of themselves have occurred to him in which the person of the Messiah and His Kingdom are presented in the Old Testament. But it is evident that this alone was not enough for complete understanding of the Gospel. There are many truths in New Testament teaching that cannot be known from Old Testament Scripture alone. It was necessary to be taught by someone. Saint Paul says that he was taught this by the Lord Himself. If the manifestation at Damascus could not teach him everything—and from men Saint Paul learned nothing—then one must acknowledge that the manifestations of the Lord to Paul continued afterward, and through these were revealed to him all the mysteries of the Gospel. Why here by’revelation” one must understand revelation in general. The Apostle does not indicate when and how these revelations came to him; but that they were, on this he refers more than once in his Epistles. Thus, for example, about Christ’s second coming and what will happen then with the living and the dead, he speaks to the Thessalonians “by the word of the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15), of course in the sense that he heard this word from the Lord Himself; about the Last Supper he spoke the same way, as he himself “received from the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:23); judging from this, and there, where before setting forth the essence of the Gospel he said: “what I also delivered”—one must understand that he received this from the Lord (1 Cor. 15:3). And that rapture to the third heaven, about which he, recalling in the Epistle to the Corinthians written some year after the Epistle to the Galatians, wrote that it happened fourteen years prior (see: 2 Cor. 12:2), had already occurred before Saint Paul wrote this Epistle, and in general falls on the first years after his conversion to the Lord. All such indications obligate us to acknowledge that the Gospel entirely, in all its composition, was revealed to Saint Paul directly by the Lord Himself, and that consequently he is a full immediate disciple of the Lord, like all the first Apostles.

He speaks as if: “The same One who taught the other Apostles with Peter revealed the Gospel to me” (blessed Theophylact). He speaks of this in order “to set against the slanders of his opponents, making known that in this too he is not inferior to the other Apostles. For as they received the teaching from the Lord Himself, so he too had Him as his teacher” (blessed Theodoret).