** The Letter to the Galatians **
[Galatians 1] {1:1} Paul, an Apostle, not from men and not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, {1:2} and all the brothers who are with me: to the churches of Galatia.
{1:3} Grace and peace to you from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, {1:4} who gave himself on behalf of our sins, so that he might deliver us from this present wicked age, according to the will of God our Father.
{1:5} To him is glory forever and ever. Amen. {1:6} I wonder that you have been so quickly transferred, from him who called you into the grace of Christ, over to another gospel. {1:7} For there is no other, except that there are some persons who disturb you and who want to overturn the Gospel of Christ. {1:8} But if anyone, even we ourselves or an Angel from Heaven, were to preach to you a gospel other than the one that we have preached to you, let him be anathema. {1:9} Just as we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone has preached a gospel to you, other than that which you have received, let him be anathema. {1:10} For am I now persuading men, or God? Or, am I seeking to please men? If I still were pleasing men, then I would not be a servant of Christ. {1:11} For I would have you understand, brothers, that the Gospel which has been preached by me is not according to man. {1:12} And I did not receive it from man, nor did I learn it, except through the revelation of Jesus Christ. {1:13} For you have heard of my former behavior within Judaism: that, beyond measure, I persecuted the Church of God and fought against Her. {1:14} And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my equals among my own kind, having proven to be more abundant in zeal toward the traditions of my fathers. {1:15} But, when it pleased him who, from my mother’s womb, had set me apart, and who has called me by his grace, {1:16} to reveal his Son within me, so that I might evangelize him among the Gentiles, I did not next seek the consent of flesh and blood. {1:17} Neither did I go to Jerusalem, to those who were Apostles before me. Instead, I went into Arabia, and next I returned to Damascus. {1:18} And then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter; and I stayed with him for fifteen days. {1:19} But I saw none of the other Apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord. {1:20} Now what I am writing to you: behold, before God, I am not lying.
{1:21} Next, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
{1:22} But I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. {1:23} For they had only heard that: “He, who formerly persecuted us, now evangelizes the faith which he once fought.” {1:24} And they glorified God in me.
[Galatians 2] {2:1} Next, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, taking with me Barnabas and Titus.
{2:2} And I went up according to revelation, and I debated with them about the Gospel that I am preaching among the Gentiles, but away from those who were pretending to be something, lest perhaps I might run, or have run, in vain.
{2:3} But even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Gentile, was not compelled to be circumcised, {2:4} but only because of false brothers, who were brought in unknowingly. They entered secretly to spy on our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might reduce us to servitude. {2:5} We did not yield to them in subjection, even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you, {2:6} and away from those who were pretending to be something. (Whatever they might have been once, it means nothing to me. God does not accept the reputation of a man.) And those who were claiming to be something had nothing to offer me.
{2:7} But it was to the contrary, since they had seen that the Gospel to the uncircumcised was entrusted to me, just as the Gospel to the circumcised was entrusted to Peter.
{2:8} For he who was working the Apostleship to the circumcised in Peter, was also working in me among the Gentiles. {2:9} And so, when they had acknowledged the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who seemed like pillars, gave to me and to Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we would go to the Gentiles, while they went to the circumcised, {2:10} asking only that we should be mindful of the poor, which was the very thing that I also was solicitous to do. {2:11} But when Cephas had arrived at Antioch, I stood against him to his face, because he was blameworthy. {2:12} For before certain ones arrived from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they had arrived, he drew apart and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
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