Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Galatians · About this commentary
An Apostle Not from Men
Galatians 1:1-2
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— · WEB
The greeting spends its first breath denying three sources of authority, because the argument to come depends on where the message came from.
Paul normally identifies himself and moves on. Here the self-description carries a triple denial before it carries anything positive: not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father.
The two prepositions are doing separate work. From names an origin, through names a channel — so the sentence rules out both a human source and a human intermediary, and then supplies the alternative in the same shape. This is the argument of the next two chapters compressed into a clause, and Paul will spend forty verses proving it with a chronology.
The clause that follows the denial is a surprise: who raised him from the dead. Nothing in the letter's dispute concerns the resurrection, and Paul mentions it anyway, in the first sentence. The commission he is defending was given by someone the grave did not keep.
Verse 2 adds all the brothers who are with me — the letter is not a private opinion — and then names the recipients with unusual coldness. Every other letter Paul sends to a group calls it a church of God, or saints, or beloved. This one says the assemblies of Galatia and nothing more — the province, GALATIA , and not a word about what they are.
And nothing follows it. Every other letter he writes has a thanksgiving next; this one has I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Galatians 1:6. The omission is audible.
settled What this mark means