{N}1,{/}1 The text says, "an apostle sent not by human or by any human mediation..." Paul only expected the rest of the apostles to recognize him as one of them.

{N}1,{/}3 The manuscripts offer two texts:  Receive ... from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ ... and ...from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The second formula is common in Paul: Jesus is "the Lord", a divine person. The first form insists on the fact that the recognition of Jesus as Lord gives the Christian his identity before the Jews.

{N}1,{/}4 {C}To rescue us from this evil world{/}. Paul uses the word "eon" which designates a world and a time at the same time. The text says, "Pull us up from this evil world", meaning, from this existence that is so disappointing. It does not say that the world is evil.

{N}1,{/}11 The text says: "is not according to man".

{N}1,{/}16 The text says: "I did not seek advice from flesh and blood", meaning: I did not look for human wisdom nor the patronage of anyone. Absolute certainty of his vocation.

{N}1,{/}17 The verses 17-24 give us a version of Paul's itinerary which closely corresponds to the one given in Act 9,21-30. The similarity will be seen better if we place verses 22-23 before verse 18. The Acts did not speak of Arabia, which is mentioned here in Gal verse 17. It probably means the desert to the east of Damascus (with the city of Palmyra) often called the Arabia of Damascus.

{N}1,{/}19 Peter clearly has the priority. It is very unlikely that {C}James the brother of the Lord{/}, son of Mary, "sister" of the mother of Jesus and the wife of Clopas, (see Mk 6,3; Mt 27,56; Lk 24,10 and Jn 19,25), is the same James son of Alpheus, one of the Twelve, whose trace is suddenly lost. With all likelihood, he belonged to the group of relatives and acquaintances of Jesus, labeled as "the Lord's brothers" and he knew how to impose himself in Jerusalem's community. Even in the christian communities some criteria have more value than those in the Gospel (Mk 3,33). Recognized as an apostle, James had authority over the churches of Palestine and Syria and even Cilicia.

{N}2,{/}15 The text says: "We are Jews by birth; we are not pagan sinners". The whole attitude of the Jews in regard to the non-Jews who came to join them is supported by this distinction. The "pagans" (also called Gentiles or goys, or the "nations") were carriers of an impurity. The goy who became a proselyte and became integrated in the jewish community received a baptism to cleanse that dirtiness. Some of these conceptions are found also in Eph 2,11 and Col 2,11 and do not differ very much from the idea that many people had in the past with regard to the original sin and the baptism.

{N}2,{/}16 Not the faith "in Christ" but rather the faith "of Christ", meaning, the christian faith.

{N}2,{/}19 Here the solution is found to some of the contradictions among the different words of Jesus relating to the Law: Mt 5,17 and Lk 16,16. The Law itself prepared the believer for entrance into a new relationship with God, in a new Covenant, and it was in charge of confirming the change in the interpretation that should be given to the ancient texts after the resurrection of Jesus.

{N}4,{/}9 This verse should be related to 1Cor 8,2. Paul makes a rectification that has been imposed on him by his own spiritual experience. When someone speaks about knowing God, he remains on the intellectual plane, and whether one wants to or not, finishes by treating God as an object of knowledge. Actually, everything we can say of him falls apart as soon as we let ourselves be captured by our presence before God and that of God in us: then one can only sink into the certainty that he has been known by God and that is under his look. From that moment, as many have said, nothing else counts: neither the present nor the future, neither heaven nor hell ... Rom 8,38-39 goes in this sense. These words by Paul remind us that the ultimate object of the biblical study can never be knowledge, even being of God, but rather a consciousness each time stronger and more efficient of his action over us.

{N}5,{/}1 {N}THERE IS NO PROCLAMATION WITHOUT RISKS{/}
{C}Then I would no longer be persecuted{/} (v. 11). The person who writes these letters is the same Paul whom the Jews persecuted from one city to another. And if he was being persecuted it was not by chance. It is probable that his strict character attracted many enemies, but this does not explain what is more important.
Let us remember that God had chosen him as an apostle of the greek-roman world, but it would have been impossible to evangelize that pagan world in so few years without having been supported in the countless jewish communities that had been formed centuries ago in all of the cities of the Empire. In the centuries before Jesus the immigrant Jews and their communities had prepared the way for the diffusion of the Word of God, establishing with their environment ties sometimes aggressive, but at the same time gaining friendships and winning adepts.
Paul then had to find, within these jewish communities, the first "Greeks" who later would win others. But, what would happen if the majority of the Jews, such as those in Palestine, refused to believe? He could then try to avoid confrontations, presenting Christians discreetly as a jewish sect that followed the person and the teachings of Jesus, and gaining the sympathy of some of the non-Jews without offending the Jews. Yet those, even a minority, had such strength within the Roman Empire that their hostility would attract the most serious dangers upon the Church and they would even be able to muzzle the christian apostolate. Would it not be more prudent to remain inside the synagogue?
But Paul prefers to run the risk. He urges the Jews to convert, to recognize Him in whom God's promises have been carried out, and if they refuse to believe, Paul will separate from them. This painful rupture will be the reason for the first persecutions against the Christians. Paul himself will be a victim of these persecutions. But precisely this decisive attitude and firm and clear affirmation of Jesus Lord and Savior, will give the first christian communities their apostolic dynamism.
It is true that this intrepid preaching includes a certain form of violence which now is easier for us to be aware of, but not for this should we ignore or scorn the path that Paul chose, which was the same one as Jesus himself.

