BBE - Galatians - 1

1:1  Paul, an Apostle (not from men, and not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who made him come back from the dead),

1:2  And all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia:

1:3  Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, so that he might make us free from this present evil world, after the purpose of our God and Father:

1:5  To whom be the glory for ever and ever. So be it.

1:6  I am surprised that you are being so quickly turned away from him whose word came to you in the grace of Christ, to good news of a different sort;

1:7  Which is not another sort: only there are some who give you trouble, desiring to make changes in the good news of Christ.

1:8  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, were to be a preacher to you of good news other than that which we have given you, let there be a curse on him.

1:9  As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man is a preacher to you of any good news other than that which has been given to you, let there be a curse on him.

1:10  Am I now using arguments to men, or God? or is it my desire to give men pleasure? if I was still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

1:11  Because I say to you, my brothers, that the good news of which I was the preacher is not man's.

1:12  For I did not get it from man, and I was not given teaching in it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

1:13  For news has come to you of my way of life in the past in the Jews' religion, how I was cruel without measure to the church of God, and did great damage to it:

1:14  And I went farther in the Jews' religion than a number of my generation among my countrymen, having a more burning interest in the beliefs handed down from my fathers.

1:15  But when it was the good pleasure of God, by whom I was marked out even from my mother's body, through his grace,

1:16  To give the revelation of his Son in me, so that I might give the news of him to the Gentiles; then I did not take the opinion of flesh and blood,

1:17  And I went not up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia, and again I came back to Damascus.

1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Cephas, and was there with him fifteen days.

1:19  But of the other Apostles I saw only James, the Lord's brother.

1:20  Now God is witness that the things which I am writing to you are true.

1:21  Then I came to the parts of Syria and Cilicia.

1:22  And the churches of Judaea which were in Christ still had no knowledge of my face or person:

1:23  Only it came to their ears that he who at one time was cruel to us is now preaching the faith which before had been attacked by him;

1:24  And they gave glory to God in me.