Chapter 1 – One God Translation

Galatians

   1 From Paul, an Apostle, not appointed by a group or individual, but through Jesus Messiah and God who is the Father,[1139] the One who raised him from the dead; 2 and from all the brothers and sisters who are with me, to the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God who is the Father and from our lord[1140] Jesus Messiah, 4 who gave himself[1141] for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age,[1142] according to the will of our God and Father. 5 To Him be the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.
    6 I am astonished and appalled at how quickly you are deserting the One who called you in the grace of Messiah, for another Gospel. [1143] 7 Not that there really is another Gospel — but some people are agitating you and aiming to distort the Gospel of Messiah. [1144] 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven were to preach a different Gospel from the one we preached to you, let him be cursed. [1145] 9 As we have said before, I now repeat: if anyone preaches to you a different Gospel from the one you accepted, let him be cursed! [1146]
    10 Am I now trying to win the approval of people, or of God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Messiah. 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel I preached is not a human idea. 12 I did not receive it from people, nor did they teach it to me, but it came through a revelation from Jesus Messiah. [1147]
    13 For you have heard of my previous lifestyle in Judaism, how I fanatically persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many other Jews my age, as I was so zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when the One who had set me apart even before I was born and called me through His grace was pleased 16 to reveal His Son to me and in me, so that I could announce his Gospel[1148] to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with any people. 17 Nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me, but I first went away to Arabia, and then I returned to Damascus.
    18 It was only after three years that I went to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 I saw no other Apostles except James, the lord’s brother. 20 With God as my witness, what I am writing to you is not a lie. 21 I then went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was still not personally known to the churches of Judea in Messiah. 23 They had only heard that the person who had been persecuting them was now proclaiming the Gospel of the faith which earlier he had tried to destroy. 24 And they praised God because of[1149] me.

Galatians

[1139]

This easy and fundamental unitarian creed appears at the beginning of Paul’s letters. 1300 times the word “God” in the NT means the Father and “God” never in the Bible means a triune God.

[1140]

In order to remind readers of the critical difference between the lord Messiah (Lk. 2:11) and the one Lord God of biblical unitary monotheism, I have chosen to write “lord” (with lower-case “l”) to emphasize constantly that the title “lord” for Jesus is derived from the all-important defining verse in Ps. 110:1, where the second lord is adoni in Hebrew and not the Lord God (Adonai). The crucial difference comes in to the Greek of the LXX and the NT Scripture as kurios mou, “my lord.” This is the important Messianic title for royal (and other) superiors and for Jesus as Messiah. Adoni (my lord) is in all of its 195 occurrences never a title of Deity. When YHVH is found in a single verse contrasted with adoni (my lord), the distinction is invariably clear in the Greek also, i.e. kurios (YHVH) and kurios mou (my lord, adoni). The evidence can be investigated throughout the Hebrew Bible where Adonai (about 450 times) is the Lord God (very occasionally an angel representing Him, Gen. 18:3) and adoni is a non-Deity superior human person, occasionally an angel.

[1141]

No one in Scripture imagined that God could die, since He is immortal (1 Tim. 6:16). The fact that the Son of God gave up his life, died (cp. v. 1, where he came back from death) proves that he was a human being. In his first paragraph Paul has called the Father God three times (there are 1300 occurrences of the word God to mean the Father in the NT). This is the obvious and pervasive evidence of a unitary monotheistic, not Trinitarian definition of God. Of 11,500 of the words for “God,” none of them can be shown to mean a Triune God. Jesus affirmed the unitary monotheism of Scripture in Mk. 12:29-34.

[1142]

The present evil system dominated by Satan who is “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) will continue until the future arrival of Jesus to replace it by the Kingdom of God on earth. The present evil system, the present “heaven and earth” (Mt. 24:35) will pass away and be replaced by the new world order of the Kingdom of God on earth at Christ’s future coming.

[1143]

That is, a “gospel” other than the one and only Gospel about the Kingdom as first preached by Jesus in Mark 1:14-15; cp. Heb. 2:3, and then by Paul and other evangelists (Acts 8:12; 19:8; 20:24-25; 28:23, 30, 31).

[1144]

This means not only the Gospel about Jesus, that he died and rose, but also the Gospel Jesus preached! It is necessary in our time to make this clear every time the Gospel is mentioned, since in current thinking it has lost a great portion of its biblical content as the Gospel about the Kingdom.

[1145]

“Let him be anathema.”

[1146]

If Paul had preached a Gospel different from the Kingdom of God Gospel announced by Jesus he would have put himself under his own curse for falsifying the Gospel! He always preached the Kingdom as Gospel (Acts 19:8; 20:24-25; 28:23, 30, 31).

[1147]

Paul’s creedal statement in 1 Tim. 2:5 is simple and clear: “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Messiah Jesus.” Paul’s point in Galatians is that the Gospel is a message from God mediated by His unique agent and mediator, Jesus the Messiah. Paul’s powerful warning against ultimate error is expressed in 1 Tim. 6:3. Loss of the words/teaching of Jesus means loss of the Christian faith (cp. 2 John 7-9).

[1148]

I.e. preach his Gospel, the one Gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mk. 1:14-15; Lk. 4:43; Acts 8:12; 19:8; 20:24-25; 28:23, 30, 31).

[1149]

A causal sense (“because of”) for the preposition en is appropriate here.