In this Substack series, I am going to share my personal translation with my Substack readers—but a few heads up notes. #1: This is unrelated to my work with the New Living Translation. This is a “for my benefit” kind of translation, as I process the words Paul used and how they make sense then and now. #2: I want to give you advance notice that I will share my Galatians chapters 1-3 for free, but chs 4-6 will be only for the Engaging Scripture Superfans (=paid subscribers). #3: I would be happy to engage with brief comments and questions here on Substack; but I won’t be offering long explanations, because you can find all of that in my commentary. BTW: none of my published works or forthcoming works include this translation. This is a Substack exclusive!
Footnotes: they are a bit hard to distinguish from the verse numbers; FYI: the footnotes are in purple. If you hover over a number and it is hyperlinked, it is a footnote.
INDEX:
Galatians Chapter Two
The Big Jerusalem Meeting
1 Then, after fourteen years, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, purposefully inviting Titus along with us. 2 Now, it’s important to know that I went to Jerusalem after a special vision1 from God. And when we got there, I explained to them the gospel message which I preach to the gentiles. (I did this in private to the recognized leaders.) 3 I had to do this or else my past or current ministry might amount to nothing.
But in the end, not even Titus, who was with me, felt pressured to be circumcised, to turn his “Greekness”2 into Jewishness. 4 Now there were certain false brothers who were smuggled into the meeting, they snuck in to spy on the freedom which we enjoy in Christ Jesus, but they wanted to force us into slavery. 5 But we did not surrender to their conquest, even for a moment, we held strong so we could bring the truth of the gospel to you!
6 What about those leaders who are recognized as important? (By the way their status makes no difference to me, God looks past the exterior)—those recognized leaders had no problems with me. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I was entrusted with this gospel for the uncircumcised gentiles, just as Peter was commissioned for the circumcised Jews. 8 And that the One who acted through Peter’s apostleship for the sake of the circumcised Jews was also acting through me for the gentiles. 9 And when Jacob, Cephas, and John recognized the grace-commission3 given to me by God, these recognized “pillars” embraced a formal partnership with Barnabas and me, acknowledging that were called to the gentiles, and they to the circumcised Jews. 10 They only added one thing, that we remember and support the needs of the poor believers (something we were already eager to do).
Trouble in Antioch
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him—face to face—because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 For, before certain men associated with Jacob arrived, he regularly ate together with gentiles. But after they came, he stepped away from the gentiles and kept his distance, out of fear of the circumcision-advocates. 13 And the rest of the Jews there joined him in this hypocrisy, spreading even to Barnabas who bought into their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not living out the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone: “If you, a Jew, live like a gentile and not in the Jewish way, how can you now put pressure on gentiles to live in the Jewish way? 15 We are Jews, and not gentile “sinners.”
Living Jewishly Cannot Make One Right with God
16 And yet we know that no human can become right with God4 by performing works of the Law, except through faith in Christ Jesus; and even we—you and me—have put our faith in Christ Jesus, so we can become right with God by faith in Christ and not by performing work of the Law, because “no flesh can become right with God” by works of the Law.
17 Now if we pursue becoming right with God in Christ, and it becomes clear that we too are truly “sinners,” does that make Christ a servant of sin? Absolutely not! 18 But if I put back up the very structure that I tore down, I would then prove myself as a lawbreaker.
Life Comes from Christ Alone, Not the Law
19 As for me, I died to the Law through the Law, and as a result now I live to God.
I am crucified together with Christ. 20 The old me no longer lives (as that me), and Christ creates a whole new life by living inside of me. The life I now live in my body is a new life of faith in the Son of God who loved me and sacrificed his life to give me new life.
21 I dare not refuse the grace of God; for if becoming right with God was supposed to happen through the Law, then Christ’s death was worthless.
Special Vision: technically “revelation,” but I wanted to be more specific.
Greekness: The Greek text only says “being Greek,” so I felt the need to explain why this was significant.
Grace-Commission: The Greek is only charis (grace), but Paul will sometimes use this as a reference to a calling/commission (e.g., Rom 1:5).
Right with God: There are many approaches to Paul’s language of dikaioo and how to translate it; I emphasized the relational aspect of being right with God.
If you want to more depth in your study of Galatians, check out my other resources:
Looking forward to the NLT if it can reproduce this sort of clarity.