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Galatians 01 General Notes
Structure and formatting
The introduction to this letter is slightly different than Paul's other letters. It states, "I am not an apostle from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." This statement is probably included because there were false teachers who opposed Paul and tried to undermine his authority.
Special concepts in this chapter
Heresy
There is only one gospel that is capable of saving a person eternally. This is the true, biblical gospel, any other version of the gospel is under condemnation from God. Those who teach a false gospel are considered accursed and it is possible that they are outside of salvation. They should be treated as non-Christians. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/save, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/eternity, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/goodnews, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/condemn and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/curse)
Paul's qualifications
There was an issue in the early church whereby certain people taught that Gentiles needed to obey the law of Moses. In this chapter, Paul gives his credentials or qualifications as an "exemplary" Jew in order to refute this teaching (1:11-24). As a Jew, and the apostle to the Gentile people, Paul is uniquely qualified to address this issue. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/lawofmoses)
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
"You are turning so quickly to a different gospel"
Galatians was probably the first letter Paul wrote, making this line one of the first recorded statements about the early church. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit)
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