Galatians 1:16
That I might preach Him among the Gentiles
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood,
To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
to reveal His Son in me, that I might proclaim Him as good news among the nations, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
그 아들을 이방에 전하기 위하여 그를 내 속에 나타내시기를 기뻐하실 때에 내가 곧 혈육과 의논하지 아니하고
자신의 아들을 내 안에 계시하사 내가 그분을 이교도들 가운데 선포하는 것을 기뻐하실 때에 내가 즉시 혈육과 의논하지 아니하였고
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Gal 1:15-24 as a whole
St. Paul was wonderfully brought to the knowledge and faith of Christ. All who are savingly converted, are called by the grace of God; their conversion is wrought by his power and grace working in them. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Gal 1:16
To reveal his Son in me - By the powerful operation of his Spirit, 2Cor 4:6; as well as to me, by the heavenly vision. That I might preach him to others - Which I should have been ill qualified to do, had I not first known him myself. …
Read the whole commentary →
Note
The sentence that begins in verse 15 runs through this verse to verse 17. God, who "set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by His grace," was pleased "to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." The man who "persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it" (verse 13) is turned round in a single clause.
From the womb is the language of a prophet's call. Jeremiah heard, "before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5), and the Servant in Isaiah is made "a light for the nations" (Isaiah 49:6). Wesley draws the line to Jeremiah: "Set me apart for an apostle, as he did Jeremiah for a prophet" Wesley. Paul's call faced the nations from the start.
The verb is in the present subjunctive, euangelizōmai, and its object is auton, "Him." The gospel Paul preaches is first of all a person, the Son of God. The present tense makes it a life's work rather than a single errand. And the work rests on en emoi, "in me": because the Son was revealed in Paul, Paul could make him known to others.
Most English versions, the KJV and the BSB alike, say "preach him," and the word gospel drops out of sight; the Greek says something like "gospel him." The LSV brings it back: "that I might proclaim Him as good news among the nations." The KJV's "among the heathen" and the BSB's "among the Gentiles" render the same Greek word, ethnē, which the KJV itself renders "Gentiles" a few verses on (Galatians 2:2).
Wesley reads "in me" as "By the powerful operation of his Spirit" Wesley, as well as by the heavenly vision on the road. Matthew Henry draws the lesson: "It will but little avail us to have Christ revealed to us, if he is not also revealed in us" Matthew Henry.
The verse ends, "I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood." A gospel that came by revelation needed no human approval to begin (verses 11–12). Luke's account agrees on what that gospel was about from the first day: in Damascus Saul "began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues" (Acts 9:20), declaring that he is the Son of God.
For Paul the gospel was first a person revealed in him, and only then a message passed on. Whoever hears that gospel today meets first not a teaching but the Son who was revealed in Paul.