Galatians 1:13 – Inordinately persecuted

For you hear of my behavior once, in Judaism, that I inordinately persecuted the ecclesia of God an ravaged it.

 For the fourth time in a row (:10,11,12,13) ​​Paul begins the verse with “for”. Here he does so to explain that he received his Gospel and was taught “by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” But before he can go into details about that, he must first tell something about his background. Although his readers were already familiar with this and may have heard this from his own mouth. But because Paul’s past is of great importance for understanding his Gospel, he underlines it here. As he does much more often in his letters (1Cor.15:8-10; Eph.3:8; Philp.3:4-7; 1Tim.1:12) and also orally (Acts 22 and 26). Only against the background of his extremely destructive work in the ecclesia of God can we understand that his apostleship and Gospel are characterized by “grace.”

Before going into further detail about his zeal and achievements in Judaism (Gr: Ioudaïsmos), Paul first describes its darkest side. He persecuted the ecclesia of God and with it Christ himself (“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me…?”). In the question of Jesus Christ we already see in the germ the special secret of Head and body revealed…

Delen: