Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Galatians 1:11-24, Saul the zealot, Arabia, and fifteen days with Cephas
Paul insists that his gospel came by revelation and not from human teachers, and tells of his zeal as a persecutor, his call, his time in Arabia and Damascus, and a short first visit to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas.
Galatians 1:11-24, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul insists that his gospel was not taught to him by anyone but came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. He recalls his past as a violent persecutor of the church and a rising star in Judaism, fiercely devoted to his ancestral traditions, until God revealed his Son to him and sent him to the Gentiles. He went to Arabia and Damascus without consulting anyone, made only a brief visit to Jerusalem three years later to meet Peter and see James, and remained unknown by sight to the Judean churches.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/zeal\/","n":"Zeal for God and the law","s":"Zeal meant burning loyalty to God and his law, and its heroes, Phinehas, Elijah and the Maccabees, had used force against those who betrayed it. Saul the persecutor saw himself in that line.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pharisees\/","n":"The Pharisees","s":"A mostly lay movement devoted to careful keeping of the law and of oral tradition, respected by the people and watchful of new teachers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hospitality\/","n":"Hospitality to travelers","s":"Taking in travelers was one of the great virtues of the ancient Mediterranean, above all among Jews. Messengers could travel light because they expected to be housed.","r":""}
Speeches and letters often included a narrative of past events to establish the speaker's character, and anything that sounded like boasting offended unless one was defending oneself (Keener and his notes). A disciple who passed on his teachers' tradition was their subordinate, and Paul claims he was not a disciple of Jesus' disciples (Keener and his notes). The highest training in Scripture was in Jerusalem, and the traditions of the fathers were the teaching prized by Pharisees (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). Arabia meant the Nabatean kingdom of Aretas IV, not the peninsula (Keener and his notes; Carson, Moo and Morris). Why Paul went is read two ways. Wright argues that, like the zealous Elijah, he went to Sinai: "Sinai was where Elijah had gone when it all went horribly wrong." Carson, Moo and Morris think "it is unlikely that this was simply a period of retreat", since Aretas's later hunt for him (2 Corinthians 11:32) suggests he had been preaching, and the Zondervan dictionary also places ministry there. Ancient reckoning usually counted part of a year as a whole, so three years may mean two or less (Keener and his notes; Carson, Moo and Morris).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introductions to Galatians 1:10-17 and 1:18-24, and on Galatians 1:11, 1:12, 1:13-14, 1:15, 1:17 and 1:18-19
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Galatians 1:10-2:21, 1:14, 1:17 and 1:18
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Galatians 1:13-14
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 3, Arabia and Tarsus
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, Paul's Missionary Career and Its Chronology
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Paul and Arabia
