Verse 15 is not a complete sentence in the Greek; it is the beginning of a single long sentence which ends in verse 17. Most modern translators restructure these verses into several sentences, in keeping with the demands of modern language style.
Pursuing his aim to show that his apostleship is dependent on God alone, Paul enumerates several acts of God which were involved in his becoming an apostle. God, he says, chose me, called me, and revealed his Son to me (verse 16a).
But shows the contrast of this section with what precedes; it is as if Paul were saying: “Despite all this, when God….”
Most translators relate in his grace to called me, since the phrase immediately follows the verbal expression in the Greek text. Good News Translation, however, understands in his grace as modifying both the choosing and the calling (a perfectly justifiable interpretation), and therefore it moves this phrase to the first part of the sentence. The expression in his grace means that God acted on his own initiative and that his actions were dependent only on his own unconditional and undeserved love, that is, they in no sense involved any merit or lack of merit in Paul. In some languages in his grace must be expressed as a complete clause, for example, “he was good to me,” “he showed me great favor,” or “he was very kind to me.” This may be combined paratactically with what follows, for example, “God was very kind to me; he chose me….” Or God’s grace may be looked upon as a reason for his choice of Paul and therefore “because God was so kindly disposed to me, he chose me.”
Chose me is literally “set me apart,” with the idea of separating one from others for a particular purpose or task. One must be particularly careful in the selection of a term for chose. Frequently the literal meaning “set apart” implies separation of what is bad from that which is good. The emphasis here is upon “selected me in a special way,” and the connotation of the term must imply a choice for something good.
Before I was born translates the Hebrew idiom “out of my mother’s womb” and can mean either “before birth” (Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New American Bible) or “from birth” (New English Bible, Phillips, compare Knox “from the day of my birth”).
Called has the concepts of both “summon” and “designate.” Here Paul refers, of course, to his being summoned as an apostle, or as a servant of Jesus Christ. In a literal translation of called there is a strong tendency to employ a verb which means essentially “to shout at.” An expression which means “to summon,” “to designate,” or “to commission” (compare verse 1) is much to be preferred for this type of context.
To reveal his Son to me is literally “to reveal his Son in (or by) me.” Does this mean “to reveal his Son to others, by means of me” or “to reveal his Son to me”? While the first of these is possible (a similar construction occurs in 1.24), yet on the basis of the total context and Paul’s line of argument, the second alternative is more acceptable. The burden of this passage is how Paul received the gospel, not how he proclaimed it. Good News Translation makes this latter meaning clear (so also New American Bible and Revised Standard Version). Most other translations keep the construction “in me,” and New English Bible combines the two ideas (“reveal his Son to me and through me”).
It would be possible to render to reveal his Son to me as simply “to show me his Son” or “to cause me to see his Son,” but this would scarcely do justice to the fuller implications of the revelation. Some translators prefer an expression meaning “to cause me to know who his Son really is,” “to show me who his Son really is,” or even “to let me see what I could not see before—who his Son really is.”
The purpose of this revelation, Paul asserts, is that I might preach the Good News about him. The Greek verb often rendered simply “preach” is more fully “proclaim the good news”; Good News Translation makes this explicit (so also New American Bible “that I might spread among the Gentiles the good tidings concerning him”; compare Jerusalem Bible).
Gentiles is literally “nations,” but Paul, as well as other New Testament writers, uses the word to refer to non-Jews as distinguished from Jews. To the Gentiles could also be “among the Gentiles” (Revised Standard Version, Knox, New American Bible, New English Bible). In a number of languages Gentiles is simply translated as “those who are not Jews”; in other languages the equivalent is “foreigners.” But a rendering such as “foreigners” almost inevitably involves complications, since the readers or listeners would normally not think of themselves as “foreigners.”
Paul now describes his subsequent actions both negatively (I did not go … nor did I go …) and positively (Instead, I went).
I did not go to anyone for advice is literally “I conferred not with flesh and blood.” “Flesh and blood” is an idiom which simply means a living person. The verb translated “conferred” is used in the New Testament only here and in 2.6; here it means “to hold conference with” or “to communicate with someone” (compare Jerusalem Bible “I did not stop to discuss this with any human being,” New English Bible “without consulting any human being”). One may also render this clause as “I didn’t go to talk with anyone about this,” “I didn’t ask anyone to tell me what all this meant,” or “I didn’t ask anyone to tell me what to do.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .