Because God revealed to me that I should go is literally “in accordance with a revelation.” The word “revelation” usually describes God’s act of making himself or his will known, and the preposition “in accordance with” is better understood here as “because of” (compare New English Bible, also Phillips “My visit on this occasion was by divine command”). How and when this revelation took place, Paul does not say. For this type of context the most appropriate equivalent of revealed is in many languages “told,” for example, “because God told me that I should go.” If, however, one can use a more general expression such as “showed” or “made me to understand,” that may be better, rather than to suggest some direct verbal communication between God and Paul.
It is possible to put verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 together, to make the meaning much clearer, for example “fourteen years later, I returned to Jerusalem at the Lord’s direction.”
In a private meeting with the leaders I explained can be literally rendered “I laid before them, but privately before those who were of repute.” “Those of repute” is an expression describing men of good and high standing in the fellowship, hence the Good News Translation rendering leaders (Jerusalem Bible “the leading men”; Phillips “church leaders”).
In a private meeting with the leaders may be expressed in some languages as “in a meeting just with the leaders.” It is also possible to be somewhat more specific and say “in a meeting with the leaders and without other people present.” The introductory prepositional expression may also be rendered as a temporal clause, for example, “when I met with just the leaders.” In a number of languages, when speaking of leaders, it may be necessary to indicate who or what is led. In such a case one may say “the leaders of the church.” An equivalent expression in some languages is “the most important people in the church,” or “those in the church who made the decisions.”
When Paul says “I laid before them,” whom does he mean by “them”? Are they to be taken as referring to the whole Christian community in Jerusalem or as synonymous with “the men of repute”? Most translators favor the second alternative, and Good News Translation restructures the sentence to make this understanding clear. Good News Bible makes the private meeting with the leaders a prepositional clause and places it at the beginning of the sentence (compare Jerusalem Bible “privately I laid before the leading men the Good News”; New American Bible “I laid out for their scrutiny the gospel … all this in private conference with the leaders”).
The gospel message (literally “the gospel”) refers to that particular version of the Good News which Paul has been preaching.
To the Gentiles can also be “among the Gentiles” (Phillips, Knox, compare New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible) referring to people who live in Gentile lands (note this expression in 1.16).
In some languages it may be necessary to indicate quite clearly the tense or aspect of the verb preach. Since Paul is here referring to his habitual practice or customary manner of preaching to the Gentiles (or “non-Jews”), one may say “I explained the good news that I have customarily been preaching to the Gentiles.”
I did not want my work in the past or in the present to be a failure translates an idiom which expresses apprehension (literally “lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain,” Revised Standard Version). What is the meaning of this idiom? It should not be understood to mean that Paul had any doubts about the truth of the gospel which he was preaching or of the course he was pursuing, an idea which seems to be implicit in some translations. Rather, Paul was presenting his message to the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem because he saw the danger of his work both past and present being rendered ineffectual if those authorities disapproved of it. Some translations therefore focus on the fear that the Jewish authorities might not see the validity of what Paul was doing (Jerusalem Bible “I did so for fear the course I was adopting or had already adopted would not be allowed”; New American Bible “to make sure the course I was pursuing, or had pursued, was not useless”; Phillips “to make sure that what I had done and proposed doing was acceptable to them”). Other translations (for example Good News Translation) focus on the result of such disapproval.
My work in the past or in the present may be rendered as “what I had been doing or what I was continuing to do,” or “what I had done in the past or what I would continue to do.” The expression to be a failure translates a phrase referring to something being “empty,” “fruitless,” “ineffective,” or “in vain.” It may be rendered in some languages as “to result in nothing” or “to produce nothing.” It is possible that Paul was fearful that disapproval by the authorities in Jerusalem would result in people rejecting the truth that he had been proclaiming.
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 .