Galatians 1:11–17

Verse 14. He here alludes to his being a Pharisee, as he himself mentions more openly in Acts 23:6. A Pharisee, and son of Pharisees. This sect always distinguished itself by its zeal for ancient traditions, which shews evidently that he was very far from being instructed in a religion of which he was the sworn enemy; nor since his conversion did he apply for instruction. What he delivered, he learned not of man, but of God. See below.

Verse 16. I condescended not to flesh and blood. Lit. I did not acquiesce to flesh and blood. I had no regard to temporal friends or advantages. Some expound it, I did not think it necessary to consult the other apostles, men who were my countrymen: and so it follows, I came not to Jerusalem to the apostles, to be instructed by them, having been instructed by Christ himself. Witham.

Verse 17. So far from receiving his apostleship from the other apostles, he saw none of them, till he had spent three years in announcing the word of God. Calmet.—In this epistle to the Galatians, Saint Paul treats the same matter as in his epistle to the Romans; to the former he writes less exactly and more briefly, as very rude and uncivilized; to the latter, with more precision, and with greater copiousness, as replenished with all knowledge: repleti omni scientia. Romans 15:14.