Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 1:12

"For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but [it came to me] through revelation of Jesus Christ." — Galatians 1:12 (ASV)

For I neither received it.—The first “neither” in this verse does not correspond with the second, but qualifies the pronoun “I.” The connection in the thought is perhaps something like this: “The gospel is not human as it comes to you; neither was it human as it first came to me.”

Taught.—There is an antithesis between this word and “revelation” in the next clause. “I did not receive my doctrine from man by a process of teaching and learning, but from Christ Himself by direct revelation.”

By the revelation.—It is better to omit the article: “by,” or “through the medium of,” revelation. What was this revelation, and when was it given? The context shows that it must have been at some time either at or near the Apostle’s conversion. This would be sufficient to exclude the later revelation of 2 Corinthians 12:1.

But can it be the vision on the way to Damascus itself alone? At first glance, it would seem as if this was too brief, and its object too special, to include the kind of “sum of Christian doctrine” of which the Apostle is speaking.

But this at least contained the two main points—the Messiahship of Jesus, and faith in Jesus, from which all the rest of the Apostle’s teaching flowed naturally and logically. Once it was felt that the death of Christ upon the cross was not that of a criminal, but of the Son of God, the rest all seemed to follow.

Putting this together with the sense of the Law's inefficacy, which we may well believe had been growing upon him, we can easily see how the idea would arise of a sacrifice superseding the Law. In the relegation of the Law to this very secondary position, the main barrier between Jew and Gentile would be removed.

St. Paul himself, by emphasizing his retreat to the deserts of Arabia, evidently implies that the gospel, as taught by him in its complete form, was the result of gradual development and prolonged reflection. However, whether this is to be regarded as implicitly contained in the first revelation, or whether we are to suppose that there were successive revelations, of which there is no record in the Acts, cannot be positively determined.

Of Jesus Christ—i.e., given by Jesus Christ; of which Jesus Christ is the Author.