Galatians 1:13

Nothing short of a miracle could account for the change which had taken place in the life and aims of St Paul (comp. Philippians 3:4-10). It was not likely that a man with such antecedents should have accepted the Gospel with its consequenceson merely human testimony.

ye have heard Rather, Ye heard from myself when I was with you, and (perhaps) from my colleagues.

my conversation i.e. my manner of life, as Ephesians 4:22; Hebrews 13:7; James 3:13, &c. In Philippians 1:27; Philippians 3:20 the same English word represents a different word in the original, and refers to civiland politicalduties and privileges, rather than those which are personal and social.

the Jews" religion] Oneword in the original, which does not occur elsewhere in the N. T. except in Galatians 1:14. From the use of the corresponding verb, we may regard it as referring not to the religion revealed to the Jews in the writings of Moses and the prophets, but that which was its actual development in St Paul's day, when the word of God had been overlaid and -made of none effect" by the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and the puerile conceits of the Rabbinic expositors.

I persecuted the church of God The same sad confession is made 1 Corinthians 15:9. There is solemnity in the addition of the words "of God". The identical expression occurs in the Sept. version of Nehemiah 13:1.

wasted it was laying waste, was sweeping it away, exterminating it.