Galatians 1:12

Galatians 1:12. For neither did I myself receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but (it came to me) through revelation of Jesus Christ ‘ I myself' any more than the older Apostles. The opponents denied the equality of Paul with the original Twelve on that score; hence the ‘neither.' ‘Receive' signifies the passive, ‘taught' the active or cooperative mode of appropriation. The former refers more to historical, the latter to doctrinal knowledge. Paul was man-taught as a rabbinical scholar, but God-taught as a Christian Apostle. ‘Through revelation of (from) Jesus Christ,' especially on the way to Damascus (Acts 9:3 ff.). This was the fundamental and central illumination of Paul, corresponding to the pentecostal inspiration of the Twelve, out it was followed by special revelations at different periods of his life (comp. Galatians 2:2; Acts 22:17; Acts 23:11; 1 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Corinthians 12:1 ff.). He speaks of the abundance of his revelations. We may therefore assume a steady growth of the Apostles in divine knowledge. St. Peter, also, after Pentecost, received the vision at Joppa (Acts 10), which enlightened him concerning the exact relation of the gospel to the Gentiles, and thus marked a progress in his inspired knowledge and in the history of missions. Revelation is distinguished from ordinary illumination and instruction by its divine origin, its elevation above (not against) reason, and its sudden communication and intuitive perception. Paul does not mean here the outward historical information concerning the life of Christ which he could derive in part, at least, from reliable eye-witnesses, but chiefly the internal exhibition of Christ to his spiritual sense in his true character as the Messiah and the only and all-sufficient Saviour of the world, and the unfolding of the true import of his atoning death and resurrection; in other words, the spiritual communication of the gospel system of saving truth as taught by him in his sermons and Epistles.