It was the fatal shadow of "another gospel" (Gal. 1: 6) that stirred Paul to the depths

and demanded his utmost in countering its dreadful blight. It was the perversion "of the

Gospel of Christ" (1: 7), not merely the ingratitude of the Galatians, that set his heart

aflame. It was the "truth" of the gospel not some marginal or debateable borderland of

doctrine or practice that called him into the arena, as the champion of Christian liberty.

Gal. 2: opens with the visit to Jerusalem and with a date attached, "fourteen years

after". Already, in chapter one, a series of time notes have been given. The starting

point is Gal. 1: 15 "when", and the occasion is the apostle's conversion. This is the great

outstanding period of his life, over and over again, both in the Acts and in his epistles, the

apostle shows how vividly that momentous occurrence on the road to Damascus was

impressed on heart and memory.

We start our reckoning therefore with his conversion. In verse 16 we have the next

note of time, "immediately", which refers to the retirement into Arabia and in verse 17

"again", which records the return to Damascus. "Three years after" we have the first visit

of the apostle to Jerusalem, and the "fifteen-day" visit to Peter (1: 18-19) "afterwards" the

work and abiding in Syria and Cilicia (1: 21-24), and so to Gal. 2: 1 "fourteen years

The fourteen years dates from the apostle's conversion and if we can translate, as

has been suggested, II Cor. 12: 2 "a man who had been fourteen years in Christ" (cf.

Rom. 16: 7), then Paul had received the "revelations" spoken of in II Cor. 12: at the

same time that he had gone up to Jerusalem "by revelation" as recorded in Gal. 2: 1.

Indeed there is a marked parallel between the two epistles that should be noted, each

stressing his apostleship, gospel and authority.