GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GALATIANS 1:17
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17 Now, I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and afterwards I returned again to Damascus.
In this verse, Paul gives the chronology of events that followed his conversion on the Road to Damascus. We are confident that the conversion happened shortly after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, but an allowance has to be made for the choosing of the seven men who helped the apostles (Acts 6:5) and the stoning of one of them, Stephen (Acts 7:1-60). The date usually accepted by Christians for Paul’s conversion is therefore around 32 AD. His conversion is first told in Acts 9:1-8; including his being struck blind for three days (Acts 9:9).
In Damascus, Paul was healed of his blindness and was baptized. There he spent “several days” with the believers in Damascus (Acts 9:19). During this time, he already began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God. He did this in the Jewish synagogues in Damascus (Acts 9:20; 26:20).
Paul will mention the length of time he was in Damascus and Arabia in verse 18: Three years. The time in Arabia fits between Paul’s two visits to Damascus, and here we have two questions: one of time and one of the place.
The Time:
Paul was “in Damascus” and Arabia for three years (Galtians 1:18). How much of that time was in Arabia? And when was he let down out of the city in a basket? The time he spent in Arabia seems to fit between Acts 9:22 and 9:23. Assuming this is correct, let us see the sequence of things, comparing Acts 9 and Galatians 1:
1, Paul is converted on the road to Damascus and struck blind for three days (Acts 9:1-9).
2, Paul is baptized by Ananias, a highly respected disciple, who was sent to baptize Paul in a vision from Jesus (Acts 9:10-19).
3, Paul begins to preach that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20). The people are astonished, knowing that he used to be an enemy of the church (Acts 9:21-22).
4, After a short while (“several days,” Acts 9:19– no more than a month), Paul leaves for Arabia.
5, Paul stays in Arabia nearly three years (Galatians 1:18). While there, he is instructed by Jesus personally in a vision or series of visions coupled with the study of the Old Testament Scriptures (1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3).
6, Paul returns to Damascus and preaches there once again, but the Jews conspire to kill him. He is let down from city walls at night in a basket (Acts 9:23-25).
7, Paul goes to Jerusalem (about 35 AD) and spends two weeks, or fifteen days, with Peter (Galatians 1:18).
This does not tell us exactly how much time Paul spent with the ascended Jesus in the desert, but it would seem to be at least two or even two and a half years. It is interesting, therefore, to note that the apostles spent about the same amount of time with Jesus during his ministry years (since they were not all commissioned or called exactly when Jesus himself was baptized). Since the Scriptures do not make an important point of this comparison, we won’t, either.
The Place:
How far did Paul need to travel to get from Damascus to the desert of Arabia? The peninsula that we know as Arabia is (roughly) a rectangle tipped on one corner, and the top left portion of that huge rectangle is all of Israel and the regions to the north, including Damascus. The desert of Arabia is more than four times longer than the Sinai Peninsula. In Paul’s time as today, the desert of Arabia extended north as far as the Euphrates River. The border of the Arabian Desert with relation to Damascus is really a very few miles, just beyond the foothills. It is the northern limit of the Arabian Desert that puts the “arc” in the Fertile Crescent. While Paul was there, did he receive foot and blankets and other things from Ananias and the other disciples in the city? Could he have been fed as Elijah was fed by some extraordinary miracle? Since Paul is not quiet about miracles in his ministry, it’s likely that he was fed by people and not by ravens or angels. There could have been a quiet, weekly delivery of a Pauline Care Package that even included encouraging messages, or copies of the Scriptures for him to study. Ordinary travelers could easily have left him supplies or spoken with him at a convenient wayside while he was away at his private studious meditations.
Paul may not have been very far from Damascus at all, but he stayed out there, perhaps just a few miles to the east, but probably all alone, to meditate on God’s word. Not just the words God had spoken to him on the road to Damascus, but also additional revelations Jesus made to him there. And there was his own private meditation on all of the Word of God. Paul realized that since Christ had truly come, everything that Paul knew about the Jewish religion and its preparatory nature– looking forward to the coming of the kingdom of God– was at an end. There was no more temple sacrifice to be made. No more ceremonial law to be followed. No more civil law to hedge the people in. Jesus has fulfilled all the Old Testament regulations completely! And Jesus himself has not given us new laws to follow, but has freed us from all regulations. In fact, that is Paul’s message to the Galatians in a nutshell.
Did I say, “Paul’s private studious meditations” above? The best teacher is the doing of a thing, and Paul has already said that he preached in Damascus (Acts 9:20), and since Arabia was, in a manner of speaking, just out the back door of Damascus, Paul could also have been preaching out in the wilderness– yet in villages. He said in Acts 9 that he preached “in the synagogues,” but there were villages in the desert just a few miles from Damascus that may have had synagogues. To name just a few: Adra (the Hadrach of Zechariah 9:1) is just five or so miles to the northeast. Modern Maydaa, just two miles south of Adra, has a history that includes trade with ancient Egypt (Seti I is named in one inscription, who was Pharaoh during the time of the Judges). Another city, Harran al’Awamid, has ruins from Roman times (but which date after Paul’s time). There could have been a Jewish population there when Paul was in Arabia. This third city is about five miles southeast of Damascus.
Paul’s lifelong study of the Word of God is a model for our own. It is essential for every Christian to keep reading and studying the Scriptures and such excellent summaries of the Scriptures as the Creed and the Catechism. “You must be concerned,” Luther says, “not only about hearing the word but also about learning and retaining it. Do not regard it as an optional or unimportant matter. It is the commandment of God, and he will require of you an accounting of how you have heard and learned and honored his Word” (Large Catechism I:98).
And again: “Even if you know it all, you need to go back and hear it again, for where the heart stands idle and the word is not heard, the devil breaks in and does his damage before we realize it” (I:100). And on top of this, as we keep reading it, and reciting it, “in this way the devil is cast out and put to flight, this (the third) commandment is fulfilled, and God is more pleased than by any work of hypocrisy, however brilliant.”
Keep reading, studying, and loving God’s holy word. In it you have forgiveness, the promise of the resurrection, and eternal life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Galatians 1:17 Into Arabia