Galatians 1:13-23

13For you have heard of my earlier behavior in Judaism—how I persecuted God’s community beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

14I was even advancing within Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, being a more extreme observer of my fathers’ traditions.

15But when God—who set me apart from birth and called me through His grace—was pleased

16to reveal His Son to me so I would proclaim Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with any human.

17I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were emissaries before me, either. Instead I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

18Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to visit with Peter, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

19But I saw no other emissaries except Jacob, the Lord’s brother.

20(In what I’m writing you, before God, I do not lie.)

21Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

22But I was personally unknown to Messiah’s communities of Judea;

23they only kept hearing, “The one who once persecuted us now proclaims the Good News he once tried to destroy!”