Who Were
the Galatians?
It is
difficult to decide who Paul was writing to in the Book of Galatians. In Paul's
time the word Galatians had both an ethnic and a political meaning.
The ethnic Galatians were Celts who
migrated from central Europe to Asia
Minor in the
third century B.C. They settled in the area around Ankara, the capital of present-day Turkey. In Paul's day the native Galatian
dialect was still spoken there, although Greek had been accepted as the
language of business and diplomacy.
By New Testament times there was a
Roman province called Galatia that was larger than the original
ethnic area. Territory to the south which was not ethnically Galatian was
included in the Roman province. Pisidia
as well as sections of Phrygia and Lycaonia were formally part of political Galatia.
Whether Galatia refers to people or to the province
would indicate who the original readers of the letter to Galatians were. The
usual view until the last two centuries was that Paul addressed "North Galatia," or congregations of ethnic
Galatians located in the northern part of the province. Personal contact of the
apostle with these churches may be referred to in Acts 16:6 and 18:23. However, a "South Galatia" theory is more widely held
today. According to this view, Paul wrote to churches in the southern part of
the province, that is, to the churches he founded on his first missionary
journey (Acts 13:14-14:24) and later revisited (Acts (16:1-5).
An obvious strength of the North Galatia view is that the northern part of the
province was Galatia in both sense: ethnic and political.
Also, it has been asserted that Paul's description of the fickleness of his
readers was a well-known characteristic of the ethnic Galatians in the north.
On the other hand, a strong case can
be made for the South
Galatia view.
Paul normally used Roman Provincial names, as Luke did in the Book of Acts.
Also, the most natural understanding of Acts 16:6 and 18:23 is that Paul retraced his steps from
the first missionary journey (Acts 13; 14) at the beginning of his second and
third journeys.
With the biblical and historical
evidence divided as it is, there have been notable scholars on both sides of
the Galatian question. Neither theory is clearly superior, though is seems that
the South Galatian view fits better with Acts. The questions are important for
assigning a date to the letter.
In either case, it is obvious that
the book was addressed to a church which was struggling with the Judaizers, a
group that insisted that the Gentile converts keep the requirements of the law.
Paul's letter was a stern rebuke of this faction in the church. By adding the
law to the gospel message, this group was in effect rejecting Jesus' free offer
of salvation.
The
Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Galatians
In the whole Bible, there is no more passionate,
comprehensive, yet concise statement of truth of the gospel than the Galatians.
Salvation is through the faith in Jesus Christ alone (2:16; 3:11,12). No work can earn salvation.
Paul's succinct refutation of the Judaizers in this letter has transformed the
lives of many - from Martin Luther to John Wesley. In general people want to
earn their salvation by works that can be easily identified. In this letter,
Paul reveals the arrogance of such thinking. It amounts to desertion of the
truth of the gospel and turning away from God (1:6). We can stand justified
before God only through faith in Jesus Christ; nothing else will save us.
Author - The writer of Galatians identifies
himself as Paul (1:1). He claims to be an apostle, and then goes on to argue at
length for the apostolic authority behind his gospel message. Much of the
personal information he gives in the course of his defense corresponds to the
narratives about Paul in the Book of Acts, as well as to the autobiographical
material in Philippians 3:4-6. The use of the Old Testament in chapters 3 and 4
fits Paul's rigorous training in Judaism. Finally, the theology presented in
this letter corresponds perfectly with the theology Paul expresses in his other
writings, notably the Epistle to the Romans.
Date - Paul addresses his letter "to the
churches of Galatia" (1:2) and to readers he
expressly calls "Galatians" (3:1), but it is not easy to determine
what this means precisely. At the time Paul was writing, the word Galatians
could be used with an ethnic or with a political meaning.
To a great extent assigning a date
for Galatians depends on making a decision about the destination of the letter.
If the churches of Galatia were founded on Paul's second missionary
journey in the northern part of Galatia (Acts 16:6), the earliest the epistle
could have been written was around A.D. 52. The similarity in content between
Galatians and Romans, among other things, has led some to date the letter in
the midf-50s. On the other hand, if Galatia is understood to be southern Galatia, including Lystra, Iconium, and
Pisidian Antioch (Acts 14:21), congregations planted on Paul's
first missionary journey, the letter could have been written as early as A.D.
48.
To determine the date, the possible
role of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15) in the controversies addressed in
Galatians must also be considered. If Galatians was written after the Jerusalem council, had made its authoritative
decisions, Paul most likely would have centered his argument on those
decisions, or at least made an unmistakable reference to them. Since he did
not, Galatians probably dates from A.D 48. This means it is one of the earliest
New Testament books.
Purpose - Apparently Paul became aware of a
perversion of the gospel of grace that was actively infecting the Galatian
churches. The false teachers who had come to Galatia since Paul's ministry there were
advocating salvation by "the words of the law" - that is, by keeping
the law. Specific emphasis was placed on the Jewish rite of Circumcision.
Paul's letter to the Galatians was a
swift and decisive attempt to counter this message, which was a different
gospel. Paul had to convince his "little children" in the faith, whom
he had evangelized personally, that the new teaching was in fact a distortion
of the gospel of Christ. In his argument Paul reasserted his authority as an
apostle , which apparently had been minimized by the Judaizing teachers. Paul
wrote not out of anger, but out of love. He saw the Galatians leaving the
correct path by their additions to the gospel message, and he loved his fellow
believers too much to allow them to go astray.
Literary Form - Galatians contains the three standard
elements of a typical first-century letter: introduction (1:1-5), body
(1:6-6:10), and conclusion (6:11-18). However, Galatians differs from
many of Paul's other letters. For example, most of Paul's other letters contain
an introductory thanksgiving section that serves as a prologue (Philippians
1:3-11). The starling absence of such a thanksgiving at the beginning of
Galatians probably indicates the severity of the situation in Paul's eyes.
There is nothing for which Paul can be thankful, since some of the Galatians
were abandoning the gospel they once had embraced. Likewise, the letter
contains no concluding greetings, whether long like Romans 16:3-23, or short,
like 2 Corinthians 13:12, 13. There is only a terse benediction and concluding
salutation (6:16, 18).
Theology - If there is one repeated phrase that
summarizes the subject of Galatians, it is "the truth of the gospel."
Unlike Romans, which presents the gospel as an answer to universal human
sinfulness (Rom. 3:23; 6:23), Galatians clarifies the gospel message against the subtle,
but ever deadly, danger of works salvation. No sinful person has ever been
granted eternal life based on works. What is more, everyone who lives by such a
confidence in works is "cursed," because no one can perfectly obey
the law (3:10). Thus, to add works, rituals. or the law to the message of
what it takes to become a Christian is to overturn the Good News. The proper
place of the law is to convict us of our sin, demonstrating the urgent need for
the redemption provided by Jesus Christ.
What then is the basic gospel that
Paul goes to such lengths to clarify and safeguard? The only way a person can
be justified before God is by faith in Jesus Christ (2:16). Paul emphasizes this point over and
over. Faith in Christ, nothing more nothing less, is the proper response to the
gospel. This emphasis on faith is not about the historical dimension of the
gospel that is open to reasonable inquiry: Jesus perfectly kept the Law of
Moses (4:4), died on the cross (2:20), and rose from the dead (1:1). Rather
Paul underscores faith in Christ because the controversies in Galatia raged around the reception of the
gospel in the lives of new believers.
Paul also addresses themes dealing
with the Christian life, one living out the new freedom the believer possesses
in Christ. Between the extremes of legalistic sanctification and hedonistic
license, Paul charts a middle course of "faith working through love"
and the power of the Holy Spirit (5:5, 6). Thus, not only is justification by
faith alone, but so is sanctification.
Paul variously describes this life
of faith as walking in the Spirit (5:16, 25), being "led by the
Spirit" (5:18), producing "the fruit of the Spirit" (5:22, 23), and sowing "to the
Spirit" (6:8). Concretely, "faith working through love" (5:6)
expresses itself in love for neighbors, especially other believers, and in
bearing one anther's burdens (5:14; 6:2, 6). The ever-present danger is
that rather than relying upon the power of the Spirit, the believer will start
displaying the corrupt "works of the flesh." Works can be truly good
only when they are accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit given to those
who place the faith in Christ (6:7-10).
