Galatians

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6]

INTRODUCTION

THE internal and external evidence for Paul's authorship is

conclusive. The style is characteristically Pauline. The

superscription, and allusions to the apostle of the Gentiles in the

first person, throughout the Epistle, establish the same truth

(Ga 1:1, 13-24; 2:1-14).

His authorship is also upheld by the unanimous testimony of the ancient

Church: compare IRENÆUS [Against

Heresies, 3,7,2]

(Ga 3:19);

POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 3]

quotes

Ga 4:26; 6:7;

JUSTIN

MARTYR, or whoever wrote the Discourse to the

Greeks, alludes to

Ga 4:12; 5:20.

The Epistle was written "TO THE CHURCHES OF

GALATIA"

(Ga 1:2),

a district of Asia Minor, bordering on Phrygia, Pontus, Bithynia,

Cappadocia, and Paphlagonia. The inhabitants (Gallo-græci,

contracted into Galati, another form of the name Celts) were Gauls in

origin, the latter having overrun Asia Minor after they had pillaged

Delphi, about 280 B.C. and at last permanently

settled in the central parts, thence called Gallo-græcia or

Galatia. Their character, as shown in this Epistle, is in entire

consonance with that ascribed to the Gallic race by all writers.

Cæsar [Commentaries on the Gallic War, 4,5], "The

infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves and

fond of change, and not to be trusted." So Thierry (quoted by

ALFORD), "Frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently

intelligent, but at the same time extremely changeable, inconstant,

fond of show, perpetually quarrelling, the fruit of excessive vanity."

They received Paul at first with all joy and kindness; but soon wavered

in their allegiance to the Gospel and to him, and hearkened as eagerly

now to Judaizing teachers as they had before to him

(Ga 4:14-16).

The apostle himself had been the first preacher among them

(Ac 16:6;

Ga 1:8; 4:13;

see on

Ga 4:13;

"on account of infirmity of flesh I preached unto you at the

first": implying that sickness detained him among them); and had then

probably founded churches, which at his subsequent visit he

"strengthened" in the faith

(Ac 18:23).

His first visit was about A.D. 51, during his

second missionary journey. JOSEPHUS

[Antiquities, 16.62] testifies that many Jews resided in Ancyra

in Galatia. Among these and their brethren, doubtless, as elsewhere, he

began his preaching. And though subsequently the majority in the

Galatian churches were Gentiles

(Ga 4:8, 9),

yet these were soon infected by Judaizing teachers, and almost suffered

themselves to be persuaded to undergo circumcision

(Ga 1:6; 3:1, 3; 5:2, 3; 6:12, 13).

Accustomed as the Galatians had been, when heathen, to the mystic

worship of Cybele (prevalent in the neighboring region of Phrygia), and

the theosophistic doctrines connected with that worship, they were the

more readily led to believe that the full privileges of Christianity

could only be attained through an elaborate system of ceremonial

symbolism

(Ga 4:9-11; 5:7-12).

They even gave ear to the insinuation that Paul himself observed the

law among the Jews, though he persuaded the Gentiles to renounce it,

and that his motive was to keep his converts in a subordinate state,

excluded from the full privileges of Christianity, which were enjoyed

(Ga 5:11,

Ga 4:16,

compare with

Ga 2:17);

and that in "becoming all things to all men," he was an interested

flatterer

(Ga 1:10),

aiming at forming a party for himself: moreover, that he falsely

represented himself as an apostle divinely commissioned by Christ,

whereas he was but a messenger sent by the Twelve and the Church at

Jerusalem, and that his teaching was now at variance with that of Peter

and James, "pillars" of the Church, and therefore ought not to be

accepted.

His PURPOSE, then, in writing this Epistle was:

(1) to defend his apostolic authority

(Ga 1:11-19; 2:1-14);

(2) to counteract the evil influence of the Judaizers in Galatia

(Ga 3:1-4:31),

and to show that their doctrine destroyed the very essence of

Christianity, by lowering its spirituality to an outward ceremonial

system; (3) to give exhortation for the strengthening of Galatian

believers in faith towards Christ, and in the fruits of the Spirit

(Ga 5:1-6:18).

He had already, face to face, testified against the Judaizing teachers

(Ga 1:9; 4:16;

Ac 18:23);

and now that he has heard of the continued and increasing prevalence of

the evil, he writes with his own hand

(Ga 6:11:

a labor which he usually delegated to an amanuensis) this Epistle to

oppose it. The sketch he gives in it of his apostolic career confirms

and expands the account in Acts and shows his independence of human

authority, however exalted. His protest against Peter in

Ga 2:14-21,

disproves the figment, not merely of papal, but even of that apostle's

supremacy; and shows that Peter, save when specially inspired, was

fallible like other men.

There is much in common between this Epistle and that to the Romans

on the subject of justification by faith only, and not by the law. But

the Epistle to the Romans handles the subject in a didactic and logical

mode, without any special reference; this Epistle, in a controversial

manner, and with special reference to the Judaizers in Galatia.

The STYLE combines the two extremes, sternness.

(Ga 1:1-24; 3:1-5)

and tenderness

(Ga 4:19, 20),

the characteristics of a man of strong emotions, and both alike well

suited for acting on an impressible people such as the Galatians were.

The beginning is abrupt, as was suited to the urgency of the question

and the greatness of the danger. A tone of sadness, too, is apparent,

such as might be expected in the letter of a warm-hearted teacher who

had just learned that those whom he loved were forsaking his teachings

for those of perverters of the truth, as well as giving ear to

calumnies against himself.

The TIME OF WRITING was after the visit to

Jerusalem recorded in

Ac 15:1,

&c.; that is, A.D. 50, if that visit be, as seems

probable, identical with that in

Ga 2:1.

Further, as

Ga 1:9

("as we said before"), and

Ga 4:16

("Have [ALFORD] I become your enemy?" namely, at

my second visit, whereas I was welcomed by you at my first visit),

refer to his second visit

(Ac 18:23),

this Epistle must have been written after the date of that visit (the

autumn of A.D. 54).

Ga 4:13,

"Ye know how . . . I preached . . . at the first"

(Greek, "at the former time"), implies that Paul, at the time of

writing, had been twice in Galatia; and

Ga 1:6,

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed," implies that he wrote

not long after having left Galatia for the second time; probably in the

early part of his residence at Ephesus

(Ac 18:23; 19:1,

&c., from

A.D. 54,

the autumn, to A.D. 57, Pentecost)

[ALFORD].

CONYBEARE and

HOWSON, from

the similarity between this Epistle and that to the Romans, the same

line of argument in both occupying the writer's mind, think it was

not written till his stay at Corinth

(Ac 20:2, 3),

during the winter of 57-58, whence he wrote his Epistle to the Romans;

and certainly, in the theory of the earlier writing of it from Ephesus,

it does seem unlikely that the two Epistles to the Corinthians, so

dissimilar, should intervene between those so similar as the Epistles

to the Galatians and Romans; or that the Epistle to the Galatians

should intervene between the second to the Thessalonians and the first

to the Corinthians. The decision between the two theories rests on the

words, "so soon." If these be not considered inconsistent with little

more than three years having elapsed since his second visit to Galatia,

the argument, from the similarity to the Epistle to the Romans, seems

to me conclusive. This to the Galatians seems written on the urgency of

the occasion, tidings having reached him at Corinth from Ephesus of the

Judaizing of many of his Galatian converts, in an admonitory and

controversial tone, to maintain the great principles of Christian

liberty and justification by faith only; that to the Romans is a more

deliberate and systematic exposition of the same central truths of

theology, subsequently drawn up in writing to a Church with which he

was personally unacquainted. See on

Ga 1:6,

for BIRKS'S view.

PALEY [Horæ Paulinæ] well

remarks how perfectly adapted the conduct of the argument is to the

historical circumstances under which the Epistle was written! Thus,

that to the Galatians, a Church which Paul had founded, he puts mainly

upon authority; that to the Romans, to whom he was not

personally known, entirely upon argument.