Everything about The Epistle To The Galatians totally explained
The
Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the
New Testament. It is a letter from
Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of
Galatia in central
Anatolia. It is principally concerned with the controversy surrounding Gentile Christians and the
Mosaic Law within
Early Christianity. Along with the
Epistle to the Romans, it's the most theologically significant of the
Pauline epistles, and has been particularly influential in
Protestant thought.
Galatia
Paul's letter is addressed "to the churches in
Galatia" (
Galatians 1:2
), but the location of these churches is a matter of debate. A minority of scholars have argued that the "Galatia" is an ethnic reference to a
Celtic people living in northern
Asia Minor, but most agree that it's a geographical reference to the Roman province in central Asia Minor, which had been settled by immigrant Celts in the 270s BC and retained Gaulish features of culture and language in Paul's day.
Acts of the Apostles records Paul traveling to the "region of Galatia and
Phrygia", which lay immediately west of Galatia.The main theme was that the people of Galatia have turned away from God's Word.
Historical background
The churches of
Galatia (Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe) were founded by Paul himself (Acts
16:6; Gal
1:8;
4:13,
4:19). They seem to have been composed mainly of converts from
paganism (
4:8). After Paul's departure, the churches were led astray from Paul's Christ centered teachings by individuals proposing "another gospel" (which centered around
Judaism and salvation through the
Mosaic Law), whom Paul saw as preaching a "different gospel" than that of
Jesus Christ (which was centered around salvation by God's grace and Christ's
atonement, not the "works" of the
Mosiac law). (
1:6–9). The Galatians appear to have been receptive to the teaching of these newcomers, and the epistle is Paul's angry response to what he sees as their willingness to turn from his teaching.
The identity of these "opponents" is disputed. We don't have a record of their activity, but are left to reconstruct it from Paul's response. However, the majority of modern scholars view them as
Jewish Christians (for example
Judaizers), who taught that in order for pagans to belong to the people of God, they must be subject to some or all of the Jewish Law. The letter indicates controversy concerning
circumcision,
Sabbath observance, and the
Mosaic Law. It would appear, from Paul's response, that they cited the example of
Abraham, who was circumcised as a mark of receiving the covenant blessings, see also
Abrahamic religion. They certainly appear to have questioned Paul's authority as an
apostle, perhaps appealing to the greater authority of the
Jerusalem church governed by
James the Just.
It appears the teachers made some headway among Paul's converts. Sociological research has suggested that
converts from dominant paganism may have suffered a "loss of identity", and found the clarity offered by a Jewish identity and a law-observant lifestyle attractive.
Paul responds angrily. He rehearses his
conversion and apostolic credentials, records his relationship with the Jerusalem Church, and engages in an argument over the interpretation of the Abraham story.
Authenticity
The main arguments in favor of the authenticity of Galatians include its style and themes, which are common to the core letters of the Pauline corpus, and the historical connection to Acts of the Apostles. Moreover, Paul's description of the
Council of Jerusalem (Gal
2:1–10) gives a different point of view than the description in Acts
15:2–29, whereas a forger writing in later decades would most likely have stuck close to the account in Acts to convince his audience that this was an authentic writing by Paul.
The central dispute in the letter concerns the question of how Gentiles could convert to Christianity, which shows that this letter was written at a very early stage in church history, when the vast majority of Christians were Jewish or Jewish
proselytes. This puts it during the lifetime of Paul himself.
There is no hint in the letter of a developed organization within the Christian community at large.
Date and audience
There are three main theories about when Galatians was written and to whom. The North Galatian view holds that the epistle was written very soon after Paul's second visit to Galatia (Acts
18:23). The visit to
Jerusalem, mentioned in Gal 2:1–10, seems identical with that of Acts 15,
or possibly Acts 18:22 (at the end of his Second Missionary Journey), and it's spoken of as a thing of the past. Consequently, the epistle seems to have been written after the
Council of Jerusalem. The similarity between this epistle and that to the Romans has led to the conclusion that they were both written at the same time, namely, in the winter of AD 57–58, during Paul's stay in
Corinth (Acts
20:2–3). This letter to the Galatians is written on the urgency of the occasion, tidings having reached him of the state of matters; and that to the Romans in a more deliberate and systematic way, in exposition of the same fundamental doctrines of the gospel.
The South Galatian view holds that Paul wrote Galatians before or shortly after the First Jerusalem Council, probably on his way to it, and that it was written to churches he'd presumably planted during either his time in Tarsus (he would have traveled a short distance, since Tarsus is in Cilicia) after his first visit to Jerusalem as a Christian (Acts
9:30), or during his first missionary journey, when he traveled throughout southern Galatia.
The third theory concerning the timing of the writing of the Book of Galatians most widely accepted is according to:
(External Link)
Is “The view that Galatians 2:1-10 is the visit of Acts 11:30. This theory, which has received widespread support in recent times, is claimed to avoid all the difficulties of alternative views. It means that Galatians 1:2 may be interpreted literally as the story of the second visit of the apostle to Jerusalem. Under this hypothesis, the following reconstruction is suggested:
About a year after Paul and Barnabas began work at Antioch (Acts 11:26) the church decided to send them to Jerusalem with a relief fund for the Judean churches after hearing about the conditions from some itinerant prophets. During this visit Paul and Barnabas had the opportunity to inform the leaders at Jerusalem about developments among the Gentiles.
As
Titus was with them, the question of Jewish-Gentile fellowship was brought into sharp focus, but Titus wasn't compelled to be circumcised (Gal 2:3).
The Jerusalem apostles acknowledged Paul's credentials as apostle to the uncircumcision (Gal 2:7ff), but laid him under obligation to remember the poor. This was the very thing he'd already done, as Galatians 2:10 makes clear.
On their return to Antioch they encouraged Jewish and Gentile Christians to have fellowship together. Acts 11:19 ff certainly suggests that at an early stage there were Gentiles in the church, but no crisis seems to have arisen until the arrival of emissaries from Jerusalem (Gal 2:12). Following the reservations of Gentile fellowship by James' (Hebrew) men, first Peter then Barnabas withdrew, but this position seemed to be so intolerable to Paul that he challenged and rebuked Peter before the whole church.
Immediately following this incident the Antioch church commended Paul and Barnabas to their missionary work, which was destined to raise the same problems in a more acute form. Without doubt the Jerusalem leaders soon heard of the success of Paul's missions among the Gentiles and the Jewish-Gentile question reached a crisis for the Judean Christians. They were quite prepared to acknowledge Paul's work among the Gentiles and were quite willing to concede that Gentiles could become Christians, but they couldn't tolerate the abolition of all distinction between Jew and Gentile. If Gentiles wished to have fellowship with Jewish Christians they must conform to Jewish scruples. They must be circumcised and must respect Jewish ritual requirements at meal times. The Jewish leaders consequently dispatched representatives to the galatian churches and to the sponsoring church at Antioch (Gal 1:7; Acts 15:1).
The Antioch church, following the lead of Paul and Barnabas, recognized the necessity of discussing this burning question at top level, and sent Paul, Barnabas and others unnamed in Acts as delegates to the Jerusalem church, as a result of which a conference was convened (Acts 15).
If this reconstruction is correct the epistle was written before the Council was convened, but it isn't possible to be any more specific than that. The letter may have been written on Paul's way to Jerusalem for the Council. In any case, it would be dated 49-50AD and in that event would become the earliest of Paul's extant epistles.”
Contents
This epistle addresses the question "Was the
Mosaic Law binding on Christians?" The epistle is designed to counter the position that
men can't be justified by faith without the works of the law; see also the
Epistle of James and the
Expounding of the Law. After an introductory address (Gal
1:1–10), the apostle discusses the subjects which had occasioned the epistle.
In Chapter
1 he defends his apostolic authority (
1:11–19;
2:1–14). Chapters
2,
3, and
4 show the influence of the
Judaizers in destroying the very essence of the
gospel. Chapter 3 exhorts the Galatian believers to stand fast in the faith as it's in Jesus, and to abound in the
fruit of the Spirit. Chapter 4 then concludes with a summary of the topics discussed and with the benediction, followed by
5; 6:1–10 teaching about the right use of their Christian freedom. For example, it's clear that some took "freedom in Christ" as justification of
antinomianism.
In the conclusion of the epistle (
6:11), Paul writes, "Ye see how large a letter I've written with mine own hand." It is implied that this was different from his ordinary usage, which was simply to write the concluding salutation with his own hand, indicating that the rest of the epistle was written by another hand. Regarding this conclusion,
Lightfoot, in his Commentary on the epistle, says: "At this point the apostle takes the pen from his
amanuensis, and the concluding paragraph is written with his own hand. From the time when letters began to be forged in his name (
2 Thess 2:2;
3:17) it seems to have been his practice to close with a few words in his own handwriting, as a precaution against such forgeries... In the present case he writes a whole paragraph, summing up the main lessons of the epistle in terse, eager, disjointed sentences. He writes it, too, in large, bold characters (Gr.
pelikois grammasin), that his hand-writing may reflect the energy and determination of his soul."
Galatians also contains a catalogue of
vices and
virtues, a popular formulation of Christian ethics.
An interesting literary interpretation of this period of
Christianity and the character of Paul can be found in
Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Church that was at Antioch". A
Roman soldier and follower of
Mithraism discovers the faith on his death bed, after having tried to defuse tension between the
Gentile and
Jewish Christians over issues of
Mosaic Law such as
circumcision and the
preparation of food.
Textual criticism
No original of the letter is known to exist. The earliest reasonably complete version available to scholars today, named P46, dates to approximately the year 200 A.D., approximately 150 years after the original was presumably drafted. This fragmented papyrus, parts of which are missing, almost certainly contains errors introduced in the process of being copied from earlier manuscripts. However, through careful research relating to paper construction, handwriting development, and the established principles of textual criticism, scholars can be rather certain about where these errors and changes appeared and what the original text probably said.
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