Galatians
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, usually referred to
simply as Galatians, is the ninth 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. The author is principally concerned with the
controversy surrounding Gentile Christians and the Mosaic Law
within Early Christianity, see also Paul of Tarsus and
Judaism. Along with the Epistle to the Romans, it is the most
theologically significant of the Pauline epistles, and has
been particularly influential in Protestant thought...
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle_to...
LITERATURE
When and to whom, precisely, this letter was written, it is
difficult to say; its authorship and purpose are
unmistakable. One might conceive it addressed by the apostle
Paul, in its main tenor, to almost any church of his
Gentilemission attracted to Judaism, at any point within the
years circa 45-60 AD. Some plausibly argue that it was the
earliest, others place it among the later, of the Pauline
Epistles. This consideration dictates the order of our
inquiry, which proceeds from the plainer to the more
involved and disputable parts of the subject.
I. The Authorship.
1. Position of the Dutch School:
The Tubingen criticism of the last century recognized the
four major epistles of Paul as fully authentic, and made
them the corner-stone of its construction of New Testament
history. Only Bruno Bauer (Kritik. d. paulin. Briefe, 1850-
52) attacked them in this sense, while several other critics
accused them of serious interpolations; but these attempts
made little impression. Subsequently, a group of Dutch
scholars, beginning with Loman in his Quaestiones Paulinae
(1882) and represented by Van Manen in the Encyclopedia
Biblica (art. "Paul"), have denied all the canonical
epistles to the genuine Paul. They postulate a gradual
development in New Testament ideas covering the first
century and a half after Christ, and treat the existing
letters as "catholic adaptations" of fragmentary pieces from
the apostle's hand, produced by a school of "Paulinists" who
carried their master's principles far beyond his own
intentions. On this theory, Galatians, with its advanced
polemic against the law, approaching the position of Marcion
(140 AD), was work of the early 2nd century. Edwin Johnson
in England (Antiqua Mater, 1887), and Steck in Germany
(Galaterbrief, 1888), are the only considerable scholars
outside of Holland who have adopted this hypothesis; it is
rejected by critics so radical as Scholten and Schmiedel
(see the article of the latter on "Galatians" in EB).
Knowling has searchingly examined the position of the Dutch
school in his Witness of the Epistles (1892)--it is
altogether too arbitrary and uncontrolled by historical fact
to be entertained; see Julicher's or Zahn's Introduction to
New Testament (English translation), to the same effect.
Attempts to dismember this writing, and to appropriate it
for other hands and later times than those of the apostle
Paul, are idle in view of its vital coherence and the
passionate force with which the author's personality has
stamped itself upon his work; the Paulinum pectus speaks in
every line. The two contentions on which the letter turns--
concerning Paul's apostleship, and the circumcision of
GentileChristians--belonged to the apostle's lifetime: in
the fifth and sixth decades these were burning questions; by
the 2nd century the church had left them far behind...
Link: https://bible-history.com/isbe/G/GALATIA...
was written by the apostle St. Paul not long after his
journey through Galatia and Phrygia, Ac 18:23 and probably in
the early portion of his two-and-a-half-years stay at Ephesus,
which terminated with the Pentecost of A.D. 57 or 58. The
epistle appears to have been called forth by the machinations
of Judaizing teachers, who, shortly before the date of its
composition, had endeavored to seduce the churches of this
province into a recognition of circumcision, Ga 5:2,11,12;
6:12 seq., and had openly sought to depreciate the apostolic
claims of St. Paul. Comp. Ga 1:1,11 "Since the days of Luther
the Epistle to the Galatians has always been held in high
esteem as the gospel's banner of freedom. To it and the
Epistle to the Romans we owe most directly the springing up
and development of the ideas and energies of the Reformation."
--Meyer.
Link: https://bible-history.com/smiths/G/Galat...
The genuineness of this epistle is not called in question.
Its
Pauline origin is universally acknowledged.
Occasion of. The churches of Galatia were founded by
Paul
himself (Acts 16:6; Gal. 1:8; 4:13, 19). They seem
to have been
composed mainly of converts from heathenism (4:8),
but partly
also of Jewish converts, who probably, under the
influence of
Judaizing teachers, sought to incorporate the rites
of Judaism
with Christianity, and by their active zeal had
succeeded in
inducing the majority of the churches to adopt their
views (1:6;
3:1). This epistle was written for the purpose of
counteracting
this Judaizing tendency, and of recalling the
Galatians to the
simplicity of the gospel, and at the same time also
of
vindicating Paul's claim to be a divinely-
commissioned apostle.
Time and place of writing. The epistle was probably
written
very soon after Paul's second visit to Galatia (Acts
18:23). The
references of the epistle appear to agree with this
conclusion.
The visit to Jerusalem, mentioned in Gal. 2:1-10,
was identical
with that of Acts 15, and it is spoken of as a thing
of the
past, and consequently the epistle was written
subsequently to
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 A.D.
57-8, during Paul's stay in Corinth (Acts 20:2, 3).
This 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 great doctrines of the gospel...
Link: https://bible-history.com/eastons/G/Gala...
Written by Paul, as the style proves. The heading and
allusions to the apostle of the Gentiles in the first person
throughout confirm his authorship (Galatians 1:1; Galatians
1:13-24; Galatians 2:1-14). Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., 3:7, sec.
2, referring to Galatians 3:19), Polycarp (Philippians 3,
quoting Galatians 4:26; Galatians 6:7), Justin Martyr (Orat.
ad Graecos, alluding to Galatians 4:12; Galatians 5:20),
Tertullian (De Praescr., 60), uphold his authorship. The
character of the Gallic Celts given by Caesar (B. G.,
Galatians 4:5) accords with that described in this epistle:
"the infirmity of the Gauls is, they are fickle in their
resolves, fond of change, and not to be trusted." So
Thierry: "flank, impetuous, impressible, eminently
intelligent, but extremely inconstant, fond of show,
perpetually quarreling, the fruit of excessive vanity." This
description is not altogether inapplicable to their
descendants in France and Ireland.
They received Paul at first with all affection, but
soon wavered in their allegiance to the gospel, and
hearkened as eagerly to Judaizing teachers as they had
before to him (Galatians 4:14-16). Many Jews resided in
Ancyra (Josephus, Ant. 16:62); among these probably, as
elsewhere, he began his ministry, and from them perhaps
emanated the Judaizers who almost induced the Gentile
Christians (Galatians 4:8-9), who constituted the majority
of the Galatian church, to undergo circumcision (Galatians
1:6; Galatians 3:1; Galatians 3:3; Galatians 5:2-3;
Galatians 6:12-13). Accustomed, when pagan, to the mystic
worship of Cybele prevalent in the neighboring Phrygia, they
the more readily were led to believe that the full
privileges of Christianity could only be attained by
submitting to elaborate ceremonial symbolism (Galatians 4:9-
11; Galatians 5:7-12)...
Link: https://bible-history.com/faussets/G/Gal...
