The Book of Galatians

An Introduction

Introduction
A revolutionary document
A Magna Charta of Christian Faith, Or
Charter of Christian Freedom
Luther put it to his lips as a trumpet
to blow the reveille of the
Reformation. G. Findlay
The Epistle to the Galatians is my
epistle; I have betrothed myself to it;
it is my wife.

Map of Galatia

Galatia guh-layshuh
(1) a broad territory in north central
Asia minor
(2) a Roman province covering a
smaller region in southern part of
that territory, but some additional
areal as well.

History
The name was derived from the people called Keltoi, that is, the
Celtic tribes from ancient Gallia or Gaul (roughly modern France
and Belgium).
They are also known as the Gauls and Celts1. The Hellenes called
them the Keltai2, and the Romans called them the Gallia3. They
were the Celtic invaders from the northern Europe and the last
European people migrating to Asia Minor. They attacked the Greek
peninsula and at most 25,000 to 30,000 of them, mostly soldiers,
crossed4 to Asia Minor in three big groups and were hired by the
king Nikomedes of Bithynia as mercenaries to fight against the
Seleucids around 278/277 BC.
480 BCE, much of the interior of Europe had fallen under the sway of
the mighty Celtic warriors. The Celts are known to be among ancient
historys most formidable and robust warriors, who at the height of
their power even challenged Rome itself.

Map of Europe at the height of Celtic power. Roman conquests,

Germanic expansion and Celtic infighting led to the demise of
the Celts. A number of Celtic raiders arrived into Anatolia, with
numbers of Galatian Celts settling in the region of modern-day
Ankara, capital of the Turkish Republic. The Celtic legacy
endures in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and northern France
(Brittany).

Anatolia

 After having invaded Macedonia and

Greece about 280 B.C. they crossed
into Asia Minor on the invitation of
Nikomedes I, King of Bithynia, to
aid him in a civil war. After ravaging
far and wide, they were finally
confined to the north-central part
of Asia Minor, where they settled as
conquerors and gave their name to
the territory. Their chief city centers
were Ancyra, Pessinus, and
Ravium.

 In 189 B.C. the Galatians were

subjugated by Rome and continue as a
subject kingdom under their own chiefs,
and after 63 B.C. under kings.
On the death of King Amyntas in 25
B.C., the Galatian kingdom was
converted into a Roman province called
Galatia. The province included not only
some of the area inhabited by the
Galatians but also parts of Phrygia,
Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Isauria.

Characteristics & Culture

Galatians were open to accept and absorb other
people. They are believed to adapt most of the cultural
elements of the indigenous people, the Phrygians, as
well as Greeks, worshiping the same gods, such as
Cybele and Zeus and using the same type of pottery,
etc. Also they possibly brought down some of their own
Celtic traditions to their new homeland, Asia Minor. The
Celtic language had been spoken in the Galatian lands
between the first century BC and the mid sixth century
AD as a unifying and identifying characteristic in Galatia,
along with more common Greek language, which was
used as a written language. However, the exact nature
of their relationships with the Phrygians and other
people is difficult to assess due to the impact of the
Hellenistic culture and domination of the Romans.

Ancient historys most formidable

and robust warriors,

Galatia a double
connotation
(1) Geographically, to designate the
territory inhabited by the Galatians;
(2) Politically, to denote the entire
Roman province. The cities of
Antioach, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe,
evangelized by Paul on his first
missionary journey, were in the
province of Galatia -

Two Views of Galatians

Pertaining to The Addressee

North Galatian view

The North Galatian view holds that the epistle was written very soon
after Paul's second visit to Galatia (Acts 18:23). In this view, the visit
to Jerusalem, mentioned in Galatians 2:110, is identical with that of
Acts 15, which is 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 the epistle to the Romans
has led to the conclusion that they were both written at roughly the
same time, during Paul's stay in Macedonia in roughly 5657.[8] This
third date takes the word "quickly" in Gal. 1:6 literally.[9]
John P. Meier suggests that Galatians was "written in the middle
or late 50s, only a few years after the Antiochian incident he
narrates".[10] Eminent Biblical scholar Helmut Koester also
subscribes to the "North Galatian Hypothesis". Koester points out
that the cities of Galatia in the north consist of Ankyra, Pessinus,
and Gordium (of the Gordian Knot fame of Alexander the Great). [11]

 South Galatian view

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 had 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,[12] or during his first missionary journey,
when he travelled throughout southern Galatia. If
it was written to the believers in South Galatia, it
would likely have been written in 49.[13]