GALATIANS, Epistle of Paul to the. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the churches of Galatia (i, 2) in order to counter act the influence of an extreme type of Judaistic Christianity which, he was convinced, was threatening to undermine faith in Christ alone as the fundamental principle of the Gospel and which appears to have gained a strong footing in those churches which he himself had founded. Apparently, the Judaizers had attacked not only Paul's doctrine but also had insinuated that he was not really an apostle and therefore his teaching had no apostolic authority.
The news of the defection of his Galatian churches came to Paul as a great surprise (i, 6) and filled him with grief and indignation. 'He wrote immediately and his letter is intense, even severe, written hastily perhaps, but not thought lessly or carelessly.
He first sought to show that both his apostle ship and the gospel he preached were of divine, not human authority. He had been called to his apostolic work directly by God and to no man did he owe his knowledge of the gospel (i, 6 24). Nevertheless, both he and the gospel as he preached it had been fully recognized and ap by the leaders of the mother church in erusalem (ii, 1-10), and on one occasion he ad even rebuked Peter for inconsistency and disloyalty to the truth of the gospel when he weakly yielded to the Judaizing extremists (ii, 11-21). He then asked the Galatians to recall their own past experience as evidencing that "faith,* and not °Works of the Law,'" is the condition of the Spirit's presence and power (iii, 1-6). He next showed that the principle of "faith" antedated and is superior to that of the Law even in the Old Testament. The Law is only of a secondary and temporary significance entailing bondage; it was simply preparatory to the dispensation of faith which alone brings liberty and sonship (iii, 7-v, 12). After a few hints as to the true character of Christian con duct (v, 13-vi, 10) the letter closes with a final warning against trusting to circumcision in preference to faith in the crucified One (vi, 11-16).
The purpose of the letter is thus perfectly clear from its contents and no reasonable doubt can exist as to its authorship by Paul. In im
portance Galatians is second to no other of Paul's epistles. Its biographical material in chaps. i and ii is invaluable, while in its state ment and exposition of Paul's great doctrine of justification by faith this epistle, along with Romans, has been the great source from which theologians from Augustine to Luther and Cal vin havt drawn their arguments.
The critical questions regarding Galatians are mainly two, as to its destination and date.
Who were the °Galatians° (iii, 1) and where were "the churches of Galatia° (i, 2) to whom Paul addressed this remarkable letter? The traditional view (now commonly called the North Galatian theory) is that the Galatians addressed lived in old Galatia proper, a large district in the interior of Asia Minor, north of Lycaonia and east and northeast of Phrygia (the boundaries of which were rather vague). A more modern and widely accepted view is that by °Galatia° in (i, 2) is meant the recently organized Roman Province of Galatia (which included old Galatia and parts of Phrygia, Ly caonia, etc.) And that the "churches of Galatia) were those founded by Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey (Acts xiii and xiv), i.e., Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. For the traditional view it is claimed that it is based on the simpler and more natural interpretation of the terms "Galatia" and "Galatians,'" and that Acts (xvi, 6 and xviii, 23) imply, or at least allow for, missionary work by Paul in old Galatia. For the other, or South Galatian theory, it is claimed that these passages do not imply any missionary work in old Gala tia, but on the contrary refer to the western part of the Province of Galatia traversed by Paul on his first and second journeys. In favor of this theory it is urged that churches so im portant must certainly have been mentioned by Luke in Acts and therefore they are the ones whose founding is told in Acts xiii and xiv. But since Luke omitted many important details of Paul's missionary work, which are referred to or implied in his epistles, this argutnent.has little force.