GALATIANS, EPISTLE TO THE. As far as genuine ness is concerned, the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians is one of the least disputed of the Pauline Epistles. It has been said that " it bears on every line of it the sign manual of the Apostle " (Currie Martin). There are indeed statements in it which cannot easily be reconciled with other statements in other Epistles and in the Book of Acts, but there is a broad basis of agreement. The Epistle seems to be quoted by Justin the Gnostic, Poly carp, Theodotus, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and other early writers. It Is included in the Versions and Canons of the second century A.D. In spite of all this, it is not without its difficulties. One of these is presented by the term " Galatians." In the Acts of the Apostles " Galatia " seems to denote only a broad strip of the Roman province of Galatia in Asia Minor, running from the South-west to the North-east, a territory inhabited by a mixed population of Phrygians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Celts (Acts xvi. 0; xviii. 23). But in the time of the Apostle Paul the term seems to have denoted also the whole Roman province, which included Antioch, Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. It used to be thought that the Galations of Paul's Epistle were the inhabitants of the Galatia of the Acts of the Apostles (North Galatian theory). It is now held by many scholars that the Gala tians of the Epistle were inhabitants of the southern towns (South Galatian theory). W. M. Ramsay main tains " that the Churches to which the Epistle was addressed were no other than those of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, which were planted by Paul in his first missionary journey, and of which we have an account in Acts xiii., xiv." (JolcClymont). Some of the passages in the Epistle, it is thought, can be best explained as referring to customs and laws peculiar to the province of South Galatia in Roman times. " The main points that can be elucidated by reference to the current customs in the province of South Galatia are those of adoption, the making of wills or covenants, and the special character of the tutor or paidagogos (cf. Gal. iii. 24)
found in the Galatian letter " (Currie Martin). In Gala tians iv. 13 Paul says : " but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time." This has been supposed to militate against the South Galatian theory since there is no reference to the illness of Paul in Acts. On the other hand, as Prof. Peake says, it is hardly likely that North Galatia could have been a place to which Paul could have gone in consequence of illness. "For either he was taken ill when passing through it to another district, or he went there to regain his health. Against the former it must be said that the road through North Galatia led nowhere where he was likely to go, against the latter that the climate was singularly unfitted for an invalid." McClymont thinks that the Epistle was written in the period of transition from II. Corinthians to Romans, towards the close of the year 57 A.D. Ramsay assigns it to about the year 53 A.D., the time when the Apostle was about to commence his Third Missionary Journey. He thinks that it was written at Antioch in Syria. The main object of the Epistle was to counteract a Judaising tendency in the Galatian Church. An interesting feature in the Epistle is the emphasis laid on the independent character of Paul's apostleship. He says, for instance (i. 11 f.) : " For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it. but through revelation of Jesus Christ." See J. A. McOlymont: G. Currie Martin; Arthur S. Peake. Intr.: J. Moffatt, Intr.