GALATIANS, gil-lit'SlIaBZ, EPISTLE TO THE. One of the letters of Paul in the New Testa ment. It is addressed, most probably, to the churches visited by himself and Barnabas on the first mission tour (spring A.D. 47-fall 48), which were situated in the southern part of the large Roman province of Galatia (q.v.) and were com posed predominantly of Gentiles, though evi dently containing a considerable element of Jews. The letter was occasioned by efforts which were being made within the membership of the churches by outside agitators to bring about an observance of the ceremonialism of the Mosaic law—especially the rite of circumcision—as es sential to salvation, and is consequently marked by a vigorous presentation on the Apostle's part of his fundamental doctrine of justification by faith and not by works.
The main problem in the criticism of the letter is its date, which has been variously conjectured from early to late in Paul's ministry, and per haps is impossible of absolute settlement. In view, however, of the close resemblance in thought which the letter has to the letter to the Romans and its lack of similar resemblance to the Co rinthian letters, especially in view of the fact that, though the situation in Corinth was one which promised to become identical with that in Galatia, there is a striking absence in the Co rinthian correspondence of all warning against the serious dangers ahead, which the Apostle could scarcely have refrained from giving had he already passed through the Galatian experience, it would seem probable that its writing occurred between that of II. Corinthians and Romans—in other words, toward the latter part of the Apostle's lengthened journey from Ephesus to Corinth (spring-fall A.D. 55), possibly while he was engaged in mission work in the Province of Epirus (see Rom. xv. 18, 19).
In objection to this argument it is urged that Paul wrote his letters to meet the particular needs of individual churches, which needs might be similar in widely separate fields and at widely different times; so that similarity of thought be tween Romans and Galatians does not necessarily imply sequence in time of composition. This objection, however, lacks all force from the fact that the significant thing here is not so much the similarity between Romans and Galatians as the dissimilarity between Galatians and Corinthians in spite of the acknowledged similarity in the situations to which they were addressed. Com
pare the indifferent way in which circumcision is treated in I. Cor. vii. 18, 19, and the general lack of reference in I. and II. Corinthians to the vital difference between salvation by faith and by works, with the serious treatment of circum cision in Gal. v. 2, 3, 6; vi. 12-15, and the ab sorbing discussion in the letter of the grounds of justification. And yet notice how similar to the situation in Galatia the Corinthian situation had become by the time II. Cor. chs. x.-xiii. were written (II. Cor. xi. 4, 5, 12-15, 21-23; xii. 11, 12). Equally lacking in force is the objection that, according to iv. 13, "Ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at the former time" [re irpozepos], Paul bad visited these churches but twice prior to his writing, which would make it impossible for the letter to have been written as late as the end of his third mission tour ; since the Newrestainent usage of the comparative degree in general. and of the phrase To irporep4, in particular, makes it per fectly possible to render it here 'formerly,' or even 'at the first.' In positive agreement with this dating is the peculiar phrase in the address of the letter (i. I, 2, "Paul . . . and all the brethren that are with me unto the churches of Galatia"), which, with the absence of all local color in the surroundings of the Apostle, points rather to the situation of a journey than of a city residence. Further is the statement of iv. 20 ("But I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone; for I am perplexed about you"), which would seem to show the writer as far removed from the readers and beyond the likelihood of a near visit to them. Finally, Rom. xv. 26 gives the list of churches contrib uting to the collection which was being gathered by the Apostle for the Jerusalem church, and which he took with him on his last visit to that city. This list is evidently the final one, since it was directly after this that the Apostle began his voyage to the Holy City; but it contains no mention of the Galatian churches, though the fact of such a collection among them, evidently in process of being gathered, is referred to in I. Cor. xvi. 1. Evidently some time between I. Corinthians and Romans had come the rupture between the Apostle and those churches which stopped the collection.