Date and Recipients
Some date this work before the Jerusalem council (Ac 15), partly because Paul does not mention it. Others date it afterward, shortly before Romans, noting that at the time of the council the problem had not yet reached Galatia (Ac 15:23). Some believe that Paul addresses only ethnic Galatians (cf. Gal 3:1), among whom Acts reports no ministry. Most, however, including specialists on Asia Minor, recognize that Paul addresses residents of the Roman province of Galatia, including regions in and near Phrygia reported in Ac 13–14. The southern part of the province had many Jewish residents, in contrast to northern Galatia (where ethnic Galatians were concentrated); it was also more accessible for visitors such as Paul’s nemeses in this letter.
Situation
Jewish people held a range of views about Gentiles; only the most conservative required circumcision for salvation (as in Ac 15:1; see notes on Ac 15:1, 20), but nearly all would expect it for those who wished to become part of God’s people, i.e., Jews. In earlier centuries many Jews had died for issues such as circumcision and food laws, and anything that resembled compromise on these issues provoked grave discomfort.
For Paul, the real experience of the Spirit (Gal 3:2, 5), the promised reality of the ultimate covenant to which outward circumcision merely pointed, meant that Gentile Christians could join God’s people without becoming ethnically Jewish (3:7); through the Spirit, believers would keep the spirit of the law, the law of love to which the Law of Moses always pointed (5:14, 18–23). It is not surprising, however, that not everyone agreed. Less sensitive to the new believers’ culture, other Judean missionaries now wanted to convince Paul’s converts to adopt ethnic and cultural Judaism to become fully righteous. Paul suggests that they are more concerned about pressures from other Judeans than about the true gospel (4:29; 5:11; 6:12–13). The short-lived reign of Agrippa I (AD 41–44) had rekindled Judean nationalism, and judging others by the standards of one’s own culture is a common human temptation. ◆
Quick Glance
Author:
The apostle Paul
Audience:
Churches in southern Galatia, and perhaps northern Galatia, founded by Paul during his missionary journey
Date:
AD 48, or early 50s
Theme:
Paul, a Jewish believer in Jesus, writes to counter the claims of some other Judeans who were telling the Galatian Gentile believers that they must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to truly belong to God’s people.