Introduction

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians has long aroused the interest of readers because of the light it sheds on the early history of the Church, on Christian doctrine, and on the striking personality of its author. It keeps readers interested because its passionately expressed teaching is always relevant to Christian †faith and life.

As regards history, Galatians begins with an autobiographical section in which Paul relays firsthand information about his life prior to his conversion and the years after it, as well as his relationship with Peter and the church of Jerusalem. There is nothing quite like it in any of his other letters, which offer only occasional and fragmentary autobiographical information. Adding to the historical interest of Galatians is the challenge of relating its narrative to that of the Acts of the Apostles.

As regards doctrine, the Letter to the Galatians treats a central and essential element of Paul’s theology—†justification by faith in Christ. Although this teaching merits regular review because it is foundational, there is a natural human tendency to forget it. Some scholars have argued that the main point of Galatians is no longer relevant to Christians. It deals with the choice between faith in Christ and the Mosaic †law, but most Christians today are not tempted to seek salvation through the law of Moses. However, while it is true that most Christians are no longer concerned about the need for circumcision and Jewish food laws (i.e., keeping kosher), the deeper question about the basis of our relationship with God remains. Are we relying on our own works or on Christ for salvation? For Paul the only foundation is faith in Christ: no human works can ever claim that role. The Catholic Church is faithful to this doctrine, teaching it at the Council of Trent and reaffirming it in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (see 1987–2029). Catholic theologians have also expounded justification in their treatises on †grace. Nevertheless, because we human beings easily succumb to placing hope for our salvation in good deeds and good intentions, thus substituting human works for faith in Christ, it is always necessary to recall Paul’s forceful insistence on justification by faith.

Of course, Galatians is not the only letter in which Paul expounds this doctrine. The Letter to the Romans offers a fuller exposition of the same themes. But Galatians holds its own unique points of interest. Compared to Romans, Galatians seems a bit like a first draft, with the disadvantages but also the advantages that entails. As for disadvantages, some passages in Galatians are hard to understand, some steps in Paul’s arguments are missing, and some of his affirmations can seem a bit one-sided. As for advantages, Paul’s writing in Galatians is more spontaneous, more animated, and more emphatic. This points to another difference. Paul’s exposition in Romans is carefully constructed and has the tone of an academic lecture, as much as that is possible for someone with Paul’s passionate temperament. Romans provides us with a theological treatise. Galatians, on the other hand, offers a deeply felt argument about a burning question. In Romans, Paul addresses a community that does not personally know him, so he expresses himself moderately and politely in order to win their acceptance. In Galatians, Paul is speaking to his Christians, people he evangelized. The tone is more personal, more direct, and even fierce because his letter is provoked by their unfaithfulness to his preaching. All of this makes his letter more colorful and lively.

We can add that in Galatians Paul presents himself as the defender of Christian freedom. The theme of freedom is not absent in Romans, but it comes across more forcefully in the fiery arguments and exhortations of Galatians. Freedom remains an important topic, even though attention today tends to focus on political rather than religious freedom. Just as there is a tendency among Christians to drift away from justification by faith, so also Paul’s teaching about freedom is often neglected. It is natural for pastors to emphasize compliance rather than freedom, and easier to focus on the limits of freedom rather than on its essence. However, to communicate the Pauline perspective on Christian freedom is necessary to help people grow to maturity in Christ, provided that other aspects of the truth are not forgotten.

In addition to the historical information and doctrinal teaching it provides, Galatians holds a special psychological interest because of how clearly it reveals the personality of its author. A renowned French theologian, Auguste Sabatier, put it this way:

All the powers of Paul’s soul shine forth in these pages. . . . There is nothing in ancient or modern literature to be compared with it. . . . Broad and luminous views, keen logic, biting irony—everything that is most forcible in argument, vehement in indignation, ardent and tender in affection, is found here combined and poured forth in a single stream, forming a work of irresistible power.1

Paul’s tumultuous, explosive spontaneity elicits our interest, but it also presents difficulties for interpretation because it leads to many irregularities in his expression: interrupted sentences, ungrammatical constructions, enigmatic and paradoxical formulas, obscure allusions. To understand it fully we would need to understand the concrete circumstances he is addressing. Unfortunately, we have no other sources of knowledge about the situation of the Christians in Galatia on which to draw. The best we can do is to deduce the historical context from the letter itself. It is no wonder that commentators hold diverse opinions about various points in the letter.

Overview of Galatians

The circumstances that led Paul to send this letter are indicated in vivid terms immediately after his greeting (1:1–5). Paul expresses amazement that the Galatians are turning to “a different gospel” (1:6). The Apostle immediately denounces that so-called †gospel, saying that it arises from a desire “to pervert the gospel of Christ” (1:7). Then he strongly affirms the unchangeable nature of the gospel he has preached (1:8–9). The goals of the letter can be described as twofold: a passionate defense of the gospel Paul preached to the Galatians and a fierce attack on the Galatians’ adherence to another gospel.

Most commentators agree that the letter has three basic sections, although they differ about where precisely these sections begin and end.2

The first section (1:11–2:21) defends the gospel that Paul proclaims on the basis of a series of events in his life. Its theme is clearly stated at the outset: “The gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11–12).

The second section (3:1–5:12) defends Paul’s gospel more directly and at the same time combats the Galatians’ adherence to another gospel with various arguments. The basic themes of this second part are forcefully introduced at the end of the autobiographical section. Paul declares that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16). This thesis statement indicates that the “different gospel” that Paul opposes teaches that justification requires not only faith but also keeping the law of Moses. The Apostle Paul absolutely rejects that position. Some of the arguments he presents against it are based on the Galatians’ experience of the faith (3:1–5; 4:12–20), while others are doctrinal and based on Scripture (3:6–4:11; 4:21–31). Concluding the second part is an exhortation to the Galatians to conduct themselves in accord with the truths Paul has just set forth (5:1–10).

The third section of Galatians (5:13–6:10) defends Paul’s gospel against erroneous practical conclusions that readers might be tempted to draw. It rejects a false understanding of Christian freedom. The fact that Christians are free in regard to the law of Moses does not permit them to lead a dissolute life but rather summons them to a life of generous love under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This theme is introduced in the first sentence: “You were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love” (5:13).

Up to the last sentence in this third section (6:10), Paul has dictated this letter to a secretary. He concludes with a few lines in his own hand, repeating a few points that are still on his heart, and ends, as he usually does, by wishing his recipients “grace” (6:18).

Genre

To interpret a text correctly, we need to be aware of its literary type or genre—that is, what kind of writing it is. We do not interpret a poem the way we read a business letter. To what genre does Galatians belong? Its traditional title, the Letter to the Galatians, reflects the fact that it belongs to the epistolary genre, and the way it is written corresponds to Greco-Roman letter-writing conventions. The beginning states the name of the sender, “Paul,” and the name of the addressees, “the churches of Galatia,” followed by the greeting, “grace to you and peace” (1:1–3). Another salutation ends the letter: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen” (6:18).

What kind of letter is Galatians? It is certainly not merely a letter of friendship, since Paul does not send personal news about where he is, what he is doing, or what he plans to do. Rather, Galatians is a pastoral letter, an apostolic intervention in response to a crisis that hangs over the Christian communities Paul established in a particular region. The letter contains a message that Paul wanted to address to these Christians that he was unable to present in person because he was elsewhere.

In recent decades, biblical scholars have sought to understand Galatians in light of studies of ancient †rhetoric.3 However, although it is possible to find parallels in Galatians to various kinds of rhetoric, it seems better to recognize the distinctiveness of the letter’s original setting. Galatians belongs to a persuasive genre that is not catalogued in ancient rhetorical treatises—namely, Christian preaching grounded in Scripture and the mystery of Christ, which summons its readers to faith and to life in the Spirit.

Where and When Was Galatians Written?

Today it is customary to indicate at the beginning of a letter the date and sometimes the place from which a letter is written. This custom, however, did not exist in antiquity. Paul therefore does not say where he was when he dictated his letter to the Galatians or when he did so. We can deduce that the letter was written more than fourteen years after the Apostle’s conversion since Paul mentions visiting Jerusalem “after fourteen years” (2:1). But how much time passed between that visit and the composition of Galatians?

The answer depends on the relationship between the meeting in Jerusalem Paul refers to in Gal 2:1–10 and the Council of Jerusalem (approximately AD 48) recounted by Luke in Acts 15:4–29. Some commentators believe these are two different events4 and that the Letter to the Galatians preceded the Jerusalem Council and was therefore written before Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 16:1–18:17), making Galatians the oldest of Paul’s letters. However, the majority of commentators believe that Paul’s mention of his visit to Jerusalem in Gal 1:18 and Luke’s account of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) refer to the same event, and therefore they date Galatians after the Council of Jerusalem. Internal evidence from Paul’s letters makes this second view more probable. Comparing Paul’s various letters shows a development in the Apostle’s thought on certain points, suggesting the likelihood that 1 Thessalonians is the oldest letter and that Galatians was written closer in time to the Letter to the Romans. Romans is generally considered to have been written in early 58, when Paul was about to return from Greece to Jerusalem (see Rom 15:25). It is therefore likely that Galatians was written around the year 56 when Paul was in Ephesus. In support of this, an ancient prologue to Galatians says it was written from there.

Who Were the Galatians?

Paul addresses his letter to “the churches of Galatia” (1:2). Whom exactly that refers to is far from clear. Nowhere else does Paul direct a letter to “the churches” (plural) of an entire region; he always names a particular city (Thessalonica, Philippi, Corinth, Rome, Colossae), even when he intends to address the Christians in a whole province (see 2 Cor 1:1). Why doesn’t Paul mention any city here? Perhaps Paul’s communities in Galatia were located not in big cities but in small towns or villages, but this is only a guess.

Where is the region of Galatia? From comparing the accounts in Acts with what we know of historical geography, two possibilities for its location emerge, one northern and ethnic, the other southern and administrative. The “churches of Galatia” could be located in the region of Ancyra (present-day Ankara) in the north-central part of Anatolia (modern Turkey); this region was inhabited by a Celtic people who were called Galatians because they resided in Gaul before invading Asia Minor in the third century BC. The other possibility is the south-central part of Anatolia that constituted the Roman province of Galatia, which was inhabited by a variety of nationalities.

Both hypotheses find support in Acts. The southern hypothesis identifies Galatia with a region Paul evangelized on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:13–14:26). In his account of this journey, Luke does not mention Galatia, but he names the principal cities that Paul and Barnabas evangelized and refers to the regions of “Pamphylia” (13:13; 14:24), “Pisidia” (13:14; 14:24), and “Lycaonia” (14:6), parts of which belonged to Roman Galatia. After Paul and Barnabas’s return to Antioch (14:26), Luke reports the controversy over circumcision for converted †Gentiles and the Council of Jerusalem, where the issue was discussed and resolved (Acts 15). After the council, on his second missionary journey, Paul passes through this same region again (16:1) before continuing toward the northwest and Macedonia (16:10–12).

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Figure 1. Possible locations of St. Paul’s Galatian churches according to the northern and southern hypotheses. [© Baker Publishing Group]

Two passages in Acts, however, point to the northern hypothesis. They mention Paul’s journey in “Galatian territory” (Acts 16:6; see 18:23). These two texts, the only ones in Acts that mention Galatia by name, show that Luke distinguishes between the “Galatian territory” (16:6) and the more southerly regions of Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia that Paul evangelized earlier. We do not know, however, if Paul made the same distinction, since the names of the southern regions do not appear in his letters.

In the end, whether Paul was writing to north or south Galatia does not significantly impact the meaning of Galatians for Christian life. In either case, Paul teaches about justification by faith in Christ and about Christian freedom from the law of Moses. What shifts is our understanding of the historical context. According to the southern hypothesis, the letter could have been written before Paul’s second missionary journey, and perhaps before the Council of Jerusalem. In the northern theory, on the other hand, the letter would come later, after the Council of Jerusalem, after he passed through the north “Galatian territory” for the first time on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:6). In this case, the letter might have been written during that journey, but more likely in the course of his third journey, after his second visit to that region (Acts 18:23). If the northern Galatia hypothesis is correct, Gal 2:1–10 could refer to the Council of Jerusalem. In our view, the close parallels between the letters to the Galatians and to the Romans tip the balance in favor of a later date for Galatians, making the northern hypothesis more probable.

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Figure 2. Remains of Roman baths at Ancyra, located in the northern region called Galatia. [Wikimedia Commons]

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Figure 3. Rural landscape from the southern region called Galatia. [© Baker Publishing Group]

Historical Setting

From the very beginning of his letter (Gal 1:6) Paul attacks the “different gospel” that his readers are on the verge of accepting. What was its content, and who was spreading it? Since the Galatians knew, Paul did not feel the need to explain, which makes it difficult for us to answer these questions. However, we can infer some things from the way the Apostle argues his case.

The first passage that is instructive in this regard is Gal 2:3–5, where the Apostle declares that during his visit to Jerusalem he had fought “so that the truth of the gospel might remain intact” for the Galatians (2:5). The context shows that the question revolved around circumcision: Titus, a Gentile convert, was not “compelled to be circumcised” (2:3). To be circumcised entailed an obligation to practice the law of Moses and adopt the Jewish way of life, especially Sabbath observance, regulations for †ritual purity, and food laws (5:3). Paul maintained that requiring Gentile Christians to keep the Mosaic law would reduce them to slavery, so he forcefully resisted the attempt (2:4–5).

From the chapter that follows (3:7–29), one can surmise that the rival gospel held that faith in Christ was not enough for a person to be justified before God. It was also necessary to enter into Abraham’s family through circumcision (see Gen 17:9–14); indeed, without this sign of the †covenant it was not possible to have any part in Abraham’s †inheritance, the blessings that God had promised to his descendants. It was likewise necessary to adhere to all the precepts of the law given on Mount Sinai (see Exod 24:3–8). While contemporary Christians do not often think about sharing in the blessings promised to Abraham, New Testament authors clearly understand life in Christ to be a fulfillment of these and other Old Testament promises.

The missionaries of the rival gospel did not lack ready arguments from the Old Testament. To these arguments, it seems, they added a critique of Paul and his way of evangelizing Gentiles. They insinuated that he was not a genuine apostle, since he was not one of the Twelve, and therefore ought to conform himself to the teaching and the practice of the apostles among the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. They claimed that Paul was preaching a gospel that was merely human teaching, waiving necessary requirements in order “to please people” (Gal 1:10). In addition, he was not consistent, since in some circumstances he himself preached circumcision (5:11).5 The goal of these insinuations from his opponents was, evidently, to undermine Paul’s apostolic authority so that they could more effectively deny the validity of the gospel he preached.

Who were these opponents? Paul never identifies them clearly. He depicts them at the beginning of the letter as certain people “who are disturbing” the Christians in Galatia “and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ” (1:7). He is undoubtedly thinking about them when he talks about his opponents at the time of the meeting in Jerusalem: “false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might enslave us” (2:4). The troublemakers in Galatia certainly are of the same mentality as the †Judaizers of Acts 15:1, 5, who wanted to impose on Gentile converts the obligation of living like Jews. In the confrontation at Antioch (Gal 2:11–14), Paul reproved Peter for acting as though he agreed with the Judaizers. By refusing to eat with Gentile Christians, Peter was pressuring them to “live like Jews” (2:14).

We have to wait until Gal 4 to find another direct mention of Paul’s adversaries, and there what is at stake is the personal loyalty of the Galatians. Paul does not name his opponents but says with feeling, “They show interest in you, but not in a good way; they want to isolate you, so that you may show interest in them” (4:17). This attempt to seduce his readers away from him pains the Apostle, since he cares deeply about his relationship with his Galatian Christians.

Although they may only be rhetorical flourishes, three sentences in Gal 5 suggest the possibility that the Apostle did not have specific information about these troublemakers. In the first sentence he asks, “Who hindered you from following [the] truth?” (5:7). In the second, he maintains that there is one person chiefly responsible, but he is unable to say who he is: “The one who is troubling you will bear the condemnation, whoever he may be” (5:10). In a third strong statement, he refers to a group: “Would that those who are upsetting you might also castrate themselves!” (5:12).

Paul’s final remarks in his own hand at the end of the letter are more concrete. Here Paul states explicitly what was possible to surmise from chapter 2—namely, that the troublemakers are “trying to compel” the Galatians “to have yourselves circumcised” (6:12–13), the same language of compulsion used earlier in reference to Titus (2:3). To counter the strategies of these Judaizers Paul denounces their motives: they “want to make a good appearance in the flesh,” meaning that they are trying to please people and avoid persecution for “the cross of Christ” (6:12), the true basis of justification. Before his own conversion, Paul persecuted the Church (1:13, 23). Now he is persecuted because he does not preach circumcision (5:11). Finally, Paul accuses these rival teachers of inconsistency: “Not even those having themselves circumcised observe the law themselves” (6:13).

These statements do not reveal the precise identity of the Judaizers; all we can tell is that they are Jewish Christians. It is important to see that Paul does not take aim at Jews in general but rather engages in an intramural polemic against certain Jewish Christian missionaries who observed the Mosaic law and wanted to impose laws specific to the Jewish people on Gentile converts. For us, the precise identification of Paul’s adversaries and a detailed determination of their position are secondary. What primarily interests us is the content of the Apostle’s teaching. In a certain sense we are indebted to the Judaizers since their error elicited such a vigorous reaction from Paul, forcing him to give expression to profound and essential aspects of our faith in a letter full of apostolic teaching and vitality.

The Letter to the Galatians and Christian Life Today

Besides the perennially important themes of justification by faith and Christian freedom, several other topics in Galatians stand out for their relevance to the Church of the twenty-first century.

When Paul heard that the Christians in Galatia were beginning to accept the teaching of the Judaizers, it must have seemed to him an unmitigated disaster. He responded passionately, bringing to bear all his zeal, his love, and his powers of persuasion to return the Galatians to the right path. Nearly two thousand years later, we cannot help but be grateful for that trial, since it elicited from Paul such a wonderful clarification of the gospel and such rich teaching about how to †live as a Christian. Paul’s gospel is that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, the one who loved us and gave himself for us on the cross (2:16, 20; 3:1). Christ freed us from the law so that we might live by the Holy Spirit and not gratify the desire of the flesh, so that through love we might serve one another (5:13, 16).

  

1. Auguste Sabatier, with George Gillanders Findlay, The Apostle Paul: A Sketch of His Doctrine (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1899), 153–54.

2. Some prefer a division into two parts, the first doctrinal (1:6–5:12), the second exhortative (5:13–6:10). This division, however, does not distinguish between the autobiographical argument (1:11–2:21) and the doctrinal one (3:1–5:12). Other interpreters propose four divisions, distinguishing two successive proofs (3:1–47 and 4:8–5:12) in the doctrinal argument.

3. Greco-Roman rhetoric distinguished three kinds of discourse corresponding to diverse situations that required persuasion: forensic rhetoric, intended to accuse or defend a person in court; deliberative rhetoric, addressed to a political assembly to argue for or against a proposed action; and demonstrative rhetoric, used on special occasions—a city festival, for instance—in order to praise and celebrate notable achievements. For a concise but helpful overview, see Michael Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 83–85.

4. Some commentators think that Acts 15 synthesizes the debates and conclusions of more than one meeting.

5. Acts 16:3 reports that Paul had Timothy circumcised, although the situation was quite different from requiring circumcision of Gentile believers, since Timothy was born of a Jewish mother.