during the apostle's third missionary journey, about 54 A.D., when he "went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, stablishing all the disciples.' From this language we may infer that not a few congregations had been formed in the district; but it would seem that their feelings towards the apostle and his Gospel had in the meantime undergone a change, and that he had, on this second occasion, to speak to them in tones of warning.1 While the great majority of scholars are agreed in giving to Galatia the narrower interpretation that is assumed in the foregoing statement, there are a number of critics2 who hold that the name is to be taken in its wider meaning as a designation for the Roman province, which included several other districts besides that of the Asiatic Celts. Recently a careful and elaborate argument in favour of this view has been advanced by Professor W. M. Ramsay,3 who brings to the discussion of the question a rare knowledge of the archæology and topography of Asia Minor. He maintains 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., as well as in the meagre notices above referred to, in chaps. xvi. and xviii. The reasons alleged for this conclusion are summarised below; and it must be admitted that they possess much force and consistency.4 The only other intercourse between Paul and the Galatian Churches of which we have any record in the New Testament is that mentioned in the first epistle to the Corinthians, concerning the collection for the poor of the 1 i. 9: "As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema." iv. 13-16 (quoted p. 128). v. 21 (quoted p. 128). 2 Renan, Perrot, Sabatier, Hausrath, Weizsäcker, Pfleiderer, &c. I 3 The Church in the Roman Empire, chaps i.-viii. 4 See Note A at end of this chapter. 5 1 Cor. xvi. 1-6: "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye," &c. Church at Jerusalem. This communication may have taken place during the apostle's last visit to these Churches, or in the course of his subsequent stay at Ephesus, when the news may have reached him of his converts' lapse from the truth. Their falling away had evidently been connected with an attempt on the part of Judaising teachers to persuade to an observance of the ceremonial law of Moses, taking advantage, according to the North Galatian theory, of the ritualistic tendencies which, as Cæsar tells us, were characteristic of the Gauls, and which had been fostered by the worship of the Phrygian Cybele, with its "wild ceremonial and hideous mutilations." 1 Although the Galatian Christians were mainly converts from heathenism,2 some of them had doubtless been connected with the Jewish synagogues, either as members or as proselytes. Josephus tells us that two thousand Jewish families had been settled in Lydia and Phrygia by Antiochus the Great. Numerous Jews had also been attracted to the cities of Galatia proper by the commercial 1 iii. 1-3 (quoted p. 127, note 2). iv. IO, II, 21: "Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labour upon you in vain. . . Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" v. 2-4, "Behold, I Paul say unto you, 7, 12: that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.... Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.... Ye were running well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?... I would that they which unsettle you would even cut themselves off." vi. 12, 13: As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they compel you to be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." "In the argu ments of the Judaisers, who maintained that the Gentiles must be circumcised and obey the law, there was much that was most plausible. The law was a divine institution, and could not be neglected; the promises were given solely to the Jews, to Abraham and to his seed; the Messiah was the Messiah of the Jews, and those who desired to enter His kingdom must become Jews; Jesus was Himself circumcised and kept the whole law; the original apostles did the same; and if the Gentile converts were not to be required to keep the law, how could they be emancipated from the immoralities in which they were enslaved? These arguments told everywhere, and had they entirely prevailed, Christianity must have dwindled into a short-lived Jewish sect."-Dods' Introduction to New Testament. 2 iv. 8: "Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods." v. 2 (quoted above). vi. 12 (quoted above). advantages which these afforded; and, according to Josephus, a monumental record of their privileges existed in the temple of Augustus at Ancyra, the ancient capital of the district.1 The existence of this Jewish element in the Church explains the frequent allusions to the Old Testament, and the influence gained over the impressible Galatians by the Judaising Christians of Jerusalem, who were "zealous of the law" and desired to make the Gospel tributary to the synagogue and the temple. They had taken advantage of Paul's absence to undermine his character as an apostle, and had endeavoured only too successfully to cause a reaction, in the minds of the Galatians, from the simplicity and spirituality of the Gospel. It was an attempt to recover the ground which they had lost at Antioch and elsewhere. 1 Antt. xvi. 6. But the genuineness of the passage is disputed. The two other chief cities were Tavium and Pessinus, each of the three having been the capital of a tribe. 2 i. 7: 6 only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." Cf. p. 130, note 1. 3 Who is this newcomer that he should set himself up against the first apostles and against the word of God itself? What is his authority? He has not seen Christ; he has not been made an apostle. What little he knows of the Gospel has been learned from the Lord's real disciples; and now he revolts against them! Why does he separate himself from them? Why does he not reproduce their preaching in its full and proper form? His mission is purely extemporised; and he has constituted himself an apostle on his own authority and out of his mere fancy. He claims no doubt to have received revelations, and to have had visions vouchsafed to him; but what proof have we that his assertions are true? Must we believe it on the strength of his word? Besides, how can these mere personal revelations that he alleges hold good against the traditional teaching of men who lived so long with Jesus, who saw His face and heard His words?"-Sabatier, The Apostle Paul (Eng. Translation), p. 139. 4 ii. 4, 5: "And that because of the false brethren privily brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." ii. 11-14 (quoted next page, note 4). Acts xv. 1: "And certain men came down from Judæa and taught the brethren, saying, Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved." 23-29: And they wrote thus by them, The apostles and the elder brethren unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting: Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls; to whom we gave no commandment; it seemed good unto us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also shall tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you. Fare ye well." 3. Date and Place of Composition. From what has been already said as to the allusions in this epistle to the apostle's second visit to Galatia, we may infer that its composition was subsequent to 54 A.D., if we take Galatia in the narrower sense, or to 51 A.D., if we understand it to mean the Roman province of that name, which included the cities of Asia Minor visited by Paul in his first missionary journey. The expression "so soon" or rather "so quickly "1 (R.V.), has been thought to imply that the epistle must have been written very shortly after the second visit. But if there is any reference here to a previous event, it was probably their calling, or conversion, that the apostle had in view; and the language would be equally appropriate whether an interval of five or of ten years had elapsed. The expression, however, may be taken simply to refer to the rapidity with which they succumbed to the influence of the false teachers. Another note of time has been found in the apostle's allusions to his two visits to Jerusalem.2 But we are not justified in assuming that these were the only visits he had paid to the capital since he became a Christian. For his object is not to give a complete narrative of events, but to meet objections and correct misrepresentations; and he only refers to matters of fact in so far as they have a bearing on the question of his apostleship. If we identify the second visit referred to with the third one recorded in the Book of Acts, in connection with the Council of Jerusalem, and suppose the difference with Peter at Antioch to have taken place soon afterwards, the epistle could not have been written before 51 A.D. This or a little later is the date which some would assign to it. But in all probability a considerable interval must have elapsed between the meeting of the Council at Jerusalem (whose peaceable decrees were taken to Antioch by the hands of Barsabbas and Silas, accompanying Paul and Barnabas), and the arrival at Antioch of Peter, and subsequently, of certain men who "" came from James," and induced Peter to withdraw from the fellowship of the Gentile Christians. This incident, which seems to have provoked the violent resentment of the Judaisers,1 probably occurred during Paul's visit to Antioch about 54 A.D., mentioned in a later chapter,2 and if so, the epistle may have been written in the course of the apostle's third missionary journey, on which he entered soon afterwards. The general opinion has been that it was thus sent from Ephesus during the apostle's long residence in that city. But there seems to be good reason to gospel, I said unto Cephas before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest as do the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, how compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?...' 1 " The discussion which took place at Antioch seems to have been a regular declaration of war. From this hour the struggle became general, and was carried out on both sides without truce or restraint. The Judaising opposition, originating in Palestine, extends and breaks out everywhere; we find it disturbing Galatia, Ephesus, and the Church at Corinth by turns; and, outrunning the apostle of the Gentiles himself, it gets to Rome before him. The Judaising party had its missionaries who followed in Paul's track, and in every place strove with embittered zeal to undermine his authority, to seduce his disciples, and to destroy his work under the pretence of rectifying it. It was a countermission systematically organised. The delegates arrived with letters of recommendation, and gave themselves out as representatives of the Twelve, denying Paul's apostleship, and sowing distrust and suspicion of him everywhere by their odious calumnies."-Sabatier. 2 Acts xviii. 22, 23: "And when he had landed at Cæsarea, he went up and saluted the church, and went En down to Antioch. And having spent |