20 pagan population as could be induced to hear. Galatians, althcugh in their intercourse with one another they still continued to make use of their ancient dialect, were quite able to understand the then almost universally diffused Greek 31 and some of them, both Jews and Gentilcs,‘~’ almost innnediately began to receive l’aul’s doctrine with favour and even with enthusiasm (Gal. iv. 14). How long this visit continued we are not told ; but most of the chronological evidence goes to show that it cannot have lasted more than six months, and that it pro- bably came to an end within a much shorter interval. Ilesuming the journey by .Iysia and the T road, I’aul and his companion proceeded to “ Macedonia” and “ Achaia,” spending in the latter province at least eighteen months, and finding no opportunity of revisiting Galatia for a space of at least three years. During this interval several causes must have been quietly but constantly working with a tendency to alienate the Galatian converts from the new “ gospel of the uncircun1cision” (eivayyémov Ti}; ¢iKpo[3vo--n'as, ii. 7), and induce them to that conformity with certain parts of Jewish ceremonial which was even at that time described by the word “ J udaizing ” (iovSa'l'2;ew, Gal. ii. 14). Even among those whose leanings were towards the spiritual religion of the Old Testament, Jewish habits of thinking and feeling could never fail to assert themselves with con- siderable strength; and there were also elements peculiar to the old pagan religion of the district which were fitted to pre- dispose even the heathen mind towards that ceremonialism and “making a fair show in the flesh” (aim-poo-unn”)o-at év oapxf) which the apostle deprecated.3 How or when these tendencies had first begun to manifest themselves in the way of deliberate rebellion against the teachings which Paul had left behind him, can only be a matter of pure conjec- ture; but it would appear thatfeven if the revolt had been originated by Palestinian Jews, it had at least been fomcnted by other agitators who were Gentiles by birth (v. 1:}; vi. 13) ; nor does it seem improbable that they had begun their work very soon after the time of the apostle’s first visit. The second visit, mentioned in Acts xviii. 23, which must have taken place about 55 A.D., and have occupied very .little time, appears to have been on the whole a pleasant one; the apostle was still received with due respect (iv. 12, 18), and may well have left Galatia with the impression that the disciples had been “strengthened” by him, and that they “ were running well” (V. 7). But shortly after his departure tidings reached him that, though the influence of the J udaizers had for the time been neutralized by his presence, it had begun to reassert itself with greater force than ever almost immediately after he had gone, and that his disciples had been so “bewitched” that, after “ having begun in the spirit,” they were now endeavouring to be “made perfect by the flesh.” IIe also learned that the reactionary doctrines had been supported by a suggestion that he himself was no teacher of independent authority, but merely a subordinate, and that a treacherous one, of the original apostles and pillars of the church, whose “ gospel” was emphatically “ of the circumcision.” Immediately on receipt of this intelligence, he wrote the present epistle. C'onten£s.—It consists of three parts, in which the personal, the doctrinal, anrl the practical elements respect- 1 See Jerome's often-quoted Prol. in Epist. Gal. , “ Galatos, excepto sermone Graeco quod omnis oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eandem habere quam Treviros.” Philologists have hardly any doubt of the essentially Celtic character of this dialect; though many German theologians still maintain it to have been Teutonic. See Lightfoot ((:'u.l1Ilians), and Grimm in the Studien u. Ifritiken. for 1876. 3 That there were any Jews among Paul's converts here has some- times been doubted, but unreasonably. See Gal. iii. 23, 25; iv. 3. It seems probable, however, that the Gentiles were in the majority. 3 Galatia, and particularly Pcssinus, was famed for its worship of Cybele. See Livy, xxxviii. 18; Strabo, xii. p. 567. Li A L . '1‘ I A 1i S The ' ivcly predominate. (1.) After an expression of surprise at the instability displayed by his Galatian converts, the author proceeds to establish the divineness of his message by an historical proof of the wholly divine character of his commission to be its messenger. Ile urges that he hail received his apastlcship directly from God; and that, far from proceeding from men, it had been tardily, aml so far reluctantly, acknowledged by them only after it had become an altogether patent and undeniable fact. His first visit to Jerusalem had been three years after his conversion. If it had not resulted in his recognition as on a footing of equality with the apostles, it at least had not led to his taking any position of subordination ; while on his second visit to Jerusalem he had met the apostles and deliberated with them on terms of undisputed parity. On the third oc- casion of his coming into contact with an apostolic person so distinguished as Peter, he had openly withstood him and vanquished him in argument, thereby even establishing a superiority. lle proceeds to state and defend the doctrine of justification by faith in the crucified Christ. After alluding to it. as a truth already established in their Christian consciousness (iii. 1-5), he proceeds to show that the same truth had been embedded in the whole Old Testament revelation, and was capable of being deduced from the entire course of the past history of the church. The religion of Abraham had been a religion of faith, and his justification had not been a justification by works (iii. 6-18). The law which came later is misunderstood if it be regarded as superseding the promise which had been the foundation of the religion of the patriarch. Its relation to the promise was manifestly of a subordinate and tem- porary kind. To regard it as having been otherwise would be as absurd as to suppose that a Hagar and an Islnnael could ever have taken that place in the family which belonged of inalienable right to Sarah and to Isaac (iii. 19-iv. 31). He exhorts to a continuance in the life of faith which is also the life of freedom, and warns against any relapse under the yoke of Judaism (v. 1-12). He explains that Christian freedom is a freedom conditioned by morality (v. 13—vi. 10), and concludes with a recapitula- tion and the benediction. G'emu'7ze2wss, Date, and Place.—'l‘he genuinencss of this epistle has never been disputed. The external evidence is remarkably clear and continuous, while the internal has been such as to satisfy even the most negative school of modern criticism.4 Its autographic character, also, is inferred by many, including Hilgenfeld, Holzinann, and other morlerns, from the c.’p1'cssi0n used in vi. 11 ; but it is at least possible that the word E")/p0.i,’Jo. may refer only to vi. 11-18. The question as to its date has given occasion for considerable diversity of opinion. It has been seen that the apostle wrote immediately af'ter he had heard of the change that had come over the Galatian churches, and that this change occurrer “soon ” (-raxéws) after his second. visit. These facts favour a date not much later than 5.3 A.D. Further, a comparison of the epistle to the Galatians with those to the Romans and Corinthians results, on the whole, in favour of the opinion that it was the earliest of the four, or at all events not much later than the latest, in other words, not later than 59 A.D. It is probably idle to attempt to fix the date much more precisely. The reference in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, which may mean either that friendly rela- tions with the Galatians had been until then uninterrupted, or that they had been already restored, have determined the critics, according to the interpretation adopted, in placing it either early in the Ephesi-an sojourn or late in the Corinthian. The majority of the modcrns is in favour of the former date (55-57 A.D.), but the latter still continues
4 The only dissenting voice has been that of Bauer (1851).