View source for Galatians


The Epistle to the Galatians, often called Galatians, is part of the New Testament letters written by [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]]. It is a letter from [[Paul the Apostle]] to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia. Like Paul letter to the [[Romans]] he is principally concerned with the controversy surrounding Gentile Christians and more orthodox Jews and their views of the Mosaic Law during the Apostolic Age.

There is no original copy known at this time. Besides fragments the most complete version available is called P46. Written on papyrus  it only dates from around the year 200 AD and requires some guessing on the part of scholars to complete the damaged or missing sections. 
Best guesses place the original composition to be around 40–60 AD. Galatians is considered by most to be a true example of Paul's writing, There is some question as who he was writing. While he did visit the Roman province of Galatia  Celts two and half centuries before Christ  the term "Galatia" is an ethnic reference to a Celtic people living in northern Asia Minor.
Many believe that Paul organized the churches of Galatia listed as Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe,([[Acts 16]]:6; [[Galatians 1]]:8;[[Galatians 4|4]]:13;4:19). Most of these Church were composed of converts without some of the orthodox Jewish traditions ([[Galatians 4]]:8). 

Some were beginning to spread what Paul calls  "another gospel" or "different gospel". Like the Pharisees they began to unmoore the precepts of the ''gospel of the kingdom'' by emphasizing rituals and taboos of the Mosaic law as understood by the Jews. Today people call this ''legalism'' but in truth it is a form of [[Idolatry|idolatry]] where people worship the doctrines of men rather than the God of love and His righteousness. They seek a sense of self-righteousness through religious rituals, claims and practices that often have little to do with what Paul preached when he preached ''Christ first''.

Paul had also visited Phrygia. These places as well as the Celts themselves had many people that would accept the teachings of Christ because of the independents and liberty produced by doing what Christ said and the early church was doing. They were ready as individuals to attend to the {{Weightier matters|weightier matters}}.

But some also still need to find justification in [[False religion]].

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