Galatians 1

The Oldest Copy of Galatians

This is a page of Papyrus 46, a book of Paul's letters copied in Egypt about AD 200, now at the University of Michigan. The top lines are the end of Ephesians. Then a line, and the title PROS GALATAS, To the Galatians. Below it, Galatians begins: Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by man. The bottom lines reach 1:8, even if we or an angel from heaven. THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS. In this old book, Galatians comes right after Ephesians, not after 2 Corinthians like in our Bibles. Early Christians did not all put Paul's letters in the same order. WHY IT MATTERS. See the 1 Corinthians title page, for how this book was found. Copied only about 150 years after Paul wrote, it says what our Bibles say today.

The Setting

The word Galatia comes from Celts, the same people as the Gauls, who moved into the middle of Turkey about 278 BC. In 25 BC Rome turned their kingdom into a big province called Galatia. It stretched south to cities Paul visited on his first trip: Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, Acts 13 to 14. Most scholars today think he wrote to those southern churches, maybe about AD 48 to 49, right before the big meeting in Jerusalem in Acts 15. Others think he meant the Celtic Galatians up north near Ankara, visited in Acts 16:6 and 18:23, and that he wrote about AD 53 to 57. Either way, after Paul left, teachers showed up and told his new believers that Jesus was not enough.

What Was Going Wrong

• Jesus Plus Rules. Teachers said Gentile believers had to be circumcised to belong to God's people, 5:2 to 3 and 6:12 to 13.
• Turning So Quickly. The Galatians were deserting the gospel fast, 1:6.
• Attacking Paul. Some said Paul was not a real apostle and got his message secondhand, 1:1 and 1:11 to 12.
• Holy Days. They started keeping special days, months, seasons and years to earn God's favor, 4:10.
• Peter Slipped Too. Even Peter and Barnabas stopped eating with Gentile believers out of fear, 2:12 to 13.
• Biting Each Other. The church was tearing itself apart, 5:15.

Where to Find Jesus

• Galatians 1:4. He gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. Fulfills Isaiah 53:6.
• Galatians 3:13. Christ became a curse for us, because cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Fulfills Deuteronomy 21:23.
• Galatians 3:16. The promised Seed of Abraham is one Person, Christ. Fulfills Genesis 12:7 and 22:18.
• Galatians 4:4. When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman. Fulfills Genesis 3:15.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

• Luther'S Wife. Martin Luther loved this letter more than any other. He said Galatians was his epistle, the one he was engaged to, his Katie von Bora, which was his wife's name. His lectures on it, printed in 1535, helped spread the Reformation.
• The Celts Who Still Spoke Celtic. About AD 387, Jerome wrote that the Galatians up north still spoke a language almost like the one he had heard near Trier, in Germany. So some of Paul's readers may have been cousins of the Gauls.
• Welcomed Like An Angel. Paul says they welcomed him like an angel of God, 4:14. At Lystra in South Galatia, the crowd thought Paul was the god Hermes and tried to offer sacrifices to him, Acts 14:11 to 13.
• Abba. Abba is the Aramaic word a child calls his father. Jesus prayed it, Mark 14:36, and Paul says the Spirit in us cries it too, 4:6.
• Big Letters. Paul usually spoke his letters to a helper who wrote them down. Here he grabs the pen and writes the end in large letters himself, 6:11.
• No Thank You. Every other letter Paul wrote to a church opens with thanks or praise. Galatians jumps straight from hello to I am amazed you are deserting, 1:6.

Did Anybody Listen?

Yes. The church leaders met in Jerusalem and agreed Gentile believers do not have to be circumcised, Acts 15:19. Paul went back through Galatia to strengthen the churches, Acts 16:4 to 5, and Timothy, a young man from Lystra, joined his team. Later the Galatian churches gave to Paul's offering for the poor, 1 Corinthians 16:1. Fifteen hundred years later, a German monk named Martin Luther read this letter and was set free by it. The fight in Galatia became the fight of the Reformation.