What is the history and significance of the churches in Galatia?

Galatia was a prominent province of Asia Minor. The leading cities were Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium. The inhabitants of Galatia were not Orientals, but Gauls or Celts. They had pillaged Delphi in the third century before Christ and had settled in the central parts of Asia Minor, which was then named Gallograecia or Galatia. Classical writers give a description of their character. "The infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves and fond of change, and not to be trusted." The leading characteristic seems to have been fickleness, which is also prominent in the opening chapter of this epistle. The apostle was greatly surprised by it. "I marvel that ye are so quickly changing from him who called you in the power of the grace of Christ unto another Gospel." When the apostle had visited them for the first time, they had received him with open arms and had shown him much kindness. But when afterwards false teachers appeared amongst them, who preached another Gospel, they listened willingly to them and became cold and indifferent towards the Apostle Paul and the Gospel he had brought to them. They had received the Gospel and experienced its blessed power, but they were so unstable that they were about ready to give up the Gospel of Grace and to turn back to the weak and beggarly elements, to the law and its ordinances.

Paul had been in Galatia (Acts 16: 6). He had preached the Gospel in this province and God had blessed the preaching, so that many were saved and a number of churches were founded. From chapter 4: 13-14 in this epistle, we learn something additional. "Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you, at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." It seems he was then troubled with the thorn in the flesh. They had received him as a messenger of God and sympathized with his affliction that if it had been possible, they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to Paul (4: 15). From this statement some have concluded that Paul's affliction was the well-known oriental eye-disease, ophthalmia. Later he visited Galatia again and strengthened the disciples (Acts 18: 23).

The Epistle to the Galatians is the only epistle of the Apostle Paul that is explicitly addressed to several assemblies. All these assemblies, which consisted mainly of former heathens (Gal 4:8; 5:2-3; 6:12), had come under the influence of judaizing teachers wanting to bring a different gospel than the one Paul had preached to them (Gal 1:6-9; 5:10, 12). These false teachers did not want to take away from them their faith in Christ, but they told them that they could not be saved by this faith alone. By God's promise, they said, the inheritance was given to the seed, that is, to the descendants of Abraham. If the nations wanted to obtain this inheritance, they would have to join the people of Israel (descending from Abraham) i.e., they would have to be circumcised and follow the law of Sinai.

A large district in the centre of Asia Minor, having Bithynia on its north, Pontus on its east, Lycaonia and Cappadocia on its south, and Phrygia on its west. The inhabitants, being emigrants from Gaul, were called the Galli or Gauls of the East. They settled themselves in Asia Minor, and being restless and warlike they became a scourge to their neighbours. When restrained, they hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers. They were brought under the power of Rome, and eventually Galatia became a Roman province.

Paul travelled through Galatia twice and churches (in the plural) were formed there. To these his Epistle was addressed. Gal. 1:2. It is not known at what towns these churches were gathered. Though the inhabitants were principally Gentiles, we learn from 1 Peter 1:1 that there were Jews there also. Acts 16:6; Acts 18:23; 1 Cor. 16:1; 2 Tim. 4:10. The inhabitants were addressed as GALATIANS. Gal. 3:1.

The date when this Epistle was written has been disputed more than that of any of the others, some placing it early, and others later. The events seem best to agree thus: on Paul's second missionary journey he went throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia. Acts 16:6. We learn from Gal. 4:13-15 that he had preached the gospel to them, and that they had received him as an angel and would have plucked out their eyes for him. This visit would have been about A.D. 51. Then about 54 Paul again visited them; all we read as to this journey is that he went over all the country of Galatia, strengthening, or confirming, all the disciples. Acts 18:23. They may, alas, have as readily received the Judaising teachers, and when this came to the ears of Paul, he wrote this Epistle to them. He grieved that they were so soon diverted to another gospel which was not another. In 1 Cor. 16:1 we read that Paul had instructed the churches in Galatia as to the collection for the poor. This was written to Corinth about A.D. 55. The collection is not mentioned in his Epistle to the Galatians, and as far as we know he did not visit them again. This has caused some to suppose that Paul wrote the Epistle to them after his first visit; and that he gave them the directions as to the collection on his second visit; but they may have been given by another letter or by a private messenger.

The Galatians were celts like the Gauls (the native inhabitants of what is now France), who in the 3rd century B.C. conquered Macedonia and central Asia Minor (today's Turkey). They had settled in an area, the centres of which were the cities of Ancyra (today Ankara), Pessinus and Tavium.

In 25 B.C., the Romans united the territory of the Galatians with the more southerly parts of Pisidia, Phrygia and parts of Lycaonia to form the Roman province of Galatia.

The resulting ambiguity of the names "Galatians" and "Galatia" makes it difficult for us today to determine to whom the letter of the Apostle Paul was addressed: Was it the larger Roman province of Galatia, which reached further south or was it the more northerly located original settlement area of the Galatians? However, since this question is not without influence on the determination of the time of writing of the letter, let us briefly consider it. One possibility is that the epistle to the Galatians is addressed to assemblies in original Galatia, that is, in the north of the Roman province. Paul would then probably have been there on his second journey (app. 51 - 54 AD) where people had come to believe in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:6). A second visit would then have taken place on his third journey (Acts 18:23). The time of writing of the Epistle could then have been at the earliest during the time of Paul's third journey, and according to the researchers who support this "North Galatia thesis", during his three-year stay in Ephesus.

GALATIA was one of the central provinces of Asia Minor. The original inhabitants emigrated from Gallia nearly 300 years before Christ, hence they have been designated Gauls or Galatians. They have been described as a quick, warm, impulsive, and exceedingly changeable race of people, and certainly the character ascribed to them by our apostle exactly agrees with what is elsewhere reported of them by others. Galatia became a Roman province in the year 26 of the Christian era, not however until a good deal of Italian blood was shed in effecting the conquest.

The apostle Paul visited Galatia on two occasions. First, on his second missionary tour when accompanied by Silas (Acts 16:6), and again, on his third evangelistic mission, several years after (Acts 18:23). The sacred historian merely records these visits, but from certain allusions to Paul's presence there, and the warm, truly Galatian reception accorded to the apostle and his mission, which are referred to in the body of the epistle (4:13-15, etc.), these visits must have been occasions of real interest.

If you will look at the map in your Bible that shows the Apostle Paul's journeys, you will see that Galatia is not a city, but a province; just as in China, Kiangsu is not a city, but a province. Kiangsu Province has many cities in it, as Nanking, Shanghai, Soochow, and others. So the Epistle to the Galatians is a letter written, not to the Christians living in one city, like the letters to the Romans or Corinthians, the Philippians or Colossians, but it is a letter written to a number of churches or assemblies, in the Province of Galatia.

We do not really know exactly what territory is meant by the Province of Galatia. Most people today think that it included that part to the south, called on the map "Lycaonia," and also probably that part to the west called "Phrygia." But we do not know for certain that this is so.

The Epistle to the Galatians was written to defend the truth of the gospel against the inroads of error. In this respect it differs from the Epistle to the Romans, which is the orderly unfolding of the gospel, in the way of simple instruction. It also differs from the other epistles inasmuch as it is a letter not to a church, nor to an individual, but to a group of churches comprised in one of the ancient provinces of Asia Minor — "the churches of Galatia" (verse 2).

In the course of Paul's second missionary journey he went "throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia" (Acts 16:6), and there it was that he appeared amongst these Gentiles preaching the gospel, "through infirmity of the flesh," but this temptation in his flesh they did not despise, but received him "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus" (Gal. 4:13-14). They were evidently an impulsive and enthusiastic people, receiving the gospel he announced with such joy that had it been possible "they would have plucked out their own eyes, and have given them to him" (verse 15).

It is usually the case that the person easily impressed is not very stable, and so it was with the Galatians. Along came other teachers when Paul had departed and these "troubled" them with law teachings constraining them to be circumcised (Gal. 5:12, and Gal. 6:12); they were evidently men of the kind we read of in Acts 15:1. The Galatians swung round and readily embraced these new ideas and started off to make Jews of themselves; if not exactly seeking salvation by law, at least seeking holiness by law.

So far the Apostle had been re-visiting scenes of his former labour. Now he would break new ground, turning northward to Phrygia and Galatia, through both of which provinces he went, having been forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. [68] Divine guidance was markedly manifested on this journey. Here we first meet with it. Viewing the map, it will be seen that from Iconium and by Antioch a direct road led to Asia - i.e., the Roman proconsular province of that name. Thither he would have gone, had not the Holy Ghost, who guides as to the fields of labour on earth, forbidden it. The time to work that field had not yet come. Other countries were first to receive his attention. Phrygia and Galatia were to profit by it, ere Asia heard the Gospel from his mouth. And profit they certainly did, if what we learn of the work in Galatia was at all indicative of what it was in Phrygia. Gladly did the people in the former province welcome the Apostle; "Ye received me," he writes, "as an angel of God," - his infirmity, his trial in the flesh, in no way checking the readiness of the Galatians to receive his ministry. Nor did that readiness diminish as they made better acquaintance with him. "I bear you record," he could add, "that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me" (Gal.4:14,15). We may suppose, from this, that he suffered in his eyesight as well as in other ways. The Galatians felt for him, they loved him warmly. But, evidently of a versatile disposition, they were subsequently much taken up with Judaising teachers, and Paul was then regarded by them in a very different light. Gauls they were, who had migrated to Asia Minor, and exhibited that characteristic which can be traced in the race to this day.

He writes, you notice, not to one assembly of Christians only, but to the assemblies of the province of Galatia, who all had evidently been affected in the same way. Now the Gospel had reached them through Paul's labours, as is intimated in Gal. 4:11-15. They had given him a wonderful reception and had seemed to be most devoted to him. Miracles were wrought amongst them (Gal. 3:5), and it was a most enthusiastic time. There is no record of any opposition. Nobody appears to have hurled stones at Paul's head! Yet in the Acts all this is ignored. We are only told that they went "through … the region of Galatia" (Acts 16:6), preaching the Gospel, and that later they "went over all the country of Galatia … strengthening all the disciples" (Acts 18:23).

In the end of Acts 15, and the early verses of chapter 16, we see that Paul went through the cities where he had preached on his first journey, and when he came to Derbe and Lystra, he chose Timothy to accompany him. Now in Acts 16:6, we read for the first time of GALATIA. "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia …" That is all the Bible tells us. Does this mean the northern part of this province, where there were a number of cities, or is it the parts near Derbe and Lystra? We do not really know. It is strange that although we know much about all the other important churches that Paul founded, as Corinth and Ephesus, Philippi and Thessalonica, yet the Bible tells us of scarcely a single incident of any kind, and not one single name of a person or place, in connection with Paul's preaching in Galatia. It seems as though the Spirit of God draws a veil over the history of these churches which so soon, and so seriously, turned aside from the true gospel.

In Acts 18:23 we read of the beginning of Paul's third missionary journey: "He departed (from Antioch) and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples." Men who understand Greek tell us that the words "country of Galatia and Phrygia" probably do not mean these are two different countries, but instead this country might be called either Galatia or Phrygia. Perhaps we should notice that in Acts 16:5 (and other Scriptures) we read of "the assemblies," but in this verse (Acts 18:23), we read of "disciples."