When was Galatians written?

The time when the epistle was written and where it was written cannot be positively determined. It is probable that Paul wrote the epistle while he was at Ephesus (Acts 19) from autumn 54 till Pentecost 57. The subscription "written from Rome " is incorrect.

The Division of Galatians

The Epistle consists of three parts. In the first part (chapters 1 and 2) the apostle defends his apostolic authority and that he was absolutely independent of those who were apostles before him. He shows how he became an apostle and traces his own experience. Then he speaks of his visit to Jerusalem and what took place there at that time. The gospel he preached had been acknowledged by James, Peter and John, a fact which these Judaizing teachers had kept from the Galatians. A third fact is brought by Paul to their attention. Peter had been made prominent by these false teachers; they made it appear as if all the authority was invested in Peter. Perhaps they spoke of him as almost perfect. But Paul shows that Peter had no authority whatever over him. Paul had rebuked him when he had done wrong and committed a most serious mistake.

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.

Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece were the sphere of Paul's second missionary journey. Having differed from Barnabas, because the latter wished to take John with them (who had left them on the first journey), Paul selected Silas for his companion, and departed with the full fellowship of the brethren. During part of this journey Timothy was one of the company. He abode a year and a half at Corinth, where he wrote the two EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS. He now visited Jerusalem at the feast, and returned to Antioch. He took his third missionary journey through Galatia and Phrygia. When he visited Ephesus he separated the disciples from the synagogue, and they met in the school of Tyrannus. At Ephesus he wrote the FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS, and probably the EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. After the tumult raised by Demetrius he went to Macedonia, and there wrote the SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. He again visited Corinth and wrote the EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

54-56.-Paul's Third Missionary Journey. He departs from Antioch-visits Galatia, Phrygia and reaches Ephesus, where he stays two years and three months. Here Paul separates the disciples from the Jewish synagogue (Acts 19:8, 10). Epistle to the Galatians written.

We must place in the first rank those whose date is sure: 1 and 2 THESSALONIANS; 1 and 2 CORINTHIANS; the Epistle to the ROMANS, those to the EPHESIANS, COLOSSIANS, PHILIPPIANS, PHILEMON, the last four written during Paul's captivity. The Epistle to the GALATIANS was written between fourteen and twenty years after the call of the apostle, and after he had laboured for some time in Asia Minor, perhaps when he was staying at Ephesus, although it was not long after the founding of the assemblies of Galatia. 1 TIMOTHY was written on the occasion of the apostle leaving Ephesus, at what time exactly is not clear; 2 TIMOTHY must be placed at the close of the apostle's life, when he was about to suffer martyrdom. The Epistle to TITUS is connected with a journey of Paul to Crete, though we do not know when this journey took place (it has been thought that it was perhaps at the time of the apostle's sojourn at Ephesus); it is morally synchronous with 1 TIMOTHY, for it was not God's purpose to give us chronological dates: divine wisdom was not pleased to give this, but the moral order is quite clear, as we already see in the way in which the second epistle to Timothy is connected with the ruin of that the order of which was established by the first.

"And if that Church were designed to be made the model for all Churches, in all countries, and in all ages, the epistle to it ought obviously to have been the very first epistle St. Paul wrote. But the First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians at least is of earlier date; so is that to the Galatians; and that to the Romans is coeval if not somewhat earlier." The argument has no force, laying aside the irreverence of dictating to God the order in which He ought to reveal His truth, which lies at the bottom of it. But, in fact, no objection can be more worthless. For there is evident propriety in the Epistles to the Thessalonians taking the priority in time of all others. They develop christian life in its fresh simplicity and in its capital elements of faith, hope, and love, though correcting specially certain errors into which they fell or were misled in the great article of our hope, and insisting on the moral duties which suit that hope, instead of being incompatible with it, as some vainly supposed. There is no niche which these epistles could so well fill as that in which the Spirit of God was in fact pleased to put them — an initiatory instruction and exhortation to an infant assembly. The date of Galatians is the least ascertainable of all Paul's epistles, some making it first, some last, and many viewing it as intermediate. There is no sufficient reason to postpone it till the apostle's visit to Rome, as the legendary subscription in the common Bible does, followed by not a few names of weight. I do not even contend for its being so late as the Epistle to the Romans, which was certainly written at Corinth long before he saw Rome, but after the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written from Ephesus, and even after the second was written somewhere in Macedonia, before his stay of three months in Greece, when and whence he wrote to the Romans. But, supposing that the Epistle to the Galatians could be proved to be anterior to 1 Corinthians, contrary to the recent investigation of Prof. Lightfoot, what would be the value of the argument? Who can fail to see that to deliver saints from abandoning grace for the law (which is the point in Galatians) is an individual appeal of the most urgent personal importance, and therefore might well precede the laying down of the divine will as to corporate privileges and responsibilities? But the truth is, that the measure of uncertainty which hangs over the place and time of writing to the Galatians suits exactly. The aim was their recovery from a lapse into Judaising, which might have been either before or after or along with 1 Corinthians. But the Epistle to the Romans was assuredly written in Corinth during the apostle's brief stay in Achaia, after both Epistles to the Corinthians were written and despatched. The Christian Observer therefore is all abroad in the alleged facts: but had these even been correct, the desired conclusion would not follow.

The Epistle to the Galatians requires a little more consideration. As there is not a salutation in it, we must judge of its date entirely from internal evidence. I should put it early, and I think it possible from Gal. 2:1, that the Galatians were acquainted with Titus and Barnabas before the quarrel, and that it may have been written even before Paul first left Asia for Europe; but one cannot speak with any certainty. The same line of internal evidence may be applied here as to Titus and 1 Timothy. It is a concise and logical discourse on the difference between Christianity and Judaism (Paul's own life, doctrinally considered, being the illustration), in respect to justification and sonship; as the Epistle to the Hebrews is on the difference between Christian and Jewish worship. But all particulars as to his own practical experience so largely detailed in 2 Corinthians are wanting, although he was bearing in his body the stigmata of the Lord Jesus. (Cp 2 Cor. 11:24.)

He was at least twice in Galatia (Acts 16:6; Acts 18:23), and the churches appear to have been organized there before he writes at all to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:1); and the internal evidence is strong, that it must have been sent when he had been feeling the positive mischief which had resulted from the attempt to mix up law and grace, in other words Christianity with Judaism. He had now taken a thoroughly independent position, but the strife was only as yet between the two: corruption from within had not yet appeared. If not earliest of all, it would come after 2 Thessalonians; but where all is conjecture, tradition may have preserved the truth that it came from Rome, though there is no mention of any imprisonment.

Also, on his second journey Paul would have first come to this area (Acts 15:40 - 16:5). The epistle would then have been written much earlier, i.e., either around 51 AD from Antioch, before the start of his second journey, or during this journey, from Corinth, where Paul stayed for 18 months (around 52 AD).

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.

According to another view, Galatia is the larger Roman province. In this case the places Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and Antioch in Pisidia would be included which Paul had already visited during his first missionary journey (appr. 46 - 49 AD) in the company of Barnabas (Acts 13 - 14).

All are agreed, we may say, that it was during these winter months, that he wrote his great Epistle to the Romans. Some say, that he also wrote his Epistle to the Galatians at the same time. But there is great diversity of opinion amongst the chronologists on this point. From the absence of names and salutations, such as we have in the Epistle to the Romans, it is difficult to ascertain its date. But if it was not written at this particular time, we must place it earlier, not later. The apostle was surprised at their early departure from the truth. "I marvel," he says, "that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel." His great disappointment is manifest in the warmth of spirit in which he writes this Epistle.