Who wrote the book of Galatians? Who was the author of Galatians?

At the beginning of this letter, Paul is named as the author. He mentions his name twice in Galatians (Gal 1:1; 5:2).

The biographical details in Galatians 1:11-2:10 fit exactly and exclusively to the apostle Paul. In the writings of Polycarp (approximately 70 – 155 AD) and Justin the Martyr (app. 100 – 165 AD) we find allusions to the epistle to the Galatians. Irenaeus (app. 140 – 202 AD), Clement of Alexandria (app. 150 – 215 AD) and Tertullian (app. 160 – 220 AD) even quote the epistle by name.

This epistle was addressed to the churches in Galatia. The authorship of this document has never been doubted and it has been well stated that "whoever is prepared to deny the genuineness of this epistle, would pronounce on himself the sentence of incapacity to distinguish true from false." Like the Corinthian epistle this Galatian epistle has in every way the characteristic marks of the Apostle Paul.

But if we cannot fix definitely the date, we see clearly the purport and the need of this epistle, addressed, as was no other of Paul's writings that we possess, to the assemblies of a province - the churches of Galatia; and differing from most, if not all, his other epistles, he wrote this with his own hand (Gal. 6:11), a proof of his love and earnest longing for their welfare; for he often employed an amanuensis to write for him. (Rom. 16:22.) "Ye see," he writes, "with what large letters" (not how large a letter) "I have written unto you with mine own hand." Another marked feature of this epistle is the style in which he introduces himself "Paul, an apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead." (Gal. 1:1.) He writes with all the authority of an apostle, or sent one, but not of men; for he carried to the Galatians no message from men, however pious or eminent in the church, as he afterwards shows. He was an apostle, but not by man. His official position was conferred on him by no human authority whatsoever. Apostles there were whose appointment dated from an earlier day than that to which Paul could point (Gal. 1:17); but from those, whom he owns fully, he received not his apostolic commission, nor the gospel which he preached. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ, one sent by Him, and by God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. An apostle of Christ he often styles himself, but here only does he add "of God the Father" also, and this addition is not without significance; for if the Judaizing teachers would attempt to draw a distinction between Christ and God, and to insist on the Galatian converts conforming to that which God gave to Moses, and through him made known to Israel (we refer now to circumcision - John 7:22), Paul would remind then that he was sent by God the Father as well as by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle from both. Hence no earlier revelations of the divine mind could override that communicated to him by God (Gal. 1:15-16) and preached by him among the Gentiles.

But whilst writing as an apostle, and so in that position here standing alone, he connected all the brethren that were with him in his salutation to these saints, showing that his doctrine was such as others held. He then wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this "present evil age, according to the will of God and our Father." The Galatians were hearkening to Judaizing teachers, whose doctrines we read of in Acts. 15:1-5. The apostle reminds them at the outset of this letter that they had to do with Christ in resurrection, who had, therefore, no longer any connection with Judaism or ordinances suited for men in the flesh. He had risen out of it all, having first died on the cross, there giving Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of the present evil age. They were putting themselves under law to be made perfect in the flesh (Gal. 3:3), whereas deliverance from sin's power and the influence of the present evil age, as well as deliverance from guilt, was only to be effected by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These few words at the opening of the epistle dealt a death-blow to all that teaching, which they were so readily and injuriously, imbibing.

"See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand." We must remember that Paul was a highly educated man, both in Greek learning at Tarsus (his native place), and in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, who was one of the wisest and most famous of the Jewish Rabbis. See Acts 22:3; 5:34. But now, perhaps, the "hands" (Acts 20:34) of Paul had become more accustomed to tent-making than to handling a pen; but it seems clear from these words just quoted that the Apostle wrote the whole Epistle to the Galatians with his own hand. Probably this is the only epistle Paul wrote himself. He generally used a friend to write for him, while he dictated what he wished to say. (For example in Romans 16:22 we read: "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." That means that while Paul dictated, Tertius wrote down the words for him.) With regard to the Epistle to the Galatians, we can not be quite sure that Paul wrote the whole epistle, as it may mean that he only wrote the last part of the epistle, quoted above. Paul usually wrote with his own hand a few words at the end of each epistle, as a guarantee that the epistle was genuine, for evidently there were those who forged the Apostle's name, and sent out letters that pretended to be from him, but were not genuine. See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2: "Be not soon shaken in mind … nor by word, nor by letter, as (if it were) from us."

He begins, as I have said, with the history of his call to the ministry - the way in which he had been made an apostle. He announces himself at once, and boldly to be an apostle (which they denied), but an apostle not of men, neither by man - not by Peter, nor by any other, whoever it might be, but - which was far better - by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who had raised Him from the dead, the true source of all blessing and all authority. It is always the way of those who do not love the truth to ask by what authority it is proclaimed. The Lord Himself was asked this; so were the apostles, and the same thing is done in these days. Ecclesiastical authority, as such, as established by means of ordinances, is always the enemy of the truth. When its ministers lean upon authority, they are accredited as of God, but they do not allow God Himself to work outside those ordinances which give them their importance.

Immediately, in the very first words of the epistle, Paul replies to the attack of his enemies. They had said, Paul is not an apostle. He is not one of the twelve apostles. He has not seen the Lord. The apostles at Jerusalem did not send him out, nor did they give him authority to go. He has not been properly ordained.

The Greek word "apostle" means "a sent one." But it means more than that, for it has the meaning "sent from," and so it carries in the name "apostle" the authority of the one who sends him. Paul writes: "Paul, an apostle": that is, "Paul, one sent from," and then he adds, "not from men, nor by means of a man, but by means of Jesus Christ."

These Judaizing teachers came from Jerusalem and, of course, presented themselves as coming with all the authority of that great apostolic centre behind them. Paul they represented as an upstart apostle, not embraced in the original apostolic band, and therefore lacking full and proper authority. Hence the apostle begins his letter by a certain amount of personal history. In verse 1 he declares that his apostleship is not "of man, neither "by man." In verse 12 he states the same two things, in slightly different words, of the gospel he preached. If not "of men," then men were in no sense the source or originators of either his apostleship or message. If neither were "by man," then both were received directly from the Lord, and man was not even the channel of their communication.

The introductory words of this Epistle are brief and of deep significance. He speaks of himself as an apostle not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. His apostleship had been called in question and the gospel he preached branded as lacking authority. This opening statement of how Paul became an apostle is more fully developed in the main part of this chapter (verses 11-24). He did not receive his apostleship through any man; his authority was neither successional nor derived. The Judaizing teachers who had sown their evil seed among the Galatians, had spoken of Peter as the apostle with authority and probably demanded that he should be recognized as the ecclesiastical head. Inasmuch as Paul had not been constituted an apostle through Peter's authority, they said that he was no apostle at all. With their wrong doctrines about the law as a means to obtain righteousness, they evidently attempted to foster upon Christian ground an ecclesiastical authority, corresponding to the successional priesthood of the law covenant. What was begun by these false teachers has become the curse of Christianity, for any priestly assumption in the church is the corruption of Christian doctrine.

The opening address is remarkable for its singularity. "Paul an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father Who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren which are with me, to the churches of Galatia." He is careful to assert his apostleship and the source of it, the Judaising teachers of his day invariably calling it in question while seeking to undermine the doctrine of free grace (2 Cor. 11 to 13). It was an offence to such that Paul had not received his commission from the twelve and from Jerusalem. So petty and narrow is the human mind that it is slow to enter into the breadth of God's thoughts and the divine sovereignty of His action. These men would have had Christianity revolve around Jerusalem as a centre, and would have supplemented faith in Christ with circumcision and the ordinances of the law. But God's thoughts are not as men's thoughts. Christianity is no mere branch of Judaism (which had a divinely selected earthly centre), but a totally new order of blessing, founded upon the work of Christ, having its seat in heaven, where Christ sits as the glorified Head at the right hand of God.

The apostle begins, at the very outset, with the independence, as to all other men, of the ministry which he exercised, pointing out its true source, from which he received it without the intervention of any intermediate instrument whatsoever: adding, in order to show that the Galatians were forsaking the common faith of the saints, "all the brethren which are with me." Also, in opening the subject of his epistle, the apostle declares at once, that the doctrine introduced by the judaisers among the Galatians was a different gospel (but which was not really another), not the gospel of Christ.