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Begin Typing VigilAlthough the Galatian epistle was written after Paul had visited Thessalonika, the Galatian churches were founded during a mission which he had undertaken some time before he crossed from Asia to Europe. From the more or less direct reminiscences of which the letter happens to be full, it is possible to reconstruct a preliminary outline of his relation to these churches, without calling in evidence from Acts which is disputable and which falls to be considered separately in the first instance.
Paul had visited the Galatian churches twice. On the former of these visits (4:13 τὸ πρότερον), though broken down by illness (2 Cor 12:7-9), he had been enthusiastically and hospitably welcomed (4:13-15); many had been won over from polytheism and idolatry (4:8-9) to the knowledge of God, i.e. (as at Thessalonika) to faith in Christ the crucified (3:1), whose death meant their deliverance from slavish ignorance and the present evil world (1:4, 3:13). The immediate result of the mission was an outburst of religious fervour (3:1-5, 4:4f). The local Christians, who were predominantly Gentile by birth, made a promising start (5:7). On his second visit (4:13, 1:7, 5:21), Paul found in many of them a disheartening slackness, due to discord and incipient legalism. His plain speaking gave offence (4:16) in some quarters, though it was not wholly ineffective. Otherwise, the second visit (1:9, 5:3) is left in the shadow. So far as it was accompanied by warnings, these were rather general than elicited by the presence of any definite and imminent peril to the churches.
Not long after this visit, some Judaising opponents of the apostle, headed by one prominent, and evidently powerful individual (5:10), made their appearance among the Galatians, with disturbing and unsettling effects (3:1). Their ‘gospel’ was not freedom from, but fidelity to, the Law (1:6-10), which Paul’s ‘gospel’ was alleged to contradict and invalidate. Arguing from the OT, they represented Paul’s gospel as an imperfect message which required to be supplemented by legal exactitude, including ritual observances (4:10) and even circumcision. As a corollary of this, Paul’s apostolic position was depreciated. His authority, the Galatians were told, was derived from the apostles at Jerusalem, and consequently his teaching must be checked and tested by the orthodox standard which these emissaries claimed to embody. In short, the admission of pagans to the true church and promises (3:6-9, 16) of God required the observance of the Mosaic law, which formed the sole valid charter of divine privilege and messianic inheritance. This, and the consequent disparagement of the apostle as an unauthorised agent, formed probably an easy relapse for people who, like other Christians, may have felt the depth and inwardness of Paul’s spiritual gospel too much for their average powers, particularly when the dominating influence of his personality was removed.
The mischief done by this propaganda alarmed Paul. Matters evidently had not yet gone too far to be remedied; only a few had been circumcised. Consequently as he was unable (or unwilling) for some reason to revisit them, he wrote this trenchant letter in order to shame them out of their levity and retrograde superstitions, by reiterating and expanding the spiritual principles of his gospel as divinely authoritative and morally adequate. How the information of the Galatian lapse reached him, it is not possible to say. There is no trace of any letter sent by the Galatians (Hofmann, Ramsay). But the gravity of the situation renders it unlikely that he delayed for any length of time in writing to counteract his opponents, and to judge from allusions like those in 1:6 (ταχέως and μετατίθεσθε—the lapse still in process), the interval between the reception of the news and the composition of the letter must have been comparatively brief.
The letters attributed to Paul can be found on this timeline. This collection includes Paul's authentic episltes as well as the disputed writings.