The Order of the Books -- Galatians

From one of my many projects...

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A number of scholars think that Galatians was the first letter Paul wrote and thus the first book of the New Testament written. I’ll share that option at the end of the chapter. Let me first share how I picture the story unfolding, expanding on what Paul himself says in Galatians 1-2.

In Acts 13-14, Paul and two other individuals carry out a mission to the island of Cyprus—the so-called “first” missionary journey. The other two men are Barnabas, who is actually the leader of the mission, and John Mark, who goes along to help and assist. Mark was Barnabas’ cousin and is traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of Mark.

In all likelihood, Paul had already been preaching about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return for almost a decade and a half before this time. After Jesus appeared to Paul around the year AD33, he got into trouble preaching in Damascus and Arabia (which at that time was just to the east of Damascus, Gal. 1:17). Then he probably preached for ten years in his home territory of Tarsus and perhaps even north in Cappadocia (Gal. 1:21).

After the three of them went to Cyprus, Paul suggests they go north to Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Mark is not happy about the idea. He goes home. But Paul and Barnabas go north and found the churches of a region known as Galatia. These include cities like Antioch (of Pisidia), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. It is to these cities that Paul later addresses the letter called Galatians.

Galatians 1-2 tell the backstory that has led to the writing of this letter. Initially, Paul had been a vigorous opponent to the Jesus movement (1:13). He had been a Pharisee (Phil. 3:5). Pharisees were a Jewish group who followed the Jewish Law according to interpretations and traditions that were very strict and detailed. They were especially concerned with what you ate, how you ate it, and who you ate it with.

According to Acts 9, Paul was on his way to Damascus in the north to drag certain Christians back to Jerusalem. But Jesus appeared to him, blinding him and revealing himself to Paul. Paul indicates in Galatians that he had very little contact with Peter or any of the other disciples of Jesus during that time (1:18-19).

Fourteen years after he came to Christ, around the year AD49, the question of non-Jews came to a head. The leadership of the church in Jerusalem comes to an understanding. We find Paul’s side in Galatians 2. Acts 15 gives us another picture of the decision. They decide that Gentiles do not have to convert fully to Judaism to be saved. Gentile men do not have to get circumcised.

In Galatians 2, Paul describes it as a somewhat private meeting in Jerusalem. On the one side of the meeting is he and Barnabas. They meet with the core disciples of the church in Jerusalem—Peter, John, and Jesus’ half-brother James. Paul and Barnabas bring along a young Gentile convert named Titus as an object lesson.

Titus is “not forced” to be circumcised and fully convert to Judaism (2:3). The wording makes us wonder if that was their ideal. But they concede that a non-Jewish man could be saved from the coming wrath of God without becoming circumcised and fully becoming a Jew.

This decision was not unopposed. Paul mentions “false brothers” who did not agree (Gal. 2:4). They were Christians who were zealous for the Jewish Law. They wanted any Gentile believers to become Jews if they expected to be part of the Christ movement. Acts 15 says that there were Pharisees who had believed but apparently had not stopped being Pharisees (Acts 15:5).

Acts 15 apparently did not end the disagreement. Jesus’ brother James had become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He had conceded that Gentiles did not have to convert to Judaism to escape the coming judgment. Gentiles did not have to keep all the Jewish Law. But he was apparently concerned that Jewish Christians themselves would become lax in their Law-keeping.

First, Peter comes up to Antioch. At first, he eats the weekly Lord’s Supper with the Gentile believers. All is well. But then some people come from James in Jerusalem. All the prejudices against Gentiles come into play. Where did this meat come from? Was it prepared properly? Are these Gentile Christians sexually immoral because “we all know” about those Gentiles?

Peter and the other Jewish Christians stop eating the weekly meal of the Lord’s Supper with them. Paul is incensed. He basically calls Peter a hypocrite in front of the whole church (Gal. 2:11-14). Even Barnabas seems to side with Peter, perhaps not so much because he agreed but because he wanted to address the issue in a way that submitted to authority.

As difficult as this situation must have been, God brought good things from it. Paul and Barnabas agree to disagree and separate. This doubles the mission. So while the argument may have been unpleasant, the good news ends up traveling to Greece much more quickly as a result.

God may also use this conflict to catalyze Paul’s sense that we are “justified by faith” and not by works of the Jewish Law. To be “justified” is to be right with God. Paul emphasizes that a person became right with God by faith in God, by trusting in God and committing to God.

It seemed hypocritical to Paul that Peter would insist on the Gentiles at Antioch keeping Old Testament purity laws when Peter himself wasn’t very careful. Remember, Paul had been a Pharisee. He knew a lot about purity laws. Peter had never kept the Law as scrupulously as he had.

As a Pharisee, Paul had kept the Jewish Law very well. In Philippians 3:6, he said he had been blameless at keeping it. So when Jesus called him, he realized God must be looking for something quite different. “Works of Law,” circumcision, purity rules, food laws, Sabbath observance—these were not the heart of getting right with God. Rather, it was faith or trust in God.

A Gentile could have faith in God without being circumcised. A Gentile could have faith in God and still eat pork. A Gentile could have faith in God and not observe the Jewish Sabbath. A Gentile could be justified by faith.

Paul may not have had the full theology worked out in Antioch. But his ongoing debates with both believing and non-believing Jews helped refine his argument over time. The biggest flash point after Antioch sparked his letter to the Galatians.

Paul and Barnabas founded the churches of Galatia in the years 46-48. Then he visited the churches again at the beginning of his “second” missionary journey around AD50. He may even have visited them a third time at the beginning of his third missionary journey around AD53. It is from one of these churches (Lystra) that he took one of his key young co-workers, Timothy.

Up to that time, these churches had been “running well” (4:7). However, some new voices had entered into the community. These were what we might call “Judaizers.” They were individuals who insisted that Gentiles must fully convert to Judaism in order to be saved from the coming wrath and be part of the kingdom of God. They were either Jewish believers by birth or Gentiles who had themselves converted to Judaism.

Paul is very angry with them when he writes Galatians. He probably would consider them “false brothers” as in Galatians 2:4. They want the Gentile Galatians to get circumcised. Oh yeah? Paul says. If they like circumcision so much, they should just cut their whole male organ off (5:12).

Paul’s struggle with these Judaizing elements in the church would leave traces in his next few writings—Philippians, 2 Corinthians, and especially Romans. The edge might have cooled down, but we just don’t really get the allusions to this conflict before, in 1 Thessalonians or 1 Corinthians. We only get the hint that he has taught his Gentile churches that “all things are lawful for me” (1 Cor. 10:23). In Galatians, he is in the thick of argument about this claim, and we can see him working out the details of that theology, which will culminate in Romans.

The core of his argument is in Galatians 2:15-21. Jewish believers know that keeping the Jewish Law is not enough to make them right with God. They know they need the “faithfulness of Jesus.” There is debate about this phrase in 2:16. I suspect Paul is making a play on words. In the first place, I wonder if he is referring to the faithful death of Jesus (cf. Phil. 2:8). He would imply that Christians of his day agreed across the board that the cross was essential for the restoration of God’s people.

In the last chapter, we saw that the cross was central to Paul’s preaching. We get some details in Galatians 3. Although it is hard for us to follow—because our worldview is different—Paul indicates that Jesus absorbed the curse of the world on the cross. Jew and Gentile alike were under a curse because of our sin (Gal. 3:10-14). Jesus took on that curse by being cursed on the cross. If we become incorporated “in Christ” by receiving the Holy Spirit, then our curse is removed and we can be right with God.

It is a difficult argument for us to follow. The bottom line is that trusting in Christ so that we are right with God is a different “system” than the Jewish Law. The Jewish Law only tells us that we have a problem. It cannot solve it. Only the faithfulness of Jesus and, to take the phrase a different way, faith in Jesus can make us right with God. We trust in what God did through Jesus. We get on the Jesus ship and we are shielded from the curse of the Law.

The Holy Spirit makes this happen. Without the Holy Spirit, as Paul will develop especially in Romans 6-8, we cannot hope to succeed against the temptations of our flesh. Without God’s Spirit helping us, we are destined to be moral losers. But the Spirit inside is like being plugged into God. “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22-23). This is the result we should get when we are plugged into God’s power supply.

There are other theories of when Galatians was written. A very popular one is that Galatians is the first letter Paul wrote, even before the Jerusalem Council. In this theory, the Jerusalem Council of AD49 cleared up all these debates. Very tidy and harmonious! However, it seems like more time has passed than that since Paul first founded these churches. He has arguably visited them more than once (4:13). They have believed long enough to have been running well for a bit (5:7). In Galatians, Paul often mentions being persecuted, which probably implies more time has passed. In the end, Galatians feels like it belongs more to Paul’s Philippians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans phase than to the time of 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians.