430
GALATIA
GALATIANS, EPISTLE TO THE
usage, implies that St. Paul did not traverse North Galatia (Chtirch in the Roman Emp., p. 81). The evidence for a definite usage, however, IS scanty, ' Pontus Galaticus' (which occurs in Ptolemy and inscriptions) not being quite a parallel case ; and other explanations of the phrase ' Galatic region' are certainlj' admissible (Motfatt, LNT, p. 93). (3) The pronoun u/uSs in Gal 2* seems to imply that the Galatian churches existed when St. Paul was contending for the spii^itual freedom of the Gentiles at the Jerusalem Council, which was held before the journey on which, according to the old theory, he preached in North Galatia. Some think that St. Paul here merely claims to have been fighting the battle of the Gentiles, or the Gentile Christians, generally ; but in that case he would probably have said ' you Gentiles ' (Eph 2^' 3^). (4) It is possible to make too much of the parallel between Gal 4''*, ' ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus,' and the account of the Apostle's remarkable experience at Lystra, where the people regarded him and Barnabas as gods (Ac 14""^'*). Still the coincidence, as Zahn says (op. cit., p. 180), is probably more than ' a tantalising accident.' The pagans who acclaimed the coming of Jupiter and ^lercury would be likely enough, when p.artially Christianized, to think themselves recipients of a visit of angels. Even Lightfoot (Galatian^, 1876, p. 18) admits that here is one of the 'considerations in favour of the Roman province.' (5) The charge which the Judaizers ap- parently made against the self-constituted Apostle of freedom of being still a preacher of circumcision (Gal 5^') is best explained by a reference to the case of Timothy (Ac 16^"*), in which the South Galatian churches had a special interest, Timothy being a native of Lystra. (6) The repeated allusion to Barnabas (Gal 2'- **• '^), who was one of the founders of the South Galatian Church, would have much less appositeness in an Epistle addressed to North Galatia, where that apostle was not personally known. It is true that he is referred to once in each of two other letters (1 Co 9®, Col 4'"), but in both cases there were special reasons for tlie mention of his name (Zahn, op. cit., p. 179). (7) While some of St. Paul's helpers came from South Galatia (Ac 16^ 20^), and while Gains and Timothy may have been delegated by ' the churches of Galatia' (1 Co 16') to carry their ott'erings to the saints at Jerusalem (a somewhat doubtful inference from Ac 20''), North Galatia did not, as far as is known, provide a single person ' for tlie work of ministering.' (8) There is evidence that Christi- anity penetrated North Galatia much more slowly than South Galatia. ' Ancyra and the Bithynian city Juliopolis (which was attached to Galatia about 297) are the only Galatian bishoprics men- tioned earlier than 325 : they alone appear at the Ancyran Council held about 314' (Ramsay, Hist. Com. on Gal., 1899, p. 165).
The Roman character of the nomenclature in 1 P IMs rarely questioned. It is evidently the writer's purpose to enumerate all the provinces of Asia Minor, with the except ion of Lycia-Pamphilia, where ' the elect' were still few (as may be inferred from Ac 13'^ 14^'), and Cilicia, whicli was reckoned with Syria (15-*- ■*'). And just as he includes the Phrygian churches of the Lycus valley — Colossje, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (Col P 2') — the Church of Troas (Ac 20®''^), and the Churches of the Apoca- lypse (Rev 1^'), in the province of 'Asia,' so he reckons the Churches founded by St. Paul in Lycaonia and Eastern Phrygia as belonging to the province of ' Galatia.'
In 2 Ti 4i» the RV has 'Gaul' as a marginal alternative to 'Galatia.' K and C actually read VaWla instead of FaXar/a, and, besides, the latter word was often applied by Greek writers to Euro-
pean Gaul. K it could be assumed that St. Paul was able to carry out his purpose of going westward to evangelize Spain, he might be supposed to have visited Southern Gaul en route, and Crescens might afterwards have gone to this region. Eusebius (HE Ml. 4), Epiphanius (Hcsr. li. 11), and Theodoret (in loco) certainly understand that Gaul is meant ; and the early Christian inhabitants of that country naturally liked to believe that their Church had been founded by an apostolic emissary, if not by an apostle. But they had nothing better to base their belief upon than conjecture, and it is much more likely that the reference is here to Asiatic Galatia, since the other places named in the con- text— Thessalonica and Dalmatia — are both east, not Avest, of Rome.
The meaning of VaKaTai in 1 Mac 8^ is disputable. The RV says that Judas Maccaba?us (c. 162 B.C.) ' heard of the fame of the Romans, that they are valiant men. . . . And they told him of their wars and exploits which they do among the Gauls,' etc. A reference to Spain in the next verse might suggest European Gauls, but on the whole it is much more likely that reports of Manlius's victories over the Celtic invaders of Asia Minor had come to the ear of the Jewish leader.