Galatians 1
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we begin another of Paul’s epistles, our third, this one to the Galatians. To get a better handle on Galatians, we need to go back to Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 13-14. After he and Barnabas had shared the gospel in Cyprus, they sailed north to Asia Minor and continued their missionary work in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Just to hear those city names, we surely recall the “Jews from Asia”, specifically the Jews in Antioch who caused an uproar over Paul’s teaching: But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. (Acts 13:45) These Jews from Antioch ran Paul and Barnabas out of town, then continued to follow them to Iconium and Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14). Then further, even after many years had passed, they still had it in for Paul – recall the “Jews from Asia” in Acts 21:27 and continuing through Paul’s “trial” before Felix and Festus in Acts 24-25. So this week, as we read Galatians we need to remember the “Jews from Asia”, with Paul writing to the Christian converts in those cities who are (presumably) still being hassled by the hard-line Jews.
So what’s the big issue? Circumcision! Not specifically stated, but clearly the issue: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and … [that] there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (vv. 6-7) It’s clear to me that Paul is writing this letter soon after his visit to these cities and before the “Jerusalem Council” (Acts 15), where the issue of circumcision was set aside by the church leaders. There is no mention of this Council in this letter or of their four-fold “rules to follow” for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Hence, written before that Council…!
Paul tells his own history at the end of today’s reading and continuing tomorrow with chapter 2. Scholars have long done a “compare and contrast” analysis of these verses with Paul’s conversion in Act 9 to more fully understand his conversion and his early years. More tomorrow…
Blessings!
Although the “Jews from Asia” certainly caused difficulties, being responsible for overt persecution of Paul and his converts, the issue at hand here in Galatians is much more insidious. Here the problem is coming from people who claim to be Christians, who speak well of Jesus. But their “gospel” message demands conformity to Judaism for justification. And the first big step in the Judaic path is circumcision. But lest we think that we have put this problem to bed just because circumcision is not generally a current topic of conversation, think again. Circumcision was just the outward symptom. The real issue was (and is) legalism and self-justification. And there is still plenty of that pervading a huge swath of what is ostensibly the “Christian Church”. We may not think of circumcision as a particularly big deal now, but Paul’s letter to the Galatians is every bit as relevant to us now as it was to them then.
Really good clarification, John! Thank you. Back when we were reading I and II Thessalonians, I connected those epistles with the Acts 17 accounts of Paul’s time there. Today I wanted to do the same thing for Galatians, reminding us of what Paul had gone through in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. But I neglected to clarify that distinction between the non-Christian “Jews from Asia” and the Christian Jews who had made circumcision the issue. Thanks for clearing that up!