Oct 51 – Galatians

34 quickly” after his recent visit there, which could only be his second missionary journey. This would force a date somewhere in the range of AD 50-51, allowing up to a year of travel time after visiting Galatia, by which time he could have reached Corinth, where he would have had the time and opportunity to write the letter.

We might legitimately ask how Paul could have heard so quickly about the Galatian situation (in western Turkey) from his location in Philippi (Macedonia) or Corinth (Greece), more than 500 miles away by land or sea? If the couriers followed Paul’s footsteps through Turkey to Macedonia, they could have caught up with him in Philippi, or discovered that he had gone to Athens and Corinth. There were Christian points of contact all along the way. There was a church in Troas (where Luke had joined them). Luke was left at Philippi. Luke could have conveyed the message to Timothy and Silas in Berea, who then could have taken the message to Paul when they joined him in Corinth. Paul stayed there in Corinth long enough to write at least three letters (Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians).

Therefore, it seems to me, from this analysis of both the book of Acts and the book of Galatians, that the latest date Paul could have written Galatians, would have been from Corinth (AD 50-51) while on his second missionary journey (just after the Jerusalem Council decrees had been delivered to the Galatian churches (AD 49-50). It could just as easily have been written from Philippi just before he went to Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth (AD 50-51). That is the date that I prefer.

We know that Paul delivered the decrees to Galatia on his second journey, and in the Epistle to the Galatians he marvels that they were so quickly shaken in their faith by the Judaizers. This means it was written soon after Paul had been there, probably as early as the Winter of AD 50-51 or the next Winter of AD 51-52 while he was still at Corinth. He was in Corinth for a year and a half, two Winters and the year between. The opening and closing greetings of Galatians are more similar to the two Thessalonian letters than they are with the later epistles of First and Second Corinthians.

Some have suggested that Paul could have written Galatians from Ephesus while he was on his way back from his second journey in the Spring of 53, while his boat was anchored for a short time at Ephesus (AD 53, Acts 18:19). He might have heard about the Galatian problem and wrote the letter to them before he continued on his journey by boat to Caesarea. But that would not have been “so quickly” after the problem in Galatia. Furthermore, Galatians appears to be a carefully crafted epistle written while he had plenty of time, rather than a hastily scribbled epistle while he was waiting with his bags packed to catch the next boat to Palestine. As we know from his other epistles (1 and 2 Thessalonians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, etc.) he normally wrote letters from places where he stayed for three months or more. I don’t think there is a single example of one of his letters ever being written while he was waiting a few days to catch another boat for the next leg of his journey. Paul followed a pattern in all his letter writing, and his lengthy stays at Philippi or Corinth would have given him adequate time to write it, not long after he had been in Galatia on his second journey to deliver the decrees from the Jerusalem Council.

If it was written on the second journey while Paul was either at Philippi or Corinth (AD 50-51), it would make Galatians the first epistle of Paul, followed soon afterwards by the two Thessalonian epistles.

Oct 51 – Galatians.

It was probably the first of Paul’s epistles. There was nothing quite like the Judaizer controversy that could have stirred Paul’s heart to take the pen in hand and compose his first letter. The place from which it was most likely written was Philippi before Paul went to Corinth, not long after he had been in Galatia on his second journey and delivered the decrees from the Jerusalem Council. There is a debate between the early and even earlier dates of Galatians. Previously I had dated it in 53 right after first and second Thessalonians (while Paul was in Corinth). Ogden dates it in 55 while Paul was on his third journey (way too late for a Galatian Judaizer controversy). Because