There is hardly one of the writings of Paul, about the date of which
there has been so much discussion, or so many opinions as this; but
the results of all the elaborate investigations and argumentations of
the learned, still leave this interesting chronological point in such
doubt, that this must be pronounced about the most uncertain in date,
of all the Pauline epistles. It may however, without any inconsistency
with the historical narrative of the Acts, or with any passages in the
other epistles, be safely referred to the period of this residence in
Ephesus, probably to the later part of it. The epistle itself contains
no reference whatever, direct or indirect, to the place in which he
was occupied at the time of writing, and only bare probabilities can
therefore be stated on it,――nor can any decisive objection be made to
any one of six opinions which have been strongly urged. Some pronounce
it very decidedly to have been the first of all the epistles written by
Paul, and maintain that he wrote it soon after his first visit to them,
at some time during the interval between Paul’s departure from Galatia,
and his departure from Thessalonica. Others date it at the time of
his imprisonment in Rome, according to the common subscription of
the epistle. Against this last may, however, perhaps be urged his
reproof to the Galatians, that they “were _so soon_ removed from him
that called them to the grace of Christ,”――an expression nevertheless,
too vague to form any certain basis for a chronological conclusion.
The great majority of critics refer it to the period of his stay in
Ephesus,――a view which entirely accords with the idea, that it must
have been written soon after Paul had preached to them; for on his last
journey to Ephesus, he had passed through Galatia, as already narrated,
confirming the churches. Some time had, no doubt, intervened since
his preaching to them, sufficient at least to allow many heresies and
difficulties to arise among them, and to pervert them from the purity
of the truth, as taught to them by him. Certain false teachers had been
among them since his departure, inculcating on all believers in Christ,
the absolute necessity of a minute and rigid observance of Mosaic
forms, for their salvation. They also directly attacked the apostolical
character and authority of Paul,――declaring his opinion to be of
no weight whatever, and to be opposed to that of the true original
apostles of Jesus. These, Paul meets with great force in the very
beginning of the epistle, entering at once into a particular account
of the mode of his first entering the apostleship,――showing that it was
not derived from the other apostles, but from the special commission
of Christ himself, miraculously given. He also shows that he had, on
this very question of Judaical rituals, conferred with the apostles
at Jerusalem, and had received the sanction of their approbation in
that course of open communion which he had before followed, on his own
inspired authority, and had ever since maintained, in the face of what
he deemed inconsistencies in the conduct of Peter. He then attacks the
Galatians themselves, in very violent terms, for their perversion of
that glorious freedom into which he had brought the Christian doctrine,
and fills up the greater part of the epistle with reproofs of these
errors.
His argument against the doctrines of the servile Judaizers is made
up in his favorite mode of demonstration, by simile and metaphor,
representing the Christian system under the form of the offspring of
Abraham, and afterwards images the freedom of the true believers in
Jesus, in the exalted privilege of the descendants of Sara, while those
enslaved to forms are presented as analogous in their condition to the
children of Hagar. He earnestly exhorts them, therefore, to stand fast
in the freedom to which Christ has exalted them, and most emphatically
condemns all observance of circumcision. Thus pointing out to them,
the purely spiritual nature of that covenant, of which they were now
the favored subjects, he urges them to a truly spiritual course of
life, bidding them aim at the attainment of a perfect moral character,
and makes the conclusion of the epistle eminently practical in its
direction. He speaks of this epistle as being a testimony of the very
particular interest which he feels in their spiritual prosperity,
because, (what appears contrary to his practice,) he has written it
with his own hand. To the very last, he is very bitter against those
who are aiming to bring them back to the observance of circumcision,
and denounces those as actuated only by a base desire to avoid that
persecution which they might expect from the Jews, if they should
reject the Mosaic ritual. Referring to the cross of Christ as his
only glory, he movingly alludes to the marks of his conformity to that
standard, bearing as he does in his own body, the scars of the wounds
received from the scourges of his Philippian persecutors. He closes
without any mention of personal salutations, and throughout the whole
makes none of those specifications of names, with which most of his
other epistles abound. In the opening salutation, he merely includes
with himself those “brethren that are with him,” which seems to imply
that they knew who those brethren were, in some other way,――perhaps,
because he had but lately been among them with those same persons as
his assistants in the ministry.
On this very doubtful point, I have taken the views adopted by
Witsius, Louis Cappel, Pearson, Wall, Hug and Hemsen. The notion
that it was written at Rome is supported by Theodoret, Lightfoot,
and Paley,――of course making it a late epistle. On the contrary,
Michaelis makes it the earliest of all, and dates it in the year
49, at some place on Paul’s route from Troas to Thessalonica.
Marcion and Tertullian also supposed it to be one of the
earliest epistles. Benson thinks it was written during Paul’s
first residence in Corinth. Lenfant and Beausobre, followed by
Lardner, conjecture it to have been written either at Corinth or
at Ephesus, during his first visit, either in A. D. 52, or 53.
Fabricius and Mill date it A. D. 58, at some place on Paul’s
route to Jerusalem. Chrysostom and Theophylact, date it before
the epistle to the Romans. Grotius thinks it was written
about the same time. From all which, the reader will see the
justice of my conclusion, that nothing at all is known with any
certainty about the matter.