The Book Of Galatians – Background And Chapter 1 - Message 1 Series

THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – BACKGROUND AND CHAPTER 1 - Message 1 SERMON CENTRAL

We are going to begin a series in the book of Galatians. Paul was upset with the churches of Galatia because they had departed from the pure truth of the gospel and turned to teachings of man. The purpose of Galatians is to correct those errors the people had adopted to their hurt.

INTRODUCTION – BEFORE WE GET TO THE SUBSTANCE OF THE BOOK – THE BACKGROUND

(A). THE GALATIAN PEOPLE

The background of the Galatian people is most interesting for they were separate from all the rest of Asia Minor. The Galatians were the sons of the great Celtic family, migratory tribes that crossed Europe and entered Greece in the 3rd century BC, and then a separation from the main body crossed to Asia Minor and in 232 BC established their State of Galatia. It got that name because the people themselves were called Gauls. The Celts were also the people who settled in Britain, and places in the British Isles still contain a Celtish background (Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland).

This is a bit extra about the Galatian people as Paul would have known them.

(1). From the “BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY”

Galatia refers to a region in north central Turkey; Ankara, the capital of modern Turkey, was once a major Galatian city (Ancyra). The name of Galatia is derived from the 20,000 Gauls who settled in the region in 278 B.C.E. More than two centuries later, in 25 B.C.E., the area became a Roman province and was extended to the south. In Paul’s day, the new province included the regions of Pisidia, Phrygia, and Lycaonia. Scholars often refer to these new, southern regions as “south Galatia” and to geographic Galatia as “north Galatia.” Gaul was the name the Romans gave to France.

(2). From "THE COLLECTOR"

The Galatians’ origins can be traced back to an ancient Celtic group that centered in Europe from as early as the 2nd millennium BCE. The Greeks had known the Celts since at least the 6th century BCE, mainly via the Phoenician colony of Marseilles. Early references of these strange tribal peoples were recorded through Hecataeus of Miletus. Other writers like Plato and Aristotle mentioned the Celts often as being the wildest of peoples. From the 4th century BCE, the Celts also became known as some of ancient history’s most prolific mercenaries, employed in many parts of the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.

(3). Again from “THE COLLECTOR”

In the Greek world, like the Roman, such observations reduced the Celts to a few well-worn cliches and tropes. Celts were celebrated for their size and fierceness and known for being wild, hot-headed, and ruled by animal passions. In Greek eyes, this made them less than rational. The classical civilizations of ancient history painted the Celts as savage, warrior people, uncivilized and simple in their animal passions. Greeks and Romans grouped ‘barbarian’ tribal people into clumsy stereotypes. Thus, to the Romans, Galatians would always be Gauls, no matter where in the world they hailed from.

(B). THE BACKGROUND FOR THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

We are going to have a look at Acts 13. This is the first missionary journey of Paul’s. At Antioch Paul was sent forth for the start of his first missionary journey {{Acts 13:4 “so, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. . . .”}} Then travelling through they eventually came to Pisidian Antioch.

Paul and Barnabas were now in the region of Galatia which is recorded in this way - {{Acts 13:13-14 “Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia and John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.”}} This was Paul’s normal custom – meet the Jews in the synagogue, but it usually meant rejection from the Jews and then he turned to the Gentiles. We then have this account of Paul’s first contact with the Gentiles -

{{Acts 13:44-52 “The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God, but when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. Since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles, for thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.’” When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region, but the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. They shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”}}