a province of the Lesser Asia, bounded on the west by Phrygia,
on the east by the river Haylys, on the north by Paphlagonia, and on the
south by Lycaonia. The Galatians are said to have been descended from
those Gauls, who, finding their own country too strait for them, left
it, after the death of Alexander the Great, in quest of new settlements.
Quitting their own country, they migrated eastward along the Danube till
they came where the Saave joins that river; then dividing themselves
into three bodies, under the conduct of different leaders, one of these
bodies entered Pannonia; another marched into Thrace; a third into
Illyricum and Macedonia. The party which proceeded into Thrace, crossed
the Bosphorus into the Lesser Asia, and hiring themselves to Nicomedes,
king of Bithynia, assisted him to subdue his brother Zipetes, with whom
he was then at war; and as a reward of their services they received from
him a country in the middle of Asia Minor, which from them was afterward
called _Gallo-Græcia_, and, by contraction, Galatia. As their inland
situation in a great measure cut them off from all intercourse with more
civilized nations, the Galatians long remained a rude and illiterate
people. And as a proof of this, it is mentioned by Jerom, that when the
Apostle Paul preached the Gospel among them, and for many ages
afterward, they continued to speak the language of the country from
whence they came out.
2. Paul and Barnabas carried the light of the Gospel into the regions of
Galatia at a very early period; and it appears from the epistle which
the former subsequently wrote to the churches in that country, that they
had at first received it with great joy, Gal. iv, 15. But some Judaizing
teachers getting access among them soon after the Apostle’s departure,
their minds became corrupted from the simplicity that was in Christ
Jesus; and, though mostly Gentiles, they were beginning to mingle
circumcision, and other Jewish observances, with their faith in Christ,
in order to render it more available to their salvation. This occasioned
Paul’s writing his epistle to those churches; and his object throughout
nearly the whole of it is to counteract the pernicious influence of the
doctrine of those false teachers particularly as it respected the
article of justification, or a sinner’s acceptance with God. And in no
part of the Apostle’s writings is that important doctrine handled in a
more full and explicit manner; nor does he any where display, such a
firm, determined, and inflexible opposition to all who would corrupt the
truth from its simplicity. He begins by expressing his astonishment that
they were so soon turned aside “unto another gospel,” but instantly
checking himself, he recals the word and declares, “it is not another
gospel,” but a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. “And though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” There are in his epistle
several other things equally pointed and severe, particularly his
expostulation on the folly and absurdity of their conduct in subjecting
themselves to the Jewish yoke of bondage, Gal. iii, 1. “The erroneous
doctrines of the Judaizing teachers,” says Dr. Macknight, “and the
calumnies they spread for the purpose of discrediting St. Paul’s
apostleship, no doubt occasioned great uneasiness of mind to him and to
the faithful in that age, and did much hurt, at least for a while, among
the Galatians. But in the issue these evils have proved of no small
service to the church in general; for by obliging the Apostle to produce
the evidences of his apostleship, and to relate the history of his life,
especially after his conversion, we have obtained the fullest assurance
of his being a real Apostle, called to the office by Jesus Christ
himself; consequently we are assured that our faith in the doctrines of
the Gospel, as taught by him, (and it is he who hath taught the peculiar
doctrines of the Gospel most fully,) is not built on the credit of a
man, but on the authority of the Spirit of God, by whom St. Paul was
inspired in the whole of the doctrine which he has delivered to the
world.”
on the east by the river Haylys, on the north by Paphlagonia, and on the
south by Lycaonia. The Galatians are said to have been descended from
those Gauls, who, finding their own country too strait for them, left
it, after the death of Alexander the Great, in quest of new settlements.
Quitting their own country, they migrated eastward along the Danube till
they came where the Saave joins that river; then dividing themselves
into three bodies, under the conduct of different leaders, one of these
bodies entered Pannonia; another marched into Thrace; a third into
Illyricum and Macedonia. The party which proceeded into Thrace, crossed
the Bosphorus into the Lesser Asia, and hiring themselves to Nicomedes,
king of Bithynia, assisted him to subdue his brother Zipetes, with whom
he was then at war; and as a reward of their services they received from
him a country in the middle of Asia Minor, which from them was afterward
called _Gallo-Græcia_, and, by contraction, Galatia. As their inland
situation in a great measure cut them off from all intercourse with more
civilized nations, the Galatians long remained a rude and illiterate
people. And as a proof of this, it is mentioned by Jerom, that when the
Apostle Paul preached the Gospel among them, and for many ages
afterward, they continued to speak the language of the country from
whence they came out.
2. Paul and Barnabas carried the light of the Gospel into the regions of
Galatia at a very early period; and it appears from the epistle which
the former subsequently wrote to the churches in that country, that they
had at first received it with great joy, Gal. iv, 15. But some Judaizing
teachers getting access among them soon after the Apostle’s departure,
their minds became corrupted from the simplicity that was in Christ
Jesus; and, though mostly Gentiles, they were beginning to mingle
circumcision, and other Jewish observances, with their faith in Christ,
in order to render it more available to their salvation. This occasioned
Paul’s writing his epistle to those churches; and his object throughout
nearly the whole of it is to counteract the pernicious influence of the
doctrine of those false teachers particularly as it respected the
article of justification, or a sinner’s acceptance with God. And in no
part of the Apostle’s writings is that important doctrine handled in a
more full and explicit manner; nor does he any where display, such a
firm, determined, and inflexible opposition to all who would corrupt the
truth from its simplicity. He begins by expressing his astonishment that
they were so soon turned aside “unto another gospel,” but instantly
checking himself, he recals the word and declares, “it is not another
gospel,” but a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. “And though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” There are in his epistle
several other things equally pointed and severe, particularly his
expostulation on the folly and absurdity of their conduct in subjecting
themselves to the Jewish yoke of bondage, Gal. iii, 1. “The erroneous
doctrines of the Judaizing teachers,” says Dr. Macknight, “and the
calumnies they spread for the purpose of discrediting St. Paul’s
apostleship, no doubt occasioned great uneasiness of mind to him and to
the faithful in that age, and did much hurt, at least for a while, among
the Galatians. But in the issue these evils have proved of no small
service to the church in general; for by obliging the Apostle to produce
the evidences of his apostleship, and to relate the history of his life,
especially after his conversion, we have obtained the fullest assurance
of his being a real Apostle, called to the office by Jesus Christ
himself; consequently we are assured that our faith in the doctrines of
the Gospel, as taught by him, (and it is he who hath taught the peculiar
doctrines of the Gospel most fully,) is not built on the credit of a
man, but on the authority of the Spirit of God, by whom St. Paul was
inspired in the whole of the doctrine which he has delivered to the
world.”