Galatia

“ The degree of elementary Greek culture needful for the understanding of Galatians cannot be shown to have been foreign to the inhabitants of north Galatia. So far as any trustworthy evidence is available, such Hellenic notions as are presupposed in this epistle might well have been intelligible to the Galatians of the northern provinces. Still less does the acquaintance with Roman jurisprudence in iii. 15–iv. 2 imply, as Halmel contends (Über röm. Recht im Galaterbrief, 1895) , not merely that Paul must have acquired such knowledge in Italy but that he wrote the epistle there. ”

“ Lightfoot first wrote, that the Epistle was addressed to the people in the southern part of the Roman province called Galatia, who were not Galatians at all; and was not addressed to those in the northern part, who were Galatians proper, and occupied the whole of the country named from them Galatia. But I use the illustration, notwithstanding this. The controversy is not quite ended yet; and I do not feel sure that the difficulties of the Epistle itself, from Professor Ramsay’s point of view, are very much less considerable than those which Dr. Lightfoot’s view undoubtedly has to face. ”

“ We have not space to follow M. Thierry in his account of the progress and fall of that strange Gaulish kingdom of Galatia. From the year 241 to the year 190 B.C., it maintained its independence unshaken, amidst the degenerate sons of Greece and the effeminate Asiatics. But the Roman power, beneath which the Gaulish race was ever doomed to bend, overtook them even amidst the mountains of Asia Minor. The Galatians had furnished some troops to Antiochus the Great, and then, for the first time, they came in contact with the eagle of the Capitol. ”

“ Galatia, a high-lying Roman province in Asia Minor that had been invaded and taken possession of by a horde of Gauls in the 3rd century B.C., whence the name.
Galatians, Epistle to the, an epistle of St. Paul to the churches in Galatia, which was an especial favourite with Luther, as, with its doctrine of spiritual freedom in Christ, it might well be, for it corroborated the great revelation first made to him by a neighbour monk; "man is not saved by singing masses, but by the grace of God" ”

“ Thus, Paul, their founder, sends to "the Churches of Galatia" [259:7] a common letter in which he requires them to "serve one another," [259:8] and to "bear one another's burdens." [259:9] Without some species of united action, the Galatians could not well have obeyed such admonitions. Peter also, when writing to the disciples "scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," [259:10] represents them as an associated body. "The elders," says he, "which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder....feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof." ”

“ It would have been a mockery for the Apostle to desire for these fickle Galatians grace and peace on other terms. As at Corinth, so in Galatia, he is "determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Above the puerilities of their Jewish ritual, above the pettiness of their wrangling [22] factions, he directs his readers' gaze once more to the sacrifice of Calvary and the sublime purpose of God which it reveals.
Do we not need to be recalled to the same sight? We live in a distracted and distracting age. ”

“ They are "not in the Spirit," but "in the flesh;" and "after the flesh" they walk. It is on worldly principles that they seek to commend themselves, and to unspiritual men. What the Apostle says of himself in Phil. iii. 3, 4, illustrates by contrast his estimate of the Judaizers of Galatia: "We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." ”

“ The king gave orders that the chiefs of the Celts in Asia Minor should all be put to death along with their wives and children in one day, and that Galatia should be converted into a Pontic satrapy. Most of these bloody edicts were carried into effect either at Mithradates' own headquarters or in Galatia, but the few who escaped placed themselves at the head of their powerful tribes and expelled Eumachus, the governor of the king, out of their bounds. It may readily be conceived that such a king would be pursued by the daggers of assassins ”

“ In this province were Pisidian Antioch, Derbe, Iconium, and Lystra, where St. Paul founded Churches in A.D. 47, on his first missionary journey. The latter explanation is almost certainly correct.
No good argument can be brought forward in favour of North Galatia which cannot be balanced by a better argument in favour of South Galatia. For instance, though St. Luke in Acts uses the popular and not the political names for districts, this cannot be urged in favour of St. Paul's adopting the same usage. ”

“ Hellenic ways and modes of thought begin to appear in the towns only in the later 2nd century. In the rustic parts a knowledge of Greek begins to spread in the 3rd century; but only in the 4th and 5th centuries, after the transference of the centre of government first to Nicomedia and then to Constantinople placed Galatia on the highway of imperial communication, was Hellenism in its Christian form gradually diffused over the country. (See also Ancyra; Pessinus; Gordium.)
II. The Roman province of Galatia, constituted 25 B.C., included the greater part of the country ruled by Amyntas, viz. ”

“ Of eastern Asia Minor the largest portion and the military primacy were assigned to the most warlike of the princes there, the Galatian Amyntas (I. 335) . Alongside of the Galatian prince stood the princes of Paphlagonia, the descendants of Deiotarus, dispossessed from Galatia; Polemon, the new prince in Pontus, and the husband of Pythodoris the granddaughter of Antonius;25 and moreover, as hitherto, the kings of Cappadocia and Commagene. ”

“ Diodorus elsewhere describes the northern part of Galatia, or Gaul, as confining upon Scythia. "The Greeks," says he, "call those who inhabit Marseilles and the inland territory, and all those who dwell towards the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains, by the name of Celts; but those who occupy the country lying to the northward, between the Ocean and the Hercynian mountain, and all others as far as Scythia, they denominate Galate; but the Romans call all those nations by one collective appellation, Galate ”

“ Hence various and other strange combinations: in Italy it is the Roman influence which makes itself felt in the manners of the Cisalpines: in the south of Transalpine Gaul it is at first the influence of the Greeks of Massalia, afterwards that of the Italian colonies: and in Galatia there springs up the most singular combination of Gaulish, Phrygian and Greek civilization.
“Next follows the period of national strife and of conquest. ”

“ ANCYRA (mod. Angŏra, q.v.) , an ancient city of Galatia in Asia Minor, situated on a tributary of the Sangarius. Originally a large and prosperous Phrygian city on the Persian Royal Road, Ancyra became the centre of the Tectosages, one of the three Gaulish tribes that settled permanently in Galatia about 232 B.C. The barbarian occupation dislocated civilization, and the town sank to a mere village inhabited chiefly by the old native population who carried on the arts and crafts of peaceful life, while the Gauls devoted themselves to war and pastoral life (see Galatia) . ”

“ Surrounded, enveloped on all sides by their power, Galatia yielded at last, and was reduced to the form of a Roman province in the time of Augustus.
Here M. Thierry ends the first part of his History of the Gauls; and thus far we have followed him step by step, because we considered this both the least known and the most interesting portion of Gaulish history. The two periods which follow are more familiar to historical readers: because, during them, Rome was the great enemy of the Gauls; and if she has often palliated her defeats, she has at least never failed to chronicle her victories. ”

“ Manlius, with 22,000 legionaries and an auxiliary army furnished by the King of Pergamus, invaded Galatia: at his approach the Tolistoboies and Tectosages intrenched themselves upon Mount Olympus, and the Trocmes upon Mount Megalon, and there awaited the attack. The consul first advanced to Mount Olympus. He led his troops to attack the Gaulish position in three columns; the principal column, under his own orders, was to advance on the Gauls in front, the other two were to try and turn their position on either flank. ”

“ Here everything was left for the empire to do. Antonius, when he took in hand the East, entrusted an able Galatian officer, Amyntas, with the subjugation of the refractory Pisidian region,230 and, when the latter proved his quality,231 he made him king of Galatia,—the region of Asia Minor which was best organised in a military point of view, and most ready for action—and at the same time extended his government from thence as far as the south coast, and so as to include Lycaonia, Pisidia, Isauria, Pamphylia, and western Cilicia, while the civilised east half of Cilicia was left with Syria. ”

“ It appears that some of the believers in Galatia could receive the Christian ministry without contributing to its support. This is both ungrateful and base. We do not expect that a common schoolmaster will give up his time to teach our children their alphabet without being paid for it; and can we suppose that it is just for any person to sit under the preaching of the Gospel in order to grow wise unto salvation by it, and not contribute to the support of the spiritual teacher? It is unjust. ”

“ It will be remembered that Macedonia was invaded by the Gauls about the year 280 b.c., the time when the barbarians from the North overran Asia Minor and founded the kingdom of Galatia after a severe defeat at the hands of Attalus of Pergamus. Sosthenes rallied the Macedonian army, but, in spite of all his efforts, the Gauls under Brennus continued to push south. Thermopylæ was garrisoned as it had been at the time of the Persian invasion. The entire Greek world sent contingents to repel the invaders. ”

“ It was probably founded on the site of a Phrygian sanctuary, by Seleucus Nicator, before 280 B.C. and was made a free city by the Romans in 189 B.C. It was a thoroughly Hellenized, Greek-speaking city, in the midst of a Phrygian people, with a mixed population that included many Jews. Before 6 B.C. Augustus made it a colony, with the title Caesarea, and it became the centre of civil and military administration in south Galatia, the romanization of which was progressing rapidly in the time of Claudius, A.D. 41-54, when Paul visited it (Acts xiii. 14, xiv. 21, xvi. 6, xviii. 23) . ”

“ But though the Apostle appeared in the capitals of Galatia—Pessinus, Ancyra and Tavium—bowed down with physical infirmity, he was received with peculiar kindness by the warm-hearted954 Gauls. They did not despise nor loath the temptation in his flesh (Gal. iv. 14) . ”

“ He landed at Salamis and set sail from Paphos. He arrived at Perga in Southern Asia Minor, and then set out for a campaign of about two years in the great Roman province of Galatia. It is for the most part a wild and desolate country. There were snowy mountain ranges with perilous passes infested by robbers, rushing torrents, and precipitous roads, before he could come to the cities which lay behind the mountains. He was often in great danger, and many times suffered persecution. The places mentioned are Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. ”

“ Josephus, Ant. xx. 8, 4) , who still possessed it in the year 60; in the year 75 the district was Roman (C. I. L. iii. 306) , and probably one of the legions garrisoning Cappadocia from Vespasian’s time was stationed from the first in the Lesser–Armenian Satala. Vespasian combined the regions mentioned, as well as Galatia and Cappadocia, into one large governorship. At the end of the reign of Domitian we find Galatia and Cappadocia separated and the north–eastern provinces attached to Galatia. ”

“ A Turkish vilayet in north-central Asia Minor, which includes most of the ancient Galatia. It is an agricultural country, depending for its prosperity on its grain, wool (average annual export, 4,400,000 ℔) , and the mohair obtained from the beautiful Angora goats (average annual clip, 3,300,000 ℔) . ”

“ It appears to have been prevalent with the Galatians, whose ancestors a few generations back were northern barbarians.
A strong and raw animal nature is in itself a temptation to this vice. For men exposed to cold and hardship, the intoxicating cup has a potent fascination. The flesh, buffeted by the fatigues of a rough day's work, finds a strange zest in its treacherous delights. The man "drinks and forgets his poverty, and remembers his misery no more." For the hour, while the spell is upon him, he is a king; he lives under another sun; the world's wealth is his. ”

“ The apostle exhorts the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty of the Gospel, and not by receiving circumcision bring themselves into a yoke of bondage, [172] . Shows the superior excellence of Christianity, [173] , [174] . Mentions their former steadiness, and warns them against the bad doctrine which was then preached among them, [175] . Expresses his confidence that they will yet return; and shows that he who perverted them shall bear his own punishment, [176] . States that they are called to liberty, and that love is the fulfilling of the law, [177] , [178] . ”

“ Jesus is not only the foundation and the head-stone, but the spirit that quickens and animates all. A Church, where the members are not alive to God, and where the minister is not filled with the meekness and gentleness of Jesus, differs as much from a genuine Church as a corpse does from an active human being. False teachers in Galatia corrupted the Church, by introducing those Jewish ceremonies which God had abolished; and the doctrine of justification by the use of those ceremonies which God had shown by the death of his Son to be of none effect. ”