evangelization of the Galatians, which God had obviously blessed
(iii. 2, 5). It is therefore natural to regard all related in chapters
i.-ii., including his rebuke of Peter, as prior to that cardinal fact.
Next the logic of the case, as well as his exijlicit words in i. 22 sqq.,
rules out any visit to Jerusalem, including the relief visit to Judaea
of Acts xi. 30, xii. 25, between his first visit and that of Gal. ii. 1 sqq.
(this tells against the common view that Gal. ii. I sqq. = Acts xv.).
Finally the reason why no explicit reference is made to the visit
of Acts XV. is that it was already familiar to his readers from his
own account of it on his second and recent visit to them (Acts
xvi. 4-6), and was in fact the starting-point of the judaizers' case.
As regards the " Galatians " addressed in this epistle, we assume
with the majority of scholars, since Sir W. M. Ramsay's writings
on the subject, that they were those evangelized in Acts xiii., xiv.,
not in xvi. 6. According to the above reading of this epistle it was
written in the winter of Paul's first journey to Europe, c. 51-52, say
in Corinth (so Rendall, Zahn, Bacon), which would explain not only
the " so quickly " of i. 6., but also his inability to hasten to their
side (iv. 20). This last condition seems to exclude as place of writing
both Antioch on the eve of the second (McGiffert) or third (Ramsay)
missionary journey, and Ephesus during Paul's long sojourn there.
The one seeming alternative, viz. Antioch on the eve of the conference
in Acts XV. (so V. Weber), is preferable only on the assumption that
the epistle excludes all knowledge of this event (as the present
writer formerly held).
Not long after this episode Paul proposed to Barnabas a visitation of the churches they had jointly founded. But Paul's Barnabas, perhaps feeling more than before the Second difference in their attitudes to the Law, made the Great Mis- reinstatement of John Mark as their helper a s oa our. (.Qj^jjjf Jqjj q£ co-operation. To this Paul demurred on the ground that he could not be relied upon in all emergencies; and the feeling caused by this difference as to Mark's fitness was sufficient to cause Paul and Barnabas to take separate lines. Each went to his own sphere of work, Barnabas to Cyprus and Paul towards Asia Minor, and we never again read of them as together, though Paul continued to refer to his old colleague in kindly terms (i Cor. ix. 6 and Col. iv. 10). Paul found a colleague in Silas (Silvanus), a " leading " man in the Jerusalem church and a " prophet, " but like himself a Roman citizen (Acts xvi. 37, 39); and started, with the goodwill of the Antiochene Church, probably in summer a.d. 50. His way lay through churches of his own foundation, in one of which he found a helper to replace Mark, Timothy of Lystra, who was to be as a son to him up to the very end. Confident in the conciHatory spirit of both sides in the Concordat, and anxious to show how ready he was to consider Jewish feeling where Gentile freedom was not involved, he circumcised this young semi-Jew before taking him as his associate into regions where work would still lie largely among Jews. In a similar spirit he also commended " the resolutions " of the Concordat to the observance of his churches in Galatia, though the circular letter of the conference did not make it apply to more than those of the Syro-Cilician region.
But while the immediate result of this visit was good, the secondary issues were among the bitterest in Paul's life, Judaizers owing to the unscrupulous action of judaizers la South who, taking advantage of his absence, soon began Galatia. ^ vigorous, but subtle, propaganda amongst his converts in this region. They represented Patil as having changed his policy in deference to the Jerusalem authorities, to the extent of allowing that the Law had some claim upon Gentile believers in the Jewish Messiah. Otherwise why were the " abstinence's " enjoined? Nay, more: these had been put forward as a bare minimum of what was expedient, to judge from the practice of those same Judaean authorities. But if so, surely it must at least be necessary to full Christian piety (Gal. iii. 3; cf. Peter's conduct at Antioch), though not perhaps to a bare place in the coming kingdom. Had not Paul himself confessed the value of circumcision (v. 11) in the case of Timothy, the son of a Gentile father? As for his earlier policy, it must have been due simply to a wish to humour his converts' prejudices (i. 10), to begin with. At any rate the gospel they now brought was the authentic Apostolic Gospel, and if Paul's did differ from it, so much the worse for his gospel, since it could in no' case claim to be other than derived from theirs (i. 1-9, 11 seq.). How plausible
must such a plea have seemed to inexperienced Gentile converts, " bewitching " their minds away from the central facts, Christ crucified and the free gift of the spirit through faith in Him. But how disingenuous as regards Paul's real position! Can we wonder at his indignation as he wrote in reply, and that he was goaded on to pass, in his final peroration, a counter-judgment upon their motives too sweepingly severe (vi. 12 seq.)? In any case the gross abuse by the judaizers of Paul's promulgation of the " abstinence's " in Galatia fully explains his contrary practice elsewhere.
Paul left his Galatian converts about autumn a.d. 50, bound for the adjacent Asia. But not even yet was he to preach there, being diverted by something in which he saw the divine hand. Such as when, on his way north- £u"op"'*" wards through the Phrygian region of Galatia, ' he tried to enter Bithynia (where also were cities with a large Jewish element), he was again turned aside by " the Spirit of Jesus " (? a vision in the form of Jesus, xvi. 7, cf. xviii. g, xxii. 17). Thus his course seemed open only westwards through Mysia (northern " Asia ) to the coast, which was reached at Troas, the chief port in the north-west Aegean for intercourse between Asia and Macedonia. These were but sister provinces, united by the easy pathway of the sea. Yet in sentiment and in conditions of work it was a new departure to which Paul found himself summoned, when in a night-vision " a certain Macedonian " stood as if entreating him: " Come over into Macedonia and help us." Here was the positive guidance to which two negative divine interventions had been leading up. Paul hesitated not a moment, though the idea was bolder than that of his own frustrated plan. " Straightway, " in the' words of Luke, " we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them " (xvi. 10). So, at this crucial point in Paul's mission to the Gentiles, Luke seems to preserve the thrill of emotion which passed from the leader to his companions, by breaking out into the first person plural (see Acts, for the psychological rather than literary reason of this " we, " here and later).
The new mission began at Phihppi, a Roman colonia. Here the Jewish settlement, in which as usual Paul sought first to gain a footing, was a small one, consisting in the main of women — who enjoyed much freedom in '"'
Macedonian society. But the normal extension of his work was cut short by an incident characteristic both of the age and of the way in which the fortunes of the Gospel were affected by the vested interests around it. The storj' of Paul's imprisonment, with the light it casts on his qitiet mastery of any situation, is familiar in its vivid detail.
After being thus " shamefuDy treated " in Philippi (i Thess. ii. 2), Paul passed on rapidly to Thessalonica, the real capital of the province and an admirable centre of influence (cf. I Thess. i. 8). In this great seaport there was loa^ at least one synagogue; and for three weeks he there discussed from the scriptures the cardinal points in his message (cf. i Cor. xv. 3 seq.), " that it behoved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, " and that accordingly " this Jesus ... is the Christ " (xvii. 2 seq.). Some Jews believed, " and of the Godfearing Greeks " (semi-proselytes) a large number, including not a few of the leading women. There was also successful work among those who turned directly " from idols, to serve a God hving and real" (i Thess. i. 9). This, must have occupied several weeks beyond those specified above (cf. i Thess. i.-ii.; and the material help received more than once from Philippi, Phil. iv. 16).
But Jewish jealousy was aroused particularly by the loss of their converts; and at length in alliance with the rabble of the market place, it v/as able once more to cut short the preachers work among the Gentiles. The charge made against them had a serious ring, since it involved not only danger to public order
The region to which some think the Epistle to the Galatians (see s.v.) was addressed — so modifying the older " North Galatian " theory of Bishop Lightfoot and others.
