GALATIANS 1:1-10 SALUTATION AND GREETING Introduction Paul wrote only a few introductory words to his letter to the Galatians. He was not concerned with being gracious and certainly not with being elaborate or literary in his writing. He was distressed with what he had heard about them and wanted to get immediately to his concern. He took time only to identify himself and those to whom he was writing and to express to them brief words of greeting and blessing. Is spite of their brevity, his words were powerful and full of meaning and spiritual significance. Only a brilliant mind combined with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could have said so much in so few words. Outline Pages A. [The salutation] (1:1-2) . 2-7 1. From (1:1-2a): . 2 a. Paul, an apostle (1:1) . 2 (1) Not by men (1:1b) . 2 (2) But by (1:1c) . 2 (a) Jesus Christ (1:1d) . 2 (b) And God the Father, who raised Him from the dead (1:1e) . 2 b. And all the brothers who are with me (1:2a) . 2 2. To the churches of Galatia (1:2b). 2-6 A Related Issue: Other Gallic People Around the World . 6-7 B. [The blessing] (1:3-5): . 7-8 1. To you (1:3a-3b) . 7 a. Grace (1:3b) . 7 b. And peace (1:3c) . 7 2. From (1:3d-5a) . 7 a. God the Father (1:3e) . 7 b. And our Lord Jesus Christ (1:3f-5a) . 7 (1) Who gave Himself for our sins (1:4a) . 7-8 (2) That He might deliver us from this present evil age (1:4b) . 7-8 (a) According to the will of God our Father (1:4c) . 7-8 (b) To whom be glory into the ages of the ages ( 1:5a). 7-8 3. Amen (1:5b)! . 8 GALATIANS SALUTATION AND GREETING Page 2 Comments Not by men but by Jesus Christ and God the A. [The salutation (1-1-2) Father, who raised Him from the dead . When Paul introduced himself as a missionary, he stressed that Verse 1. From P aul, an apostle, not by men he had not been chosen for that work by men, but but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who by Jesus Christ and God the Father. He evidently raised Him from the dead , was referring to the call that came to him on the road to Damascus, which is described by Luke in From Paul . Paul identified himself as the Acts 9:1-9 and which Paul himself described both in writer in the first words of this letter. In the first Acts 22:6-21 and in Acts 26:12-18. It was a call century, it was customary to identify the writer and that turned his life around and changed him from a the person or persons to whom a letter was written persecutor of Christians to a compassionate in the opening words. Paul customarily followed missionary for Jesus all over the Roman Empire. that practice, and he did so in this letter. The facts mentioned in the book are so typical of Paul and so Verse 2 . And all the brothers who are with consistent with what we know of his life that few me t o the churches of Galatia (1:2b). have ever questioned that Paul was the writer. Paul’s plain statement that he was the writer is And all the brothers who are with me . In accepted in these comments. Paul’s letters he usually named a person or persons who put the letter in writing for him and also An apostle . Paul called himself an apostle, helpers who sent greetings along with him. In his which many have understood to mean that he letter to the Galatians, he did not mention any of claimed to be chosen by God to replace Judas after those persons by name, so we are left wondering Judas betrayed Jesus. This understanding means who the brothers were who were with him. that Peter and other believers were mistaken both in Answering that question is difficult, because Paul the requirements for being an apostle and in the one says nothing about when he wrote the letter, where whom the Lord chose to be an apostle in Judas’s he was when he wrote it, or who was with him place, when they were praying in the upper room in when he wrote. Answers to those questions have to Jerusalem right after Jesus ascended into heaven be derived from events in Paul’s life that he (Acts 1:15-26). Such a distasteful conclusion is not mentions in the letter. necessary. The book of Acts says they prayed for the Lord to show them whom He had chosen and For insights into when and where Paul wrote accepted the one on whom the lot fell as the answer the letter, see A THIRD RELATED ISSUE: When to their prayer and the will of God. Some other and Where Did Paul Write His Letter to the understanding must be sought for Paul’s statement Churches of Galatia?, which is found after that he was an apostle chosen not by men but by comments on Galatians 2:11-21 in Section I.A.5. Jesus and the Father. For insights into who the brothers were who The word “apostle” means “one who is sent,” were with Paul, see A FOURTH RELATED ISSUE: which the twelve apostles certainly were. However, Who Were the Brothers Who Were with Paul When the word was also used to refer to people we call He Wrote This Letter to the Galatians?, which is “missionaries,” people who are sent to take the found after comments on Galatians 2:11-13 in Gospel to groups who do not know it (Acts 14:14; Section I.A.5. 15:33; Rom. 16:7; 1 Cor. 6:9; 9:5; 2 Cor. 11:13; Gal. 1:15; Heb. 13:1). It is much better to to the churches of Galatia . Paul plainly states understand Paul’s claim to be an apostle to mean he that he wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia. was chosen of God to be a missionary to carry the Therefore, it would seem to be an easy task to Gospel all over the Roman world. He was certainly identify where those churches were located. the consummate missionary of all times. However, the task is not as easy as it seems because GALATIANS SALUTATION AND GREETING Page 3 of the complicated makeup of the Roman Province As the Gauls or Celts moved out of central of Galatia. That province was a well known Europe where they began, a group of them migrated political entity in Paul’s day. It stretched across the into the Balkan Peninsula. Around 278 B.C., King central portion of Asia Minor. Asia Minor was a Nicomedes of Bithynia in northern Anatolia needed name used for the area that is occupied by Turkey soldiers to fight in his army as mercenaries to help today. The geographic name for that area is defend his territory against enemies who were Anatolia. The northern boundary of the Roman threatening him from the east. Knowing of the province of Galatia in Anatolia was on the southern warrior skills of the Gauls, he invited a group of the shore of the Black Sea. The southern boundary of Gauls in the Balkan Peninsula to move to his area the province varied from time to time according to and fight with his army. The Gauls who accepted political decisions made by emperors and politicians his invitation brought their families and possessions of Rome, but at times it stretched all the way to the with them and stayed. Soon they were not content northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In other to fight for Nicomedes but began to try to conquer words, it was located in the center of present-day lands for themselves. After decades of warring Turkey and stretched from the north to the south of against other peoples in the Anatolian peninsula, that area. However, the question about to whom King Attalus of Pergamum defeated them around Paul wrote this letter is complicated by the different 230 B.C. and forced them to confine themselves to sections of that province and the diverse people who an area in the northern portion of central Anatolia to lived there. the east and south of Bithynia. They formed their own nation there, which they called Galatia. They The people for whom the province of Galatia had their own language and culture and established was named were called by two closely related their capital in Ankara, the same city that is the names. Some called them “Gauls,” and others capital of Turkey today. called them “Celts”. Both names were derived from their name in their original language. The variation When the Romans spread their power into between the two names came from translations of Anatolia beginning in 189 B.C., they conquered their name into different languages. The earliest Galatia and for a time allowed the Galatians to existing records we have of the Gauls or Celts continue to have their own king under the reveal that they lived in Central Europe around 500 overlordship of Rome. The last of those kings was B.C. They were a prolific people, which led them named Amyntas. When Amyntas was killed in to spread out from their original location into many battle in 25 B.C., Augustus Caesar turned Galatia other areas in Europe and even in the Middle East.