The Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians (Book of Galatians)

The Epistle to the Galatians, in the Vulgate Epistola ad Galatas, comes fourth among the fourteen Epistles of St Paul, after Romans and the letters to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians). It is short, six chapters and 149 verses, and written in haste. Certain teachers had told the Gentile converts of Galatia that faith in Christ was not enough: to be perfect Christians they must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Paul answers with the full weight of his apostolic authority, and gives the Church one of its clearest lessons on grace, the Law, Baptism and the Cross.

The author: St Paul the Apostle

St Paul the Apostle. The letter opens with his name and his claim: "Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead" (Galatians 1). He tells his own story, how he "persecuted the church of God, and wasted it," how God "called me by his grace," his years in Arabia and Damascus, his visit to Jerusalem "to see Peter." Near the end he takes the pen himself: "See what a letter I have written to you with my own hand" (Galatians 6).

The Church has never doubted it. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 states that "it is admitted on all hands that St. Paul wrote the Epistle," and that its authenticity "has never been seriously called in question." St John Chrysostom, St Jerome, St Augustine and Ambrosiaster each left a commentary on it as Paul's, and St Thomas Aquinas followed them. Even critical scholars count it among the undisputed letters of Paul, and the Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decree on it. For the Apostle's life, see our article on St Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

The Galatians and their churches

"To the churches of Galatia" (1:2). The Galatians descended from Gauls, Celtic tribes who settled in central Asia Minor in the third century before Christ; St Jerome noted that in his day they still spoke a tongue much like that of the Treviri of Gaul. By Paul's time Galatia was also a Roman province reaching south to Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, the cities evangelized on the first missionary journey in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 13 and 14).

Some interpreters hold that Paul wrote to the Celts of the north, visited on his later journeys (Acts 16:6; 18:23); others to the churches of the south. The Catholic Encyclopedia favours the south: "The country of South Galatia answers the conditions of the Epistle admirably." Either way, the readers were mostly Gentile converts who had received Paul "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus" (4:14).

Date and place of writing

Challoner's preface to the Douay Bible says: "It was written at Ephesus, about twenty-three years after our Lord's Ascension," that is, in the mid-fifties, during Paul's long stay at Ephesus (Acts 19). The Catholic Encyclopedia gives three opinions on the year: about AD 49-50 from Antioch, before the Council of Jerusalem, "very plausible, but not quite convincing"; about AD 53-54, with Cornely and most defenders of the southern view, "with much greater probability"; or AD 57-58 for those who hold the northern view. Galatians stands very close to Romans, and Challoner remarks that "the subject matter of this Epistle is much the same as that to the Romans."

The occasion and purpose of the letter

Challoner gives the occasion: "The Galatians, soon after St. Paul had preached the Gospel to them, were seduced by some false teachers, who had been Jews and who were for obliging all Christians, even those who had been Gentiles, to observe circumcision and the other ceremonies of the Mosaical law. In this Epistle, he refutes the pernicious doctrine of those teachers and also their calumny against his mission and apostleship." These Judaizers said Paul was not one of the Twelve and had learned his gospel at second hand. The Galatians had begun to "observe days, and months, and times, and years" (4:10), and were on the point of accepting circumcision (5:2-3).

Hence the letter's style: autobiographical at first, argued from Scripture in the middle, practical at the close, and fiery throughout. Alone among his letters to churches, it passes from the greeting straight to reproof, with no thanksgiving or blessing. St John Chrysostom observed that "this Epistle breathes an indignant spirit," as is "obvious to every one even on the first perusal."

Summary of the Book of Galatians, chapter by chapter

The Epistle has three parts of two chapters each: Paul's apostleship, the doctrine of faith and the Law, and the Christian life.

Paul's gospel and his authority (chapters 1–2)

Paul pronounces anathema on any other gospel: "though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (chapters 1–2). His gospel came "by the revelation of Jesus Christ," not from men. After three years he went up to Jerusalem "to see Peter," stayed fifteen days and saw no other Apostle "saving James the brother of the Lord." Fourteen years later he went up with Barnabas and Titus, a visit commonly identified with the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. James, Cephas and John, "who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship" (Galatians 2), and Titus, a Gentile, was not compelled to be circumcised. Our articles on St Barnabas and St Titus tell their part.

Then the incident at Antioch: Cephas, who had eaten with the Gentiles, withdrew from their table when men came from James. "I withstood him to the face," Paul writes, and draws the lesson: "man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ."

Faith, the Law and the promise (chapters 3–4)

"O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" (Galatians 3). Did they receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith? Abraham "believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice" (Genesis 15), and the promise made to him and "to thy seed, which is Christ" came 430 years before the Law, which cannot annul it. Citing Deuteronomy 27, Habacuc 2 and Leviticus 18, Paul shows that the Law curses the transgressor but cannot give life, and that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The Law "was our pedagogue in Christ," and now "as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ."

Galatians 4 speaks of the heir who, while a child, differs nothing from a servant, until "the fulness of the time was come" and God sent His Son, that we might receive "the adoption of sons." Paul pleads like a mother: "My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you." He ends with the allegory of Abraham's two sons, of Agar the bondwoman and Sara the free woman (Genesis 16 and 21): two covenants, Sina in bondage and "that Jerusalem, which is above... our mother," with the words of Isaias 54, "Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not."

Liberty, the Spirit and the Cross (chapters 5–6)

"Stand fast, and be not held again under the yoke of bondage" (chapters 5–6). To seek justice in circumcision is to be "fallen from grace," for what avails is "faith that worketh by charity." Liberty is not licence: "only make not liberty an occasion to the flesh, but by charity of the spirit serve one another." Then come the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 6 counsels meekness toward the fallen, bearing one another's burdens and perseverance in doing good, "for what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap," and closes with Paul's refusal of all glory "save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Themes and the Catholic reading of Galatians

Faith that worketh by charity. The Reformers read "not justified by the works of the law" (2:16) as justification by faith alone. The Epistle itself answers: the faith that avails is "faith that worketh by charity" (5:6), and the works excluded are those of the Mosaic Law, circumcision, feasts and foods, done as though they could earn justice.

The Council of Trent quotes Galatians 5:6 in its Decree on Justification (Session VI, ch. 7), teaching that faith without hope and charity does not unite man perfectly with Christ, and condemns justification by faith alone in the sense that nothing else is required (canon 9). The same Epistle warns that those who do the works of the flesh "shall not obtain the kingdom of God" (5:21). St James teaches this from the other side; see our article on faith without works.

Baptism and divine sonship. "For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ" (3:27), and "God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father" (4:6). See our article on Catholic Baptism.

The Mother of God. "God sent his Son, made of a woman" (4:4) is the one place where St Paul speaks directly of Our Lady, and the Fathers used it against those who denied that Christ took true flesh from her. "James the brother of the Lord" (1:19) was a kinsman, not a son of Mary, as our article on the perpetual virginity of Mary explains.

St Peter at Antioch. The rebuke of Cephas (2:11-14) has been used against Peter's primacy. Challoner's note answers that his fault "was only a certain imprudence... Neither was St. Paul's reprehending him any argument against his supremacy; for in such cases an inferior may, and sometimes ought, with respect, to admonish his superior." St Jerome and St Augustine debated the passage in their letters, but neither saw in it an error of doctrine. St John Chrysostom, on 1:18, says that Paul came to Peter "as his elder and superior," only to behold and honour him. See our article on St Peter, the first Pope.

The glory of the Cross. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (6:14) is echoed in the Introit of Maundy Thursday and of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi; "I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body" (6:17) is read on the feast of the Stigmata of St Francis. See our article on the True Cross.

Famous verses and chapters from Galatians

Galatians 2:20. "With Christ I am nailed to the cross. And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2).

Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3).

Galatians 4:4. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Galatians 4).

Galatians 5. The best-known chapter of the book: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (5:14); the works of the flesh, "fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts..." (5:19-21); and "the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law" (5:22-23), all in Galatians 5. The Vulgate names twelve where most modern Bibles name nine, and from it the Church counts the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost; see the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost.

Galatians 6. "Bear ye one another's burdens; and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ" (6:2); "Be not deceived, God is not mocked" (6:7); "And in doing good, let us not fail" (6:9), in Galatians 6.

Galatians in the canon and in the liturgy

Galatians has the same name and six chapters in Catholic and Protestant Bibles, and was never disputed: the Councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393), Carthage (397), Florence and Trent (Session IV, 1546) list it among the fourteen Epistles of Paul. Written in Greek, it came to the West in the Latin of the Vulgate, from which our Douay-Rheims Bible was translated. Readers of the King James or the NIV will find the same sense in most places, but the Douay keeps the Vulgate's twelve fruits and words such as "charity" and "justice" that carry its theology.

In the 1962 Roman Missal, Galatians gives the Epistle of the Sunday within the octave of Christmas (4:1-7), of Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent (4:22-31), and of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Sundays after Pentecost (3:16-22; 5:16-24; 5:25–6:10), as well as of the Commemoration of St Paul on 30 June (1:11-20) and the Stigmata of St Francis on 17 September (6:14-18). In the Roman Breviary it is begun at Matins on the Third Sunday after Epiphany, with St Augustine's exposition of the Epistle in the second nocturn. Follow these readings in our liturgical calendar and in the Breviary.

How to read the Book of Galatians

Read it at one sitting; the argument is best felt whole. Keep Acts 15 at hand for chapter 2, and Genesis for Abraham, Agar and Sara in chapters 3 and 4. Then read Romans, which treats the same questions at length, the Epistle of St James, and Ephesians, which follows Galatians in the Bible and in the Breviary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Galatians?

St Paul the Apostle. He names himself in the first verse, tells his conversion and calling in the first two chapters, and signs the letter "with my own hand" (6:11). Its authenticity has never been seriously questioned, by the Fathers or by modern scholars.

When was the Book of Galatians written?

In the mid-fifties of the first century. Challoner's Douay preface dates it "about twenty-three years after our Lord's Ascension." The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 judges AD 53-54 the most probable date, while noting that others place it as early as 49-50 or as late as 57-58.

Where was the Book of Galatians written?

According to Challoner's preface, "it was written at Ephesus," during St Paul's long stay there on his third missionary journey. Those who date it earlier place it at Antioch in Syria.

Who was the Book of Galatians written to?

"To the churches of Galatia" (1:2), the Christian communities of the Roman province of Galatia in Asia Minor, now central Turkey. Interpreters debate whether these were the Celtic Galatians of the north or the churches of Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe in the south, which the Catholic Encyclopedia favours. Most of them were Gentile converts.

What is the Book of Galatians about?

It is St Paul's defence of the gospel he preached. False teachers wanted the Gentile converts circumcised and bound to the Law of Moses; Paul shows that his apostleship came from Christ, that we are justified by the grace of Christ received in faith and Baptism, not by the works of the Law, and that Christian liberty must be lived in charity, walking in the Spirit and glorying in the Cross.

What is the main message of the Book of Galatians?

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by charity" (5:6). Salvation comes through Christ, not through the ceremonies of the Old Law, and the faith that saves is a living faith that bears the fruit of the Spirit.

What are the three main themes of Galatians?

They follow the three parts of the letter: the divine origin of Paul's apostleship and gospel (chapters 1–2); justification through faith in Christ rather than by the works of the Law, shown from Abraham and the promise (chapters 3–4); and Christian liberty lived in charity, the fruit of the Spirit and the Cross (chapters 5–6).

How many chapters are in the Book of Galatians?

The Book of Galatians has 6 chapters and 149 verses in the Douay-Rheims, the Latin Vulgate and Protestant Bibles alike. It can be read in about twenty minutes; start with Galatians 1, Latin and English side by side.

Read the whole Epistle to the Galatians verse by verse, Latin and English, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Epistle to the Galatians, Latin Vulgate and Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision, 1749-1752), with Challoner's preface and notes; St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians; St Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians; St Augustine, Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians and Letters to St Jerome; St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians; Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546), and Session VI, Decree on Justification (1547); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Epistle to the Galatians"; Missale Romanum (1962); Breviarium Romanum (1962).