Ophites, Manichæans, sectarians of all kinds. Hence during the great controversies of the fourth century issued two successive bishops, who disturbed the peace of the Church, swerving or seeming to swerve from Catholic truth in opposite directions, the one on the side of Sabellian, the other of Arian error'. A Christian father of this period denounces 'the folly of the Galatians, who abound in many impious denominations? A harsher critic, likewise a contemporary, affirms that whole villages in Galatia were depopulated by the Christians in their intestine quarrels3. struggle From these painful scenes of discord it is a relief to turn to Final a nobler contest in which the Galatian Christians bore their with Papart gallantly. A sketch of their final struggle with and victory ganism. over heathendom will fitly close this account of the first preaching of the Gospel among them. The Galatian Churches furnished their quota to the army of martyrs in the Diocletian persecution, and the oldest existing church in the capital still bears the name of its bishop Clement, who perished during this reign of terror. The struggle over 1 Marcellus and Basilius; Le Quien Oriens Christianus 1. p. 48. Eusebius wrote two elaborate treatises against Marcellus, which are extant. On the other hand, his orthodoxy was defended at one time by several of his Catholic contemporaries, but his reputation suffered from the more decided Sabellianism of his pupil the hæresiarch Photinus, likewise a Galatian. Basilius presided at the semi-Arian Synod of Ancyra, held in 338. See Hefele Conciliengesch. 1. p. 655. Greg. Naz. Orat. xxii. (1. p. 422 a ed. Ben.) ή Γαλατῶν ἄνοια πλουτούν τῶν ἐν πολλοῖς τῆς ἀσεβείας ὀνόμασι, doubtless alluding to St Paul's dvóntol Talára. Compare Basil. Epist. 237 (II. p. 365, sq. ed. Garnier), Hilar. de Trin. vii. 3 (11. p. 176, ed. Ben.). 3 The Emperor Julian's language (Epist. 52, speaking of Galatia and cer tain neighbouring districts) άρδην ανα Texier Asie Mineure i. pp. 195, Julian and peace restored, a famous council was held at Ancyra, a court-martial of the Church, for the purpose of restoring discipline and pronouncing upon those who had faltered or deserted in the combat. When the contest was renewed under Julian, the forces of paganism were concentrated upon Galatia, as a key to the heathen position, in one of their last desperate struggles to retrieve the day. The once popular worship of the mother of the gods, which issuing from Pessinus had spread throughout the Greek and Roman world, was a fit rallying point for the broken ranks of heathendom. In this part of the Efforts of Reid, as at Antioch, Julian appeared in person. He stimulated the zeal of the heathen worshippers by his own example, visiting the ancient shrine of Cybele, and offering costly gifts and sacrifices there. He distributed special largesses among the poor who attended at the temples. He wrote a scolding letter to the pontiff of Galatia, rebuking the priests for their careless Hving, and promising aid to Pessinus on condition that they took more pains to propitiate the goddess'. The Christians met these measures for the most part in an attitude of dened by ferce defance. At Ancyra one Basil, a presbyter of the church, fearlessly braving the imperial anger, won for himself a martyr's crown. Going about from place to place, he denounced all participation in the polluting rites of heathen sacrifice, and warned his Christian brethren against bartering their hopes of heaven for such transitory honours as an earthly monarch could confer. At length brought before the provincial governor, he was tortured, condemned, and put to death. At Pessinus the Chris tians. About the year 314; Hefele Concriiengesch. 1. p. ISS. See the note on Gal. v. 20. 2 Ammian. xxii. 9. Liban. Or. xii, 1. p. 398, xvii. 1. p. 13 (Reiske). 3 Julian Epist. 49 'Αρσακίῳ ἀρχιερεῖ Taharias, preserved in Sozom. v. 16. The high priest' is mentioned in the Galatian inscriptions, Boeckh nos. 416, 4020, 4026. Julian seems to have taken the worship of the mother of the gods under his special protection. An elaborate oration of his (Orat. 3) is devoted to this subject. Comp. Gregor. Naz. 1. p. 109 (ed. Ben.). Sozom. v. II. The Acts of the Martyrdom of St Basil of Ancyra (Ruinart deta Mart. Sinc. p. 510) are less exaggerated than most, and perhaps entitled to respect. another zealous Christian, entering the temple, openly insulted the mother of the gods and tore down the altar. Summoned before Julian, he appeared in the imperial presence with an air of triumph, and even derided the remonstrances which the emperor addressed to him. This attempt to galvanize the expiring form of heathen devotion in Galatia seems to have borne little fruit. With the emperor's departure paganism relapsed into its former torpor. And not long after in the presence of Jovian, the Christian successor of the apostate, who halted at Ancyra on his way to assume the imperial purple 2, the Galatian churches had an assurance of the £nal triumph of the truth. 1 Gregor. Naz. Orat. v. I. p. 173 A. Gregory at the same time mentions another Christian-apparently in Galatia, though this is not stated-whose bold defiance was visited with extreme tortures. One or other of these may III. THE DATE OF THE EPISTLE. Absence of direct evidence. IT TT has been already noticed that the epistle itself contains singularly few details of St Paul's intercourse with the Churches of Galatia, and that the narrative of St Luke is confined to the bare statement of the fact of his preaching there. Owing to this twofold silence, there is a paucity of direct evidence bearing on the date of the epistle. A few scattered notices, somewhat vague in themselves and leading only to approximate results, are all that we can collect: and the burden of the proof rests in consequence on an examination of the style of the letter, and of the lines of thought and feeling which may be traced in it. With this wide field open for conjecture, there Diversity has naturally been great diversity of opinion. The Epistle to the Galatians has been placed by different critics both the earliest and the latest of St Paul's writings, and almost every intermediate position has at one time or the other been assigned to it. The patristic writers are for the most part divided between two views. Some of these, as Victorinus' and Primasius, suppose cf opinion. 1 Mai Script. Vet. Coll. vol. III. Victorinus, who wrote about A.D. 360, mentions this as an opinion entertained by others, so that it dates farther back. Epistola ad Galatas missa dicitur ab apostolo ab Epheso civitate.' I suspect it was first started by Origen. In the Canon of Marcion (Tertull, adv. Marc. v. 2, Epiphan. Haer. xlii. p. 330) the Epistle to the Galatians stood first, but I cannot think that his order was chro nological. At all events, supposing it to be so, the fact of his placing the Epistles to the Thessalonians after the Romans diminishes the respect which would otherwise be felt for the opinion of a writer so ancient. Tertullian's language however clearly points to a different principle of arrangement in Marcion's Canon: Principalem adversus Judaismum epistolam nos quoque confitemur, quae Galatas docet.' He placed it to have been written from Ephesus'. Others, among whom are Eusebius of Emesa, Jerome', Theodores, and Euthalius, date it from Rome, in accordance with the subscription found in some Mss and in the two Syriae and the Coptic versions. Of these two opinions, the former was doubtless a critical inference from the statement in the Acts that St Paul visited Ephesus immediately after leaving Galatia, combined with his own mention of the suddenness of the Galatian apostasy; the latter is founded on some fancied allusions in the epistle to his bonds'. The former view has been adopted by the vast majority of View recent critics, who agree in dating the epistle during the three adopted. years of St Paul's residence in the capital of Asia (A.D. 54—57), differing however in placing it earlier or later in this period, according as they lay greater or less stress on the particular expression ye are so soon changing.' generally Before stating my reasons for departing from this view, History I shall give a brief summary of the events of the period, which this epistle in the forefront as the most decided in its antagonism to Judaism. At the same time where no such motive interposed, and where the connexion was obvious, as in the Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon (on the juxtaposition of which Wieseler lays some stress, as establishing the principle of a chronological arrange. ment in Marcion's Canon Chron. p. 230), he would naturally follow the chronological order. Volkmar (Credner Neutest. Hanon, p. 30g) accepts the interpretation of Tertullian which I have given, but denies the accuracy of his statement. The author of the Muratorian fragment (c. A.D. 170) seems to give as the chronological order, Corinthians, Galatians, Romans (sce Tregelles Can. Murat. p. 42), which corresponds with the view I have adopted; but his language is very obscure, and his statements, at least on some points, are obviously inaccurate. 1 So Florus Lugdun. and Claudius Altissid, who copy the words of Pri- 2 About 350 A.D. Cramer Caten. ad Gal. iv. co; He was a prisoner and in confinement at the time.' This comment is ascribed simply to Eusebius' in the Catena, but the person intended is doubtless the bishop of Emesa, whose commentary on the Galatians is mentioned by Jerome (Comm. in Ep. ad Gal. Lib. 1. Praef.). He naturally represents the tradition of the Syrian Churches. 3 As may be inferred from his commentary on Gal. iv. 20, vi. 11, 17 (VII. pp. 468, 529, 534), Philem. I (VII. P. 747). 4 Praef. ad Rom. 5 Acts xviii. 23, xix. 1. 6 Gal. i. 6. 7 Gal. iv. 20, vi. 17. of the period. |