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Sampling St. Paul: Looking Into The Letter To The Galatians - Page 2

© alberto esmeralda

Thus we come to Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia.

The Letter To The Galatians

The letter to the Galatians is the fourth letter in the Pauline corpus. Its place there is not due to chronology. The Pauline corpus is arranged in such a way that the longest letter (to the Romans) is placed first and the shortest (to Philemon) is placed at the end (the Letter to the Hebrews comes after Philemon because its Pauline authorship has been, since early times, questionable). It is dated between 57 and 58 AD, right after 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 and 2 Corinthians, and before Romans and Philippians.

In form, the letter is irregular. It lacks the Thanksgiving of Paul which normally follows the Opening Greetings. But if one considers that the "turning away" of the Galatians from the one true Gospel is hardly something to be thankful for, then we begin to understand also the vehemence with which Paul addresses himself through this letter.

The Parts of the Letter to the Galatians:

Since we are here speaking of a letter, the normal parts would be: Opening Greetings, Thanksgiving, Body, Summary and Conclusion, Final Salutation. We already noted that there is no Thanksgiving in this letter, so we have the following outline:

Opening Greetings:	1:1-5
Body:	1:6 - 6:10
Summary and Conclusion:	6:11-16
Final Salutation:	6:17-18

To be noted in Paul's "Summary and Conclusion" is v. 11: "Take good note of what I am adding in my own handwriting and in such big letters." It would appear that Paul had been dictating the letter until 6:10 and only writes towards the end. This should not be a cause for surprise since this is quite ordinary practice during his time. (Note: There is another way of writing letters that is employed by Paul in Colossians and Ephesians: by amanuensis³.)

Again what I have called the "Final Salutation" is not like the ones where Paul includes his co-workers in greeting the addressees of the letter (compare this passage with 1 Corinthians 16:19-24 or Philippians 4:21-23).

The Body of the letter to the Galatians is a bit more regular in that one can easily find the Hortatory part of the letter beginning Chapter 5. This is a feature that one can easily discern in the letters of Paul: the "Moral Section" is marked by verbal imperative forms. This particular section of Galatians runs from 5:1 - 6:10.

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