They had written to him with several questions. He opens his epistle with praise, extending Grace, Peace and Thanksgiving. Paul was the author of the Galatian letter, however, there is not a consensus as to the date of writing, with estimates running from the late 40s to the late 50s.
Galatians 1-2 is mostly biographical, and to date the book of Galatians it is necessary to fit the events described there into the overall New Testament timeline. Paul describes his stay in Arabia and Damascus after his conversion. (Galatians 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.), He says that after three years he went to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.), an event corresponding to Acts 9:26-29, which was dated to 36 AD. He then returned to Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 9:30, Galatians 1:21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;). His next return to Jerusalem was 14 years later, with Barnabas (Acts 11:30, Galatians 2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.), in 49 AD. Paul’s first missionary journey followed, and it was during this journey that he founded the Galatian churches. This was followed by the controversy over requirements for gentile believers that led to the Jerusalem Council of 50 AD.
The letter to the Galatians does not mention the Jerusalem Council, and the omission is telling. Paul is extremely emotional in Galatians in his opposition to the “Judaizers”, Jewish Christians who followed him to Galatia and had been teaching the gentile believers there that they needed to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses. Paul was adamantly opposed to that idea, and it was this controversy that led to the Jerusalem Council of 50 AD., described in Acts 15. The council’s verdict went essentially in Paul’s favor, indicating that gentiles did not need to be circumcised or follow the law of Moses, but requiring them to abstain from food offered to idols, from eating meat with blood, and from sexual immorality (Acts 15:29), restrictions necessary to allow fellowship between Jewish and gentile Christians.
It seems likely that Galatians was written just prior to the Jerusalem Council, when the controversy over gentile believers was white hot. It could hardly have been written afterward, for then Paul would have appealed to the tremendous authority of the council, with a decision backed by James and all the Apostles. Galatians is then dated to 49 AD, and it becomes the earliest surviving letter of Paul.
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