Galatia

Galatia was a region in central Asia Minor (modern Turkey) settled by Celtic (Galatian) tribes from Europe in the third century BC. The name is derived from the Latin form of the Greek Keltoi. In the New Testament era, Galatia referred either to the ethnic region occupied by these Celtic settlers in north-central Anatolia, or to the broader Roman province of Galatia which extended southward and included cities such as Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe — the cities Paul visited on his first missionary journey (Acts 16:6; Galatians 4:13).

Scholars debate whether Paul's Epistle to the Galatians addresses the northern ethnic Galatia or the southern provincial churches — the North Galatian and South Galatian theories respectively. Paul revisited the region on his second and third journeys, strengthening the churches (Acts 18:23). Peter also addresses Galatia as one of the regions of his readers (1 Peter 1:1). The churches of Galatia participated in the collection for Jerusalem saints (1 Corinthians 16:1). Galatia's Hellenistic-Celtic mix created the cultural context for the Judaizing controversy Paul addresses so forcefully in his letter to these churches.

Galatia is forever bound to the gospel of grace. Among these churches false teachers troubled the believers, pressing circumcision and the law upon them, and to them Paul wrote his most fiery letter in defense of justification by faith: “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). He marvels that they so quickly deserted the gospel for “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6) and pleads the liberty Christ won: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). At Lystra Paul had been stoned and left for dead, yet rose and went on (Acts 14:19–20), and from Lystra came Timothy, his true child in the faith (Acts 16:1–3). So the Celtic uplands of Galatia became a battleground for the very heart of the gospel — a lasting witness that salvation is by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Christ, and not by the works of the law.