And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
The letter is directed to the churches of Galatia, naming those congregations as its recipients. All the brethren who were with Paul joined him in the greeting and in the sentiments expressed in the letter, so the salutation is shared and not his alone. The plural churches denotes a group of congregations rather than giving the Christian church one definite, universal name. Those members were a mixed body, largely Gauls, including both Jewish converts and persons converted from heathenism.
Galatia was a comparatively small district in Asia Minor, called the Gaul of the East, whose people had lived there since about the third century B.C. and had mingled with Greeks, Romans, and to some extent Hebrews. The Galatians were Gauls or Celts who had settled in Asia Minor west of Pontus and Cappadocia and north of Phrygia, while the later Roman province of Galatia included Lycaonia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, and much of Phrygia. Paul founded the church in Galatia in A.D. 52.
The chapter in which the verse stands traces Paul's movements after his conversion: he went to Arabia, returned to Damascus, later visited Jerusalem, then preached in Syria and Cilicia, and years afterward went up to Jerusalem by revelation to share the gospel he preached among the Gentiles. That first chapter prepares for the meeting in Jerusalem fourteen years after Paul's first visit and for the account in Galatians 2:6-10. Although addressed to Galatia, the letter applies to readers beyond those churches because its concerns are not limited to them.
The letter is directed to the churches of Galatia, naming those congregations as its recipients. All the brethren who were with Paul joined him in the greeting and in the sentiments expressed in the letter, so the salutation is shared and not his alone. The plural churches denotes a group of congregations rather than giving the Christian church one definite, universal name. Those members were a mixed body, largely Gauls, including both Jewish converts and persons converted from heathenism.
Galatia was a comparatively small district in Asia Minor, called the Gaul of the East, whose people had lived there since about the third century B.C. and had mingled with Greeks, Romans, and to some extent Hebrews. The Galatians were Gauls or Celts who had settled in Asia Minor west of Pontus and Cappadocia and north of Phrygia, while the later Roman province of Galatia included Lycaonia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, and much of Phrygia. Paul founded the church in Galatia in A.D. 52.
The chapter in which the verse stands traces Paul's movements after his conversion: he went to Arabia, returned to Damascus, later visited Jerusalem, then preached in Syria and Cilicia, and years afterward went up to Jerusalem by revelation to share the gospel he preached among the Gentiles. That first chapter prepares for the meeting in Jerusalem fourteen years after Paul's first visit and for the account in Galatians 2:6-10. Although addressed to Galatia, the letter applies to readers beyond those churches because its concerns are not limited to them.