Galatia
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white; the color of milk
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
GALATIA is a Greek word, derived from Galat, the Gr. name for the Gauls who invaded Asia Minor in the year b.c. 2787 (Lat. Gallogræci [=Greek Gauls], to distinguish them from their kindred who lived in France and Northern Italy). These Gauls had been ravaging the south-eastern parts of Europe, Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace, and crossed into Asia Minor at the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. Part of the same southward tendency appears in their movements in Italy and their conflicts with the Romans in the early centuries of the Republic. Those who entered Asia Minor came as a nation with wives and families, not as mercenary soldiers. After some fifty years raiding and warring, they found a permanent settlement in north-eastern Phrygia, where the population was un-warlike. Their history down to the time of the Roman Empire is best studied in Ramsays Histor. Com. on Galatians, p. 45 ff. They continued throughout these two centuries to be the ruling caste of the district, greatly outnumbered by the native Phrygian population, who, though in many respects an inferior race, had a powerful influence on the religion, customs, and habits of the Gauls, as subject races often have over their conquerors. The earlier sense of the term Galatia is, then, the country occupied by the Gaulish immigrants, the former north-eastern part of Phrygia, and the term Galat is used after the occupation to include the subject Phrygians as well as the Galat strictly so called (e.g. 1Ma_8:2).
About b.c. 160 the Gauls acquired a portion of Lycaonia on their southern frontier, taking in Iconium and Lystra. About the same time also they had taken in Pessinus in the N. W. These and other expansions they ultimately owed to the support of Rome. From b.c. 64 Galatia was a client state of Rome. At the beginning of that period it was under three rulers; from b.c. 44 it was under one only. Deiotarus, the greatest of the Galatian chiefs, received Armenia Minor from Pompey in b.c. 64. Mark Antony conferred the eastern part of Paphlagonia on Castor as sole Galatian king in b.c. 40, and at the same time gave Amyntas a kingdom comprising Pisidic Phrygia and Pisidia generally. In b.c. 36, Castors Galatian dominions and Pamphylia were added to Amyntas kingdom. He was also given Iconium and the old Lycaonian tetrarchy, which Antony had formerly given to Polemon. After the battle of Actium in b.c. 31, Octavian conferred on Amyntas the additional country of Cilicia Tracheia. He had thus to keep order for Rome on the south side of the plateau and on the Taurus mountains. He governed by Roman methods, and, when he died in b.c. 25, he left his kingdom in such a state that Augustus resolved to take the greater part of it into the Empire in the stricter sense of that term, and made it into a province which he called Galatia. This is the second sense in which the term Galatia is used in ancient documents, namely, the sphere of duty which included the ethnic districts, Papblagonia, Pontus Galaticus, Galatia (in the original narrower sense), Phrygia Galatica, and Lycaonia Galatica (with the Added Land, part of the original Lycaonian tetrarchy). Galatia, as a province, means all these territories together, under one Roman governor, and the inhabitants of such a province, whatever their race, were, in conformity with invariable Roman custom, denominated by a name etymologically connected with the name of the province. Thus Galat (Galatians) has a second sense, in conformity with the second sense of the term Galatia: it is used to include all the inhabitants of the province (see the first map in the above-mentioned work of Ramsay).
The word Galatia occurs three times in the NT (1Co_16:1, Gal_1:2, and 1Pe_1:1). A possible fourth case (2Ti_4:10) must be left out of account, as the reading there is doubtful. There is an alternative Gallia, which, even if it be not the original, suggests that the word Galatia there should be taken in the sense of Gallia (that is, France). It is beyond doubt that in the passage of 1Peter the word must be taken in the sense of the province. The bearer of the letter evidently landed at some port on the Black Sea, perhaps Sinope, and visited the provinces in the order in which they appear in the address of the letter:Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, taking ship again at the Black Sea for Rome. The Taurus range of mountains was always conceived of as dividing the peninsula of Asia Minor into two parts, and St. Peter here appears as supervising or advising the whole body of Christians north of the Taurus range. (The effect of taking Galatia in the other sense would be to leave out certain Pauline churches, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, and perhaps these alone, in all that vast region: which is absurd.) With regard to the two passages in St. Paul, the case is settled by his unvarying usage. It has been noted that he, as a Roman citizen and a statesman, invariably uses geographical terms in the Roman sense, and that he even does violence to the Greek language by forcing the Latin names for Philippians (Php_4:15) and Illyricum (Rom_15:19) into Greek, and passes by the proper Greek term in each case. We are bound, therefore, to believe that he uses Galatia in the Roman sense, namely in the meaning of the Roman province as above defined. (This province had, as we have seen, Galatia in the narrower and earlier sense as one of its parts.) It follows, therefore, that he uses Galatians (Gal_3:1) also in the wider sense of all (Christian) inhabitants of the province, irrespective of their race, as far as they were known to him.
In order to discover what communities in this vast province are especially addressed by the Apostle in his Epistle, it is necessary to make a critical examination of the only two passages in Acts which afford us a clue (Act_16:6; Act_18:23). It is important to note that St. Luke never uses the term Galatia or the term Galatians, but only the adjective Galatic (Act_16:6, Act_18:23). In Act_16:6 the rules of the Greek language require us to translate:the Phrygo-Galatic region or the region which is both Phrygian and Galatian; that is, the region which according to one nomenclature is Phrygian, and according to another is Galatian. This can be none other than that section of the province Galatia which was known as Phrygia Galatica, and which contained Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, exactly the places we should expect St. Paul and his companions to go to after Derbe and Lystra. In Act_18:23 the Greek may be translated either the Galatico-Phrygian region or the Galatian region and Phrygia, preferably the latter, as it is difficult otherwise to account for the order in the Greek. The Galatian region, then, will cover Derbe and Lystra; Phrygia will include Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. We conclude then that, whether any other churches are comprised in the address of the Epistle to the Galatians or not,and a negative answer is probably correct,the churches of Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch are included. There is not a scrap of evidence that St. Paul had visited any other cities in that great province.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Galati is the same as Celts, of the Kymric not the Gaelic branch. These poured into Greece and pillaged Delphi 280 B.C. Some passed into Asia at the invitation of Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia, to help him in a civil war. There they settled, namely, the Trocmi, Tolistoboii, and Tectosages (from Toulouse), and made inroads far and wide, but were checked by Antiochus I. of Syria, hence called Soter (Savior), and Attahs I of Pergamus, hence, designating himself "king." Then they hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers. Galatia lay in the center of Asia Minor, the province "Asia" on the W., Cappadocia on the E., Pamphylia and Cilicia on the S., and Bithynia and Pontus N. Ancyra (now Angora) was their capital; Tavium and Pessinus were leading cities.
Their language was partly Gallic, partly Greek, hence they were called Gallo-Graeci. The inscriptions at Ancyra are Greek, and Paul's epistle is in Greek. Paul founded several "churches" in the Galatian region, not residing for long in one place and forming a central church, as at Ephesus and Corinth (Gal_1:2; 1Co_16:1; Act_16:6). His first visit was about A.D. 51, during his second missionary journey. Sickness detained him among them, and he turned it to good account by becoming the first preacher of the gospel to them (Act_16:6; Gal_1:8; Gal_4:13). "On account of infirmity of flesh I preached unto you at the first" (so the Greek is). At his subsequent visit (Act_18:23) he "strengthened" them in the faith.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Gala'tia. (land of the Galli, Gauls). The Roman province of Galatia may be roughly described as the central region of the peninsula of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia; on the east, by Pontus; on the south, by Cappadocia and Lycaonia; on the west, by Phrygia. ? Encyclopedia Britannica.
It derived its name from the Gallic or Celtic tribes who, about 280 B.C., made an irruption into Macedonia and Thrace. It finally became a Roman province. The Galatia of the New Testament has really the "Gaul" of the East. The people have always been described as "susceptible of quick impressions and sudden changes, with a fickleness equal to their courage and enthusiasm, and a constant liability to that disunion which is the fruit of excessive vanity.
The Galatian churches were founded by Paul at his first visit, when he was detained among, them by sickness, Gal_4:13, during his second missionary journey, about A.D 51. He visited them again on his third missionary tour.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a province of the Lesser Asia, bounded on the west by Phrygia, on the east by the river Haylys, on the north by Paphlagonia, and on the south by Lycaonia. The Galatians are said to have been descended from those Gauls, who, finding their own country too strait for them, left it, after the death of Alexander the Great, in quest of new settlements. Quitting their own country, they migrated eastward along the Danube till they came where the Saave joins that river; then dividing themselves into three bodies, under the conduct of different leaders, one of these bodies entered Pannonia; another marched into Thrace; a third into Illyricum and Macedonia. The party which proceeded into Thrace crossed the Bosphorus into the Lesser Asia, and hiring themselves to Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, assisted him to subdue his brother Zipetes, with whom he was then at war; and as a reward of their services they received from him a country in the middle of Asia Minor, which from them was afterward called
Gallo- Graecia, and, by contraction, Galatia. As their inland situation in a great measure cut them off from all intercourse with more civilized nations, the Galatians long remained a rude and illiterate people. And as a proof of this, it is mentioned by Jerom, that when the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel among them, and for many ages afterward, they continued to speak the language of the country from whence they came out.
2. Paul and Barnabas carried the light of the Gospel into the regions of Galatia at a very early period; and it appears from the epistle which the former subsequently wrote to the churches in that country, that they had at first received it with great joy, Gal_4:15. But some Judaizing teachers getting access among them soon after the Apostle's departure, their minds became corrupted from the simplicity that was in Christ Jesus; and, though mostly Gentiles, they were beginning to mingle circumcision, and other Jewish observances, with their faith in Christ, in order to render it more available to their salvation. This occasioned Paul's writing his epistle to those churches; and his object throughout nearly the whole of it is to counteract the pernicious influence of the doctrine of those false teachers, particularly as it respected the article of justification, or a sinner's acceptance with God. And in no part of the Apostle's writings is that important doctrine handled in a more full and explicit manner; nor does he any where display such a firm, determined, and inflexible opposition to all who would corrupt the truth from its simplicity. He begins by expressing his astonishment that they were so soon turned aside unto another gospel, but instantly checking himself, he recals the word and declares, it is not another gospel, but a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. And though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. There are in his epistle several other things equally pointed and severe, particularly his expostulation on the folly and absurdity of their conduct in subjecting themselves to the Jewish yoke of bondage, Gal_3:1. The erroneous doctrines of the Judaizing teachers. says Dr. Macknight, and the calumnies their spread for the purpose of discrediting St. Paul's apostleship, no doubt occasioned great uneasiness of mind to him and to the faithful in that age, and did much hurt, at least for a while, among the Galatians. But in the issue these evils have proved of no small service to the church in general; for by obliging the Apostle to produce the evidences of his apostleship, and to relate the history of his life, especially after his conversion, we have obtained the fullest assurance of his being a real Apostle, called to the office by Jesus Christ himself; consequently we are assured that our faith in the doctrines of the Gospel, as taught by him, (and it is he who hath taught the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel most fully,) is not built on the credit of a man, but on the authority of the Spirit of God, by whom St. Paul was inspired in the whole of the doctrine which he has delivered to the world.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
In the days before the Roman Empire, Asia Minor consisted of a collection of independent states. When it came under the control of the Romans, the whole area was redivided to form a number of Roman provinces. The large central province, which the Romans named Galatia, included parts of the ancient regions of Galatia in the north, Phrygia in the south-west, Pisidia in the south and Lycaonia in the south-east
Paul passed through south Galatia on a number of occasions and established churches in the towns of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Sometimes the Bible writers refer to these towns as belonging to the Roman province of Galatia, but on other occasions they follow local practice and use the former names (Act_13:14; Act_13:51; Act_14:6; Act_14:24; Act_16:6; Act_18:23; 1Co_16:1; Gal_1:2; 2Ti_4:10). (Concerning the letter that Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia see GALATIANS, LETTER TO THE.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
ga-lā?shi-a, ga-lā?sha (Γαλατία, Galatı́a):
I. Introductory
1. Two Senses of Name
(1) Geographical
(2) Political
2. Questions to Be Answered
II. Origin of Name
1. The Gaulish Kingdom
2. Transference to Rome
3. The Roman Province
III. The Narrative of Luke
1. Stages of Evangelization of Province
2. The Churches Mentioned
IV. Paul's Use of ?Galatians?
I. Introductory
1. Two Senses of Name
?Galatia? was a name used in two different senses during the 1st century after Christ:
(1) Geographical
To designate a country in the north part of the central plateau of Asia Minor, touching Paphlagonia and Bithynia North, Phrygia West and South, Cappadocia and Pontus Southeast and East, about the headwaters of the Sangarios and the middle course of the Halys;
(2) Political
To designate a large province of the Roman empire, including not merely the country Galatia, but also Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia and Isauria. The name occurs in 1Co_16:1; Gal_1:2; 1Pe_1:1, and perhaps 2Ti_4:10. Some writers assume that Galatia is also mentioned in Act_16:6; Act_18:23; but the Greek there has the phrase ?Galatic region? or ?territory,? though the English Versions of the Bible has ?Galatia?; and it must not be assumed without proof that ?Galatic region? is synonymous with ?Galatia.? If e.g. a modern narrative mentioned that a traveler crossed British territory, we know that this means something quite different from crossing Britain. ?Galatic region? has a different connotation from ?Galatia?; and, even if we should find that geographically it was equivalent, the writer had some reason for using that special form.
2. Questions to Be Answered
The questions that have to be answered are: (a) In which of the two senses is ?Galatia? used by Paul and Peter? (b) What did Luke mean by Galatic region or territory? These questions have not merely geographical import; they bear most closely, and exercise determining influence, on many points in the biography, chronology, missionary work and methods of Paul.
II. Origin of the Name ?Galatia?
1. The Gaulish Kingdom
The name was introduced into Asia after 278-277 bc, when a large body of migrating Gauls (Galátai in Greek) crossed over from Europe at the invitation of Nikomedes, king of Bithynia; after ravaging a great part of Western Asia Minor they were gradually confined to a district, and boundaries were fixed for them after 232 bc. Thus, originated the independent state of Galatia, inhabited by three Gaulish tribes, Tolistobogioi, Tektosages and Trokmoi, with three city-centers, Pessinus, Ankyra and Tavia (Tavion in Strabo), who had brought their wives and families with them, and therefore continued to be a distinct Gaulish race and stock (which would have been impossible if they had come as simple warriors who took wives from the conquered inhabitants). The Gaulish language was apparently imposed on all the old inhabitants, who remained in the country as an inferior caste. The Galatai soon adopted the country religion, alongside of their own; the latter they retained at least as late as the 2nd century after Christ, but it was politically important for them to maintain and exercise the powers of the old priesthood, as at Pessinus, where the Galatai shared the office with the old priestly families.
2. Transference to Rome
The Galatian state of the three Tribes lasted till 25 bc, governed first by a council and by tetrarchs, or chiefs of the twelve divisions (four to each tribe) of the people, then, after 63 bc, by three kings. Of these, Deiotaros succeeded in establishing himself as sole king, by murdering the two other tribal kings; and after his death in 40 bc his power passed to Castor and then to Amyntas, 36-25 bc. Amyntas bequeathed his kingdom to Rome; and it was made a Roman province (Dion Cass. 48, 33, 5; Strabo, 567, omits Castor). Amyntas had ruled also parts of Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia and Isauria. The new province included these parts, and to it were added Paphlagonia 6 bc, part of Pontus 2 bc (called Pontus Galaticus in distinction from Eastern Pontus, which was governed by King Polemon and styled Polemoniacus), and in 64 also Pontus Polemoniacus. Part of Lycaonia was non-Roman and was governed by King Antiochus; from 41 to 72 ad Laranda belonged to this district, which was distinguished as Antiochiana regio from the Roman region Lycaonia called Galatica.
3. The Roman Province
This large province was divided into regiones for administrative purposes; and the regiones coincided roughly with the old national divisions Pisidia, Phrygia (including Antioch, Iconium, Apollonia), Lycaonia (including Derbe, Lystra and a district organized on the village-system), etc. See Calder in Journal of Roman Studies, 1912. This province was called by the Romans Galatia, as being the kingdom of Amyntas (just like the province Asia, which also consisted of a number of different countries as diverse and alien as those of province Galatia, and was so called because the Romans popularly and loosely spoke of the kings of that congeries of countries as kings of Asia). The extent of both names, Asia and Galatia, in Roman language, varied with the varying bounds of each province. The name ?Galatia? is used to indicate the province, as it was at the moment, by Ptolemy, Pliny v.146, Tacitus Hist. ii.9; Ann. xiii. 35; later chroniclers, Syncellus, Eutropius, and Hist. Aug. Max. et Balb. 7 (who derived it from earlier authorities, and used it in the old sense, not the sense customary in their own time); and in inscriptions CIL, III, 254, 272 (Eph. Ep. v.51); VI, 1408, 1409, 332; VIII, 11028 (Mommsen rightly, not Schmidt), 18270, etc. It will be observed that these are almost all Roman sources, and (as we shall see) express a purely Roman view. If Paul used the name ?Galatia? to indicate the province, this would show that he consistently and naturally took a Roman view, used names in a Roman connotation, and grouped his churches according to Roman provincial divisions; but that is characteristic of the apostle, who looked forward from Asia to Rome (Act_19:21), aimed at imperial conquest and marched across the Empire from province to province (Macedonia, Achaia, Asia are always provinces to Paul). On the other hand, in the East and the Greco-Asiatic world, the tendency was to speak of the province either as the Galatic Eparchia (as at Iconium in 54 ad, CIG, 3991), or by enumeration of its regiones (or a selection of the regiones). The latter method is followed in a number of inscriptions found in the province (CIL, III, passim). Now let us apply these contemporary facts to the interpretation of the narrative of Luke.
III. The Narrative of Luke
1. Stages of Evangelization of Province
The evangelization of the province began in Act_13:14. The stages are: (1) The audience in the synagogue, Act_13:42 f; (2) almost the whole city, Act_13:44; (3) The whole region, i.e. a large district which was affected from the capital (as the whole of Asia was affected from Ephesus Act_19:10); (4) Iconium another city of this region: in Act_13:51 no boundary is mentioned; (5) a new region Lycaonia with two cities and surrounding district (Act_14:6); (6) return journey to organize the churches in (a) Lystra, (b) Iconium and Antioch (the secondary reading of Westcott and Hort, (καὶ εἰς Ἰκόνιον καὶ Ἀντιόχειαν, kaı́ eis Ikónion kaı́ Antiócheian), is right, distinguishing the two regions (a) Lycaonia, (b) that of Iconium and Antioch); (7) progress across the region Pisidia, where no churches were founded (Pisidian Antioch is not in this region, which lies between Antioch and Pamphylia).
Again (in Act_16:1-6) Paul revisited the two regiones: (1) Derbe and Lystra, i.e. regio Lycaonia Galatica, (2) The Phrygian and Galatic region, i.e. the region which was racially Phrygian and politically Galatic. Paul traversed both regions, making no new churches but only strengthening the existing disciples and churches. In Act_18:23 he again revisited the two regiones, and they are briefly enumerated: (1) The Galatic region (so called briefly by a traveler, who had just traversed Antiochiana and distinguished Galatica from it); (2) Phrygia. On this occasion he specially appealed, not to churches as in Act_16:6, but to disciples; it was a final visit and intended to reach personally every individual, before Paul went away to Rome and the West. On this occasion the contribution to the poor of Jerusalem was instituted, and the proceeds later were carried by Timothy and Gaius of Derbe (Act_20:4; Act_24:17; 1Co_16:1); this was a device to bind the new churches to the original center of the faith.
2. The Churches Mentioned
These four churches are mentioned by Luke always as belonging to two regiones, Phrygia and Lycaoma; and each region is in one case described as Galatic, i.e. part of the province Galatia. Luke did not follow the Roman custom, as Paul did; he kept the custom of the Greeks and Asiatic peoples, and styled the province by enumerating its regiones, using the expression Galatic (as in Pontus Galaticus and at Iconium, CIG, 3991) to indicate the supreme unity of the province. By using this adjective about both regiones he marked his point of view that all four churches are included in the provincial unity.
From Paul's references we gather that he regarded the churches of Galatia as one group, converted together (Gal_4:13), exposed to the same influences and changing together (Gal_1:6, Gal_1:8; Gal_3:1; Gal_4:9), naturally visited at one time by a traveler (Gal_1:8; Gal_4:14). He never thinks of churches of Phrygia or of Lycaonia; only of province Galatia (as of provinces Asia, Macedonia, Achaia). Paul did not include in one class all the churches of one journey: he went direct from Macedonia to Athens and Corinth, but classes the churches of Macedonia separate from those of Achaia. Troas and Laodicea and Colosse he classed with Asia (as Luke did Troas Act_20:4), Philippi with Macedonia, Corinth with Achaia. These classifications are true only of the Roman usage, not of early Greek usage. The custom of classifying according to provinces, universal in the fully formed church of the Christian age, was derived from the usage of the apostles (as Theodore Mopsuestia expressly asserts in his Commentary on First Timothy (Swete, II, 121); Harnack accepts this part of the statement (Verbreitung, 2nd edition, I, 387; Expansion, II, 96)). His churches then belonged to the four provinces, Asia, Galatia, Achaia, Macedonia. There were no other Pauline churches; all united in the gift of money which was carried to Jerusalem (Act_20:4; Act_24:17).
IV. Paul's Use of ?Galatians?
The people of the province of Galatia, consisting of many diverse races, when summed up together, were called Galatai, by Tacitus, Ann. xv.6; Syncellus, when he says (Αὐγοῦστος Γαλάταις φόρους ἔθετο, Augoústos Galátais phórous étheto), follows an older historian describing the imposing of taxes on the province; and an inscription of Apollonia Phrygiae calls the people of the city Galatae (Lebas-Waddington, 1192). If Paul spoke to Philippi or Corinth or Antioch singly, he addressed them as Philippians, Corinthians, Antiochians (Phi_4:15; 2Co_6:11), not as Macedonians or Achaians; but when he had to address a group of several churches (as Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra) he could use only the provincial unity, Galatae.
All attempts to find in Paul's letter to the Galatians any allusions that specially suit the character of the Gauls or Galatae have failed. The Gauls were an aristocracy in a land which they had conquered. They clung stubbornly to their own Celtic religion long after the time of Paul, even though they also acknowledged the power of the old goddess of the country. They spoke their own Celtic tongue. They were proud, even boastful, and independent. They kept their native law under the Empire. The ?Galatians? to whom Paul wrote had Changed very quickly to a new form of religion, not from fickleness, but from a certain proneness to a more oriental form of religion which exacted of them more sacrifice of a ritual type. They needed to be called to freedom; they were submissive rather than arrogant. They spoke Greek. They were accustomed to the Greco-Asiatic law: the law of adoption and inheritance which Paul mentions in his letter is not Roman, but Greco-Asiatic, which in these departments was similar, with some differences; on this see the writer's Historical Commentary on Galatians.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Gala?tia, a province of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the south by Lycaonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappidocia, and on the west by Phrygia and Bithynia. It derived its name from the Gallic or Keltic tribes who, about 280 years B.C., made an eruption into Macedonia and Thrace. At the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, they passed over the Hellespont to assist that prince against his brother Ziboeta. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory, Of the three principal tribes, the Trocmi settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii in the south-western parts, near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the consul Cn. Manlius, though still governed by their own princes. In the year B.C. 25Galatia became a Roman province. Under the successors of Augustus the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged, that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I or Valens it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter.
From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, Galatia was also called Gallo-Gr?cia, and its inhabitants Gallo-Gr?ci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language.
The Gospel was introduced into this province by the Apostle Paul. His first visit is recorded in Act_16:6, and his second in Act_18:23.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Galatia
(Γαλατία, also [Act_16:6; Act_18:23 ἡ Γαλατικὴ χώρα), an important central district of Asia Minor (q.v.).
Galatia is literally the "Gallia" of the East. Roman writers call its inhabitants Galli, just as Greek writers call the inhabitants of ancient France Γάλαται (see Pritchard, Nat. Hist. of Man, 3:95). From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks (Pausan. 1:4), Galatia was also called Gallo-Graecia (Γαλλογραικία, Strabo, 12:5), and its inhabitants Gallo- Graeci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language (Pol. ad Comment. in Ep. ad Gal.; De Wette's Lehrbuch, page 231). In 2Ti_4:10, some commentators suppose Western Gaul to be meant, and several MSS. have Γαλλίαν instead of Γαλατίαν. In 1Ma_8:2, where Judas Maccabaeus is hearing the story of the prowess of the Romans in conquering the Γάλαται, it is possible to interpret the passage either of the Eastern or Western Gauls; for the subjugation of Spain by the Romans, and the defeat of Antiochus, king of Asia, are mentioned in the same context. Again, Γάλαται is the same word with Κέλται; and the Galatians were in their origin a stream of that great Celtic torrent (apparently Kymry, and not Gael) which poured into Macedonia about B.C. 280 (Strabo, 4:187; 12:566; Livy, 38:16; Flor. 2:11; Justin, 25:2; Appian, Syr. 32:42).
Some of these invaders moved on into Thrace, and appeared on the shores of the Hellespont and Bosporus, when Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia, being then engaged in a civil war, invited thelm across into Asia Minor to assist him against his brother, Zyboetas (Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224, page 374), B.C. cir. 270. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. Antiochus I, king of Syria, took his title of Soter in consequence of his victory over them. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory within the general geographical limits, to which the name of Galatia was permanently given. The Galatians still found vent for their restlessness and love of war by hiring themselves out as mercenary soldiers. This is doubtless the explanation -of 2Ma_8:20, which refers to some struggle of the Seleucid princes in which both Jews and Galatians were engaged. In Josephus (War, 1:20, 3) we find some of the latter, who had been in Cleopatra's body- guard, acting in the same character for Herod the Great. Meanwhile the wars had been taking place which brought all the countries round the east of the Mediterranean within the range of the Raman power. The Galatians fought on the side of Antiochus at Magnesia. In the Mithridatic war they fought on both sides. Of the three principal tribes (Strabo, 13:429), the Trocmi (Τρόκμοι) settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages (Τεκτόσαγες) in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii (Τολιστοβόγιοι) in the south-western parts near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the proconsul Cn. Manlius (Livy, 38: Polyb. 22:24); though still governed by their own princes. Their government was originally republican (Pliny, 5:42), but at length regal (Strabo, 12:390), Deiotarus being their first king (Cicero, pro Deiot. 13), and the last Amyntas (Dio Cass. 49:32), at whose death, in the year B.C. 25, Galatia became a province under the empire (see Ritter, Erdkunde, 18:597-610).
The Roman province of Galatia may be roughly described as the central region of the peninsula of Asia Minor, with: the provinces of Asia on the west, Cappadocia on the east, Pamphylia and Cilicia on the south, and Bithynia and Pontus on the north (Strabo, 12:566; Pliny, 5:42; Ammian. Marcell. 25:10). It would be difficult to define the exact limits. In fact, they were frequently changing. (See Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.) Under the successors of Augustus, the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I, or Valens, it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda, or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter. Thus at one time there is no doubt that this province contained Pisidia and Lycaonia, and therefore those towns of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, which are conspicuous in the narrative of Paul's travels. But the characteristic part of Galatia lay northward from those districts. On the mountainous (Flor. 2:12), but fruitful (Strabo, 12:567) table-land between the Sangarius and the Halys, the Galatians were still settled in their three tribes, the Tectosages, the Tolistobogii, and the Trocmi, the first of which is identical in name with a tribe familiar to us in the history of Gaul, as distributed over the Cevennes near Toulouse (Caesar, Bell. Gall. 4:24; comp. Jablonsky, De lingua Lycaonica, page 23 sq.). The three capitals were respectively Tavium, Pessinus, and Ancyra. The last of these (the modern Angora) was the centre of the roads of the district, and may be regarded as the metropolis of the Galatians. These Eastern Gauls preserved much of their ancient character, and something of their ancient language. At least Jerome says that in his day the same language might be heard at Ancyra as at Treves: and he is a good witness, for he himself had been at Treves. The prevailing speech, however, of the district was Greek (Livy, 37:8; 38:12; Flor. 2:11; see Spanheim, ad Callim. Del. 184). Hence the Galatians were called Gallograeci (Manlius in Livy, 38:17). The inscriptions found at Ancyra are Greek, and Paul wrote his epistle in Greek. (See Penny Cyclopepdia, s.v. Celtse, Galatia; Mannert's Geographie der Griechen und Romer, 6:3, ch. 4; Merleker's Lehrbuch der Historischcomnparativen Geographie, 4:1, page 284.)
It is difficult, at first sight, to determine in what sense the word Galatia is used by the writers of the N.T., or whether always in the same sense. In the Acts of the Apostles the journeys of Paul through the district are mentioned in very general terms. We are simply told (Act_16:6) that on his second missionary circuit he went with Silas and Timotheus "through Phrygia and the region of Galatia" (διὰ τὴν Φρυγίαν καὶ τὴν Γαλατικὴν χώραν). From the Epistle, indeed, we have this supplementary information, that an attack of sickness (δἰ ἀσθένειαν τῆς σακρός, Gal_4:13) detained him among the Galatians, and gave him the opportunity of preaching the Gospel to them, and also that he was received by them with extraordinary fervor (2:14,15); but this does not inform us of the route which he took. So on the third circuit he is described (Act_18:23) as "going over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order" (διερχόμενος καθεξῆς τὴς Γαλατικὴν χώραν καὶ Φρυγίαν). We know from the first Epistle to the Corinthians that on this journey Paul was occupied with the collection for the poor Christians of Judaea, and that he gave instructions in Galatia on the subject (éσπερ διέταξα ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῆς Γαλατίας, 1Co_16:1); but here again we are in doubt as to the places which-he had visited. We observe that the "churches" of Galatia are mentioned here in the plural, as in the opening of the Epistle to the Galatians themselves (Gal_1:2). From this we should be inclined to infer that he visited several parts of the district, instead of residing a long time in one place, so as to form a great central church, as at Ephesus and Corinth. This is in harmony with the phrase ἡ Γαλατικὴ χώρα, used in both instances. Since Phrygia is mentioned first in one case, and second in the other, we should suppose that the order of the journey was different on the two occasions. Phrygia also being not the name of a Roman province, but simply an ethnographical term, it is natural to conclude that Galatia is used here by Luke in the same general way. In confirmation of his view, it is worth while to notice that in Act_2:9-10, where the enumeration is ethnographical rather than political, Phrygia is mentioned, and not Galatia, while the exact contrary is the case in 1Pe_1:1-2, where each geographical term is the name of a province (see Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paud, 1:243).
The Epistle to the Galatians was probably written very soon after Paul's second visit to them. Its abruptness and severity, and the sadness of its tone, are caused by their sudden perversion from the doctrine which the apostle had taught them, and which at first they had received so willingly. It is no fancy if we see in this fickleness a specimen of that "impetuous, mobile, impressible spirit" which Thierry marks as characteristic of the Gaulish race (Hist. des Gaulois, Introd. 4, 5). From Josephus (Ant. 16:6, 2) we know that many Jews were settled in Galatia, but Gal_4:8 would lead us to suppose that Paul's converts were mostly Gentiles. The view advocated by Bottger (Schauplatz der Wirksarnkeit des Apostels Paulus, pages 28-30, and the third of his Beitrbiqe, pages 1-5) is that the Galatia of the Epistle is entirely limited to the district between Derbe and Colossae, i.e. the extreme southern frontier of the Roman province. On this view the visit alluded to by the apostle took place on his first missionary circuit, and the ἀσθένεια of Gal_4:13 is identified with the effects of the stoning at Lystra (Act_14:19). Geographically this is not impossible, though it seems unlikely that regions called Pisidia and Lycaonia in one place should be called Galatia in another. Bottger's geography, however, is connected with a theory concerning the date of the Epistle (see Rückert, in his [Magaz. für Exegese, 1:98 sq.), and for the determination of this point we must refer to the article on the SEE GALATIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. (See Schmidt, De Galatis [Ilfeld. 1748, 1784]; Mynster, Kleine theol Schrfft. page 60 sq.; Cellarii Notit. 2:173 sq.; Forbiger, Alte Geoq. 2:361 sq.; Hofmann, De Galatia Antiqua [Lips. 1726]; Wernsdorf, De republ. Galatar. [Norimb. 1743]; Hamilton, Asia Minor, 1:379).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
GALATIA is a Greek word, derived from Galat, the Gr. name for the Gauls who invaded Asia Minor in the year b.c. 2787 (Lat. Gallogræci [=Greek Gauls], to distinguish them from their kindred who lived in France and Northern Italy). These Gauls had been ravaging the south-eastern parts of Europe, Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace, and crossed into Asia Minor at the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. Part of the same southward tendency appears in their movements in Italy and their conflicts with the Romans in the early centuries of the Republic. Those who entered Asia Minor came as a nation with wives and families, not as mercenary soldiers. After some fifty years raiding and warring, they found a permanent settlement in north-eastern Phrygia, where the population was un-warlike. Their history down to the time of the Roman Empire is best studied in Ramsays Histor. Com. on Galatians, p. 45 ff. They continued throughout these two centuries to be the ruling caste of the district, greatly outnumbered by the native Phrygian population, who, though in many respects an inferior race, had a powerful influence on the religion, customs, and habits of the Gauls, as subject races often have over their conquerors. The earlier sense of the term Galatia is, then, the country occupied by the Gaulish immigrants, the former north-eastern part of Phrygia, and the term Galat is used after the occupation to include the subject Phrygians as well as the Galat strictly so called (e.g. 1Ma_8:2).
About b.c. 160 the Gauls acquired a portion of Lycaonia on their southern frontier, taking in Iconium and Lystra. About the same time also they had taken in Pessinus in the N. W. These and other expansions they ultimately owed to the support of Rome. From b.c. 64 Galatia was a client state of Rome. At the beginning of that period it was under three rulers; from b.c. 44 it was under one only. Deiotarus, the greatest of the Galatian chiefs, received Armenia Minor from Pompey in b.c. 64. Mark Antony conferred the eastern part of Paphlagonia on Castor as sole Galatian king in b.c. 40, and at the same time gave Amyntas a kingdom comprising Pisidic Phrygia and Pisidia generally. In b.c. 36, Castors Galatian dominions and Pamphylia were added to Amyntas kingdom. He was also given Iconium and the old Lycaonian tetrarchy, which Antony had formerly given to Polemon. After the battle of Actium in b.c. 31, Octavian conferred on Amyntas the additional country of Cilicia Tracheia. He had thus to keep order for Rome on the south side of the plateau and on the Taurus mountains. He governed by Roman methods, and, when he died in b.c. 25, he left his kingdom in such a state that Augustus resolved to take the greater part of it into the Empire in the stricter sense of that term, and made it into a province which he called Galatia. This is the second sense in which the term Galatia is used in ancient documents, namely, the sphere of duty which included the ethnic districts, Papblagonia, Pontus Galaticus, Galatia (in the original narrower sense), Phrygia Galatica, and Lycaonia Galatica (with the Added Land, part of the original Lycaonian tetrarchy). Galatia, as a province, means all these territories together, under one Roman governor, and the inhabitants of such a province, whatever their race, were, in conformity with invariable Roman custom, denominated by a name etymologically connected with the name of the province. Thus Galat (Galatians) has a second sense, in conformity with the second sense of the term Galatia: it is used to include all the inhabitants of the province (see the first map in the above-mentioned work of Ramsay).
The word Galatia occurs three times in the NT (1Co_16:1, Gal_1:2, and 1Pe_1:1). A possible fourth case (2Ti_4:10) must be left out of account, as the reading there is doubtful. There is an alternative Gallia, which, even if it be not the original, suggests that the word Galatia there should be taken in the sense of Gallia (that is, France). It is beyond doubt that in the passage of 1Peter the word must be taken in the sense of the province. The bearer of the letter evidently landed at some port on the Black Sea, perhaps Sinope, and visited the provinces in the order in which they appear in the address of the letter:Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, taking ship again at the Black Sea for Rome. The Taurus range of mountains was always conceived of as dividing the peninsula of Asia Minor into two parts, and St. Peter here appears as supervising or advising the whole body of Christians north of the Taurus range. (The effect of taking Galatia in the other sense would be to leave out certain Pauline churches, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, and perhaps these alone, in all that vast region: which is absurd.) With regard to the two passages in St. Paul, the case is settled by his unvarying usage. It has been noted that he, as a Roman citizen and a statesman, invariably uses geographical terms in the Roman sense, and that he even does violence to the Greek language by forcing the Latin names for Philippians (Php_4:15) and Illyricum (Rom_15:19) into Greek, and passes by the proper Greek term in each case. We are bound, therefore, to believe that he uses Galatia in the Roman sense, namely in the meaning of the Roman province as above defined. (This province had, as we have seen, Galatia in the narrower and earlier sense as one of its parts.) It follows, therefore, that he uses Galatians (Gal_3:1) also in the wider sense of all (Christian) inhabitants of the province, irrespective of their race, as far as they were known to him.
In order to discover what communities in this vast province are especially addressed by the Apostle in his Epistle, it is necessary to make a critical examination of the only two passages in Acts which afford us a clue (Act_16:6; Act_18:23). It is important to note that St. Luke never uses the term Galatia or the term Galatians, but only the adjective Galatic (Act_16:6, Act_18:23). In Act_16:6 the rules of the Greek language require us to translate:the Phrygo-Galatic region or the region which is both Phrygian and Galatian; that is, the region which according to one nomenclature is Phrygian, and according to another is Galatian. This can be none other than that section of the province Galatia which was known as Phrygia Galatica, and which contained Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, exactly the places we should expect St. Paul and his companions to go to after Derbe and Lystra. In Act_18:23 the Greek may be translated either the Galatico-Phrygian region or the Galatian region and Phrygia, preferably the latter, as it is difficult otherwise to account for the order in the Greek. The Galatian region, then, will cover Derbe and Lystra; Phrygia will include Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. We conclude then that, whether any other churches are comprised in the address of the Epistle to the Galatians or not,and a negative answer is probably correct,the churches of Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch are included. There is not a scrap of evidence that St. Paul had visited any other cities in that great province.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Galati is the same as Celts, of the Kymric not the Gaelic branch. These poured into Greece and pillaged Delphi 280 B.C. Some passed into Asia at the invitation of Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia, to help him in a civil war. There they settled, namely, the Trocmi, Tolistoboii, and Tectosages (from Toulouse), and made inroads far and wide, but were checked by Antiochus I. of Syria, hence called Soter (Savior), and Attahs I of Pergamus, hence, designating himself "king." Then they hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers. Galatia lay in the center of Asia Minor, the province "Asia" on the W., Cappadocia on the E., Pamphylia and Cilicia on the S., and Bithynia and Pontus N. Ancyra (now Angora) was their capital; Tavium and Pessinus were leading cities.
Their language was partly Gallic, partly Greek, hence they were called Gallo-Graeci. The inscriptions at Ancyra are Greek, and Paul's epistle is in Greek. Paul founded several "churches" in the Galatian region, not residing for long in one place and forming a central church, as at Ephesus and Corinth (Gal_1:2; 1Co_16:1; Act_16:6). His first visit was about A.D. 51, during his second missionary journey. Sickness detained him among them, and he turned it to good account by becoming the first preacher of the gospel to them (Act_16:6; Gal_1:8; Gal_4:13). "On account of infirmity of flesh I preached unto you at the first" (so the Greek is). At his subsequent visit (Act_18:23) he "strengthened" them in the faith.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Gala'tia. (land of the Galli, Gauls). The Roman province of Galatia may be roughly described as the central region of the peninsula of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia; on the east, by Pontus; on the south, by Cappadocia and Lycaonia; on the west, by Phrygia. ? Encyclopedia Britannica.
It derived its name from the Gallic or Celtic tribes who, about 280 B.C., made an irruption into Macedonia and Thrace. It finally became a Roman province. The Galatia of the New Testament has really the "Gaul" of the East. The people have always been described as "susceptible of quick impressions and sudden changes, with a fickleness equal to their courage and enthusiasm, and a constant liability to that disunion which is the fruit of excessive vanity.
The Galatian churches were founded by Paul at his first visit, when he was detained among, them by sickness, Gal_4:13, during his second missionary journey, about A.D 51. He visited them again on his third missionary tour.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a province of the Lesser Asia, bounded on the west by Phrygia, on the east by the river Haylys, on the north by Paphlagonia, and on the south by Lycaonia. The Galatians are said to have been descended from those Gauls, who, finding their own country too strait for them, left it, after the death of Alexander the Great, in quest of new settlements. Quitting their own country, they migrated eastward along the Danube till they came where the Saave joins that river; then dividing themselves into three bodies, under the conduct of different leaders, one of these bodies entered Pannonia; another marched into Thrace; a third into Illyricum and Macedonia. The party which proceeded into Thrace crossed the Bosphorus into the Lesser Asia, and hiring themselves to Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, assisted him to subdue his brother Zipetes, with whom he was then at war; and as a reward of their services they received from him a country in the middle of Asia Minor, which from them was afterward called
Gallo- Graecia, and, by contraction, Galatia. As their inland situation in a great measure cut them off from all intercourse with more civilized nations, the Galatians long remained a rude and illiterate people. And as a proof of this, it is mentioned by Jerom, that when the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel among them, and for many ages afterward, they continued to speak the language of the country from whence they came out.
2. Paul and Barnabas carried the light of the Gospel into the regions of Galatia at a very early period; and it appears from the epistle which the former subsequently wrote to the churches in that country, that they had at first received it with great joy, Gal_4:15. But some Judaizing teachers getting access among them soon after the Apostle's departure, their minds became corrupted from the simplicity that was in Christ Jesus; and, though mostly Gentiles, they were beginning to mingle circumcision, and other Jewish observances, with their faith in Christ, in order to render it more available to their salvation. This occasioned Paul's writing his epistle to those churches; and his object throughout nearly the whole of it is to counteract the pernicious influence of the doctrine of those false teachers, particularly as it respected the article of justification, or a sinner's acceptance with God. And in no part of the Apostle's writings is that important doctrine handled in a more full and explicit manner; nor does he any where display such a firm, determined, and inflexible opposition to all who would corrupt the truth from its simplicity. He begins by expressing his astonishment that they were so soon turned aside unto another gospel, but instantly checking himself, he recals the word and declares, it is not another gospel, but a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. And though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. There are in his epistle several other things equally pointed and severe, particularly his expostulation on the folly and absurdity of their conduct in subjecting themselves to the Jewish yoke of bondage, Gal_3:1. The erroneous doctrines of the Judaizing teachers. says Dr. Macknight, and the calumnies their spread for the purpose of discrediting St. Paul's apostleship, no doubt occasioned great uneasiness of mind to him and to the faithful in that age, and did much hurt, at least for a while, among the Galatians. But in the issue these evils have proved of no small service to the church in general; for by obliging the Apostle to produce the evidences of his apostleship, and to relate the history of his life, especially after his conversion, we have obtained the fullest assurance of his being a real Apostle, called to the office by Jesus Christ himself; consequently we are assured that our faith in the doctrines of the Gospel, as taught by him, (and it is he who hath taught the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel most fully,) is not built on the credit of a man, but on the authority of the Spirit of God, by whom St. Paul was inspired in the whole of the doctrine which he has delivered to the world.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
In the days before the Roman Empire, Asia Minor consisted of a collection of independent states. When it came under the control of the Romans, the whole area was redivided to form a number of Roman provinces. The large central province, which the Romans named Galatia, included parts of the ancient regions of Galatia in the north, Phrygia in the south-west, Pisidia in the south and Lycaonia in the south-east
Paul passed through south Galatia on a number of occasions and established churches in the towns of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Sometimes the Bible writers refer to these towns as belonging to the Roman province of Galatia, but on other occasions they follow local practice and use the former names (Act_13:14; Act_13:51; Act_14:6; Act_14:24; Act_16:6; Act_18:23; 1Co_16:1; Gal_1:2; 2Ti_4:10). (Concerning the letter that Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia see GALATIANS, LETTER TO THE.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
ga-lā?shi-a, ga-lā?sha (Γαλατία, Galatı́a):
I. Introductory
1. Two Senses of Name
(1) Geographical
(2) Political
2. Questions to Be Answered
II. Origin of Name
1. The Gaulish Kingdom
2. Transference to Rome
3. The Roman Province
III. The Narrative of Luke
1. Stages of Evangelization of Province
2. The Churches Mentioned
IV. Paul's Use of ?Galatians?
I. Introductory
1. Two Senses of Name
?Galatia? was a name used in two different senses during the 1st century after Christ:
(1) Geographical
To designate a country in the north part of the central plateau of Asia Minor, touching Paphlagonia and Bithynia North, Phrygia West and South, Cappadocia and Pontus Southeast and East, about the headwaters of the Sangarios and the middle course of the Halys;
(2) Political
To designate a large province of the Roman empire, including not merely the country Galatia, but also Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia and Isauria. The name occurs in 1Co_16:1; Gal_1:2; 1Pe_1:1, and perhaps 2Ti_4:10. Some writers assume that Galatia is also mentioned in Act_16:6; Act_18:23; but the Greek there has the phrase ?Galatic region? or ?territory,? though the English Versions of the Bible has ?Galatia?; and it must not be assumed without proof that ?Galatic region? is synonymous with ?Galatia.? If e.g. a modern narrative mentioned that a traveler crossed British territory, we know that this means something quite different from crossing Britain. ?Galatic region? has a different connotation from ?Galatia?; and, even if we should find that geographically it was equivalent, the writer had some reason for using that special form.
2. Questions to Be Answered
The questions that have to be answered are: (a) In which of the two senses is ?Galatia? used by Paul and Peter? (b) What did Luke mean by Galatic region or territory? These questions have not merely geographical import; they bear most closely, and exercise determining influence, on many points in the biography, chronology, missionary work and methods of Paul.
II. Origin of the Name ?Galatia?
1. The Gaulish Kingdom
The name was introduced into Asia after 278-277 bc, when a large body of migrating Gauls (Galátai in Greek) crossed over from Europe at the invitation of Nikomedes, king of Bithynia; after ravaging a great part of Western Asia Minor they were gradually confined to a district, and boundaries were fixed for them after 232 bc. Thus, originated the independent state of Galatia, inhabited by three Gaulish tribes, Tolistobogioi, Tektosages and Trokmoi, with three city-centers, Pessinus, Ankyra and Tavia (Tavion in Strabo), who had brought their wives and families with them, and therefore continued to be a distinct Gaulish race and stock (which would have been impossible if they had come as simple warriors who took wives from the conquered inhabitants). The Gaulish language was apparently imposed on all the old inhabitants, who remained in the country as an inferior caste. The Galatai soon adopted the country religion, alongside of their own; the latter they retained at least as late as the 2nd century after Christ, but it was politically important for them to maintain and exercise the powers of the old priesthood, as at Pessinus, where the Galatai shared the office with the old priestly families.
2. Transference to Rome
The Galatian state of the three Tribes lasted till 25 bc, governed first by a council and by tetrarchs, or chiefs of the twelve divisions (four to each tribe) of the people, then, after 63 bc, by three kings. Of these, Deiotaros succeeded in establishing himself as sole king, by murdering the two other tribal kings; and after his death in 40 bc his power passed to Castor and then to Amyntas, 36-25 bc. Amyntas bequeathed his kingdom to Rome; and it was made a Roman province (Dion Cass. 48, 33, 5; Strabo, 567, omits Castor). Amyntas had ruled also parts of Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia and Isauria. The new province included these parts, and to it were added Paphlagonia 6 bc, part of Pontus 2 bc (called Pontus Galaticus in distinction from Eastern Pontus, which was governed by King Polemon and styled Polemoniacus), and in 64 also Pontus Polemoniacus. Part of Lycaonia was non-Roman and was governed by King Antiochus; from 41 to 72 ad Laranda belonged to this district, which was distinguished as Antiochiana regio from the Roman region Lycaonia called Galatica.
3. The Roman Province
This large province was divided into regiones for administrative purposes; and the regiones coincided roughly with the old national divisions Pisidia, Phrygia (including Antioch, Iconium, Apollonia), Lycaonia (including Derbe, Lystra and a district organized on the village-system), etc. See Calder in Journal of Roman Studies, 1912. This province was called by the Romans Galatia, as being the kingdom of Amyntas (just like the province Asia, which also consisted of a number of different countries as diverse and alien as those of province Galatia, and was so called because the Romans popularly and loosely spoke of the kings of that congeries of countries as kings of Asia). The extent of both names, Asia and Galatia, in Roman language, varied with the varying bounds of each province. The name ?Galatia? is used to indicate the province, as it was at the moment, by Ptolemy, Pliny v.146, Tacitus Hist. ii.9; Ann. xiii. 35; later chroniclers, Syncellus, Eutropius, and Hist. Aug. Max. et Balb. 7 (who derived it from earlier authorities, and used it in the old sense, not the sense customary in their own time); and in inscriptions CIL, III, 254, 272 (Eph. Ep. v.51); VI, 1408, 1409, 332; VIII, 11028 (Mommsen rightly, not Schmidt), 18270, etc. It will be observed that these are almost all Roman sources, and (as we shall see) express a purely Roman view. If Paul used the name ?Galatia? to indicate the province, this would show that he consistently and naturally took a Roman view, used names in a Roman connotation, and grouped his churches according to Roman provincial divisions; but that is characteristic of the apostle, who looked forward from Asia to Rome (Act_19:21), aimed at imperial conquest and marched across the Empire from province to province (Macedonia, Achaia, Asia are always provinces to Paul). On the other hand, in the East and the Greco-Asiatic world, the tendency was to speak of the province either as the Galatic Eparchia (as at Iconium in 54 ad, CIG, 3991), or by enumeration of its regiones (or a selection of the regiones). The latter method is followed in a number of inscriptions found in the province (CIL, III, passim). Now let us apply these contemporary facts to the interpretation of the narrative of Luke.
III. The Narrative of Luke
1. Stages of Evangelization of Province
The evangelization of the province began in Act_13:14. The stages are: (1) The audience in the synagogue, Act_13:42 f; (2) almost the whole city, Act_13:44; (3) The whole region, i.e. a large district which was affected from the capital (as the whole of Asia was affected from Ephesus Act_19:10); (4) Iconium another city of this region: in Act_13:51 no boundary is mentioned; (5) a new region Lycaonia with two cities and surrounding district (Act_14:6); (6) return journey to organize the churches in (a) Lystra, (b) Iconium and Antioch (the secondary reading of Westcott and Hort, (καὶ εἰς Ἰκόνιον καὶ Ἀντιόχειαν, kaı́ eis Ikónion kaı́ Antiócheian), is right, distinguishing the two regions (a) Lycaonia, (b) that of Iconium and Antioch); (7) progress across the region Pisidia, where no churches were founded (Pisidian Antioch is not in this region, which lies between Antioch and Pamphylia).
Again (in Act_16:1-6) Paul revisited the two regiones: (1) Derbe and Lystra, i.e. regio Lycaonia Galatica, (2) The Phrygian and Galatic region, i.e. the region which was racially Phrygian and politically Galatic. Paul traversed both regions, making no new churches but only strengthening the existing disciples and churches. In Act_18:23 he again revisited the two regiones, and they are briefly enumerated: (1) The Galatic region (so called briefly by a traveler, who had just traversed Antiochiana and distinguished Galatica from it); (2) Phrygia. On this occasion he specially appealed, not to churches as in Act_16:6, but to disciples; it was a final visit and intended to reach personally every individual, before Paul went away to Rome and the West. On this occasion the contribution to the poor of Jerusalem was instituted, and the proceeds later were carried by Timothy and Gaius of Derbe (Act_20:4; Act_24:17; 1Co_16:1); this was a device to bind the new churches to the original center of the faith.
2. The Churches Mentioned
These four churches are mentioned by Luke always as belonging to two regiones, Phrygia and Lycaoma; and each region is in one case described as Galatic, i.e. part of the province Galatia. Luke did not follow the Roman custom, as Paul did; he kept the custom of the Greeks and Asiatic peoples, and styled the province by enumerating its regiones, using the expression Galatic (as in Pontus Galaticus and at Iconium, CIG, 3991) to indicate the supreme unity of the province. By using this adjective about both regiones he marked his point of view that all four churches are included in the provincial unity.
From Paul's references we gather that he regarded the churches of Galatia as one group, converted together (Gal_4:13), exposed to the same influences and changing together (Gal_1:6, Gal_1:8; Gal_3:1; Gal_4:9), naturally visited at one time by a traveler (Gal_1:8; Gal_4:14). He never thinks of churches of Phrygia or of Lycaonia; only of province Galatia (as of provinces Asia, Macedonia, Achaia). Paul did not include in one class all the churches of one journey: he went direct from Macedonia to Athens and Corinth, but classes the churches of Macedonia separate from those of Achaia. Troas and Laodicea and Colosse he classed with Asia (as Luke did Troas Act_20:4), Philippi with Macedonia, Corinth with Achaia. These classifications are true only of the Roman usage, not of early Greek usage. The custom of classifying according to provinces, universal in the fully formed church of the Christian age, was derived from the usage of the apostles (as Theodore Mopsuestia expressly asserts in his Commentary on First Timothy (Swete, II, 121); Harnack accepts this part of the statement (Verbreitung, 2nd edition, I, 387; Expansion, II, 96)). His churches then belonged to the four provinces, Asia, Galatia, Achaia, Macedonia. There were no other Pauline churches; all united in the gift of money which was carried to Jerusalem (Act_20:4; Act_24:17).
IV. Paul's Use of ?Galatians?
The people of the province of Galatia, consisting of many diverse races, when summed up together, were called Galatai, by Tacitus, Ann. xv.6; Syncellus, when he says (Αὐγοῦστος Γαλάταις φόρους ἔθετο, Augoústos Galátais phórous étheto), follows an older historian describing the imposing of taxes on the province; and an inscription of Apollonia Phrygiae calls the people of the city Galatae (Lebas-Waddington, 1192). If Paul spoke to Philippi or Corinth or Antioch singly, he addressed them as Philippians, Corinthians, Antiochians (Phi_4:15; 2Co_6:11), not as Macedonians or Achaians; but when he had to address a group of several churches (as Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra) he could use only the provincial unity, Galatae.
All attempts to find in Paul's letter to the Galatians any allusions that specially suit the character of the Gauls or Galatae have failed. The Gauls were an aristocracy in a land which they had conquered. They clung stubbornly to their own Celtic religion long after the time of Paul, even though they also acknowledged the power of the old goddess of the country. They spoke their own Celtic tongue. They were proud, even boastful, and independent. They kept their native law under the Empire. The ?Galatians? to whom Paul wrote had Changed very quickly to a new form of religion, not from fickleness, but from a certain proneness to a more oriental form of religion which exacted of them more sacrifice of a ritual type. They needed to be called to freedom; they were submissive rather than arrogant. They spoke Greek. They were accustomed to the Greco-Asiatic law: the law of adoption and inheritance which Paul mentions in his letter is not Roman, but Greco-Asiatic, which in these departments was similar, with some differences; on this see the writer's Historical Commentary on Galatians.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Gala?tia, a province of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the south by Lycaonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappidocia, and on the west by Phrygia and Bithynia. It derived its name from the Gallic or Keltic tribes who, about 280 years B.C., made an eruption into Macedonia and Thrace. At the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, they passed over the Hellespont to assist that prince against his brother Ziboeta. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory, Of the three principal tribes, the Trocmi settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii in the south-western parts, near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the consul Cn. Manlius, though still governed by their own princes. In the year B.C. 25Galatia became a Roman province. Under the successors of Augustus the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged, that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I or Valens it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter.
From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, Galatia was also called Gallo-Gr?cia, and its inhabitants Gallo-Gr?ci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language.
The Gospel was introduced into this province by the Apostle Paul. His first visit is recorded in Act_16:6, and his second in Act_18:23.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Galatia
(Γαλατία, also [Act_16:6; Act_18:23 ἡ Γαλατικὴ χώρα), an important central district of Asia Minor (q.v.).
Galatia is literally the "Gallia" of the East. Roman writers call its inhabitants Galli, just as Greek writers call the inhabitants of ancient France Γάλαται (see Pritchard, Nat. Hist. of Man, 3:95). From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks (Pausan. 1:4), Galatia was also called Gallo-Graecia (Γαλλογραικία, Strabo, 12:5), and its inhabitants Gallo- Graeci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language (Pol. ad Comment. in Ep. ad Gal.; De Wette's Lehrbuch, page 231). In 2Ti_4:10, some commentators suppose Western Gaul to be meant, and several MSS. have Γαλλίαν instead of Γαλατίαν. In 1Ma_8:2, where Judas Maccabaeus is hearing the story of the prowess of the Romans in conquering the Γάλαται, it is possible to interpret the passage either of the Eastern or Western Gauls; for the subjugation of Spain by the Romans, and the defeat of Antiochus, king of Asia, are mentioned in the same context. Again, Γάλαται is the same word with Κέλται; and the Galatians were in their origin a stream of that great Celtic torrent (apparently Kymry, and not Gael) which poured into Macedonia about B.C. 280 (Strabo, 4:187; 12:566; Livy, 38:16; Flor. 2:11; Justin, 25:2; Appian, Syr. 32:42).
Some of these invaders moved on into Thrace, and appeared on the shores of the Hellespont and Bosporus, when Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia, being then engaged in a civil war, invited thelm across into Asia Minor to assist him against his brother, Zyboetas (Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224, page 374), B.C. cir. 270. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. Antiochus I, king of Syria, took his title of Soter in consequence of his victory over them. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory within the general geographical limits, to which the name of Galatia was permanently given. The Galatians still found vent for their restlessness and love of war by hiring themselves out as mercenary soldiers. This is doubtless the explanation -of 2Ma_8:20, which refers to some struggle of the Seleucid princes in which both Jews and Galatians were engaged. In Josephus (War, 1:20, 3) we find some of the latter, who had been in Cleopatra's body- guard, acting in the same character for Herod the Great. Meanwhile the wars had been taking place which brought all the countries round the east of the Mediterranean within the range of the Raman power. The Galatians fought on the side of Antiochus at Magnesia. In the Mithridatic war they fought on both sides. Of the three principal tribes (Strabo, 13:429), the Trocmi (Τρόκμοι) settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages (Τεκτόσαγες) in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii (Τολιστοβόγιοι) in the south-western parts near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the proconsul Cn. Manlius (Livy, 38: Polyb. 22:24); though still governed by their own princes. Their government was originally republican (Pliny, 5:42), but at length regal (Strabo, 12:390), Deiotarus being their first king (Cicero, pro Deiot. 13), and the last Amyntas (Dio Cass. 49:32), at whose death, in the year B.C. 25, Galatia became a province under the empire (see Ritter, Erdkunde, 18:597-610).
The Roman province of Galatia may be roughly described as the central region of the peninsula of Asia Minor, with: the provinces of Asia on the west, Cappadocia on the east, Pamphylia and Cilicia on the south, and Bithynia and Pontus on the north (Strabo, 12:566; Pliny, 5:42; Ammian. Marcell. 25:10). It would be difficult to define the exact limits. In fact, they were frequently changing. (See Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.) Under the successors of Augustus, the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I, or Valens, it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda, or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter. Thus at one time there is no doubt that this province contained Pisidia and Lycaonia, and therefore those towns of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, which are conspicuous in the narrative of Paul's travels. But the characteristic part of Galatia lay northward from those districts. On the mountainous (Flor. 2:12), but fruitful (Strabo, 12:567) table-land between the Sangarius and the Halys, the Galatians were still settled in their three tribes, the Tectosages, the Tolistobogii, and the Trocmi, the first of which is identical in name with a tribe familiar to us in the history of Gaul, as distributed over the Cevennes near Toulouse (Caesar, Bell. Gall. 4:24; comp. Jablonsky, De lingua Lycaonica, page 23 sq.). The three capitals were respectively Tavium, Pessinus, and Ancyra. The last of these (the modern Angora) was the centre of the roads of the district, and may be regarded as the metropolis of the Galatians. These Eastern Gauls preserved much of their ancient character, and something of their ancient language. At least Jerome says that in his day the same language might be heard at Ancyra as at Treves: and he is a good witness, for he himself had been at Treves. The prevailing speech, however, of the district was Greek (Livy, 37:8; 38:12; Flor. 2:11; see Spanheim, ad Callim. Del. 184). Hence the Galatians were called Gallograeci (Manlius in Livy, 38:17). The inscriptions found at Ancyra are Greek, and Paul wrote his epistle in Greek. (See Penny Cyclopepdia, s.v. Celtse, Galatia; Mannert's Geographie der Griechen und Romer, 6:3, ch. 4; Merleker's Lehrbuch der Historischcomnparativen Geographie, 4:1, page 284.)
It is difficult, at first sight, to determine in what sense the word Galatia is used by the writers of the N.T., or whether always in the same sense. In the Acts of the Apostles the journeys of Paul through the district are mentioned in very general terms. We are simply told (Act_16:6) that on his second missionary circuit he went with Silas and Timotheus "through Phrygia and the region of Galatia" (διὰ τὴν Φρυγίαν καὶ τὴν Γαλατικὴν χώραν). From the Epistle, indeed, we have this supplementary information, that an attack of sickness (δἰ ἀσθένειαν τῆς σακρός, Gal_4:13) detained him among the Galatians, and gave him the opportunity of preaching the Gospel to them, and also that he was received by them with extraordinary fervor (2:14,15); but this does not inform us of the route which he took. So on the third circuit he is described (Act_18:23) as "going over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order" (διερχόμενος καθεξῆς τὴς Γαλατικὴν χώραν καὶ Φρυγίαν). We know from the first Epistle to the Corinthians that on this journey Paul was occupied with the collection for the poor Christians of Judaea, and that he gave instructions in Galatia on the subject (éσπερ διέταξα ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῆς Γαλατίας, 1Co_16:1); but here again we are in doubt as to the places which-he had visited. We observe that the "churches" of Galatia are mentioned here in the plural, as in the opening of the Epistle to the Galatians themselves (Gal_1:2). From this we should be inclined to infer that he visited several parts of the district, instead of residing a long time in one place, so as to form a great central church, as at Ephesus and Corinth. This is in harmony with the phrase ἡ Γαλατικὴ χώρα, used in both instances. Since Phrygia is mentioned first in one case, and second in the other, we should suppose that the order of the journey was different on the two occasions. Phrygia also being not the name of a Roman province, but simply an ethnographical term, it is natural to conclude that Galatia is used here by Luke in the same general way. In confirmation of his view, it is worth while to notice that in Act_2:9-10, where the enumeration is ethnographical rather than political, Phrygia is mentioned, and not Galatia, while the exact contrary is the case in 1Pe_1:1-2, where each geographical term is the name of a province (see Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paud, 1:243).
The Epistle to the Galatians was probably written very soon after Paul's second visit to them. Its abruptness and severity, and the sadness of its tone, are caused by their sudden perversion from the doctrine which the apostle had taught them, and which at first they had received so willingly. It is no fancy if we see in this fickleness a specimen of that "impetuous, mobile, impressible spirit" which Thierry marks as characteristic of the Gaulish race (Hist. des Gaulois, Introd. 4, 5). From Josephus (Ant. 16:6, 2) we know that many Jews were settled in Galatia, but Gal_4:8 would lead us to suppose that Paul's converts were mostly Gentiles. The view advocated by Bottger (Schauplatz der Wirksarnkeit des Apostels Paulus, pages 28-30, and the third of his Beitrbiqe, pages 1-5) is that the Galatia of the Epistle is entirely limited to the district between Derbe and Colossae, i.e. the extreme southern frontier of the Roman province. On this view the visit alluded to by the apostle took place on his first missionary circuit, and the ἀσθένεια of Gal_4:13 is identified with the effects of the stoning at Lystra (Act_14:19). Geographically this is not impossible, though it seems unlikely that regions called Pisidia and Lycaonia in one place should be called Galatia in another. Bottger's geography, however, is connected with a theory concerning the date of the Epistle (see Rückert, in his [Magaz. für Exegese, 1:98 sq.), and for the determination of this point we must refer to the article on the SEE GALATIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. (See Schmidt, De Galatis [Ilfeld. 1748, 1784]; Mynster, Kleine theol Schrfft. page 60 sq.; Cellarii Notit. 2:173 sq.; Forbiger, Alte Geoq. 2:361 sq.; Hofmann, De Galatia Antiqua [Lips. 1726]; Wernsdorf, De republ. Galatar. [Norimb. 1743]; Hamilton, Asia Minor, 1:379).
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