apostles were all
dead. They are evidently earlier than these heresies. Still more
convincing is the vehement and pathetic energy which marks this
Epistle. There is a ring of reality in its broken sentences and
earnest appeals. It displays none of the careful patchwork which we
should expect from a forger; it consists only of the quick hot words of
a man who is very deeply moved.

[Sidenote: To whom written.]

"Unto the Churches of Galatia." What is the meaning of the name
"Galatia"? Students are still divided on the question. If the word
"Galatia" is used in a popular sense to describe the country inhabited
by the Galatai, then it means North Galatia, a district in {151} the
extreme north of Asia Minor. It was mainly inhabited by Celts, who
came thither from Europe in the 3rd century B.C., and spoke a Celtic
language as late as the 2nd and even 4th century after Christ. This
language is mentioned by Pausanias, and St. Jerome says that it was a
dialect only slightly varying from that used in Gaul by the Treveri.
But if the word "Galatia" is used in a political sense, signifying a
particular province of the Roman empire, then it means a large area
much further south, including Pisidia, Lycaonia, and part of Phrygia.
In this province were Pisidian Antioch, Derbe, Iconium, and Lystra,
where St. Paul founded Churches in A.D. 47, on his first missionary
journey. The latter explanation is almost certainly correct.

No good argument can be brought forward in favour of North Galatia
which cannot be balanced by a better argument in favour of South
Galatia. For instance, though St. Luke in Acts uses the popular and
not the political names for districts, this cannot be urged in favour
of St. Paul's adopting the same usage. On the contrary, he uses Asia,
Macedonia, and Achaia in their political sense, and so we may suppose
that he would do the same in the case of Galatia. Again, though there
were in North Galatia Jews who would tempt the converts to Jewish
observances, there were Jews in plenty in South Galatia also. And
while many writers have said that the Celtic blood of these
recalcitrant Christians is proved by the enthusiasm, fickleness,
superstition, love of strife, and vanity which St. Paul rebukes, we may
reasonably urge that these defects are not confined to the Celts. The
Phrygians doted on a sombre and mysterious religion. In heathen times
they loved the worship of Cybele, with its exciting ceremonial