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Author and Title
저자가 사도 바울이라는 것에대해서는 큰 이견이 없다. 명칭은 갈라디아 교회를 향해 쓴 편지인데 어떤 갈라디아가 말하는가에 이견들이 있다.
The first word of the letter to the Galatians is “Paul,” and there has been widespread agreement by scholars down through the ages that Paul is indeed the author. The title in most Greek editions of the NT is “To the Galatians,” and the main body of the letter mentions the addressees as “the churches of Galatia” (1:2) and “foolish Galatians!” (3:1). The only debate is, which Galatians? (See Purpose, Occasion, and Background.)

Date
앞서 어떤 갈라디아냐에 따라서 저작 시기를 가늠하는데 차이가 생긴다. 이방인의 할례에 대해서 논한 행 15장의 예루살렘 공회를 통해서 볼때 이 공회가 48-49년에 개최되었고 바울이 남 갈라디아에서 47-48년경에 복음을 전했기에 아마도 48년이 본 갈라디아서를 쓴 시기로 추정된다. 
Although the question of the date of Galatians is related to this question of “which Galatians,” some clues can probably be found in the letter itself. The main indicator is the lack of reference to the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). Although this is an argument from silence, many commentators have regarded this as a “deafening silence.” It would have been enormously helpful to Paul’s argument if he could have mentioned the decision of the council that Gentiles should not be circumcised: this, after all, appears to be a major point of contention between Paul and the false teachers influencing the Galatians. Since the council took place in a.d. 48/49, and Paul evangelized South Galatia in a.d. 47/48, some time around a.d. 48 is a plausible date for the composition of Galatians. However, determining dates in Paul’s life is always somewhat uncertain, and so one cannot place too much weight on the date in the interpretation of the letter.
 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2241.

Theme
예수의 죽음은 새언약의 시대를 오게했다. 이제 신자들은 유대인이 되거나 모세율법의 표면적 예식을 따를 필요가 없다. 이러한 것을 요구하는 것은 복음의 핵심을 거부하는 것이다. 칭의는 오직 믿음으로 이루어지는 것이지 율법을 순종함으로 이루어지는 것이 아니다. 새시대의 그리스도인들은 성령의 인도하심과 그 능력안에 살아야 한다. 
Christ’s death has brought in the age of the new covenant (3:23–26; 4:4–5, 24), in which believers do not have to become Jews or follow the outward ceremonies of the Mosaic law (2:3, 11–12, 14; 4:10). To require these things is to deny the heart of the gospel, which is justification by faith alone, not by obedience to the law (2:16; cf. 1:6–7). In this new age, Christians are to live in the guidance and power of the Spirit (chs. 5–6).
 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2241.

Literary Features
본 서신은 일반적인 바울 서신의 형식을 따른다. 그런데 처음 감사인사없이 바로 논쟁으로 들어가는데 이는 현재 갈라디아의 상황을 얼마나 바울이 심각하게 여기고 있었는지를 보여준다. 갈라디아서는 특별히 여러 주제의 대조를 통해서 논점을 설명한다. 예를 들면 참 복음과 거짓 복음, 믿음과 공로, 율법과 은혜, 자유와 형식, 자녀됨과 노예됨, 성령의 은사와 육체의 소욕을 대조한다. 
Like the rest of the Pauline letters, Galatians follows the conventions of letter writing in NT times. There is a salutation, a body, a paraenesis (set of moral exhortations), greetings, and a benediction. There is no initial thanksgiving, however, which indicates Paul’s agitation and alarm over the theological situation in Galatia.   p 2243  Paul gets right to the point, which is that the Galatians are in danger of turning to a different gospel, thereby risking the everlasting ruin of their souls. The main argument of the epistle is advanced by the use of autobiography, example, allegory, satiric rebuke, and exhortation.
The doctrinal thrust of Galatians gives it a strong internal unity. In one way or another, everything in the epistle is related to Paul’s defense of justification by faith alone. The letter is also unified by the apostle’s intensity of tone, which comes through as strongly here as it does in any of his writings—especially in his intolerance of false doctrine and his indignation with people who promote it. Stylistically, Galatians finds literary coherence in its thematic contrasts: the true gospel vs. a false gospel, faith vs. works, law vs. grace, liberty vs. legalism, sonship vs. slavery, and the fruit of the Spirit vs. the desires of the flesh.
 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2242–2243.

Ancient Galatia
“Galatia” was originally a Celtic region in north central Asia Minor (modern Turkey). It became a client kingdom of Rome under Pompey (mid-1st century b.c.). With the death of the client king Amyntas (d. 25 b.c.) an expanded Galatia came under a Roman governor. In Paul’s day the province of Galatia included parts of Pontus and Paphlagonia to the east and north and encompassed portions of Phrygia, Pisidia, Isauria, Lycaonia, and Cilicia to the south. Thus many of the cities of Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13–14) were considered part of the province of Galatia (or at least near its sphere of influence). Starting with territorial alterations under the emperor Vespasian (end of the 1st century a.d.), the province changed shape; thus the other ethnic territories were gradually drawn off, back to their earlier affiliations, and the province of Galatia returned to its more ethnically defined northern boundaries. Some contend that these subsequent reductions to the province of Galatia influenced the later church fathers to assume that Paul wrote his epistle to residents of northern Galatia. Archaeological evidence indicates a combination of Hellenistic, Celtic, and Roman influences in the province of Paul’s time.

The Setting of Galatians
(c. a.d. 48)
Paul’s letter to the Galatians was likely written to the churches he had established during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:1–14:28). He probably wrote the letter from his home church in Antioch in Syria, sometime before the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:1–31).

d. died
c. about, approximately
 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2243.

다른 바울의 서신과는 달리 갈라디아서는 열정과 풍자, 분노를 표출하고 있다. 
Jerome once said that when he read the letters of the apostle Paul he could hear thunder. Nowhere in the Pauline corpus is such stormy dissonance more evident than in the Epistle to the Galatians. Though written from prison, Philippians is a love letter on the theme of joy. Romans reflects the considered objectivity of a master theologian reveling in the doctrines of grace. Ephesians is an uplifting commentary on the body of Christ. Even the Corinthian correspondence, though obviously written out of great personal anguish and pain, revolves around the great triad of faith, hope, and love, with Paul’s hardships and concerns set over against his greater confidence in the God of all comfort who causes his children to triumph. In 2 Cor 13:12 Paul could admonish the believers in Corinth to greet one another with a holy kiss.
But Galatians is different. From beginning to end its six chapters of 149 verses bristle with passion, sarcasm, and anger. True, there is a touch of tenderness as well; once in the midst of the letter Paul referred to the Galatians as his “dear children” (4:19). As the context reveals, though, this was the tearing tenderness of a distraught mother who must endure all over again the pains of childbirth because her children, who should have known better, were in danger of committing spiritual suicide. Paul was astonished and “perplexed” by their departure from the truth of the gospel. He feared that they had been “bewitched” and deceived. In frustration he dubbed them, as J. B. Phillips translates it, “my dear idiots” (3:1).

 Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 21–22.

  • 갈라디아 교회의 위기
사도바울이 처음 갈라디아에서 복음을 전할때 그들은 열린 마음으로 그의 메시지를 받아들였다. 십자가에 달린 예수그리스도의 복음을 믿었을때 그들은 하나님의 성령을 받았다.(3:1-2) 성령의 임재는 그들중에 기적을 행했고 하나님을 아바 아버지라고 경배하게 했으며 하나님의 은혜를 새로운 이방인 신자들에게 확증했다. 하지만 얼마 지나지 않아서 몇몇 거짓 선생들이 새신자들로 하여금 하나님의 축복을 받기 위해서 할례를 행하고 절기와 음식을 지켜야 한다고 주장했다. 아브라함의 할례를 예로 들면서 할례를 통해 유대인의 표징을 받지 않으면 언약의 축복에 함께 할 수 없다고 가르쳤고 그래서 바울은 예루살렘 공회에 이를 판단해 줄 것을 상정한 것이다. 
당시 갈라디아에서 바울의 복음을 듣고 신앙을 가진 사람들은 여러 위기들을 겪었다. 사회적으로 기존의 이방 신전이나 유대의 회당에서 쫓겨나게 된 것이다. 그래서 그들은 유대인들과 동일시 하기 위한 어떤 증거가 필요했다. 모세의 율법의 규율아래 있다는 것이 그들로 하여금 사회적인 안정감을 제공했을 뿐 아니라 악을 이기기 위한 능력을 부여받는다고 생각한 것이다. 그들은 거짓 선지자들의 매우 인상적인 가르침에 매혹되었고 이후에 본서인 바울의 갈라디아서를 통해서 그 마법이 풀리게 된 것이다. 
When Paul first preached the gospel in Galatia, a number of Galatians accepted him and his message with open hearts (4:13–15). When they believed the gospel of Christ crucified, they received the Spirit of God (3:1–2). The presence of the Spirit, who did miracles among them (3:5) and led them in their worship of God as “Abba, Father” (4:6), confirmed the blessing of God on these new Gentile believers.
But not long after Paul planted the churches in Galatia, some Jewish Christians taught these new believers that it was necessary to belong to the Jewish people in order to receive the full blessing of God. Therefore they required the marks of identity peculiar to the Jewish people: circumcision, sabbath observance and kosher food (see 2:12–14; 4:10; 5:2–3; 6:12–13). No doubt they used the story of Abraham’s willingness to be circumcised to persuade the Galatian believers that without membership in the Jewish people by circumcision they could not participate in the covenantal blessings promised to Abraham. Evidently they also preempted Paul’s authority by claiming support from the higher authority of the original apostles in the Jerusalem church. They probably pointed out that the mother church in Jerusalem still faithfully followed Jewish customs.
The message of the rival teachers struck a responsive chord in the Galatian churches. The Galatian converts may have been feeling a loss of social identity, since their new faith in Christ excluded them from both the pagan temples and the Jewish synagogues. So they sought identification with the Jewish people—God’s people—by observing the law. Apparently they were also convinced that if they came under the discipline of the Mosaic law, the law could empower them to overcome evil. Mesmerized by the message of the impressive teachers of the law, they became disenchanted with Paul.
Their focus shifted from union with Christ by faith and dependence on the Spirit to identification with the Jewish nation and observance of the law.

 G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994).

갈라디아서의 이신칭의 교리가 개인구원에 치중되어서 서구에서 과도한 개인주의와 과도한 권리의식 문제가 생겼다고 주장하기도 한다. 
Tu Wei-Ming, a Harvard Confucist scholar, asserts that the Protestant doctrine of justification has led to an excessive individualism: “The Protestant dispenses with all intermediaries between God and himself. He relates directly to God from the secret recesses of his heart and in his inner separateness from his fellowmen.… The Protestant ethic has led to all kinds of problems such as excessive individualism and excessive rights-consciousness” (1984:74–75, 86).
 G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 갈 4:13.



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