22nd September 2026 Question box

Tonight’s question is simply:

North or South Galatia?

This question is asking about Paul’s letter to the Galatians in the New Testament. Because there is a debate about who he wrote this letter to:

• Was Paul writing in about 48 AD, to the churches that he planted on his first missionary journey, who lived in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia?
• Or was he writing in about 55 AD to a group of ethnic Gauls (like if you’ve ever read Asterix – the Gauls) who lived in the northern part of the Roman province of Galatia?

Look, if anyone wants, I’m happy to sit down down with you and go through the specific arguments – there’s a pretty good summary here. But personally, I think it was South Galatia. Though, does it matter?

The big issue that Galatians addresses is that while some people were saying to be made right with God we have to keep the law, including things like being circumcised. Whereas Paul says: “a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). North Galatia / South Galatia probably doesn’t make a difference to how we understand this letter.

Though probably the dating of the letter does make a slight different to how we understand the book of Acts. Because something that happened in 49AD, between these two dates, there was this meeting called “the Council of Jerusalem,” which discussed the same issue, and where Peter argues for the same point of view because “he [God] purified their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:9) And so I guess the question is: did the Council of Jerusalem settle the issue? Were the Apostles united in their doctrine? If you go with South Galatia then you’d say “yes.” If you go with North Galatia, you’d say: “No, things were still up for debate for longer…” But whichever it was, we’re only talking 6 years difference.

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This question was originally answered by Andrew Vines in our evening service on 28 June 2026. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.