The Teaching of Paul

In the following sections it is necessary to study a number of sayings and arguments in the Epistle involving the whole theology of Paul. Our purpose must be properly understood, lest it be thought that the attempt is too bold and presumptuous. The aim of these sections is not to discuss from the theological or the philosophic point of view the real meaning and nature of Paul’s doctrines. Our aim is much humbler. It is simply to try to determine what thoughts and feelings and memories Paul’s words roused in the Galatians, what meaning his teaching had had for them. Our purpose is historical; and we are treating a small part, yet one of the most important and most difficult parts, of the general problem, What did Christianity accomplish in the Roman world during the first century?

The materials for forming a judgment are (1) what we know about the character and the religious ideas of the peoples of Asia Minor, especially in the districts which had been least affected by Greek influence and were most purely native:1 (2) the information given by Luke in Acts, which, however, is very slight, as it lay quite outside of his purpose to record for future generations a picture of the character and mind of Paul’s converts: (3) the information given by Paul himself in his Epistle to the Galatians. In Colossians and Ephesians we find teaching of a more advanced character, adapted to congregations of longer Christian experience and of more rapid and advanced development; but in Galatians the intention is to rouse afresh the emotions and sentiments which characterised the Galatian Churches in their first years, to appeal from their later selves to their earlier selves. Hence Paul’s arguments here have to a certain extent the character of reminiscences, for they are designed to rouse memories among his readers.

[1] See above Sections 3-5, 9, 13.