Duvduv

Romans was written to Rome (albeit before there were established communities of believers), Ephesians was written to Ephesus, Corinthians to those in Corinth.

Yet, what was the mystery to call Galatians by that name, since Galatia was a whole region even if it was the backwoods? It's like writing Epistle to the Bostonians, Epistle to the Angelinos, and then one epistles to the Texans......Maybe it was meant to be Epistle to the Pontusians or Iconians.

aa5874

Again, you are wrong or confused.

The writer of the Epistle CLAIMED the faith of the Romans was known throuhout the world.

"Romans 1.8

sotto voce

Many believers in Rome were named, and known personally to the apostle. More than in any other NT letter, I think.

It was written to the church in Ephesus.

It was written 'to the churches in Galatia'. Whatever the character of the inhabitants of the region (which was compact as well as well-defined), they were surely capable of talking to each other, and of making copies of the short letter written to them, which evidently had an impact. As well it might!

stephan huller

There's no plausible explanation here. "Ephesians” is not identified as such in many old witnesses. It is best identified as the anonymous epistle (Ephesus is closely associated with Polycarp). I think some old source identifies Galatians as having been written at Ephesus

sotto voce

'Paul.. to the saints in Ephesus'

Not by those who value the letter to the Ephesian church.

DCHindley

Pro'ly just the Hellenized coastal cities, and not the spelt eating celts in the interior. So yes, Pontusians & Iconians.

DCH

Duvduv

NO I am not confused. I agree with you that it was a wildly exaggerated expression and a dead giveaway that it wasn't written by the alleged writer of the 1st century. But Galatians is the most interesting epistle, it's very provocative, exclusivist, arrogant. In any case, like I argue in the other thread, I think Paulus must refer to a generic writer applicable to the "authentic" and "non-authentic" epistles written by "The Small One".

Anyway, I await your latest additions to my other thread.

Duvduv

By the same token other epistles could have been addressed to the Macedonians, to the Italians (!) and to the Turks (!).

Chili

It wouldn't be the Galileans would it? or 'saved sinners' by another name for whom Paul's 'race-to-end' movement does seem real.

Notice please that if 'cold is good' and 'hot is good' and if 'good is good' neither cold not hot will be in Galilee, but since lukewarm is neither cold nor hot Galilee must have been the place for them and actually do fit both Paul's urgence and description very well.

sotto voce

It's the most inconvenient for legalists today, as it was for contemporaries like diaspora Pharisees. The Galatians were unusual among even the Hellenist congregations in that they had quickly returned to pagan habits, which may be attributed to the fickleness for which Gauls were well known. But their extraordinarily wayward and indeed shameful behaviour, which may have made Paul and his friends blink in amazement, was, through imperial diktat, to become orthodoxy. Those of totalitarian instincts today therefore find Paul's entirely rational and measured response particularly difficult. There is a natural tendency to place reproach on Paul rather than the heretical tendencies of those to whom he wrote.