For a talk I am preparing I was interested in the relationship between Galatians 2 and Acts 15, i.e. whether they are referring to the same event or not (the Jerusalem Council), and whether Galatians was written after or before the Jerusalem Council.
I was hoping that the Lexham Bible Guide would present the dating of the letter to the Galatians in a similar format to how it presents the interpretation of passages, summarizing briefly the position of the authors of the commentaries included. That would have saved me a lot of time and effort researching.
I would like to suggest that this feature be added to the Guides. I think it would be helpful in many ways, and go right along with what the Guides hope to be - a resource to allow users to quickly see the opinions of top scholars.
As the guides do not include this information, I went ahead and summarized it myself. Here is what I found.
Here are some of the more respected dedicated commentaries on Galatians or Acts, organized in descending order according to the date in which they were published. Those commentaries that propose that Galatians was written before the Jerusalem Council are in red, while those that propose it was written after the Council are in black:
| Book |
Author |
Date |
Gal. Date |
Pre/Post Jerusalem Council |
| Acts: An Exegetical Commentary |
Keener |
2013 |
Late 50's |
Post |
| Anchor Yale: Galatians |
J. Louis Martyn |
2008 |
Early 50s |
Post |
| Anchor Yale: Acts |
Fitzmyer |
2008 |
54 |
Post |
| Sacra Pagina: Galatians |
Frank J. Matera |
2007 |
53-57 |
Post |
| Navarre: Galatians |
Navarre Faculty |
2005 |
54-55 |
Post |
| Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary |
Witherington |
1998 |
48 |
Pre |
| ICC Acts, vol. 2 |
C.K. Barrett |
1998 |
50's |
Post |
| Blacks: Galatians |
James DG Dunn |
1993 |
Early 50s |
Post |
| Continental: Galatians |
Dieter Lührmann |
1992 |
52-56 |
Post |
| Tyndale: Galatians |
RA Cole |
1989 |
48-50 |
Pre |
| NICNT: Galatians |
Ronald YK Fung |
1988 |
48 |
Pre |
| NIGCT: Galatians |
FF Bruce |
1982 |
48 |
Pre |
| Hermeneia: Galatians |
Hans Dieter Betz |
1979 |
50-55 |
Post |
| Expositor's: Galatians |
James Montgomery Boice |
1976 |
50-58 |
Post |
| ICC: Galatians |
Ernest de Witt Burton |
1920 |
50-58 |
Post |
| Cambridge Greek: Galatians |
A. Lukyn Williams |
1914 |
51-58 |
Post |
In the commentary on the dating of Galatians, the Lexham Bible Guide speaks very briefly about issues of dating, gives no names of authors, and concludes: "However, the majority of contemporary interpreters support the southern Galatian hypothesis, which considers Paul’s audience to be the churches of Antioch in Pisidia, Lystra, Iconium, and Derbe in the Roman province of Galatia (see Acts 13–14). If this view is correct, then Paul probably wrote Galatians between AD 49–50."
