Who Were the Galatians?

Hi Roger, I consider myself a Messianic disciple of Yeishuu`a, but I don't necessarily swim in the same stream that most Messianics do in terms of Bible interpretation. I am aware of 2-3 main perspectives regarding Galatians that most Messianics adhere to, which are all different in some fairly significant ways. Frankly, I don't agree with any of them. Regarding the make-up of Paul's "audience", I think Mark is correct. They were primarily Gentile, although there certainly could have been some God-fearers, such as Cornelius, or even full covenantal converts in the congregation. Obviously, anytime someone is speaking generally, one must omit or ignore the few exceptions to the majority. I think many Messianics find themselves in situations where they have to find explanations for things they feel are true even when the evidence doesn't point in that direction. Not coincidentally, I find that most non-Messianics find themselves pretty much in that same boat, just paddling in the opposite direction.

ROGER JIMENEZ said:

I'm trying to perform a study about who were exactly the addressees of this book (Galatians),

The best way to do this is to create a collection of Galatian commentaries (use the rule type:commentary subject:galatians), and search that collection for the audience OR recipient OR addressed, with Match All Word Forms turned on.

You might want to view the search By Title to make it easier to find the correct section in each resource (particularly as it will probably be near the beginning). You could then use CTRL+F to search for "Jewish" if you want.

Here's what I found in five minutes:

• the apostle assumes that those addressed have sufficient knowledge of the Old Testament to follow his reasoning, even including that of Gal. 4:21–31. Does not this fact rather point in the direction of the presence of at least some Jews among the addressed and of considerable Jewish influence even in these predominantly Gentile congregations? (Hendriksen)
• even on the latter alternative (Galatia as the Roman province) a description of the recipients as ‘Galatians’ almost certainly implies that non-Jews were in view (as 4:8 confirms—‘you did not know God and were in slavery to beings that by nature are no gods’). (Dunn)
• Most of the converts were Gentiles (2:5, 4:8, 5:2, 6:12, and the subject of the Epistle), but some were Jews (3:27–29) and many must have been well acquainted with Jewish modes of exposition (4:22–31). (A Lukyn Williams)

You missed out the most important bit of Gal 6:13. Surely "they desire to have you circumcised" means most of the recipients weren't Jews.

ROGER JIMENEZ said:

Precisely the requirement of circumcision is evidence to the contrary. When Paul says, "Even those who are circumcised don’t obey the law. (Gal 6:13)", refers to the fact of convert through the rite of circumcision. Those born Jews are circumcised on the eighth day.

Not to be confrontational, but if you aren't engaging in eisegesis, you are certainly kissing it squarely on the lips. You seem to be clearly insisting that "those who are circumcised" can't refer to ethnic Jews because they "are circumcised on the eighth day."  There is nothing about "those who are circumcised" that must refer (as you say) "to the fact of convert through the rite of circumcision." The phrase "those who are circumcised" can easily refer to either and both the ethnic 8th-day circumcised & the adult-conversion circumcised. Nothing about that phrase allows for making a distinction between the two groups.

Mark Barnes said:

You missed out the most important bit of Gal 6:13. Surely "they desire to have you circumcised" means most of the recipients weren't Jews.

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