Skip to content
X-Dreamers

Bible chapter guide

Galatians 4

Before Christ we were like children under guardians; when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us, and the Spirit cries 'Abba, Father.' Paul pleads with the Galatians as a mother in labour and reads Hagar and Sarah as two covenants.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

See it in the Labs

Places

Theory: the Gulf of Aqaba at NuweibaJebel al-Lawz

Also in this chapter

Galatians

The letter: who wrote it, where and when

These questions are debated; the views are shown side by side with how sure each is, as in Paul's Roads.

  • Plausible

    Galatians written from Antioch, before the Jerusalem council

    If the Jerusalem visit of Galatians 2 is the famine visit (Acts 11:30) and the letter does not mention the council's decision, it may be Paul's earliest letter, written from Antioch about AD 48–49 to the South Galatian churches.

  • Plausible

    Galatians written from Corinth, on the second journey

    After revisiting the Galatian churches (Acts 16:6), Paul could have written from Corinth on hearing they were deserting Christ for a different good news (1:6).

  • Plausible

    Galatians written from Ephesus, on the third journey

    The common North Galatian dating: after Paul's second visit (Acts 18:23; 'the first time', Galatians 4:13), and close to Romans in its themes.

  • Plausible

    Galatians written from Macedonia, on the third journey

    Others place it later still, in Macedonia shortly before Romans, because the two letters argue so alike.

  • Plausible

    Where Galatians was sent and when it was written are both debated.

    The answers hang together: a South Galatian destination allows an early date (even before the Jerusalem council), a North Galatian one requires a date after Acts 16:6. The lab shows each option with its basis.

How sure can we be?

  • Speculative

    Paul's 'Mount Sinai in Arabia' points to north-west Arabia.

    In Paul's day 'Arabia' included the Nabataean lands, which reached into the Sinai peninsula, so the phrase fits either side of the gulf.

  • Speculative

    Paul's 'Arabia' was probably the Nabataean lands south and east of Damascus.

    Galatians 1:17 names only 'Arabia'. The Nabataean kingdom bordered Damascus, and its king's governor later watched for Paul there (2 Corinthians 11:32), which suggests Paul had been active in his territory. Where he went inside it, and for how long, is unknow…

Explore this chapter in the Knowledge Graph

Read the chapter

King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)