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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT shaw.ca>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] The journey and identity of the influencers in Galatians
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 23:12:05 -0800

I had written:
> > Mark, I agree with what you say in the paragraph above, and I am puzzled
why
> > you are unable to reconcile it with the Timothy references in Acts 16.
Have
> > I misunderstood you, or did you misunderstand what I wrote? Could you
> > explain, as clearly as possible, what you find in Gal 2:1-5 that is hard
to
> > reconcile with Acts 16:1-3?

Mark replied
> When I read these two accounts, I do not see that they are talking about
the
> same people or incidents, and I have not been persuaded by the very
> interesting arguments you have made. My research time is presently being
> spent engaging other topics.

I see, but the questions concerning Timothy and Acts 16 have an import
impact on your areas of interest, so I do not think you can duck the issues.
In particular, I think there are some important indications in Acts 16 that
the influencers in Galatians were Christ-believers. I'll explain why.

We have 5 possible 'sightings' of the influencers and they follow a simple
chronological and geographical trajectory.

1. We first come across them in Jerusalem in Gal 2:4-5. (This probably
corresponds to Acts 15)
2. Next we see them in Antioch (Gal 2:12). (presumably this is after the Gal
2:4-5 sighting)
3. Then we detect their presence in south Galatia in Acts 16:3. There are
many reasons to believe that Timothy was from Syrian Antioch (whether he was
Titus or not). Therefore someone must have told the Jews in south Galatia
that Timothy's father had been a Greek. Probably it was the influencers.
4. The presence of the influencers in Lydia, Mysia and Bithynia would neatly
explain why Paul did not preach there (Acts 16:6-8) (see my email of 7th Dec
2003).
5. The influencers influenced the Galatians (north or south). This is
obvious from the letter. This may have been on their return journey from
Lydia, Mysia and Bithynia.

Now, what is interesting about the possible 'sightings' is that they line up
so well both geographically and chronologically. The influencers started
from Jerusalem (Gal 2:4-5) and went via Antioch (Gal 2:12) and south Galatia
(Acts 16:3) to Lydia, Mysia and Bithynia (Acts 16:6-8), before returning via
Galatia (Gal generally). When taken individually these 'sightings' can only
be considered possible glimpses, but when taken together their temporal and
spatial coherence makes them highly probable. There are three further points
which I think confirm the sequence.
a) If the 'false brothers' (influencers) had already decided to make a
journey through Paul's territory, this would neatly explain why they were
brought into the apostles' meeting. This fits well with the proposed
sequence, in which the influencers left Jerusalem shortly after the meeting
of Gal 2.
b) If the proposed trajectory is correct, Paul would have visited south
Galatian twice before the writing the letter, and this makes good sense of
the PROTERON in Gal 4:13.
c) When travelling through south Galatia the second time (Acts 16:1-6) Paul
would have had the opportunity to warn the Galatians about what the
influencers might teach them when they returned from Lydia, Mysia and
Bithynia via south Galatia. This Gal 1:9 "As we have said before, so now I
repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you
received...."

Let's now discuss the identity of the influencers. Were they
non-Christ-believing Jews from Galatia, or where they Christ-believing Jews
from Jerusalem?

1. As I have said, it would make sense for Christ-believing Jewish
missionaries, who were just about to travel through Antioch and south
Galatia, to be brought into the meeting where Paul presented his gospel.
They would be expected to be interested in hearing what Paul had to say. If,
on the other hand, the 'false brothers' were Jews visiting from Galatia, it
is very hard to explain why they were brought into the meeting.

2. In Gal 2:12 we read of men from James. This is well known evidence that
the people in question were Christ-believers.

3. Acts 16:3 does not directly mention the influencers (Luke carefully
avoids them), and tells us nothing about their identity. It does, however,
confirm the proposed trajectory.

4. The fact that the people in question were Christ-believers is confirmed
by the 'sighting' in Lydia, Mysia and Bithynia. Paul did not preach there
because he did not want to preach were Christ was already known. Only
Christ-believers can be in view in this 'sighting'.

So, the influencers were almost certainly Christ-believers.

Yours,

Richard.











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