A Historical Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians

By W. M. Ramsay

Part 2

Historical Commentary

Chapter 25

St. Paul’s Roman Point of View

When he uses the terms Galatia and Galatians, Paul speaks as no mere Greek spoke: he speaks as the Roman. If so, we must look to find this view ruling both in this Epistle and through his whole policy. That principle I have attempted to illustrate throughout St. Paul the Traveller. He was at once Roman, Greek, and Jew: in political geography the Roman speaks.

Elsewhere, I hope to illustrate the principle in a more special way, and to show that Paul’s career cannot be properly understood, unless his Roman point of view and his imperial statesmanship is fully taken into account. Throughout his life in the Provinces and in Rome “it is not the mere Jew that speaks; it is the educated citizen of the Roman world” (St. Paul the Trav., p. 149).

The use of Galatae in the Roman sense may be illustrated by the term Φιλιππήσιοι. The commentators on Php 4:15 do not observe that this form is not Greek, but Latin. It is the Greek representative of the Latin Philippensis, according to a rule familiar to archaeologists: thus, e.g., Mutinensis becomes Μουτουνήσιος. So thoroughly does Paul take the Roman view that he avoids the Greek ethnic, which was Φιλιππεύς or Φιλιππηνός. He would not address the inhabitants of a Roman colony by a Greek name, but only by the Latin name written in Greek form. See § XIV.

 

 

Book Navigation Title Page Preface Table of Contents Religion in Asia Minor      ► Chapter 1      ► Chapter 2      ► Chapter 3      ► Chapter 4      ► Chapter 5      ► Chapter 6      ► Chapter 7      ► Chapter 8      ► Chapter 9      ► Chapter 10      ► Chapter 11      ► Chapter 12      ► Chapter 13      ► Chapter 14      ► Chapter 15      ► Chapter 16      ► Chapter 17      ► Chapter 18      ► Chapter 19      ► Chapter 20      ► Chapter 21      ► Chapter 22      ► Chapter 23 Historical Commentary      ► Section 1      ► Section 2      ► Section 3      ► Section 4      ► Section 5      ► Section 6      ► Section 7      ► Section 8      ► Section 9      ► Section 10      ► Section 11      ► Section 12      ► Section 13      ► Section 14      ► Section 15      ► Section 16      ► Section 17      ► Section 18      ► Section 19      ► Section 20      ► Section 21      ► Section 22      ► Section 23      ► Section 24      ► Section 25      ► Section 26      ► Section 27      ► Section 28      ► Section 29      ► Section 30      ► Section 31      ► Section 32      ► Section 33      ► Section 34      ► Section 35      ► Section 36      ► Section 37      ► Section 38      ► Section 39      ► Section 40      ► Section 41      ► Section 42      ► Section 43      ► Section 44      ► Section 45      ► Section 46      ► Section 47      ► Section 48      ► Section 49      ► Section 50      ► Section 51      ► Section 52      ► Section 53      ► Section 54      ► Section 55      ► Section 56      ► Section 57      ► Section 58      ► Section 59      ► Section 60      ► Section 61      ► Section 62      ► Section 63      ► Section 64