A forum to discuss Bible Translations

The Great Galatians Debate - Did Paul Write Galatians

Anyone can post here
User avatar
TWTY-Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 301
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:05 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

The Great Galatians Debate - Did Paul Write Galatians

Postby TWTY-Admin » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:57 pm

Forgot I actually hadn't got a thread on this (oops!), so I shall answer people's queries on it in here, starting with the helpful ones already given by William :)
first off I will say that TWTY-Admin has put a lot of time and effort into his study of the Book of Galatians and has done a great job at pointing out differences within this Book as well as some of the other NT books. This being said I must attest that the Book of Galatians along with the Book of Ephesians is in the PeshittA. Those of the Church of the East lay claim that the Eastern Assembly was handed the Text of the PeshittA personally by the Apostles themselves.
Unfortunately, whatever the Church of the East thinks, they have absolutely no proof that any book in the NT was written in Aramaic. The oldest manuscripts of the NT Peshitta only go back to the 5th-6th Century CE (Codex Phillipps 1388) - a full 400-500 years after the oldest Greek manuscripts (especially of the new recently discovered Greek manuscripts). It should also be noted that the main manuscripts of the NT Peshitta omit the books of 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. If it is true that the Aramaic Peshitta was handed down to the Church of the East by the twelve delegates, then we'd need to completely get rid of these five books also.
I know that this may be stretching the definition of what is considered a quote, but the second one below TWTY-Admin pointed out this was indeed a strange saying [1], yet Polycarp thought it worth repeating. Ego I [3].
Having a look at all three...
Polycarp 3:3/Galatians 4:26
... -- "which is a mother of us all", ...
Gal 4:26 in Greek: ητις εστιν μητηρ ημων
Polycarp 3:3 in Greek: ητις εστιν μητηρ παντων ημων

If Polycarp is indeed quoting Gal 4:26, then he has changed it. It should be noted that not once does Polycarp state that Paul says this, nor does he in The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians mention Galatia or Galatians, as either a place, epistle or group of people.

Also in context, Polycarp is using it in a completely different way. In Gala 4:26, it is the "above" Jerusalem that is "mother of us", yet Polycarp has it: And when absent from you, he [Paul] wrote you a letter, which, if you carefully study, you will find to be the means of building you up in that trust which has been given you, and which, being followed by hope, and preceded by love towards God, and Messiah, and our neighbour, is the mother of us all.

For Polycarp, it is trust that is "the mother of us all". It would be hard pressed for us to assume that the Philippians reading this letter from Polycarp would notice the apparently allusion to Galatians 4:26, never mind the fact that Polycarp is using it in a completely different way.
Nevertheless, it actually makes more sense the way the Epistle to the Philippians has it.
Polycarp 5:1/Galatians 6:7

... "God is not mocked", ...
Gal 6:7 in Greek: ΘΣ ου μυκτηριζεται
Polycarp 5:1 in Greek: θεος ου μυκτηριζεται

Papyrus 46 uses a Nomina Sacra for "God" in Galatians 6:7, but the Greek of the Epistle to the Philippians has it written out. It doesn't help that every single Greek manuscript of the Epistle to the Philippians are all from the 11th Century CE and later, all of which follow the same exemplar in that they stop at the Epistle to the Philippians 9:2, and then continue with the Epistle of Barnabas from 5:7.

But again, in context, Polycarp has Knowing then that God is not mocked, we ought to walk worthily of His commandment and His glory. This, like the previous one, makes more sense that its usage in Galatians.
Polycarp 12:3/Galatians 1:1
...and in "his Father who raised him from the dead".
Galatians 1:1 in Greek: ΠΡΣ του εγειρατος αυτον εκ νεκρος
Polycarp 12:3 in Latin: patrem qui resuscitavit eum a mortuis.

As mentioned previously, all the Greek manuscripts stop at 9:2, so we only have the Latin (which would have to be a translation of the Greek) for the remainder of Polycarp's letter. Nevertheless, the Latin Vulgate has a slightly different version of Gal 1:1 in Latin compared to the supposed quotation in Polycarp; LV: Patrem qui suscitavit eum a mortuis; Polycarp: patrem qui resuscitavit eum a mortuis. The Latin Vulgate only ever uses resuscitavit in one place, and that's in Acts 2:32, and that is translating the Greek word ανιστημι, not εγειρω as in Gal 1:1.

So whilst we may have some supposed "allusions" to certain phrases, there are no direct quotes, and even the allusions don't actually follow how the author of Galatians used them, with the letter of Polycarp actually using them in ways that make sense.

However, this all doesn't really do anything for anyone - the manuscripts of this Epistle are much too late, so there's no real way for us to determine whether the Greek or Latin from these 11th Century CE+ manuscripts are accurately reproducing what Polycarp actually wrote, or whether they're interpolation many things. There is certainly an Epistle of Polycarp, but whether we have what was actually wrote is far too hard to determine.
Last but not least, with out a map showing the travels of Shawul and the areas claimed in the Great Galatians Debate it is hard to follow TWTY-Admin' claims as to whether or not Shawul came close to the Area claim to be Galatia. On this note I would like to ask TWTY-Admin to please post a Map showing the areas with lines tracing out the journeys of Shawul so that we may see just how far never had a chance in coming into contact with the people of Galatia is.
http://loveintruth.com/acts/maps.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That has the "Missionary journey's" separately. For Paul to have met any "Galatians", he would've had to go almost 100 miles north-east from Antioch of Pisidia to meet anyway. But as the maps show, Paul never went north-east :)
TWTY website and forum Administrator.

Please respect everyone, and try to not get too heated when discussing one's point of view :)

Rob
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:21 pm

Re: The Great Galatians Debate - Did Paul Write Galatians

Postby Rob » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:17 pm

And just to add - please note Galatia is huge - not a city or a town but a huge province.


Return to “For All”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests