As was the case with I Corinthians, the letter to the Galatians was written to try to resolve a serious crisis in the Church. In Corinth, the under lying problems were disunity, a disturbing lack of agape and the pull of paganism. In the Galatian churches, the Gentile Christians were badly upset by a small group amongst them who were insisting that the Gentiles must accept circumcision and follow the Jewish Law, in 0 to be real Christians. Who were the people in this small group? Ti may have been Gentiles who had first been converted to Judaism before they finally became Christians. In Acts 13:43, there is a reference to the many Gentiles in Antioch in Pisidia who had been converted to Judaism There was a Jewish synagogue there, where Paul and Barnabas had invited to speak (Acts 13: 15) before they aroused the hostility of s of the Jews. Sometimes people who have been converted to a new f: are far more enthusiastic about it than the people who passed it to them; this may have been the case with the Gentile converts to Judaism then became Christians. They may have been very fanatical.

We will call the group who were insisting on the practices of Judaism as being essential to the Christian, the Judaizers. They were very critical of Paul, who had never expected the Gentiles to follow the Jewish L or accept circumcision, when they became Christians. The Judaizers had succeeded in raising serious doubts in the churches of Galatia a whether Paul had taught the Galatians the truth.

Although we know how Paul found out about the problems in Corinth from some of the church members who had come to see him, we do not know exactly how he found out about the situation which had developed in the churches in Galatia, but it was probably from information given to him by Gentile Christians who were worried about what was go' on. As he did in his letter to the Corinthians, he dictated what he wanted to say to a scribe, only ending the letter in his own handwriting (6: 1 Paul's very deep concern and anxiety about what was happening apparent in the letter, and so is his anger at those who were upsetting faith of the churches in Galatia.

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