The name applies to both an ethnic kingdom as well as the Roman province in Asia Minor, or what is now northern Turkey. The cities of Galatia were some of the earliest cities he visited on his First Missionary Journey. Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia, however, has posed a quandary for scholars who are not able to ascertain if Paul used the term 'Galatia" in a geographical sense, i.e., referring to the territory of the ethnic kingdom, or a political sense, i.e., to the Roman province.
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The name Galatia is derived from the Latin word (Gallia) for Gaul. Gauls—popularly, associated with Western Europe, and especially ancient France—were a Celtic people widely distributed from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Alps in the east. Forced by deminishing resources, however, some of them began in the 5th Cent BC migrating east into Italy and eventually into Asia where they quickly overcame the native Phrygians and established themselves as a formidable power in what is today central Turkey. One of their most important strongholds was Tectosages (whose name has since changed to Ancyra, and then to Ankara, i.e., the present day capital of Turkey). There they naturally came into conflict with neighbours who were native to the land as well as with the cities long established by the Greeks. The identity of Galatia underwent a significant change when, in the 2nd Cent BC, the Romans began expanding into the region. The Galatians suffered a staggering defeat at the hands of the Romans in 189 BC; shrewd and resourceful, they always knew who had the upper hand and how to milk it to their advantage. As Rome continued to strenghten their hold in the region, the ethnic kingdom became a client kingdom of the Romans in 64 BC and, upon the death of its last king, Amyntas, in 25 BC, was absorbed into the Roman Empire. The newly reorganized province also absorbed parts of Pontus, Phrygia, Lyconia, and Pisidia.
On Paul evangelized a number of the cities in the southern region of the Galatian province during his First Missionary Journey; Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Paul's letter to the Galatians, however, posed another problem for scholars; does Galatia in the letter mean the Roman province or the ethnic region? For more on this questions—why it is important, and what are the solutions—see the discussion in (Sorry this article is not yet available).
READINGS:
☰ Lightfoot, "The Galatian People," from his Commentary on Galatians
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