Galatians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An epistle written by the apostle Paul to Christian communities in the region of Galatia, addressing faith, grace, and freedom from the Jewish law
2. A New Testament letter from Paul to the churches of Galatia, emphasizing salvation through faith rather than adherence to ceremonial practices
3. A biblical epistle attributed to Paul and directed to Christian congregations in Galatia, discussing justification by faith and Christian liberty

Etymology: Galatians is the plural of "Galatian," a person from Galatia, the region of central Asia Minor (modern Turkey) where Celtic-speaking peoples settled in the third century BCE after migrating from Gaul and the Balkans. The Greek name "Galatai" is itself linked to the Celts, and the Romans rendered the group as "Galatae" and the region as "Galatia." The English form reached the language through Latin and Greek religious usage, which is why the word is most familiar from the New Testament Epistle to the Galatians, a letter attributed to Paul and addressed to the churches of that region. The link to Gaul is the surprising part: the same Celtic population that gave the Greeks the name "Gallic" is the root of this one, and the older "Gallo-Greeks" were a Celtic people living far from Gaul itself. Because the letter came to be read widely in English-speaking churches, the plural now refers mainly to that text, and only secondarily to the ancient people.