Paul and the Galatians
The Great Galatians Debate:
Did the Hebrew ‘Sha’uwl’, known as ‘Paul’,
write the letter known as ‘To the Galatians’?
Whilst such a question is rarely (if ever) asked in “scholarly” circles or by the public in general, especially by Christian Scholars, it is a question that must be asked: Did Sha’uwl/Paul write (or more accurately dictate) the letter to the ‘Galatians’, or did someone else write it, claiming that Sha’uwl/Paul was its author? This is a question I hope to solve by the end of this study, which is not just regarding the letter to the ‘Galatians’, but of the other letters attributed to Sha’uwl/Paul too.
When one reads a translation of Sha’uwl/Paul’s alleged letter to the ‘Galatians’, there is but only one conclusion that can be grasped from its words: Galatians is a treatise against following the Torah of Yahuweh; a homily that seeks to separate the Torah from the Messiah Yahushua (incorrectly referred to as Jesus Christ); a theological document attempting to show that the Torah is worthless and is in fact something that enslaves us. The letter to the ‘Galatians’ is therefore the foundation of the religion of Christianity, for with Galatians, Christians have their “Scriptural Authority” for completely disregarding Yahuweh and his instructions as outlined in the Torah, and so this is a severe problem, for this goes against Yahuweh. As Galatians is the foundation of Christianity, then Sha’uwl/Paul is just plain wrong, simple as. There is no other logical conclusion to the facts. If Galatians was written by Sha’uwl/Paul, then nothing he ever says can be trusted 100%, or in fact, at all. This is then even more devastating to Christianity. Without Sha’uwl/Paul, then 99% of what Christendom and the Church denominations teach is without any support in their “Bible”, as the rest of the Torah, Prophets and Psalms are against what most of Christianity affirms as the truth.
This also brings another conclusion: Sha’uwl/Paul didn’t write Scripture, ever. As Yahuweh can’t contradict Himself, if Yahuweh is the one inspiring Sha’uwl/Paul to write Galatians, then Yahuweh cannot be trusted, as He would be contradicting Himself at every turn. And then, Yahuweh wouldn’t be God, and therefore the entire “Bible” is just random thoughts and made up stories and fables concocted by the wills, desires and imagination of humankind. But thankfully, as the Torah, Prophets and Psalms prove without a shadow of a doubt that Yahuweh can be trusted 100%, then Galatians isn’t from Yahuweh, but only from the mind of the person who wrote it, whether it be Sha’uwl/Paul, or someone else. Therefore, once again we have another issue with Christianity, as most of what they teach is based on the belief that Sha’uwl/Paul wrote inspired Scripture. As Sha’uwl/Paul didn’t write inspired Scripture, then Christianity’s entire foundation is suspect, and that isn’t good. The only solid rock we have is the Torah, Prophets and Psalms – nothing else. This is all, of course, if Sha’uwl/Paul did indeed write/dictate the words encompassed in the Galatians letter. If he didn’t, then the case against Sha’uwl/Paul would have to be based on what he says in other letters. If he did, then Sha’uwl/Paul can only be condemned for going against Yahuweh. And that is the simple truth, and there is no way to get around it.
Introduction to the ‘Pauline’ letters
Before we get to Galatians itself, a brief overview of the ‘Pauline’ letters is a must. There are 14 letters/epistles/books in the Renewed Covenant Writings (incorrectly known as the New Testament) attributed to Sha’uwl/Paul: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews. Of these 14, most of Christendom only accepts 13 of them to have been written or dictated by Sha’uwl/Paul, attributing Hebrews to an unknown author, but a person to whom was known by Sha’uwl/Paul as Hebrews mentions Timothy (Heb. 13:23). “Scholars”, however, have dwindled down the “actual Pauline” letters to just 7: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon, claiming that the other 6(7) “have different or divergent language and style, the absence of Pauline concepts, the presence of concepts not found in other undisputed letters, and difficulties in historical settings”1 (added bold-font mine). The general “scholarly” consensus of these 7 letters to be by Sha’uwl/Paul has given rise to the term “Undisputed Letters”, and therefore the other 6(7) to be designated “Disputed Letters”, where scholars are divided with their opinions. However, at around 1840, a German “scholar” named Ferdinand Christian Baur concluded that Sha’uwl/Paul only wrote four of the letters attributed to him: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. Nevertheless, his successors ‘refined’ Baur’s methods and added Philemon, 1 Thessalonians and Philippians to the “undisputed letters” list, and no scholar since then has ever really attempted to disprove them.
The final 6 letters, Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, are split into two camps: the “deutero-pauline” letters: Colossians, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians; and those known as the “Pastoral epistles”: 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. Due to Ephesians’ supposed reliance on Colossians, they are both disregarded and said to have both been written by a different author, who wrote Colossians first and then further developed the idea’s mentioned in Colossians in the longer Ephesians letter. 2 Thessalonians is also disregarded due to the same reasoning, in that 2 Thessalonians relies too heavily on 1 Thessalonians for structure, language and ideas. The final three, the “Pastoral Epistles” are disregarded due to the fact that they “make [Sha’uwl/]Paul presuppose” the “hierarchical structure” of the “church in the 2nd Century”, with his mention of overseer’s and deacons. The Greek of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus is also a vast improvement on Sha’uwl/Paul’s other letters.
Whether Sha’uwl/Paul wrote any of the other “disputed” letters is not the concern of this document. However, if or when I may refer to any of the “disputed” letters, I will do so cautiously, and make sure that I continually reference that they are part of the “disputed” section. Nevertheless, as I am seeking to either prove or disprove whether Galatians is a letter of Sha’uwl/Paul or a forgery, then I am going against the general “scholarly” consensus, and if they’re wrong with regarding Galatians as a definite letter of Sha’uwl/Paul’s, then surely this would call into question whether they are right with thinking that the “disputed” letters are really not the work of Sha’uwl/Paul, and that they may also be wrong with thinking that the rest of the “undisputed” letters are certainly the work of Sha’uwl/Paul.
With the introduction done, let us proceed on to what evidence is given to consider that Galatians is definitely the work of Sha’uwl/Paul.
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