+The time of writing the epistle.+--Lightfoot, in disagreement from most earlier interpreters, maintained that this epistle was written between 2 Corinthians and Romans--that is, during the latter part of Paul's journey in Macedonia, or the earlier part of his sojourn at Corinth, towards the close of the year 57 or 58 A.D. Dr. Beet comes to the same conclusion. There is nothing in the letter itself to fix definitely either the place or time of its composition. From chap. i. 9, iv. 13, v. 3 we gather that St. Paul had now been in Galatia twice; the epistle was therefore subsequent to the journey which he took across Asia Minor in setting out on his third missionary tour (Acts xviii. 22--xix. 1). All students are agreed that it belongs to the period of the legalist controversy and to the second group of the epistles. On every account one is inclined to refer the letter to the last rather than to an earlier period of the third missionary tour. Comparison with the other epistles of the group raises this probability almost to a certainty and enables us to fix the date and occasion of this letter with confidence. +The purpose and analysis of the epistle.+--It is intensely polemical. It is a controversial pamphlet rather than an ordinary letter. The matter of dispute is twofold: 1. Paul's apostleship; and 2. The nature of the Gospel and the sufficiency of faith in Christ for full salvation. This gives the order of the first two and main parts of the epistle. A third section is added of a moral and hortatory nature. The contents of the epistle may be thus analysed:-- I. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS.--1. The apostolic salutation (ch. i. 1-5). 2. The Galatians' defection (ch. i. 6-10). II. PERSONAL APOLOGIA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RETROSPECT.--The apostle's teaching derived from God and not man, as proved by the circumstances of: 1. His education (ch. i. 13, 14). 2. His conversion (ch. i. 15-17). 3. His intercourse with the other apostles (ch. i. 18-24, ii. 1-10). 4. His conduct in the controversy with Peter at Antioch (ch. ii. 11-14). The subject of which controversy was the supersession of the law by Christ (ch. ii. 15-21). III. DOGMATIC APOLOGIA: INFERIORITY OF JUDAISM, OR LEGAL CHRISTIANITY, TO THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH.--1. The Galatians bewitched into retrogression from a spiritual system into a carnal system (ch. iii. 1-5). 2. Abraham himself a witness to the efficacy of faith (ch. iii. 6-9). 3. Faith in Christ alone removes the curse which the law entails (ch. iii. 10-14). 4. The validity of the promise unaffected by the law (ch. iii. 15-18). 5. Special pædagogic function of the law (ch. iii. 19-29). 6. The law a state of tutelage (ch. iv. 1-7). 7. Meanness and barrenness of mere ritualism (ch. iv. 8-11). 8. The past zeal of the Galatians contrasted with their present coldness (ch. iv. 12-20). 9. The allegory of Isaac and Ishmael (ch. iv. 21-31).