Galatians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition
Overview
The New Beacon Bible Commentary is an engaging, indispensable reference tool that equips you to study and meditate on God’s Word. Written from the Wesleyan theological perspective, it offers insightful scholarship to help you unlock Scripture’s deeper truths and garner an awareness of the history, culture, and context attributed to each book studied. Readable, relevant, and academically thorough, it offers a new standard for understanding and interpreting the Bible in the twenty-first century.
This letter claims the apostle Paul wrote it. No serious contemporary scholar questions that claim. In fact, most appeal to Galatians to assess the authenticity of the other Pauline letters. It remains uncertain what influence Paul’s anonymous cosenders may also have had on the letter’s composition.
- Provides clear verse-by-verse explanations that offer a contemporary, Wesleyan-based understanding derived from the passage’s original language
- Contains comprehensive annotation divided into three sections:
- Background elements behind the text
- Verse-by-verse details and meanings
- Significance, relevance, intertextuality, and application
- Includes insight into theological issues, word meanings, archaeological connections, historical relevance, cultural customs, and more
- General Editor’s Preface
- Author’s Preface
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Commentary
- Letter Opening
- Prescript
- Epistolary Rebuke
- Body of the Letter
- Autobiographical Narrative
- Thesis: Paul’s Divine Gospel
- Proof
- Life in the Spirit vs. Law
- The Promise of the Spirit Fulfilled
- The Purpose of the Law
- God Sent His Son That We Might Become His Children
- Scriptural Appeal: Abraham’s Wives and Sons
- Moral Guidance
- Autobiographical Narrative
- Autographical Peroration
- Letter Opening
Top Highlights
“Paul’s meaning is clear enough: Just in time, God invaded our malfunctioning world as one of us. His Son entered our slavery to free us and sent his Spirit to empower us to be God’s children (see Col 1:13; Gal 1:3 [‘God our Father’]; 3:26; 4:4–7) because we were powerless to save ourselves.” (Page 249)
“Christian freedom is not a platform for self-indulgence. The alternative Paul urged involved the imperative: serve one another in love. Freedom is not an opportunity for self-preoccupation but for loving service to others.” (Page 328)
“And we should admit that Paul did not claim to ‘play fair.’ He was not trying to be objective and failed. He was writing to win—to persuade the Galatians that the Agitators were wrong and to get them to reaffirm his understanding of the gospel.” (Page 38)
“Paul’s mention of resurrection emphasizes that the end times had dawned, giving urgency to the present. The ‘new creation’ had begun (→ Gal 6:15). The resurrection confirmed that the crucified one was the long-awaited Messiah. The age of waiting ‘until’ (3:19, 23; 4:2, 19) was over; ‘the time had fully come’ (4:4). God had sent the promised Spirit to his people (3:5; 4:6). The time for Law was past. They were free!” (Page 51)
“For Christians, freedom is the God-given power to submit to his will as opposed to slavery to lesser gods. Apart from grace, humans are hopelessly and irresistibly compelled to surrender to the sovereignty of sin, flesh, and Satan—often disguised as social conventions. Christian freedom is never to be found in isolation, but in community—in interdependence, not independence.” (Page 311)
- Title: Galatians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition
- Author: George Lyons
- Series: New Beacon Bible Commentary (NBBC)
- Publisher: Beacon Hill
- Publication Date: 2010
- Pages: 400
