THE DATING OF GALATIANS

Lectionary text: Galatians 1:2 - and all the members of God’s family who are with me, 
To the churches of Galatia:

When Paul writes that he visited Jerusalem again, 
it seems to mean that was his second visit. If so, then
it coincides with what in Acts 11 Luke reports;
that, too, the so-called South Galatian argument supports.
For Acts 11:30 cites Paul’s second visit there.
In this epistle Paul does not make mention anywhere
of what had happened at the Council of Jerusalem,
and what the elders had decreed, when he appealed to them
about not forcing Gentile converts to be circumcised.
Had that event occurred, Peter would not have compromised.
The Council, it would then appear, had not yet taken place,
as Paul would have referred to it, when he went face to face
with Peter on that issue, for what more need Paul have said
than that the Council had decreed to do as he had plead?
The date of this epistle from this reasoning would be
before the Council, some suggest in 49 C.E.
But others argue for a later date, based on the view
it was the Council meeting Paul describes in Chapter 2.
The arguments on both sides are impressive, and so we
can’t fix the date of this epistle with full certainty.
About this subject there is so much more that could be said,
and I can’t make my mind up after all that I have read!