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Scholarly debate about the nature of the Galatian crisis and Paul’s response thereof, continues without any sign of abating. I have offered my own view on these matters on many different occasions, and the following study is a kind of follow-up to them in view of more recent studies on the letter. Space precludes any detailed report on the recent trends in Galatian scholarship. My intention in this paper is much simpler: to review scholarly discussion on those issues for which I have offered my own, often idiosyncratic, opinions. A few scholars refer to my work either favorably or disapprovingly, and these will naturally take up some of my attention in the paper. The first section deals with the nature of justification. After briefly commenting on the sociologically oriented trend of the NPP which stands in contrast to the soteriological reading of the traditional perspective, the study critically discusses the revisionistic reading of N. T. Wright who redefines justification in a non-soteriological way. The next section discusses the justification as the object of future hope, which is one of the author’s major contentions. After introducing those who have responded to my proposal favorably, the study critically engages with them pointing out the exegetical, logical problems caused by their mixing the futuristic reading with the notion of present justification. The third section examines the two major trends of interpretation of the ‘works of the law’, the key concept in reconstructing the Galatian crisis. The study points out that both lines of interpretation depend on assumptions which cannot be ascertained either historically or exegetically. Then, the study focuses on the comprehensive interpretation of the concept which is common to both sides, exposing the rhetorical and practical problems such a view creates. The forth section examines 6:12-13 and 5:3, two most important passages in determining the nature of the Galatian crisis. The study argues that the notion of a ‘law-observant mission’ cannot be drawn from what Paul explicitly says in these places. This leads to the idea of the unity of the Torah, an important assumption which leads scholars to read the ‘works of the law’ comprehensively. Major sources often presented in support of the view in James and Justin Martyr and Paul’s own discussion of the matter will be examined with the conclusion that the idea of the unity of the law cannot be used to back up a law-observant mission in Galatia. On the basis of the foregoing discussions, the study concludes that the crisis in Galatia is not a doctrinal one caused by the effort to keep the law as a whole but one of religious hypocrisy in which the zeal for outward marks of identity is not accompanied by what Paul considers to be the essence of Christian life, namely, life in the Spirit.
