Galatians was written between which two of Paul's missionary journeys?

• A. Between the Second and Third Missionary Journeys
• B. Between the Third and Fourth Missionary Journeys
• C. After the Fourth Missionary Journey
• D. Between the First and Second Missionary Journeys

Answer: (D)

Between the first and second missionary journeys. This dating fits the content and purpose of Galatians: Paul is defending the gospel of justification by faith apart from works of the Law and asserting his authority as an apostle coming from Christ, not from the Jerusalem church. These themes reflect the urgent concerns early in his ministry as Gentile believers faced pressure to adopt circumcision, a situation that arose soon after his initial outreach during the first journey and around the time of the Jerusalem conference described in Acts 15, before he set out on the second journey. If the letter were written later, after the second or subsequent journeys, the pressures and relationships would typically be different and the timeline described in Acts would not align with Galatians’ emphasis on Paul’s independent apostolic authority and the immediacy of the Gentile-Gospel controversy.