Book Study: Paul's Letter to the Galatians

by Douglas J. Moo

OVERVIEW

Dr. Douglas Moo, known for his commentaries on Romans and Galatians, lays out his research on this much-debated text. He explores the theme of justification by faith and explains its importance to the Protestant Reformation and the Protestant church today. He discusses the new perspective on Paul and how it relates to Galatians. You’ll also learn important contextual information about who the Galatians were, why Paul wrote to them, and how they might have understood Paul’s letter. Dr. Moo guides you through the text, explaining the major themes and theological elements toward the goal of understanding how Paul’s letter to the Galatians applies to our lives and to the church.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon successful completion you should be able to :
- Compare the traditional view on justification to the new perspective
- Communicate important themes found within the text of Galatians
- Relate the identity of the Galatian church to the lives of modern believers

COURSE OUTLINES

Unit 1: Introduction and Background
- Who Were the Galatians? Part 1
- Searching for Place Information
- Who Were the Galatians? Part 2
- Why Did Paul Write the Letter?
- The Argument of the Letter
- The Tone of the Letter
- Opening Multiple Passages in Separate Tabs

Unit 2: The Autobiographical Argument
- An Overview of the Argument
- The Road to Damascus
- Paul’s Early Years as a Christian
- Paul’s Jerusalem Consultation
- Conflict in Antioch
- Finding a Book in the Pseudepigrapha
- Justification by Faith
- Works of the Law
- Using the NEAR Search Operator
- “The Faith of Jesus Christ”
- Examining a Grammatical Construction Using the Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament
- The New Perspective and Galatians
- “Righteousness” Language

Unit 3: The Theological Argument
- The Central Argument
- The Initial Appeal
- The Heart of Paul’s Argument
- Abraham and Faith
- The Law and the Curse
- Habakkuk 2:4 in the New Testament
- The Law and Salvation History
- The Law and Transgressions
- Studying Greek Synonyms with the Bible Sense and Louw-Nida Lexicons
- The Law and a Mediator
- The Law as Paidagōgos
- Union with Christ
- The Stoichea of the World
- Christ Formed in You
- The Story of Hagar and Sarah
- Looking Up Greek Words in a Greek-English Lexicon
- The Old and New Realms
- Justification
- Final Justification and Works
- A “Janus” Text

Unit 4: The Ethical Argument
- Living to Please God
- Freedom, Love, and the Law
- The Spirit and the Flesh
- The Law of Christ
- An Eschatological Warning

Unit 5: The Ending of the Epistle
- A Fitting Ending
- The New Creation
- The Israel of God

Unknown Binding

About the author

Douglas J. Moo (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Kenneth T. Wessner Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of commentaries on Romans, James, 2 Peter and Jude, and Colossians and Philemon and coauthor of An Introduction to the New Testament. He also headed the committee on Bible translation for the NIV revision.