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Galatians >> Gauls >> Gaels

September 13th, 2010

Speaking of the flow of linguistic and cultural phenomena...

Our church has been continuing to study the New Testament book of Galatians.  One of the interesting bits of trivia associated with this book of the Bible relates to its original audience.  The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to people living in the part of the world that is now central-Turkey -- but was then called Galatia.  There's some debate about whether the recipients of Paul's letter were ethnic Galatians or Greco-Roman citizens of a particular province in the Roman Empire... But I think it's fascinating to note that the Galatians eventually migrated onto mainland Europe.  In the northwest part of the Continent, they came to be known as Gauls (a word which is still strongly associated with French culture).  And then on the British Isles, they came to be known as Gaels -- a word which then became further modified to Celts.

Did you know that?

I think it's fascinating (though, honestly, not particularly meaningful) to consider that the book of Galatians was, in a sense, written to the Gauls and the Gaels/Celts who eventually became so dominant in this part of the world.  The Gallic influence even crept into the southernmost part of the Netherlands at one point -- so you could say that Dutch people are among the descendents of the original audience for Paul's letter to the Galatians!  Cool, huh?

This entry is filed under The Bible, Culture.

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