I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. (Galatians 1: 6-7)

Paul is thought to have founded the Galatian churches about ten years before writing this letter, sometime during the decade of the 40s.

We are within the first quarter-century after the resurrection. The New Testament does not exist. The gospels have not been written. No institutional church is in place.

There may have been one or more collections of Jesus' sayings in circulation. At Jerusalem a few intimates of Jesus continue to focus on local religious reform.

There is no common knowledge of what Jesus taught or what the teachings meant. Rather there are many contending concepts.

Paul had founded the Galatian churches around the Grace of Christ - Charis Christos - or the joy of the annointed one.

He is astonished, amazed, wonders about, marvels at - the tone is difficult to precisely discern - that the Galatians are leaving his core concept for another.

Paul insists the other concept is distorted. It will take the Galatians in the wrong direction and create nothing but trouble.

Whether or not Paul is right, his concept will be fundamental to how Christianity emerges as more than a reform movement within Judaism.