Galatians and the Imperial Cult  Justin K. Hardin Mohr Siebeck,
Tübingen March 31, 2008  Hardin proposes that the underlying
problem in Galatians is related to emperor worship and not to
indigenous religions of Anatolia. He argues cogently that the
“local Jewish-believer agitators were . . . compelling Gentile
Jesus-believers to undergo circumcision in an effort to convince
the authorities that Christianity was part of a religio licita”
(p. 12). The agitators, who were local Galatians and not
emissaries from Jerusalem (pp. 94, 152), sought to have Gentile
believers join the ranks of Judaism through circumcision (Gal.
6:12). Thus the agitators hoped to avoid persecution from the
civil authorities “for affiliating with Gentiles who had ceased
observing the public worship of the emperor” (p. 150).
Circumcised Gentiles “would have ‘normalised’ [sic] their place
in society” (pp. 142–43).  In chapters 2 and 3 Hardin discusses
the pervasiveness of the imperial cult in the Roman Empire,
including the province of Gala