Chapter three of the epistle to the Galatians begins with this sobering question.
Galatians 3:1
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
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What foolishness are we talking about here? And who are these bewitchers?
But first, how do we define "bewitched"?
Definition: bewitched
transitive verb. 1 a : to influence or affect especially injuriously by witchcraft. b : to cast a spell over. 2. : to attract as if by the power of witchcraft : enchant, fascinate. bewitched by her beauty.
Someone cast a spell over the Galatians. An injurious influence to enchant and gain power over them. The Apostle Paul is furious. He calls them foolish!
So, who are these spellcasting monsters that are trying to devour the church at Galatia? And are they still around today? Let's review the context.
Galatians 3:1-6
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
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There are several questions asked of the Galatians by the Apostle:
1) Who has bewitched you?
2) Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
3) Are you so foolish?
4) After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
5) Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?
6) -- question #2 is repeated here, thus giving it extra emphasis.
This doesn't identify the perpetrators, but identifies the problem. Someone was trying to get them under the law. To entice them to do the fleshly works of the law instead of continue as they had begun, by the Spirit.
To find the perpetrators, we need to back up to the pervious chapter which ends with this.
Galatians 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
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In chapter two the offenders are named in the situation with Peter (Cephas) and the Circumcision Group. (Sabbatarians in today's terminology)
Galatians 2:11-14
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?