Why is there no thanksgiving period in Galatians? Interpreters have long dealt with this question, affirming that the absence of a thanksgiving in Galatians is exegetically significant. (1) To give a fresh examination of this question, I will first survey the exegetical literature to document the various explanations offered for why Paul did not include a thanksgiving, a survey that will show that reading these explanations from 1:6-10 is so prevalent as to be an exegetical commonplace. Second, I will demonstrate that, contrary to most exegetical opinion surveyed, the Galatians would probably not have expected a thanksgiving period or noted its absence, because they did not know Paul's usual practice of including one in his letters and because it was not a common epistolary convention of the time. Finally, I will show that Paul's omission of a thanksgiving in Galatians is to be explained not primarily from his astonished rebuke in 1:6-10 but by the astonishing form and content of his prescript in 1:1-5. I. AN EXEGETICAL COMMONPLACE
