Galatians ca. 54 CE

1
Galatians ca. 54 CE

• Big Bird One of these things is not like the
  other thing. One of these things just doesnt
  belong
• Each of the following openings to Pauls
  uncontested letters begins with a From/To
  heading and then follows with a more personal
  greeting. Were omitting the From/To headings
  here and just looking at the personal greetings.
• 1 Thessalonians 12 We always give thanks to God
  for all of you and mention you in our prayers
• 1 Corinthians 5 I give thanks to my God always
  for you because of the grace of God that has been
  given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you
  have been enriched in him, in speech and
  knowledge of every kind
• 2 Corinthians 14 Blessed be the God and Father
  of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
  and the God of all consolation, who consoles us
  in all our affliction, so that we may be able to
  console those who are in any affliction with the
  consolation with which we ourselves are consoled
  by God A real tongue twister! Try I am the
  son of a sheet slitters son I slit sheets till
  the sheet slitter comes.
• Romans 18 First, I thank my God through Jesus
  Christ for all of you, because your faith is
  proclaimed throughout the world
• Philemon 4 When I remember you in my prayers, I
  always thank my God
• Philippians 13 I thank my God every time I
  remember you
• Galatians 16 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

2

• What put Pauls knickers in such a twist?
• The faith communities of Galatia were comprised
  of Celtic converts from paganism (Gal 48-9) who
  were now being enticed by other Christian
  missionaries to add the observances of the Jewish
  law, including the rite of circumcision, to the
  cross of Christ as a means of salvation.
• These Judaizing Christians insisted on the
  necessity of following certain precepts of the
  Mosaic law along with faith in Christ.
• They were undermining Paul's authority also,
  asserting
• that he had not been trained by Jesus himself,
• that his gospel did not agree with that of the
  original and true apostles in Jerusalem,
• that he had kept from his converts in Galatia the
  necessity of accepting circumcision and other key
  obligations of the Jewish law, in order more
  easily to win them to Christ, and that his gospel
  was thus not the full and authentic one held by
  "those of repute" in Jerusalem (Gal 22).

3

• Paul responds
• by defending his credentials as an apostle,
• by explaining his teaching on justification by
  faith,
• and by appealing to the Scriptures he and his
  opponents shared.
• Defending his credentials
• Though Paul was not trained by Jesus, his
  teaching comes directly from the risen Jesus.
  The gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of
  human origin for I did not receive it from a
  human source, nor was I taught it, but I received
  it through a revelation of Jesus Christ
  (111b-12).
• He did not need the authority of any other
  apostles. Paul an apostlesent neither by human
  commission nor by human authorities, but through
  Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him
  from the dead (11). I did not confer with
  any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to
  those who were already apostles before me
  (116b-17).
• Nevertheless, he did seek out and secure the
  endorsement of the Jerusalem leadership. He still
  insists he didnt need it, but he got it anyway
  (next slide).

4
Galatians 21-10 Then after fourteen years I went
up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus
along with me. I went up in response to a
revelation. Then I laid before them (though only
in a private meeting with the acknowledged
leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the
Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not
running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus,
who was with me, was not compelled to be
circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because
of false believers secretly brought in, who
slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in
Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us we
did not submit to them even for a moment, so that
the truth of the gospel might always remain with
you. And from those who were supposed to be
acknowledged leaders (what they actually were
makes no difference to me God shows no
partiality)those leaders contributed nothing to
me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had
been entrusted with the gospel for the
uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted
with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who
worked through Peter making him an apostle to the
circumcised also worked through me in sending me
to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and
John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized
the grace that had been given to me, they gave to
Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship,
agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and
they to the circumcised. They asked only one
thing, that we remember the poor, which was
actually what I was eager to do.
5

• Explaining his teaching on justification by
  faith
• We are put right (justified) not through
  obeying the Law but through the faithfulness of
  Jesus Christ (216). We are included in Gods
  covenant people, the Israel of God (616)
  solely by Gods gracious action in Christ for our
  sake.
• The cross, not the Law, is the basis of our
  relationship to God. The cross is interpreted not
  primarily as an atoning sacrifice for forgiveness
  of sins, but as a cataclysmic event that has
  broken the power of forces that held humanity
  captive, brought the old world to an end, and
  inaugurated a new creation.
• The indwelling Spirit, not the Law, sets us free
  to live in a community ordered by love. Through
  the Spirit in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
  nor uncircumcision counts for anything the only
  thing that counts is faith working through love
  for you were called to freedom, brothers and
  sisters only do not use your freedom as an
  opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love
  become slaves to one another. For the whole Law
  is summed up in a single commandment, You shall
  love your neighbor as yourself Live by the
  Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of
  the flesh (55b-6, 13-14, 15).
• In the new community created by the Spirit, the
  markers that once separated Jews from Gentiles
  have been invalidated (There is no longer Jew or
  Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is
  no longer male and female, for all of you are one
  in Christ Jesus 328). Gods purpose is to
  create a single new people who are one in Christ
  Jesus, bound together in faith and love.
• Freedom in Christ is not the freedom of
  autonomous individuals. It is freedom for
  community (or communion) governed by love and
  animated by the shared Spirit.

6

• Appealing to shared Scripture
• Gods prior covenant with Abraham was a promise
  to bless all families. A later covenant (i.e. the
  Law) cannot annul an earlier covenant (317).
• Gods covenant with Abraham was unconditional,
  unlike the Mosaic covenant.
• While Abraham was circumcised, what counted was
  Gods promise and Abrahams faith (36-7)

7
Galatians 36-18  Just as Abraham believed God,
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness
Genesis 156, so, you see, those who believe
are the descendants of Abraham. And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the
Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand
to Abraham, saying, All the Gentiles shall be
blessed in you. Genesis 123, 1818 For this
reason, those who believe are blessed with
Abraham who believed.  For all who rely on the
works of the law are under a curse for it is
written, Cursed is everyone who does not observe
and obey all the things written in the book of
the law. Deuteronomy 2726 Now it is evident
that no one is justified before God by the law
for The one who is righteous will live by
faith. Habakkuk 24 But the law does not rest
on faith on the contrary, Whoever does the
works of the law will live by them. Leviticus
185 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for usfor it is written,
Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree
Deuteronomy 2123 in order that in Christ
Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the
Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith.  Brothers and sisters,
I give an example from daily life once a
persons will has been ratified, no one adds to
it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to
Abraham and to his offspring it does not say,
And to offsprings, as of many but it says,
And to your offspring, Genesis 1315, 178
that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point
is this the law, which came four hundred and
thirty years later, does not annul a covenant
previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the
promise. For if the inheritance comes from the
law, it no longer comes from the promise but God
granted it to Abraham through the promise.
8
Paul and the Rise of Allegorical Interpretation

• Paul also resorts to an allegorical (symbolic)
  interpretation of Genesis, which looks odd at
  best.
• For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one
  by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.
  One, the child of the slave, was born according
  to the flesh the other, the child of the free
  woman, was born through the promise. Now this is
  an allegory these women are two covenants. One
  woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai,
  bearing children for slavery. Now Hagar is Mount
  Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present
  Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her
  children. But the other woman corresponds to the
  Jerusalem above she is free, and she is our
  mother. Galatians 422-26
• Compare this with Genesis 16 21Does Pauls
  interpretation seem natural or forced?

9

• In his early interpretations of Genesis,
  Augustine alluded to Pauls example.
• If no other way is available of reaching
  understanding of what is said that is religious
  and worthy of God, except by supposing that it
  has all been set before us in a figurative sense
  and in riddles, we have the authority of the
  apostles for doing this, seeing that they solved
  so many riddles in the books of the Old Testament
  in this manner On Genesis A Refutation of the
  Manichees, 2.3.

10

• For example, here is Genesis 24b-6 In the day
  that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
  when no plant of the field was yet in the earth
  and no herb of the field had yet sprung up a
  stream would rise from the earth, and water the
  whole face of the ground
• Here is Augustines interpretation with
  comments in On Genesis, 2.7
• The earth and the heavensthe whole visible
  creation well, sure
• Daythe whole of time hmmm
• Plant of the fieldthe invisible creation huh?
• The spring rising from the earth and watering the
  whole face of the groundthe flood of truth
  drenching the soul before sin who knew?