Three Streams

Introduction

Regarding the task of exegesis Gordon Fee writes ‘The key to good exegesis is the ability to ask the right questions of the text in order to get at the authors meaning’.[1] In this essay I will seek to place chapter one of Galatians in the light of the overall argument of the letter. This will inform the discussion of the next stage which will be to discuss how the original hearers would have heard Paul. The Third stage will be to indicate the exegetical issues that are raised in seeking to understand the context and how the original hearers would have heard Paul. The essay does not seek to raise or answer all of these issues but only to highlight them. The final stage will be to consider the contemporary application of one of the exegetical issues. This should be the purpose of all good exegesis, that is, the putting into practice of the truth that has been learned. Application at the expense of exegesis leads to error and exegetical knowledge without application is as dead as ‘faith without works’.

Chapter One in light of the overall argument of Galatians

The New Testament has been referred to as ‘a bad tempered book’[2]; the reason for this is that the nature of much of the NT material is polemical. It was written in the furnace of adversary of conflicting worldviews each competing for centre stage. Galatians is an excellent example of this kind of situation. Paul is writing to a church in order to correct a situation that he sees as being hazardous to the spiritual well being of the church.

The people he has written are gentile converts, many were his own converts. It seems that certain people known as Judaisers had infiltrated the church and were pressurising the new converts to embrace a Jewish lifestyle with its traditions and commandments. There are various debates in regards the question of who these Judaisers were; it seems most likely that they were Jewish Christians who believed that gentile converts needed to embrace the full Jewish way of life in order to be fully included in the people of God or in Pauline terms in order to be ‘justified.[3]

The question it seems is not that it is wrong for Jewish converts to Christianity to continue in their customs and practices but that it is wrong for these demands to be placed upon the gentile Christians. Paul’s argument is that the Jews themselves are not justified by their obedience to the law and he scathingly rebukes the Judaisers for excluding the gentiles on the basis of the Law of Moses.

Relevance of the passage to the original hearers

In regards to the arguments set forth by Paul Barclay writes ‘We must remember that Paul is not directly responding to the opponents message, but responding to its effects on the confused Christians in Galatia.’[4] The word confused could probably sum up the condition of the hearers of Paul’s message. Regarding the theology that Paul sets forth in his letter Dunn writes ‘It is theology engaging with the challenge of contemporary interpretations of central beliefs and with the crossfire of who to believe and how to act’[5]. Paul’s use of rhetoric includes an appeal at the emotional level as well as the logical level in order to win his hearers back to himself.[6] The Galatians converts would have been emotionally, intellectually and spiritually pulled in two different directions. It is clear by process of mirror reading[7] that Paul’s opponents (to some extent) must have been maligning his character as well as his message. This is why Paul goes to great lengths to defend his apostleship (Gal 1:1), the divine origins of his gospel (Gal 1:11-12) and the independence of his ministry yet fellowship with the Jerusalem church (Gal 1:13-2:14). ‘It has been remarked that in this letter Paul needs to defend himself before he defends his gospel’.[8]

For the Galatians questions of faithfulness to God, the scriptures, the apostle who brought the message, and the opposing message brought to them by the Judaisers would have been pulling them to pieces. Questions of belonging and acceptance would have been surfacing within them as would doubts about the maverick apostle who brought them his own unique brand of the gospel. The letter could have various effects on each of them, some may have got defensive, some may have been relieved and others may have been confused even further.

Key Exegetical issues

Galatians raises several exegetical issues on the whole particularly when Paul’s letter invokes a curse on those who deliver a different gospel other than the one that he preached (Gal 1:6-10). The reading of chapter one raises several key exegetical issues and questions. The issues are as follows; what is the nature of this false gospel? What is the nature of the true gospel that Paul preached? Who are the Judaisers? What were the beliefs and practices of the Judaisers? How were they opposing Paul? Was Paul addressing two issues in Galatia i.e. legalism by Judaism and licence in some of the gentiles? As alluded to earlier, mirror reading helps reconstruct some of the original context but overall these issues have been heatedly debated and I in no way intend to attempt to answer them here (even if I could).

The key exegetical that underpins the letter of Galatians is that of the ‘old perspective’ on Paul versus ‘the new perspective’. Ever since the reformation the Paul has been read through ‘Lutheran Spectacles’. Martin Luther interpreted Galatians through his understanding of Paul’s understanding of justification by faith. It is this that he sees as being under threat by the Judaisers. Luther’s understanding was that Paul was arguing against justification by ‘works of the Law’ and defending Justification by grace alone, through faith alone through Christ alone.

St Paul therefore in this epistle goeth about diligently to instruct us, to comfort us, to hold us in the perfect knowledge of this most Christian and excellent righteousness. For if the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost’.[9]

Recent scholarship has revealed several consequences of Luther’s interpretation of Paul and justification by faith. This scholarship highlights that ‘law’ in Galatians (and other Pauline texts) has been understood in light of Luther’s conflict with Roman Catholicism. Secondly, Luther’s negative view on Roman Catholicism has been equated with Paul’s view of Judaism. E.P. Sanders has been the spearhead of this new perspective on Paul.

James Dunn draws out the impact of Lutheran theology upon the western protestant church and the unfortunate consequences thereof. Concerning Martin Luther’s restatement on justification by faith Dunn writes

His restatement of this insight, not least in his lectures on Galatians, lit a torch which has continued to illuminate western Christianity ever since…The collary of Luther’s restatement however, was less fortunate. For in understanding ‘works of the law’ as good works done to achieve righteousness his thinking was beginning to at a tangent to Paul’s. Moreover in attributing this belief in self achieved righteousness to the Jews of Paul’s day he added a further twist to the disparagement of Judaism which was not uncommon in his own day. And, not least, in interpreting the whole theology of justification by faith in terms of his own individual search for a quiet conscience, he lost sight of the whole corporate dimension of Paul’s doctrine as a way of asserting that Gentiles could be reckoned wholly acceptable to God without becoming proselytes…the added factor which Paul himself was protesting against was not individual human effort, but the assumption that ethnic origin and identity is a factor in determining the grace of God and its expression. [10]

Longnecker addresses the same issue in his commentary ‘To be sure, as E.P. Sanders has rightly reminded us, the ‘covenantal nominism’ of first century Judaism understood Torah observance not as merit amassing, but as a gladsome response to a loving God who had acted on his peoples behalf and who asked that they in turn identify themselves as his people by keeping his ordinances’.[11]

It seems then that the situation in Galatia was that Paul’s ‘works of the Law’, was a summary for the legalism that surfaced when the ‘Law’ was forced on gentile converts whether evidently through the proselytising of the Judaisers or more subtly through hypocrisy of Jewish believers (Gal 2:13). It is possible that the Judaisers tried to win the gentile converts to the law as a means to tackle licence in the church. The fact that licence to sin was a possibility in Galatia is that at the end of the epistle he ceases to tackle legalism but begins to tackle ‘works of the flesh’ (Gal 5).

Contemporary application of exegetical issue

Since Galatians includes a warning and curse against any perversion of the New Testament Gospel contemporary Christians need to take all the more care to be sure that the ‘gospel’ they have received is indeed the New Testament gospel. This is perhaps less easy to assess than some might think. The Galatians whom Paul addressed would have had no doubt what gospel that he meant. They had heard him preach this gospel to them. Contemporary Christians need to interpret their gospel in the light of the biblical evidence and over two thousand years of church history which is tainted by the divisiveness of denominationism.

I am not sure ecumenical solutions that would emphasis some key facts about believing in Jesus Christ offer much help in this area either. It is clear that the Judaisers too believed in this Jesus for forgiveness of sins yet their gospel was counterfeit according to Paul. From this it is not only believing in Jesus but how we believe.

There is also a warning here for those of us living and influenced by our current post-modern context. Post-modernity is scathingly rebuking of certainty and absolute truth claims. There is a pressure to consider ones worldview as a matter of personal opinion with no authority. However as F. F. Bruce pointedly expresses regarding the nature of the gospel message

It is the message, and not the messenger, that ultimately matters. The gospel preached by Paul is not the true gospel because it is Paul who preaches it; it is the true gospel because the risen Christ gave it to Paul to preach.[12]

Christians need to have confidence in the apostolic authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In regards to its claims it does not give us the post-modern luxury of abandoning conviction of the absolute certainty of the objective work of Christ and the subjective response that it demands.

Conclusion

Having sought to understand Galatians in its original context by the help of critical scholarship key exegetical issues have been identified. The most critical of these perhaps being the Lutheran approach at which Protestants have inherited used when interpreting the text. The New Pauline Perspective has certainly exposed some of the exegetical fallacies that have hindered the interpretation of Galatians. Having identified Galatians as a rebuke to the church for abandoning the true gospel I then draw a contemporary application. The application is that there is only one gospel and the church can not afford to compromise it even in the context of increasing social pressure that would make it easy to do so.

Bibliography

Barclay, J., Mirror Reading a Polemical Letter: Galatians a Test Case (JSNT, 1995).

Barclay, J., Obeying the Truth: A Study of Paul’s Ethics in Galatians, (Edinburgh, T & T Clark, 1988).

Bruce, F.F., Galatians, Exeter, Paternoster Press, 1982)

Carson, D.A., France, R.T., Moyter, J.A., Wenham, G.J., New Bible Commentary, (England, IVP, 2005).

Dunn, J., New Testament Theology: The Theology of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, (England, Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Fee, G., New Testament Exegesis: A Hand Book for Students and Pastors, (USA, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).

Hawthorne, G.F., Martin, R.P., Reid, D.G., Dictionary of Paul and his Letters (England, IVP, 1993).

Longenecker, R.N., Word Biblical Commentary: Galatians, Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990).

Luther, M., A Commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, (London, John Clark and Co, 1953).