Galatians In Recent Study
GALATIANS IN RECENT STUDY
There is general agreement that Galatians is an authentic Pauline epistle and that it is very important for an understanding of Pauline thought. But there is considerable dispute about the location of the Galatian churches, and many recent scholars hold to the North Galatian theory (though South Galatia has many able supporters). If this is coupled with a suspicion of Lukan accuracy in Acts, the date of the letter is put late, in the general period in which the Roman and Corinthian letters were written. Knox even suggests that it may have been written from prison and therefore be one of Paul’s latest letters. 24But there is also strong support for the view that the letter is early, possibly the earliest of Paul’s letters. 25
Discussion continues as to the identity of the teachers Paul is opposing, and some recent writers are suspicious of the term "Judaizers.” We have already noted 26 that some scholars have argued that Paul’s opponents should be understood as libertines (see Gal. 5:13, 16) or even that they were Gnostics of some sort; sometimes they are thought to have been syncretists embracing features of both Judaism and Hellenism. A few have suggested that they were not Jewish but may even have been some of Paul’s own converts, 27 their further studies in the Old Testament Scriptures to which Paul had introduced them having led them to think that keeping of the law was indispensable.
All this raises the question whether there is more than one group that Paul is opposing or whether he is engaging in a unified argument. Despite the contentions of
some, who seem to be indulging in speculations that are not justified by the evidence, there is no real evidence in Galatians that Paul is fighting on two fronts; his enemies appear to have been one determined group. Most likely, the false teachers were Jews or Jewish Christians who came in from outside and advocated some form of Judaism. 28
Rising interest in rhetorical criticism has raised questions about the literary genre of this epistle. Thus H. D. Betz sees Galatians as "an example of the ‘apologetic letter’ genre.” 29 He says that in antiquity rhetoric "has little in common with the truth, but it is the exercise of those skills which make people believe something to be true.” 30 It is not easy to see this as a fair description of what Paul is doing. His deep concern for truth is evident on every page. Even less acceptable is Betz’s contention that Galatians is a "magical letter.” Paul speaks of a curse on false preachers (Gal. 1:9) and a blessing on "all who follow this rule” (6:16). Betz sees this as meaning that the letter itself bears the blessing and the curse. 31 But there is some doubt as to whether antiquity did in fact recognize the category of "magical letter,” and there is even more doubt that, if it did, Paul would have used it. It is hard to think of anyone more opposed to magic than Paul was. 32
A good deal of recent discussion centers on the arguments put forward by E. P. Sanders,33 who rejects the idea that the Jews of the day saw the keeping of the law as the means whereby they merited salvation. Sanders argues for what he calls "covenantal nomism”: the Jews were saved because of their membership in the people with whom God had made a covenant, and the law was simply to regulate their life in the covenant community. Obedience to the law is conceived as important for remaining in the covenant community. This has served as a salutary corrective of some harsh and anachronistic views about Jewish beliefs in the first century, but it stands in serious need of qualification. Specifically, it has been objected that Sanders does not take seriously enough Jewish teaching about the rewards of righteousness and the punishment of sin; 34 nor is his exegesis of Paul above criticism. 35 Sanders has given a useful corrective to some earlier views, but he cannot be said to have come up with a universally acceptable solution to the problem. 36
Sanders thinks that the fundamental distinction between Paul and Judaism does not turn on justification, but on Christology. Christians accepted Jesus as Messiah; most Jews did not. Sanders rejects the commonly held view that Paul means that people cannot keep the law. "The whole thrust of the argument is that righteousness was never, in God’s plan, intended to be by law...the problem with the law is not that it cannot be fulfilled. Paul has a view of God’s intention which excludes righteousness by the law.” Jews generally insisted that those who would become members of the people of God must become full proselytes, with the consequent acceptance of the law of Moses. But for Paul those who are "of works of law” are under a curse (Gal. 3:10). 37
Sanders’s views have been popularized and expounded at many levels. For instance, one recent essay questions "the Protestant understanding of Galatians,” which it sees as "the clear, deliberate expression of the Pauline gospel of justification by faith, as opposed to works.” 38 Gordon prefers to put the emphasis on the opposition of the Torah to faith in Christ and asks, "Shall the people of God be identified by Torah or by Christ?” 39 In this he is undoubtedly drawing attention to an important truth, but it must not be forgotten that Galatians does speak significantly often of being justified by faith (Gal. 2:16 bis; 3:8, 11, 24) or "justified in Christ” (2:17), not by works of law (2:16 [three times]; 3:11). In correcting a view that overlooks the contrast between Christ and Torah and simply opposes faith to works, we must not overlook the truth that justification by faith in Christ is by its very nature opposed to any view of justification by works, those of the Torah or any other.
Whether or not his work is accepted without criticism, Sanders has so set the agenda of recent Pauline studies that a substantial part of current work largely presupposes his findings and proceeds to build on them. For instance, in his recent monograph, Barclay thoughtfully examines Paul’s ethics as expressed in Galatians. 40 At the level of his exegesis of large parts of Galatians 5 and 6, Barclay’s work is careful and stimulating; how he relates it to the rest of the epistle, however, turns in large part on adopting, rather uncritically, large parts of Sanders’s structure. It is rather rare to find a book like that of Thielman, 41 who argues against Sanders at a pressing point. Because Sanders thinks the fundamental difference between (unconverted) Jew and Christian in Paul is Christology, therefore on matters such as sin and grace and forgiveness, Paul is really arguing "from solution to plight”: that is, Paul knows the solution, namely Jesus, and then argues back to the plight. Thielman argues that when Paul in Galatians and Romans professedly sets out the plight (i.e. sin, or rebellion against God and his law) and then turns to the solution, he is not resorting to a pedagogical device but is borrowing from a standard pattern in both the Old Testament and in the Judaism of his day. Although Thielman’s work barely begins to satisfy the need for more probing of the extraordinarily complex questions surrounding Paul’s understanding of the law, it is a useful reminder that the synthesis proposed by Sanders can be challenged at many points.
The influence of Sanders should not allow us to overlook other topics of debate over the epistle to the Galatians. Paul begins the letter by asserting his apostleship and its importance. W. Schmithals has given a good deal of attention to the nature of the apostolate and has strongly argued that there were Gnostic apostles ranged in opposition to Paul. 42 The difficulty with his position is that there is no evidence for developed Gnosticism during Paul’s lifetime. That Paul valued his apostleship highly is clear, and that he faced opposition is not in doubt. But that Gnosticism is involved is highly improbable on the basis of the facts available to us. 43
Again, Cosgrove has argued that the question Paul is addressing in this epistle is explicitly articulated in Galatians 3:5 (our translation): "Does the one who supplies you with the Spirit and works wonders among you do so because of works of the law or because you heard [the gospel] and believed?” In others words, Paul and his readers share a charismatic background, and the question that now exercises the Galatians is the ground of Christian life in the Spirit. 44 Although Cosgrove attempts to justify his choice of Galatians 3:5 as the pivotal articulation of the epistle’s theme, his methodological rationale is far from convincing. Moreover, it is hard to believe that the Galatians are concerned about the law (including such initiatory matters as circumcision), not with respect to conversion, but exclusively with respect to progress in the life of the Spirit.