SAINT PAUL’S LETTER TO THE
GALATIANS
BY
UROUNA JAMES
GBORU ANDREW
OLAOYE JOACHIM
AIBELUNUN PAUL
MUOGBO MICHAEL
DOGO MATTHIAS
ALUFOHAI GODWIN
BEING A TERM PAPER
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY SAINTS PETER AND PAUL MAJOR SEMINARY
BODIJA, IBADAN IN AFFILIATION TO THE PONTIFICAL URBAN UNIVERSITY ROME, ITALY IN
PARTIAL FUFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ART DEGREE IN THEOLOGY
COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO
NEW TESTAMENT
LECTURER: REV. FR. FRANCIS
OBAFEMI ADESINA
DATE: DECEMBER, 2018
UROUNA JAMES
THE BACKGROUND
Paul’s
recollection of his good and miracle-filled experience with the Galatians fuels
his anger towards them for he found it hard to understand why they would after
such encounter with them, now consider him as one who preached to them a
defective gospel of Christ. This was due to the fact that some Jewish
Christians came to Galatia after Paul’s departure, preaching a counterfeit
gospel to Paul’s, which is that of salvation through circumcision to
participate in the Abrahamic covenant.
Paul on the other
hand is seen to have preached a persuasive gospel devoid of the circumcision
factor as a requirement for salvation, but a gospel of justification by faith
in Christ both for Jews and Gentiles.
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE MESSAGE
Opening: Paul calls
himself an apostle, a name he claims to have originated from Jesus himself, and
here, he is seen to have mentioned a co-sender, that is the message was solely
from him (Paul) to the Churches of Galatia, and is marked by an angry response
to the attacks on him.
The Body: the body opens
with an introduction which presents immediately the issue at hand but with firm
seriousness. Paul then renders a defence of the gospel he preaches as being
divinely revealed and not from human beings. He did this by narrating the key
events of his conversion and preaching apostolate and of his acceptance as an
apostle for the uncircumcised.
Paul then advances
six arguments from the scripture and experience supporting his claims that the
Galatians let themselves be deceived. He started from Christ’s crucifixion and
the reception of the spirit without the law, emphasising the law as only a
custodian before the advent of Christ, to the desire of the Galatians to become
slaves by law again even though they have already been saved by the son’s
redemptive act, the inconceivable idea of him who was regarded as an angel by
them to suddenly become their enemy, and the wrong lessons drawn by the
preachers from Abraham, Hagar and Sarah.
He concludes the body by
affirming the place of faith and not the law in combating the works of the
flesh that are opposed to the spirit. He concludes by stating in categorical
words against circumcision that in the Israel of God he preaches it doesn’t
matter if one is circumcised or not.
Aftermath Of Galatians In Paul’s Career
OLAOYE JOACHIM AND ALUFOHAI GODWIN
The errors of Judaizer
who had come to disturb the faith of the Galatians provoked Paul’s letter to
the Galatians. Paul was angry that the Galatians could easily accept a wrong
doctrine and not only that; Paul was regarded by the Galatians as fake preacher
who is not authentic. Here we could see his sentiment. The use of intemperate
language by Paul in addressing the Galatians could be seen as an expression of
disappointment in them. In Gal.3: 1 we came across the expression ‘you foolish
Galatians’ and also came across another one in Gal. 1:9 ‘anyone who preaches to
you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under curse’
The intemperate
language used by Paul could further not help the issue on ground but could
further cause more division among the Galatians. If we put ourselves in the
shoe of the Galatians we could imagine what could be their feeling that a
prophet of God who has once preached to them about being a good Christian; now
casting spell and curse on them. That could be scandalous to them and that
could made them to doubt more about the authenticity of Paul’s teaching.
More so, we can also
see another appalling word in this letter
‘I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and
mutilate themselves’ the judaizer would never forgive Paul for uttering this.
Paul painted them as deceitful preacher and also attacked their personality.
And it is assume that Paul derogative remark about the Jews and Peter would
have gotten to Jerusalem. And that might have led to his thought of going back
to Jerusalem.
Could Paul be excused
by the Galatians for his unguided expression on the ground that he is angry. Or
could the Galatians understand with Paul that, it is a weakness for him. Even
from this various possibilities it could establish that aftermath of Galatians
would necessarily have negative impact on the Galatians.
These
questions probe directly into the controversy of whom exactly Paul was writing
to and when exactly he wrote the letter. The term Galatia brought some form of
ambiguity with it, especially with regards to the understanding of the areas
referred to because of the political and geographical history attached to
Galatia which was at one time restricted to a mountainous central section
around Ancyra and at another time incorporated into the Rome as the province of
Galatia including Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. The contention
is between two positions categorized under two theories: The South Galatian
theory which holds that the letter is addressed to the Christians in those
cities in the southern part of the province of Galatia and The North Galatian
theory which holds that the letter is addressed to the ethnic Galatians in the
north central region. The latter is the majority theory. However, in this
letter addressed by Paul, he mentions that his first preaching of the gospel in
that area is coincidental due to his poor health that interrupted his journey
unexpectedly, but he also acknowledged and commended the hospitality of the
people (4:13-15).
The South
Galatian theory which was proposed in the last two centuries and defended by
scholars like W.M. Ramsay and F.F Bruce holds that there are evidences in Acts
that Paul evangelized the southern part of the province of Galatia during his
first missionary journey and briefly during his second journey. However Acts
didn’t refer to the southern region as Galatia, instead it placed them within
their specific districts like Antioch in Pisidia and Derbe in Lycaonia.
According to Acts, the Jews and gentiles where reached by Paul’s mission but
the indication in Galatians doesn’t include the Jews. Arguments for the
Southern theory include Paul’s habit of employing the names of Roman provinces.
This theory suggests that the letter could have been written in 50 A.D after
Paul’s missionary journey
The North
Galatian Theory which seems more persuasive holds that the term Galatians is
appropriated to the people who were ethnically of that descent than for the
Hellenized city populace. This theory draws inferences and based its argument
on the movement of Paul and the hindrances he had at some regions during his
missionary journey. This theory suggests that the letter was written about 54
or 55 A.D.
The “Faith [pistis] of Christ” (2:16, etc.) DOGO MATTHIAS
As aforementioned, both (Paul and
the Preachers) proclaimed what God accomplished through Christ in terms of
Justification for both the Jews and gentiles. However, the difference(s) in
their message lies on how the gentile were to receive this gift of God in
Christ Jesus. Hence, Paul’s major discuss centered on being justified or
justification not from the works of the law but from and through faith of
Christ Jesus.[1] Now, the construction “from/through faith of
Christ” (ek/dia pisteos christou) can
both understood in the objective and subjective genitive. In the objective
sense, it implies Christian faith in Christ Jesus. While in the subjective
sense, this refers to faith possessed or manifested in Christ.
In interpretation, the faith of
Christ is sometimes understood to mean his fidelity to God’s plan, which
brought about justification.[2]
Though, the more common interpretation is faith in Christ (through the crucifixion and resurrection) found in Gal
3:26, which is seen as a response that brings about justification, although God
also generates the response, a divine grace given to believe. Nonetheless,
scholars such as Martyn believes that Gal 2:20-21 shows that Christ’s faith is
Christ’s faithful death. However, others would suggest that Christ’s faith
manifested in his death is given to his followers through faith in Christ.[3]
GBORU ANDREW
ISSUES AND PROBLEMS FOR REFLECTION
1.
VARIOUS PROPOSALS: Many scholars have
written on those who opposed Paul in Galatia. Since the 20th century, many
scholars have argued that simultaneously, Paul was opposed by two groups;
Judaizing Christians from Jerusalem (who insist on the circumcision of
gentiles) and the Libertine Proponents of the Spirit (who believe they could
gratify the desires of the flesh). Studies suggest that Gal. 5: 16-26 must have
been directed to the libertines. Some other proposals suggest that the preachers
weren’t outsiders but of the community.
However, these proposals seem to create
unnecessary complications at the neglect of the fact that some Jewish Christian
preachers came demanding circumcision of the gentiles in the Galatian Church.
2.
INTERPRETATION OF THE ABRAHAM/SARAH/ HAGAR STORY: Paul and the preachers were judged to be at contrast on the
implicative interpretations of the Abraham/Sarah/Hagar story in Genesis 12, 15
and 17 which emphasise God’s promise of blessing the gentiles through the faith
of Abraham. Paul and the preachers’ way of interpreting seem quite different
from that of modern exegesis, as it was very free and more than literal
compared to modern standard. Despite this difference, there remains the
question of whose interpretive version can be judged to be more convincing to
the gentiles.
3.
MODERN EXEGESIS: Compared to modern
standard, problem arises with Paul’s interpretive use of the Old Testament text
of Heb. 2: 3-4 which makes reference to faith. There is however some
interpretive differences in the Hebrew Old Testament, Greek Old Testament, the
DSS, the letter to the Hebrews and in Paul’s citations in Galatians (3:11) and
Romans (1:17) where he interprets the Hebrew passage to mean that the just live
by faith in or in fidelity to Jesus Christ.
4.
REVELATION THROUGH CHRIST: Previous
paragraphs show that some arguments of Paul for faith and law might not be very
convincing in themselves. We should not think he derived his position from
these unconvincing arguments rather, the
position shows a conviction in a gospel that is not of human authority but
through a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. Thus, in this revelation, Paul
gains a new perspective to the Gospel where God transforms the world through
Christ’s crucifixion. Outside his
polemics, the positive message in Galatians is central to understanding
Paul because even though his words were
shaped to adequately counter the preachers, yet most of what he said about
Christ, faith and freedom could have been said even if the problem with the preachers
never existed.
5.
PAUL’S CONTRAST AGAINST LAW AND FREEDOM: In Galatians, Paul contrasts both the law and freedom. It could be
that the preachers were concerned about the distinct ethical directives in the
law which seemed to have been left loose in Paul’s teaching. Freedom is good
but must be defined. Paul counters them by condemning a misunderstanding of
freedom and so he warns those who walk by the Spirit to stay far from “works of
the flesh” which he lists in Gal.: 5:17-21. In a way, his words have come to
become a guiding principle or law for Christians.
6.
PAUL’S APOCALYPTIC MIND-SET: Paul’s
apocalyptic mindset lead to his denial of social or political equality when he
famously denied the difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and
female. Although he mentions inequality among Christians in some of his other
writings, however, he simply emphasises equality through Christ in God’s
salvation plan when he mentions “you are all one is Christ Jesus”.
7.
MARCION’S MISUNDERSTANDING OF PAUL: Marcion’s
New Testament is considered to be majorly Pauline (Luke and ten epistles).
Marcion rejects the Old Testament and all of heritage from Judaism, but this is
seen as an extreme adaptation from Paulinism. Marcion was a student of Paul and
according to F. Overbect, Marcion was the only student who understood Paul, he
was also the student who misunderstood him. Perhaps this is why the 2nd century
Jewish Christians came to hate Paul as he was considered to have influenced the
Jewish heritage delay the spread of the gospel. Finding in Galatians, comments
against the law and how it seemed to have fuelled Marcion’s absolutism and
later Jewish antagonism gives us a picture of how scripture can be
misinterpreted outside the author’s intention.
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