Galatians is often understood as the great letter teaching
justification by faith in Christ alone. Paul inveighs against false
teachers who teach Christians to supplement the work of Christ with
their own keeping of the law as part of earning salvation.
This
traditional reading has been powerful and edifying. However, setting
Galatians within a plausible ancient social setting reveals further
powerful functions of the letter. Galatians turns out to be more than
a container delivering the timeless and vital doctrine of salvation
by believing and not by doing. The approach to Galatians in this
article seeks to establish plausible ancient social settings
primarily through exploring a constellation of ancient Mediterranean
cultural codes. This contextual orienting helps modern readers
appreciate how issues that seem to us bizarre or insignificant might
have been issues of life and death to people in different contexts.
Setting
and Message
Cultural
context.
By the time of Galatians (mid-first century AD), a relatively common
moral sensitivity existed among the diverse spectrum of Greco-Roman
(pagan, Jewish, and Christian) intellectuals: self-mastery
(enkrateia). The ideal person led a life of virtue by mastering
powerful irrational passions, which led to excessive, weak,
irrational, and evil behavior. Although people differed on the means
to self-mastery, this general ideal defined broader notions about the
successful life. Elites represented the ideal leader as one defined
by self-mastery. This qualified such a person to rule others whose
capacity for and attainment of self-mastery were inferior, to rule
those who cannot even rule themselves. Authority figures projected
this characteristic and perpetuated social worlds in which prestige
and authority were bound up with the ideal of self-mastery. Many
average people also made self-mastery an ideal, whether striving for
it in their own lives or allocating authority and prestige to those
perceived to have attained it. Various Jewish teachers presented
Judaism, especially keeping its laws and studying its sacred
writings, as the premier path to self-mastery and thus a happy life.
Some pagans also conceived of Judaism, especially some of its laws,
along these lines.
Certain
Jewish views of Gentiles constitute another important cultural code.
Many Jews read the OT as depicting the following concerning Gentiles:
They were separated from Israel’s God and his promises for his
people, the Jews (Rom. 9:4–5; Eph. 2:11–13; 1 Pet.
2:10). They stood under God’s condemnation, especially because
they were idolaters controlled by their passions and sin, lacking
self-mastery and the ability to live rightly (Rom. 1:18–32;
Eph. 4:17–19; 1 Thess. 4:5; 1 Pet. 1:14, 18). Jews,
on the other hand, were by definition God’s special people,
whom he had chosen over other nations (Deut. 7:6–8; 10:15;
26:18–19). He had watched over them and would ultimately rescue
them. Gentiles would experience covenant blessing in and through
Israel if they functionally became Jews by keeping the law, including
the parts we understand as ceremonial-ritual law. The law was that
special life-giving and regulating aspect of the covenant that God
had revealed to Israel, which defined Jews as Jews (Lev. 18:1–5;
20:22–26; Deut. 4:1–8, 32–40; 6:24–25; 8:1–6;
10:12–11:32; 30:11–20; Josh. 1:7–9; Neh. 9:29; Pss.
119; 147:19–20; Ezek. 20:9–13, 21). Such
law/Israel-centered conditions for Gentiles relate to a broader OT
understanding: God had planned to restore the world through Israel,
the locus of his saving activity. God would bless the nations in
Abraham’s descendants, Israel (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:4–6;
22:18; 26:4; 28:14). Various passages depict this happening as the
nations were subjected to Israel, came to Israel, served Israel,
presented Israel with their own wealth and possessions, and/or feared
Israel’s God (Gen. 49:8–12; Num. 24:9, 17–19; Isa.
11:10–16; 14:2; 45:23; 49:22–23; 51:4–5; 54:3;
55:5; 60:3–16; 61:5–6; 66:12–13, 18–21; Mic.
7:12–17; Zech. 2:11; 8:22–23). Other passages further
elucidate the law-defined nature of such Gentile participation in the
God of Israel’s salvation (Gen. 17:9–14; Exod. 12:48;
Isa. 2:2–5; 56:1–8; Jer. 12:14–17; Mic. 4:1–5;
Zech. 14:16–21). God would condemn Gentiles who remain separate
from Israel, especially Gentiles who harm Israel. For many Jews
around the time of Galatians, salvation for Gentiles thus remained
Israel-centered.
Many
ancient Jews also construed the world through apocalyptic views of
reality. This understanding conceived of the present visible world as
characterized by the influence of evil supernatural beings (demons),
suffering, and evil. One day God and his angels would completely
triumph in the invisible heavenly reality; the events in this reality
determine life in the lower visible world. Then the evil age of the
present world of suffering would be over. Evil and suffering would be
vanquished, God’s people would be rescued, the agents of
suffering in the old age would be judged, the Spirit would be poured
out, the nations would come to Israel’s God, and the heavenly
reality would fully break in and renew the visible world. God’s
people, Israel, would experience ultimate salvation, having been
rescued from the evil age. The law remained a defining reality in
God’s plans to rescue the world in most Jewish apocalyptic
scenarios. Experiencing this salvation remained a matter of being
part of God’s righteous people, Israel.
Situation
of the letter.
With these cultural codes in view, the following situation for the
letter of Galatians seems plausible. Paul proclaimed to some of the
predominantly Gentile population of Galatia the good news (“gospel”)
of the God of Israel’s salvation through Jesus the Messiah
(Gal. 1:8–9, 11; 4:13). Some accepted this message of faith and
devoted themselves to Jesus and the God of Israel (1:2, 9; 3:1–6;
4:14–20). After Paul left, other Christian teachers came to
Galatia. They possibly claimed association with the Jerusalem church
and, perhaps, with Peter and James. In line with some of the Jewish
views of Gentiles discussed above, they taught that the Gentile
Christians in Galatia must functionally become Jews and keep the law
(for other examples of such early Christian teachers, see Acts
11:1–3; 15:1, 5). These other teachers probably drew on
Scriptures and traditions about Abraham to make their arguments. The
God of Israel would save his people, “the righteous,” and
through them the rest of the world, through the relationship that he
had initially established with Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:4–6;
22:18; 26:4; 28:14). The teachers could easily show from the
Scriptures that circumcision and the law defined God’s
relationship with Abraham and were always intended to do so (17:9–14;
26:5). They, like most contemporary Jewish writers, thought that
obedience to the law (26:5) defined Abraham’s faith toward God
(15:6). If the Galatians were to be Abraham’s descendants, they
too must keep the law and be circumcised like their new father,
Abraham. The teachers could also deploy passages from the Scriptures
to the effect that everyone who did not keep the law was cursed
(Deut. 27:26; cf. Gal. 3:10), but that everyone who kept the law
would live (Lev. 18:5; cf. Gal. 3:12). For these teachers, Jesus the
Messiah was part of the final stage in the God of Israel’s
law-shaped apocalyptic plan to rescue his people (the Jews) and,
through them, the nations.
It
seems that the teachers also capitalized on the moral sensitivity of
self-mastery and the not uncommon understanding of the Jewish law as
an ideal means for attaining it. Thus, they also urged the Galatians
to keep the law through representing it as a means to attaining the
prestigious moral and social ideal of self-mastery. Furthermore, the
Galatians may have thought that the law offered them a concrete guide
to life because of its numerous detailed prescriptions. It also
provided substantive ways for the Galatians to reinforce their
identity in the midst of their villages, especially because it
commanded practices that could set them apart. As a result, at least
some of the Galatian Christians decided to keep the law, perhaps
seeking circumcision. They were persuaded that the God of Israel and
Jesus only save those within the Jewish space defined by the law.
These Galatians sought to keep the law, looking to its power for
self-mastery.
Outline
I.
Greeting (1:1–5)
II.
The Law-Defined Gospel Is a Different Gospel (1:6–10)
III.
Paul’s Gospel Is Straight from God (1:11–24)
IV.
The Jerusalem Apostles Recognize Paul’s Law-Free Gospel
(2:1–10)
V.
Paul and Peter on Whether Gentiles Should Live Like Jews (2:11–21)
VI.
Works of the Law or Christ’s Faithfulness? (3:1–5)
VII.
Paul Addresses the Situation in Galatia (3:6–4:31)
A.
Scriptural arguments to answer Paul’s question (3:6–14)
B.
Incorporation into Christ means incorporation into Abraham (3:15–29)
C.
Heirs versus slaves (4:1–11)
D.
The Galatians’ past experience with Paul and the gospel
(4:12–20)
E.
Heirs versus slaves: Sarah and Hagar (4:21–31)
VIII.
Summary and Restatement of Paul’s Argument (5:1–12)
IX.
The Faithfulness of Christ and Communal Living (5:13–6:10)
A.
Freedom in Christ (5:13–15)
B.
Self-mastery (5:16–24)
C.
The way of the Spirit and Christ’s cruciform faithfulness
(5:25–6:10)
X.
Conclusion and Summary (6:11–18)
Structure
and Contents
I. Greeting
(1:1–5).
When Paul hears of this situation among the Galatian churches, he
writes them a frustrated letter. He commences by stressing how Jesus,
through giving himself for our sins, is God’s means for
delivering us from the present evil age (1:3–4). As Paul will
make clear, Jesus and the law represent mutually exclusive means of
deliverance (3:21–22). In contrast to most Jews, Paul will thus
shockingly dissociate the law from the God of Israel’s
apocalyptic deliverance.
II. The
law-defined gospel is a different gospel (1:6–10).
Paul continues by making clear his point of view: despite what the
other teachers say, their law-defined gospel is in fact a damnable
“different gospel” (1:6–10).
III. Paul’s
gospel is straight from God (1:11–24).
While the other teachers may claim that their gospel comes from the
authoritative Jerusalem church, Paul explains that his gospel comes
straight from God and not from other men (1:11–24).
IV. The
Jerusalem apostles recognize Paul’s law-free gospel (2:1–10).
However, when he had met with the Jerusalem apostles, they had
recognized his law-free gospel (1:18–2:10). Indeed, they had
not forced Titus to be circumcised (2:3). Also, 1:18–2:10
represents Paul as an embodiment of the radical transforming power of
the gospel. Whereas Paul previously had advanced far and zealously
“in Judaism,” persecuting the church, now he steadfastly
serves the church and boldly stands against Jews who zealously seek
to impose the law (“Judaism”) on Gentile Christians.
V. Paul
and Peter on whether Gentiles should live like Jews (2:11–21).
Paul then narrates an account of an incident that speaks directly to
the Galatian situation (2:11–21). Previously in Antioch Peter
had acted so as to imply that Gentiles would have to live like Jews
(e.g., keep the law) in order to truly be unified with God’s
people (2:11–14). Paul, however, has rebuked Peter (2:14). Paul
continues with a speech about how Gentiles are made righteous
(“justified”) not within the space demarcated by the
“works of the law,” but rather within the faithfulness of
Jesus the Messiah (2:15–16). The works of the law, or the
duties commanded by the law, do not define those who are
“righteous”—that is, God’s true people who
will be saved. Rather, the faithfulness of Christ defines God’s
true people, the ones who believe in Jesus. Here Paul for the first
time explicitly dissociates the law from the God of Israel’s
apocalyptic salvation in Jesus (the) Christ. The law, which defines
Gentiles as “sinners,” has been torn down in Christ’s
crucifixion (2:17–18). Paul then presents himself as an
embodiment of God’s saving work in Christ. In being crucified
with Christ, he has died to the law. Paul no longer lives, but now
Christ lives in him. The faithfulness of Christ, who loves him and
has given himself for him, now defines Paul’s life, not the law
(2:19–20). From a more traditional Jewish perspective, Paul has
undermined God’s grace because he has marginalized the law, the
premier means of grace and life that God has given to his people. In
fact, however, the law is utterly opposed to Christ’s faithful
saving death, which is the true means of God’s ultimate saving
and gracious actions toward his people (2:21).
This
understanding of 2:11–21 revolves around how Paul considers his
entire discussion of justification, the faithfulness of Christ, and
the words of the law to be dealing with the issue of whether Gentiles
should be forced to live like Jews (2:14). This might seem surprising
to us. Does this not reduce Paul’s discussion of the great
doctrine of justification to dealing merely with social and identity
issues? Within the logic of Jewish apocalyptic thought, however,
issues of the identity of God’s people and what defines them
are by definition ultimate salvation issues, not merely social
issues. The God of Israel will rescue only his true people. Thus
questions of who really constitutes his true people and how they are
defined are paramount, life-and-death, salvation issues. Paul never
abandons Jewish apocalyptic salvation logic; he simply redefines it
around Christ and not the law.
This
reading understands the phrase pistis Christou as “the
faithfulness of Christ,” a shorthand reference to Jesus’
faithful saving death on the cross. Traditionally people translate
the phrase as “faith in Christ.” In line with much recent
scholarship, however, this discussion understands the phrase
differently, while still recognizing that Paul considers belief in
Christ to be of paramount importance: “so we also have believed
in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by the faithfulness of
Christ and not by the works of the law” (2:16 [all translations
are the author’s]).
VI. Works
of the law or Christ’s faithfulness? (3:1–5).
So far, Paul has not addressed the powerful scriptural arguments and
appeals to the law as a means to self-mastery through which the
opposing teachers have gained influence. As becomes clear from the
rest of the letter, Paul does not anchor his counterarguments
ultimately in interpretations of the Jewish Scriptures, possibly
because the scriptural arguments of the opposing teachers would have
more cogency. Again, they draw on understandings about Gentiles that
they can easily ground in the God of Israel’s sacred writings.
Paul instead appeals directly to how the Galatians have experienced
salvation initially. Have they received and experienced the workings
of the Spirit “out of/from the works of the law, or from the
message of (Christ’s) faithfulness” (3:1–5)? Paul,
of course, knows that the answer is “from the message of
Christ’s faithfulness” (often translated as “hearing
with faith”) apart from the works of the law. Paul thus plays a
trump card that undercuts the opposing teachers. The Galatians have
received the Spirit, a classic end-time blessing for the God of
Israel’s people, apart from the law. Thus, in Christ, God’s
people clearly cannot be defined by the law (see also Acts
10:44–11:18; 15:6–11). The law-defined gospel of the
opposing teachers simply cannot be right, since the Galatians have
received the Spirit and experienced salvation apart from the law. One
cannot overstate the importance of this obvious argument from the
Galatians’ experience for Paul. This settles the entire issue
within the logic of his letter. All of Paul’s following
arguments using the Jewish Scriptures presuppose that his readings of
them, depicting Gentile participation in the God of Israel’s
people apart from the law, must be correct, and that the opposing
teachers’ arguments from Scripture also must be wrong.
VII. Paul
addresses the situation in Galatia (3:6–4:31).
For the rest of 3:6–4:31, Paul continues to address the
situation in Galatia within the cultural codes and kinds of concerns
sketched above. In 3:6–13 Paul launches into a densely packed
excursus of scriptural arguments to set up an answer to his
rhetorical question “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and
works miracles among you do so out of/from the works of the law, or
from the message of (Christ’s) faithfulness?” (3:5). He
sets up the answer to his question, which comes in 3:14, by focusing
on the nature of the Galatians’ Abra-hamic sonship—that
is, the nature of their identity as the God of Israel’s special
people. Paul argues that Christ’s faithfulness, and not the
law, defines their Abrahamic sonship. Within this excursus it seems
plausible that Paul draws upon and undercuts texts that the opposing
teachers have used (Lev. 18:5; Deut. 27:26). In 3:15–29 Paul
elucidates how the Galatians’ incorporation into Christ through
his faithfulness can actually mean that they are incorporated into
Abraham, become his descendants, and thus become “heirs
according to promise” (3:29).
In
4:1–7 Paul restates parts of his preceding discussion in a
different way, introducing the language of slavery. In 4:12–20
Paul returns to reminding the Galatians of their past experience with
himself and the gospel. Paul has embodied Christ to them, and they to
him. He has brought them Christ in his weakness, and they have
accepted him as such. Their turn to the opposing teachers marks a
departure from how they first received Paul.
VIII. Summary
and restatement of Paul’s argument (5:1–12).
In 5:2–6 Paul quickly summarizes the substance of his arguments
thus far, while in 5:7–12 he resummarizes the situation.
IX. The
faithfulness of Christ and communal living (5:13–6:10).
In 5:13–6:10 Paul finally depicts the positive content of the
faithfulness of Christ for the Galatians. This section, in which Paul
focuses on how the Galatians live communally, has been his driving
focus all along. Not only must he offer something in place of the law
for self-mastery in order to wrench the Galatians from the influence
of the opposing teachers, but also Paul considers it absolutely
necessary for the Galatians to live together in ways embodying
Christ’s other-oriented, cross-shaped faithfulness (2:19–20;
4:19; 5:13–6:10). Paul does not view the law simply as a
neutral, ineffectual means to self-mastery; rather, he thinks that
the law will positively work death, slavery, and irrational passions,
the things that would bar the Galatians from inheriting the kingdom
of God (5:22). Thus, 5:13–6:10 is the most important part of
the letter for Paul. All his earlier arguments serve his purposes
here.
Paul
begins his positive sketch of the faithfulness of Christ in 5:13–15
by talking about their freedom in Christ (5:1). This freedom from the
law by no means implies freedom from the obligation to live
faithfully. In fact, this freedom paradoxically means freedom for the
Galatians to become slaves to one another through love (5:13). This
is what Paul means by the cross-shaped faithfulness of Christ
defining God’s people. This is what Paul means when he writes
that he longs for Christ to be formed in them (4:19). Christ’s
faithfulness redefines the law itself, such that becoming slaves to
one another through love by loving your neighbor fulfills the whole
law (5:14; 6:2). In 5:13–14 Paul thus surprisingly informs the
Galatians that freedom in Christ means other-oriented, love-driven
(cf. 5:6), cross-shaped freedom. Cross-shaped faithfulness leading
them to become slaves to one another through love is the only
antidote to their biting and devouring one another (5:15), classic
Greco-Roman language for describing the control of irrational
passions.
Paul
gets more specific in 5:16–25, explicitly moving his discussion
within the discourse of self-mastery. His earlier arguments
dissociating the Spirit and Christ’s faithfulness from the law
inform this passage, as does Paul’s implicit association of the
law and the opposing teachers with “flesh” in 4:29. Only
by the Spirit can the Galatians overcome the desires of the flesh
(5:16–17). In 5:18–19 Paul makes clear his association of
the law with the desires of the flesh, especially in 5:19, where he
speaks of the “works of the flesh,” an obvious play on
his frequent phrase “works of the law.” The works of the
flesh in 5:19–21 read like a catalog of the vices with which
broader Greco-Roman moral discourse characterizes people who lack
self-mastery. People who engage in such vices, who lack the struggle
to self-mastery empowered by the Spirit, “will not inherit the
kingdom of God” (5:21). Paul then spells out the positive
content of the faithfulness of Christ for the Galatians in terms of
the fruit of the Spirit. He concludes this list of virtues, which
characterize people who have the Spirit, with enkrateia,
“self-mastery” (5:22–23). He continues, “And
the ones who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh, with its
passions and desires” (5:24). Paul’s language here seems
reminiscent of his earlier self-representation as one who has been
crucified with Christ (2:19–20; see also 6:14–15). The
Spirit, who belongs exclusively to those who are God’s children
through Christ’s faithfulness and not the law (3:14; 4:4–6),
empowers the Galatians to attain self-mastery. Not only does the law
fail to help them attain self-mastery, but also, as part of the old
“evil” age, it works with the desires of the flesh to
produce everything contrary to self-mastery, everything that
disqualifies people from inheriting the kingdom of God.
Paul
continues in 5:25–6:10, stressing the way of the Spirit and
Christ’s cruciform faithfulness. In 6:6–10 Paul
underlines the ultimate importance of the Galatians living in
accordance with the Spirit and not the flesh. For Paul, this does not
imply that salvation and self-mastery result from the Galatians’
own autonomous effort. That would miss the point entirely. Only
Christ’s faithfulness and the Spirit can bring about the
cross-shaped lives and self-mastery of which Paul speaks. Apart from
Christ’s faithfulness and the Spirit, the Galatians would
remain people mastered by their passions and desires and cut off from
God’s salvation and blessings, since they would not be
Abraham’s descendants in Christ. At the same time, Paul writes
the letter with such passion because he is convinced that where
Christ’s other-oriented, cross-shaped faithfulness and
self-mastery do not characterize people, God’s saving blessings
are absent as well. Thus Paul “is again in the anguish of
childbirth” until Christ is formed in them (4:19).
X. Conclusion
and summary (6:11–18).
Paul concludes in 6:11–18, summarizing most of his main points.
The law and circumcision now count for nothing; only faithfulness
working through love and new creation in Christ count for anything
(5:6; 6:15).
For
Paul in Galatians, the other-oriented, cross-shaped faithfulness of
Christ offers a more concrete communal identity and practical way to
life than the law ever could. The faithfulness of Christ and Spirit
define the Galatians as a people of the new creation. Justification
in Galatians involves more than the traditional doctrine. It involves
the unification associated with the fruit of the Spirit, not the
division and strife of the works of the flesh/law. It relates to and
establishes the conditions for the radical and tangible
other-oriented and cross-shaped communal faithfulness (of Christ)
that must define God’s people.
