Paper Presentation Outline

Subject: Jesus Tradition in Paul and Pauline Circle

1. Introduction
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is unique among the letters of Paul that have been passed down
to the generation in the New Testament. Unlike the other letters, which begin with
thanksgiving and move to the encouragement, Galatians begins with outraged astonishment
and moves through admonition. Paul in his writing instructs the Galatians and argued with
certain things and gives clear picture to the audiences. In this paper we will discuss some of
the basic themes of Paul’s argument basing on Galatians 3:15-27.

2. Socio-historical context

The Greek writers commonly used Galatians and Celts interchangeably. Likewise Latin
authors call as Celtae (Celts), Galli (Gauls), and Galatae (Galatians). Originating in the
Danube River basin of central Europe, the Celts migrated into Switzerland, southern
Germany, and northern Italy, then into France and Britain and finally south eastward into the
Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor. In Britain they were mostly known as Celts; in France as
Gauls and in Asia Minor as Galatians and their region there as Galatians or Gallograecia (The
land of the Greek speaking Gauls).1

Gauls and their settlement in Asia Minor took place in several stages. In 281 B.C., they
ravaged Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly, but in 279 B.C. they were stopped at Delphi from
going further into the heart-land of Greece. In 278-277 B.C. 20,000 Gauls crossed the
Hellespont into Asia Minor with the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who wanted
to use them as mercenaries against his ememies. Settling around Ancyra, they menaced
1
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians, Word Biblical Commentary. Volume 41(Dallas: Word Books,
1990), lxii. (Hereafter it will be cited as, Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary.....,).

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neighbouring populations and came close to over-running all of Asia Minor. After a series of
battles, they were finally defeated by Attalus I, the King of Pergamum and confined to a
region in northern Asia Minor. Later on after Rome defeated the Selucid king Antiochus III,
Galatia shared the same fate as the rest of Asia Minor and came under Roman authority.2

3. Immediate Context of the text

The Judaizers in Galatia were undoubtedly proclaiming that God’s promises were given only
to Abaraham and his ‘seed,’ the Jewish people understood as a generic singular, or possibly,
as Daube suggests, to Abraham and his seed Isaac (understood as a specific singular). Some
of the Galatian Christians seem to have been taken into by their argument. Paul however, in
what appears to be an argument directly ad hominem in nature, deliberately furnishes them
with a deeper application of the promise of God made to Abraham and his seed. 3The
Judaizers of Galatians were not presenting themselves as opposing Paul’s message of faith in
Christ, but rather claiming to be complementing his proclamation (advocating Jewish
nomism).4

4. Main themes

a. The covenant made with Abraham-Vs15-18

Paul begins his argument for the priority of the promise to Abraham with a human analogy
(literally, “I speak according to man,” cf. v15b begins in the Greek with homos, which is
usually understood to carry the meaning “nevertheless”). 5 Its use here is probably due to the
Apostle’s feeling that he is now addressing the Galatians more directly than in the preceding
paragraph, in which he is really speaking to the judaizers whose argument he was refuting,
and their attention.6 “Will and testament” represents Greek diatheke, which is the translation

2
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary...,lxii.

3
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary...,132.

4
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary...,135.

5
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians: The New International Commentary on the
New Testament (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961), 154. (Hereafter it will cited as
Ronald Y. K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians....,)
6
Ernest De Witt Burton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Epistle to the Galatians: The
New International Critical commentary (New York: Charles Scribner’s So, 1920), 177-178.

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of Hebrew berit, ‘covenant.’ It is possible, however to take, diatheke here in its original
meaning of “an arrangement, a settlement drawn up and legally in force.

The introduction of diatheke (covenant) here in v 15 has not been unprepared for. It is clear
that Paul had the Abrahamic covenant in view from v6, even though he did not use the term
itself. Yet here he inserts diatheke by way of an example or illustration drawn from human
affairs, and the common understanding of the term in the ancient world was that of
“testament” or “will”.7

In v16 furthermore it state that, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He
draws an attention to a fact of biblical history, namely that the promises were pronounce to
Abraham. The promises here spoken of are those which accompanied the covenant and which
constituted it on the side of divine grace.8 The plural ‘promises’ refers to God’s promise to
Abraham as this was repeated in several occasions and couched in different expressions; but
in the view of the association of the ‘inheritance’ with the promise in v.18 Paul may have in
mind particularly that clause in the promise which concern the giving of the land to Abraham
and his descendants as an everlasting possessions. And according to Paul’s reading of the
history then Christ is the true heir of the promise, of the universal inheritance.9

Verse 17, with the words “what I am saying is this”, Paul proceed to apply the human
analogy to the divine dealings in history; “a covenant” had been validated by God and
therefore in force long before the giving of the law, which came only 430 years later. Thus it
is clear that Paul regards the promise to Abraham as a divinely ratified settlement or covenant
and argues from its considerable priority to the law that its provisions cannot be made null
and void by the later introduction of the law.10

Verse 18, Since the ‘promises” of v.16a are spoken of as “covenant” in v.17b, whose
principal content is in turn referred to as “the promise” in v.17c (the Greek has epangelia,
‘promise’ in the singular), might speak the original “covenant of promise”. Its nature is
underlined yet again when Paul points out that it was “by a promise” that God bestowed the
inheritance as a free gift on Abraham.

7
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 128.
8
Ernest De Witt Burton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Epistle to the Galatians: The
New International Critical commentary (New York: Charles Scribner’s So, 1920), 181.
9
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians..., 156.
10
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians..., 156-157.

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 b. The purpose of the law-Vs 19-23

Paul frequently uses ti adverbially to mean ‘why’. In v 19 Paul makes out a question
inevitably: “why then the law?” This question is about the purpose of the law which cannot
be answered without the place and significance of the law in salvation history being shown.
The law was given ‘to make wrongdoing a legal offence’ (v19a). This rendering rightly
regards the Greek phrase as indicating the purpose and not the cause (cf. ‘because of
transgression’) for which the law was given.11

The phrase ‘law was added’ signifies two thought according to Ronald Y. K. Fung (The New
International Commentary on New Testament) commentary, (i) the law was an addition,
having its beginning after the promise (v17). It was added not to the promise as a kind of
supplement to it but to the human situation. The validity of the law ceased with the coming of
the ‘seed’ to whom the promise referred, that is Christ. Thus, the law here, as compared with
the line of promise from Abraham to Christ, is presented as ‘an interim dispensation. The law
was ordained by angels by the hand of a mediator (v.19d). Again, two thoughts are involved;
(i) The law was ordained through the mediation of angels and (ii) the law was ordained by the
intermediary (RSV)-“by the hands of”, as a literal translation would represent the phrase,
being pure Hebraism, for “by the agency of” which refers to “by the hand of Moses, who
clearly appears in a mediatorial role in the giving of the law (cf. Ex.20:19; Dt. 5:5; 23-27).12

In verse 20 it has been said that there are as many interpretation as the number of years
between promise and law (c.f.v17).Two of these may be singled out for special consideration.
The phrase “not....of one” as affirming that the party for whom a mediator acts must consist
of a plurality of persons, so that the verse becomes a proof that the law was given not by God
but by angels.

Verse 21, The law’s inferiority to the promise does not mean that the law contradicts the
promise (v. 21a). Paul substantiates his emphatic denial of any such contradiction by
referring again to the function of the law. Here Paul is arguing from cause to the effect.13

11
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians..., 158-159.
12
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians..., 161
13
Ronald Y.K. Fung, edited, The Epistle to the Galatians..., 161-162.

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 c. Heirs with Abraham - Vs 25-27

Verse 25 says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a supervising
guardian’’. Here Paul delivers the coup de grace to the Judaizers argument for Gentile
Christians to live a lifestyle governed by the Mosaic law. For with the coming of Christian
Gospel as affected by Christ, the law no longer has validity as a regulating the life of faith,
one may, of course, as a Jew continue to live a Jewish nomistic lifestyle for cultural, national,
or pragmatic reasons. The main expression of this section is “in Christ Jesus,” ‘with baptised
into Christ’, ‘clothed with Christ’, and ‘of Christ’. The polemical thrust of Paul’s words here
is emphasis on ‘all’, which is the first word of the section on being Abraham’s seed by
relation to Christ.14

Verse 26, “for, you see” you are all sons of God through your faith in Christ Jesus. The
postpositive yap here has both explanatory and continuative functions and so probably to be
translated “for you see” (cf. Romans 7:2). The phrase ‘in Christ’ is a favourite with Paul to
signal the personal, local, and dynamic relation of the believer in Christ.15

Verse 27, “for as many of you have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ.” In Koine Greek, ‘yap’ (for) is sometimes repeated either to introduce several
arguments for the same assertion or to have one clause confirms the other. Heinrich Schlier in
1949 first proposed that Galatians 3: 27 was a confessional portion, either whole or in part,
drawn from Baptismal liturgy of the early church and use by Paul here in support of his
statement of 3:26. Baptism here is regarded as the initiation into the union with Christ.
Baptism is also regarded as, ‘putting on’ Christ, who is thought as a garment enveloping the
believers and symbolizing his new spiritual existence. 16 So Paul is saying that if any man
whether Jew or Gentile has been baptised than he is clothed with Christ Jesus through faith.

5. Interpretation

Paul’s experiential, biblical and theological arguments in the first half of his statement
develop what he said in the first half of his propositio (3:15-16). Judaizers of Galatia
themselves might have claim that this was not thrust of their endeavour; that all they wanted
was for Gentile Christians to supplement their faith in Christ with Torah observance, just as
God directed Abraham to do and so to experience a more perfect Christian life. For Paul,
14
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 150-151.
15
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 151.
16
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 154.

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however, any mingling of faith and law, even if it is claim that this has only to do with a
proper lifestyle and not justification, is a discrediting of the Abrahamic covenant, the work of
Christ, the ministry of the Spirit, and the principles of faith, and so brings one right back to
the issue of legalism.17

Galatians 3:19-25 is the first part of Paul’s answer to Judaizers’ call for Gentile Christians to
live their lives under the prescriptions of the Mosaic law. Here Paul sets out an Christian
understanding of that law, highlighting in vv 19-20 its relation to God’s redemptive promises,
in vv 21-22 its condemnatory purpose, and in vv 23-25 its supervisory function. As given by
God to reveal sin and condemn the sinner, it operates in the divine economy on a different
level or in a different sphere than God’s promises. Gal. 3: 26 and 27 stated “in Christ” which
is the essence of Christian proclamation and experience.18

6. Hermeneutical Interpretation

Paul’s argument on the promised to Abraham is still relevance even today. Many Christian
believers today formally oppose legalism but holds firmly nomism. Theirs is a religion of
piety that they believe to be God honouring. Many believers failed to realise and appreciate
Paul’s words regarding the purpose and functions of the law. Many of the believers failed to
accept the full importance of what it means to be ‘in Christ’ as mentioned in the scripture. In
the perspective of faith and salvation in our land, being as a Christian in general were the
children of God through the promised to Abraham before 400 years ago. Through the
promise of Abraham by faith in Christ the one who is accepting Him (Christ) can enter into
the sonship and children of God in his family.

Bibliography
Longenecker, Richard N. Galatian. Word Biblical Commentary. Volume 41. Dallas: Word
Books, 1990.
De Witt Burton, Ernest. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Epistle to the
Galatians: The New International Critical commentary. New York: Charles Scribner’s So,
1920.
Y.K. Fung, Ronald. Edited, The Epistle to the Galatians: The New International Commentary
on the New Testame nt (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961.

17
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 135.
18
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary..., 149.

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