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  • From: "moon-ryul jung" <moon AT saint.soongsil.ac.kr>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: hUPO NOMON in Gal 4:5
  • Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 20:11:53


Dear Co-interpreters,

ever since I joined this list, I have been experimenting a new
reading of Galatians, from the perspective of Mark Nanos, which
has been expressed clearly and several times on the list. To summarize
the perspective in two sentences:

1) Paul has in mind the status of Gentile believers in relation to the
Jewish people, the people of the Law, when he talks about the Law. More
specifically, Paul tries to say tha the Gentile believers are God's
people, Abraham's children on the same level as the Jewish people,
WITHOUT becoming the people of the Law (by getting circumcision, e.g.)
2) Paul does not view the Jewish life characterized by ERGWN NOMOU,
hUPO NMON,etc. as inferior or immature in itself. There is no ethical
evaluation of the life under the Law. Its evaluation is only from
the viewpoint of salvation history: Once only the people of the Law
were God's people, and Gentiles who wanted to be God's people must
be circumcised and thereby becoming Israel, but now the time has come
when Gentiles can be God's people through faith in Christ, without
becoming the people of the Law.

In this reading, Gal 4:5 TOUS hUPO NOMON EXAGORASHi (To redeem
those under the Law) can be taken to mean
"break the constraints or barrier set by the Law, which allows only
the people of the Law the status of God's people". Here there is no
ethical evaluation of those under the Law. But recently I encountered
Gal 5:18 EI DE PNEUMATI AGESQE, OUK ESTE hUPO NOMON
(If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law). This statement
belongs to the section that talks about the conflict between the
flesh and the Spirit, and the works of the flesh and the fruits of the
Spirit (Gal 5:16-26). So, the implication of Gal 5:18 seems that
the life by the Spirit is somehow against the life under the Law,
as the life by the Spirit is against the life in the flesh.
But then we have here an ethical evaluation of the life hUPO NOMON!

To avoid it, I attempted to interpret 5:18 as follows:

By the way (DE), if you are led by the Spirit, the [you are already God's
people, and ] you are not under the Law [ and have no need to become
the people of the Law by getting circumcision].

This comment would seem out of the logical flow of Gal 5:16-28, but
Paul might have wanted to make this comment when he had an opportunity to
talk about "being led by the Spirit", which Paul said in Gal 3:5 was
the evidence of Galatians' being Abraham's children. The proposition
that "you are not under the Law, and have no need to become the people
of the Law" is the main thrust of the letter.

However, Roman 6:14 seems to be an obstacle to this reading:

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not udner the Law
but under grace.

This verse seems to express a similar thought to Gal 5:18.
Here not being under the Law is the cause for sin's not having
dominion over the Romans. Gal 5:18 can be similary taken to imply
that the life in the flesh is somehow caused by the life under the Law.
If not being under the Law but under grace (through Christ) is the
cause for sin's not being dominant, it implies that being under
grace EMPOWERS people in a way that was not possible when they were
under the Law.

Then, for Paul, "Those under the Law" are not simply the Jewish people,
the people of the Law, but those who were under the dominion of sin as
well.

I think this line of interpretation of Gal 5:18 and Rom 6:14 would
be unacceptable to Mark Nanos. He might be able
to think of "situational rhetoric" that may help us avoid the negative
ethical evaluation of the life under the Law.

Sincerley
Moon R. Jung
Associate Professor
Dept of Digital Media
School of Media Communications
Sogang University, Seoul, Korea





  • hUPO NOMON in Gal 4:5, moon-ryul jung, 02/27/2000

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