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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Galatian Situation
  • Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 13:01:48 -0500


Several conversation partners have been probing the construction of the situation I am suggesting at work in Galatia to make sense of Paul's language in Galatians. A good example of the kind of tensions that might arise in a pagan social situation in which a minority Jewish community functions in compliance with prevailing norms is portrayed by Luke in Acts 19:23-41.

In this case Demetrius, a silversmith, creates a riot over the perceived threat to his trade and the goddess of the city, Artemis, and thus to the city, with whom their fortunes are linked. Demetrius understands Paul to be drawing pagans away from the worship of Artemis. And he understands Paul to represent the larger Jewish community's interests. We do not know what Alexander, the person put forward to speak for the Jewish community to the upset crowd, was going to say, since the pagan crowd was further incited by the sight of him. But the town clerk who steps in (on his behalf?) implies that the Jewish community has no interest in threatening the place of the goddess or the city's interests in her worship, and thus the cities reputation, and it is fair to assume that Alexander was going to say the same. Now, consider...

What if Alexander had just met with Paul's pagan "guests" and learned that they were appealing to their rights as believers in Jesus Christ to abstain from giving honor to Artemis, in fact, maybe even to denounce her role in a way running against the very comments the city clerk has given to quite the fears of the riotous crowd. Would Alexander or the other leaders of this minority Jewish community wish to legitimate the claims of these "pagans" unless these people had expressed their intention to become proselytes, members of the Jewish community? Or would the leaders "fear persecution for the cross of Christ," since the meaning of this act to which these "pagans" appeal is not shared by themselves (but only by a suspect new subgroup begun by someone travelling through town), and since the result of doing so could have such negative consequences for the interests and safety of the entire Jewish community with which they are naturally concerned? Then would they not present these "pagan" believers in this Jewish Christ-figure with the alternative of either not threatening their interests by continuing to do what they should do as pagans while behaving appropriately when seeking the company of the Jewish community as friends/guests, or beginning the ritual process of proselyte conversion, so that they could substantiate their claim to non-pagan identity? I propose that this last alternative is the "other message of good" that Paul now confronts in the letter, for it is a threat indeed, since the addressees may see it as a complimentary necessity to their belief in Jesus Christ in order to make the identity transition from pagan identity according to both prevailing Jewish and pagan communal norms. He also ridicules consideration of the former alternative, for they cannot possibly think they can return to idolatry after they have become known by the One God, can they?

These are the political issues of expedience that arise with regard to matters of religion in the period we are discussing. The question is whether the textual clues in such passages as 1:6-7; 3:1-5; 4:8-10; 5:1-6:10; 6:12-17, to which I have appealed throughout this conversation, substantiate the construction I propose.

Does this make my proposal any clearer? What do you think?

Regards,
Mark Nanos



  • Re: Galatian Situation, Mark D. Nanos, 10/02/2000

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