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  • From: Jim Hester <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Autonomasia
  • Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 12:00:02 -0700


With apologies to Mark Nanos for not responding earlier to the following:

[snip]
> Is not "circumcision" also a similar figure in Galatians? And don't both
> "works of law" and "circumcision" refer to an identity that Jewish people
> have but non-Jewish people, such as those whom Paul addresses, don't have?
> that is, unless they undertake the identity transformation that will render
> them Jewish people. For example, in v. 12 the "ones for circumcision" are
> "the ones for proselyte conversion."
>
> So are not both expressions antonomasia, descriptive phrases for the proper
> name "Jews," although in the case of those who "become Jews," "circumcision"
> is used here for a certain category of Jewish people with the proper name
> "proselytes"?

ISTM that there is a basic difference between "works of the Law" and
"circumcision" in that one is a figure while the other a ritual procedure,
at least within the context of the argument in Galatians. The figure, using
Ernest Bormann's rhetorical theory of Fantasy Theme Analysis, is Fantasy
Type, i.e. a general scenario in which characters act in a predictable
fashion. Use of it allows hearers to fill in particulars related to their
rhetorical situation. (A quick-and-dirty illustration of a Type is "The Cold
War.") Thus upon hearing the phrase "works of the Law" the Galatians would
fill in what they understood concerning this cohort of concepts.

That the phrase is a Type can be further supported by the fact it appears in
Galatians primarily in a Dramatizing Message, a story that contains things
like puns, figures of speech, anecdotes, etc., and typically deals with past
conflicts and/or the potential for future conflict. (Galatians 2:11- 16)

"Circumcision" seems to refer to a specific act that could have occurred or
might have been urged upon some members of the congregation. It is an
illustration of "works of the Law." The one place I can think of where
circumcision could function as a figure is in Gal 2: 12b, "those from the
circumcision." In that I agree with your comment above.

We shouldn't automatically assume that "those sent by James" and "those from
the circumcision" are synonymous. I think it likely that the appearance of
the ambassadors from James emboldened the circumcision faction already
present in Antioch. The phrase could refer to those seeking to proselytize.
However, within the context of the argument in Galatians, I think Paul is
arguing against undergoing the ritual act of circumcision itself. So the
word does not consistently function like a figure in the same way the phrase
"works of the Law" does.

Am I making sense or is my thinking muddled?
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