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  • From: "Billy LeJeune" <billyl AT wcs.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: "we" and "you" in Galatians
  • Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 06:39:01 -0500

I haven't been able to read this, but I will as soon as I can. I do have
Wright's commentary on Colosians which has a very similar passage as the
one you inquired about. I will get back to you on it. One further
clarification on what I wrote about "we/you":

I take Gal. 4 like this -

Even though we Jews had the law (and the right God) we were, like
minors, no better than slaves and "enslaved to the basic forces of the
world"

likewise, you gentiles, were enslaved to beings who are not gods at all
(paganism)

Therefore turning to Judaism is just like returning to pagaism

Then comes the allegory that equates present day Jerusalem with Hagar
(Pagan)

Anyway, thanks for listening; got to get to work,
Billy LeJeune




-----Original Message-----
From: moon-ryul jung
Sent: Tue 10/2/2001 4:38 AM
To: Corpus-paul
Cc:
Subject: [corpus-paul] Re: "we" and "you" in Galatians

In the previous message, I asked some questions about the
position (1) in the following options:

There are three options:
(1) "we"= Jews, "you" = gentiles
(2) Except for Gal 2:15, where there is an
explicit indicator and which can be taken to be a direct speech,
"we" = "you" = primarily Gentiles, but can be inclusive of
both Jews and Gentiles where there is a indicator,
e.g. 3:22-25, 3:28
(3) "we" = "you" = Jews + Gentiles.

Let me defend position (2). The difficult passages for position (2) are
4:3 - 5, which have to do with the metaphor of immature heir. Gal
3:13-14
are also difficult for position (2), but I have tried to solve the
problem in my post about the "the role of the law" thread.

(i) Gal 3:22-25: Though the content of this paragraph is quite parallel
to that of 4:3-5, I take "we" in this paragraph to refer to Jews,
while I take "we" in 4:3-5 to refer to Gentiles, based on the
contextual
indicators.

In Gal 3:22-25, the two epochs are contrasted. The one is the age of
confinement under the law and the other is the new age in
which "the promise through the faith of Jesus Christ
is given to those who believe" (22), "the faith is revealed" (23),
"we are righteoused from faith" (24), and "we are no longer
under paidgogon" (25).

These descriptions of the new age are relevant to both Jews and Gentile
believers. Only Jews could have said that "the law became our
paidagogos", whatever that expression may mean.

(ii) Gal 4:3-5:

Gal 4:1-5 talks about how the heir obtains the full sonship.
It is triggered by 3:29, where Paul claims that
"if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham
and heirs according to the promise."

Here "you" refers to the Gentile believers, because they
become the seed of Abraham via Christ, though they do not
belong to Abraham according to flesh.

In Gal 4:1-5, Paul argues that the heir inherits the full sonship
only when the fullness of the time comes.
"When the fullness of the time came, God sent his son, born
under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we
may receive the sonship."

Here "we" cannot be identified with "those under the law", which is
the Jews. Redeeming those under the law is the basis for OUR receiving
the sonship. So, Gal 4:1-5 talks about how the Gentile heirs
receive the full sonship, that is, via the redemption of those under
the law when the time is fulfilled.

In conclusion, in Galatians, the referents of "we" and "you"
should be determined completely depending on the context. It is
fact quite natural. In the theory of discourse, it is typically
assumed that the "entities" to which the pronouns can refer to
are evolved as the story is developed. Because as a Jew and as a
leader of Gentile congregations, Paul could freely identify with
Jews or Gentile believers. So, the "we" = "Jews" scheme seems
forced and unnatural from the viewpoint of discourse theory.

Moon
Moon R. Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea





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