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  • From: Billy Evans <biblewje AT comcast.net>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Corpus-Paul] Questions on Galatians
  • Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 17:27:33 -0500

Jerry wrote:



In response to Billy and Loren on the teachers are Galatia:

I do not think these guys are as sinister as you two seem to. They
are not hiding the fact that the whole Law follows, they just have not
thought about the matter in this frame of reference. I think so differently
about them because I am not convinced that they are a part of an
anti-Pauline movement that has connections to the disaffected from the
Jerusalem Conference. I think it rather likely that this is a home-grown
problem that Paul analyzes by comparing it to the problems he faced earlier
in Jerusalem and elsewhere. You may not that Paul never says what the
others claim you gain by keeping the Law. PAUL says there are things you
lose, but we do not hear what one might gain. We must speculate and we
usually do that by attaching them to the Law observant and insistent at the
Jerusalem Conference. I think that is a mistake. When we do that we are
mirror-reading Paul's own aggressive argumentation.

I have argued this at length (though perhaps no more persuasively)
elsewhere.

Jerry:
I understand where you are coming from. Just over a decade ago I preached
at Bellevue Baptist Church (2nd largest Baptist church in America) 4 times
in one year and said a lot about the destructive nature of the Law that you
would have liked. But, my position has changed since then and the following
is part of the problem and solution:

When you say that Paul does not mention what we might gain by keeping the
Law, you realize I am sure that you are arguing from silence. If we are
going to reap from outside Galatians, surely Paul loved the law as the
writer of Psalm 119. Paul even wrote some pretty flattering words about the
Law to Timothy in II 3:16...it 'is good-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God
may be throughly equipped for every good work.' (That is Paul addressing the
OT [Law included] in the NT age). So, Why do you write that the Law is
something that Paul thought of as a non-gainer? I think we both realize
that such is said when we restrict our argument to Paul's argument in
Galatians 3, 5 or Romans 4 and passim (I can't speak much about Romans when
the knowledgeable Mark Nanos is in the crowd). I might add that I don't
think Paul is attacking all of the Oral law although 'table fellowship' is
an identity marker of the Pharisees during this time period (I can't say
much about the Pharisees either even though that is the subject of my
research at the moment for an understanding of the Johannine community and
it's antilanguage with its Jewish opponents: it is difficult to pin all of
the Jewish thought into their various factions). So we move on to more
sturdy ground... We know that the different positions Paul expressed about
just about anything is either thought of as relecture of sorts (a
progressive growth in his ideas) or a conservative view that holds that
there is no contradiction in scripture. With respect to the latter we would
have to mollify the differences by looking to the sitz im leben, the context
of the original and/or final editions etc. I think we best understand Paul
in Galatians by the severity of the sitz im leben and keep it there
regarding the Law. I have to then restrict what I think Paul is saying
about the Law to the situation. This limitation leaves room for unstated
(good ideas and respect and love) feelings that Paul had for the Law, and I
think it give you room for your views and other views as well (well there is
some more Postmodernism coming out of me even though I do not think I have
that much in common with the deconstruction). My two cents (or less) for
the day. That you for your comments.

Billy Evans





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