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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Social context of Galatian's suffering
  • Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 22:16:09 -0500 (CDT)


Sheila McGinn wrote:
>I want to piggy-back on Jeff Peterson's comment about the ones at whose
>hands the Gal.
>have suffered. On what grounds are you reading 6:12 as referring to Jews?
>Especially
>the "bewitchment" and "evil eye" language in chpt 3:1ff makes better sense
>to me in
>the context of a pagan opposition. What is your view?

Sheila,
On the first issue of how to translate and interpret 6:12-13, much has been
written. I hope to offer a comprehensive treatment in a forthcoming work. I
suggest that the ones who are in some way referred to as "being
circumcised" are proselytes, those who have acquired Jewish identity in a
way similar to that which now attracts the interest of the gentile
addressees, rather than people of ascribed Jewish identity.

This is in a way sympathetic with Munck's argument for the translation, but
quite different as to the interpretation. He ends up with circumcised
gentiles independent of Jewish communal or even personal identity. I think
circumcised gentiles are indeed in view, but they are thus no longer
gentiles, but proselytes, once they have completed this ritual process,
assuming that this has taken place within a Jewish communal context.
Obviously no comprehensive view can be successfully or persuasively
established on one participial phrase or verse, or by disregarding such an
important one. Interesting though, that in a Christ-believing group that
had been profoundly influenced if not also converted by Paul, and in a
presumably largely pagan area, that circumcised identity is of greater
value (honor) than foreskinned. This agonistic identity situation is then
undermined by Paul's accusation of the intentions of these circumcised
ones, suggesting that the addressees had considered their intentions toward
themselves differently, i.e., positively, as helpful.

On the second issue, the evil eye belief system is not a solely pagan
phenomenon. It was a widely held view among circum-Mediterranean people of
the period, and many still today, inclusive of Jewish people, and later,
again, even today, among Christian people (Orthodox priests have a prayer
for protection and healing in their handbooks). I am scheduled to offer a
paper on this belief system in Galatians at the annual SBL meeting in
Boston in the Social-Scientific Interpretation section. Although I am
taking a somewhat different view of the implications, I have learned from
articles by John Elliott, "Paul, Galatians, and the Evil Eye," in Currents
in Theology and Mission 17 (1990) 262-73, and Jerome Neyrey, now in his
Paul,in Other Words. A surprisingly large amount of material is available
on this, as reference to these articles will quickly reveal. It is very
interesting, and offers much food for thought.

But on the question you pose, it does not, in my opinion, suggest a pagan
setting. The ritual context of 3:1-5 in which this belief system is raised
by Paul, in fact, from my perspective, argues for a social setting
characterized by the concern for acquiring Jewish identity that seems to be
characteristic of the rhetorical situation of the entire letter.

Sheila, I look forward to meeting you and further discussion on our
upcoming trip to the lands of Paul.

Wishing you good health,
Mark Nanos

Businessman, author, and postgraduate student,
University of St. Andrews







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