Corpus-Paul

["Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>]

Mark Nanos wrote in reply to Moon R. Jung:

> I find it difficult to answer your questions as put, not because
> there is anything wrong with the questions per se, but because I am
> still trying to make sense of this overall passage [Gal. 2:11-21?] as
> it relates to Antioch much less Galatia, and this verse is the
> toughest statement of all.

To which David Hindley suggested that work of a redactor might explain some
difficulties with analyzing 2:11-21.

Frankly I have always had trouble with claims for redactional activity in
Paul's letters, unless it can be argued that Paul himself added things to
them in the process of composition, which is what I think happened at Gal
5:2 - 12, e.g.  Teasing out redacted material smacks at bit of trying to
make the messiness of ancient argumentation conform to the neatness of
modern thinking.  If it doesn't read like we would argue it, then someone
must have tampered with it. Why, I would ask, would an ancient redactor
screw up something that must have made some sense to the author who is
worried that it make sense to the hearer? Partition theories pose the same
question for me but even more so because the of loss of essential elements
of epistolary forms that are involved in the editing process.

Anyway, in my essay in the Kennedy festschrift I argued that Gal 2:11-14 was
an expanded sayings chreia and that 2:15-21 the elaboration of that chreia.
I still kinda like that explanation of what is going on, because by 2:21
Paul has not only established his ethos -- again! -- but also laid the
foundation for blaming the Galatians for their failure to understand the
issues involved in being in Christ. The argumentative situation has shifted
and Paul can begin to argue his values, values that should be theirs if they
are truly in Christ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Hester                   "Never be afraid to try something new.
736 Buckingham Drive          Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Redlands, CA  92374           Professionals built the Titanic."
(909) 792-0533
hester AT uor.edu                http://rhetjournal.uor.edu
                              http://www.ars-rhetorica.net


----------
>From: "David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>
>To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: [corpus-paul] Re: The treatment of "dying to the Law" in the Mystery
of Romans by Nanos
>Date: Thu, Mar 30, 2000, 7:58 AM
>

> I find it difficult to answer your questions as put, not because
> there is anything wrong with the questions per se, but because I am
> still trying to make sense of this overall passage [Gal. 2:11-21?] as
> it relates to Antioch much less Galatia, and this verse is the
> toughest statement of all.