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  • From: "moon-ryul jung" <moon AT saint.soongsil.ac.kr>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Gal 4:8-10 (To Mark Nanos)
  • Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 04:46:36 -0400


Dear Mark,

I failed to engage further in the recent discussion of Gal 4:8-11,
even if I was asked to clarify myself. Now that your recent post
"persecution because of the cross of Christ"
is closely related to this passage, let me take this opportunity
to clarify myself.

To you, "turnin back to the weak and poor stoicheia" indicates that the
addresses were considering going back to paganism because the Jewish
community would not accept them as full members unless they get
circumcision. The traditional interpretation was that it still talks about
the addressee's getting circumcision.

You seem to have a priori hesitance about taking "returning to the weak
and poor stoicheia" to mean getting circumcised, which I respect and
appreciate.
I learned through your posts and discussions with you that you would never
accept the interpretations of the Law that find some faults with the Law.
It seems typical of Jewish scholars who study the New Testament.
To me, you seem quite different from other Jewish scholars we know in that
whereas they would find faults with Paul in grossly misunderstanding the
Law, you would say, "no, Paul would not have meant that if understood in
context."

Anyway, it is understandable that you cannot link "returning to the Law"
by getting circumcised to returning to paganism. The religion of the Law
cannot be compared with paganism, no matter what negative things Paul says
about the Law. The only negative aspect of the Law, if any, would be that
the Jews believed that the Gentiles should become Jews, the people of the
Law, to be included in the people of God, the children of Abraham. The Law
was a barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles. The barrier was even
commanded by God.

But this barrier belonged to the old age, and in the age to come, it was
supposed to go away. God is not only God of the Jews but
also of the Gentiles. As God promised to Abraham, he sent Christ so that
the Gentiles could become the people of God, the chidren of Abraham,
without becoming the people of the Law, the Jew, by believing in Christ.
In Christ, the barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles has been removed.
All the "negative comments" of Paul on the Law was made in the process of
making it clear that in Christ, the barrier is removed.

Now, I have my own hesitance with respect to your interpretation. The
topic of "returning to paganism" is too abrupt in the context of the
paragraph 3:1- 4:11. Throughout 3:1- 4:4:7, Paul was arguing that the Law
was a temporary barrier. "The Law was added because of transgressions
until the seed to whom the promise [to Abraham] referred had come."
(3:19) "Before this faith came, we [the Jews] were held prisoners by the
Law, locked up until faith should be revealed" ((3:23) "Now that the faith
has come, we [the Jews] are no longer under the Law, [but under the bigger
scheme of the faith, i.e. Christ, so that we do not need to discriminate
the Gentiles based on the Law]" (3:25) "When we [the Jews]were children,
we were enslaved under the stoicheia of the world [ enslaved by the
barrier derived from the Law that forced us to discriminate the Gentiles]
"(4:3)

All this leads to the conclusion in 3:28, "There is neither Jews nor
Greek, slave nore free, male nore female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are ABRAHAM's SEED." In summary
the Law had a temporary role as the boundary marker for the people of God,
the children of Abraham. But now in Christ, the Law is no longer the
boundary marker for the people of God, the children of Abraham, but
Christ. [This does not say that the Law can the boundary marker for the
Jews as a subgroup of the people of God.]


4:3 needs attention in relation to 4:9. Here "being under the Law"
(3:25)is described as "enslaved under the stoicheia of the world". In 4:9
Paul
asks "do you wish to be enslaved by the weak and poor stoicheia again"?
So, the reader who remembers 4:3 could be inclined to link "enslaved by
the weak and poor stoicheia" to "enslaved under the stoicheia of the
world", thereby to "being under the Law".

4:8-9 talks about the former state i.e. paganism the Galatians were in
before they came to know God. They would not have wanted to go back to
that state, unless they had wanted to foresake Christ. They would have
learned to hate the "weak and poor stoicheia", from which they escaped.
So, when Paul said, "You did well when you deserted the weak and poor
stoicheia. But how come you are returning back to them? Do you wish to
serve them all over again?", they would have been shocked. So far Paul
was rebuking the Galatians for their trying to be under the Law by getting
circumcised.
Now suddenly Paul said, "how come do you want to go back to the weak and
poor stoicheia and serve them?". Then the Galatians would have asked
themselves, "is being under the Law basically the same thing as
as going back to the weak and poor stoicheia of paganism?". I think Paul
did not mean that the two are the same thing but meant that they have
the same effect of deserting Christ whom they believed in.

But could Paul, as a Jew, say that being under the Law by getting
circumcised is not different from returing back to the weak and poor
stoicheia? Why not especially after he said, "when we [the Jews]
were children, we were enslaved under the stoicheia of the world" (4:3)?
Moreover, Paul said several things which normal Jews would not even
think of to prevent the Galatians from getting into "under the Law"
by getting circumcised. For examples,
"Now that faith has come, we [the Jews] are no longer under the Law",
or "Before this faith came, we [the Jews] were held prisoners by the
Law".
or "Christ redeemed us [the Jews] from the curse of the Law".

So, whereas I find it quite interesting that Galatians were considering
going back to paganism because they were not accepted as full members into
the Jewish community, the contextual indicators surround
Gal 4:8-10 force me to accept the traditional interpretation.

Sincerely yours
Moon

Moon-Ryul Jung
Associate Professor
Dept of Digital Media
Sogang Univ, Seoul.






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