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corpus-paul - Re: Gal 4:8-10 (To Mark Nanos)

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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Gal 4:8-10 (To Mark Nanos)
  • Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 20:38:19 -0500


Dear Moon,
Again thanks for the discussion; I am pleased that the efforts to clarify I offered were in fact clarifying for you. You asked for further clarification on one matter.

[Moon]
> >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.
[Mark]
> I hope you will not decide just yet! You noted at the beginning that
> the meaning I am arguing for at 4:8-10 is too abrupt a change in
> rhetorical direction. But I suggest that it is not. What is
> determinative is the construction of the situation. If the situation
> is as I have suggested, then the previous situational rhetoric of
> 1:6-9 and 3:1-5 is similarly concerned with this contrast. So while
> 4:8 seems a long way into Paul's argument, much of the letter has
> consisted to this point of narrative material that should be
> qualified, and then the closeness of the argument to the situation I
> have proposed can readily be seen. At least I can see it!
>

But Paul's rebuke in 1:6-9 and 3:1-5 had to do with trying to be under the
Law by getting circumcised. Please explain what do you mean by
"1:6-9 and 3:1-5 is similarly concerned with this contrast".

In both of these ironic and rebuking units Paul undermines the addressees' consideration of this "other message" as "good" for themselves, and exposes the fallacy of their present reasoning in response to the influencers' response to their claims, that is, in terms of the logic of what they have professed to believe in on Paul's good-news-of-Christ proclamation.

But why have they been considering this other (traditional) message of proselyte conversion as good for themselves? (by the way, they do not appear to desire to be under the Law per se, but just accepted unambiguously on the terms of those who are, that is, to be Law-people; thus Paul's subversive rhetoric in 5:3 undermines their naivete). That is the issue, and if it is as I have proposed, then these situational units undermine the same situational factors that are undermined in 4:8-10; namely, the perception that they must comply with the influencers' (and their family's/neighbor's) constraints or lose out on that which they had been led by Paul to believe they have already attained: standing as full members of the Jewish communities as though they were proselytes, apart from proselyte conversion, based upon the meaning of Christ for them in the new age. The prevailing norms are undermined in each of these units, and later in the letter as well. The issue is of identity; of gaining certain acceptance, and therefore undisputed access to all that this ensures.

So much depends upon the construction of the situation for how the rhetoric is interpreted, the working hypothesis, if you will; the prevailing views hang upon much more of a working hypothesis, with many more unexplored assumptions than seems to have been generally realized.

Is this sufficient explanation for the matter at hand?

Regards,
Mark Nanos





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