Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT home.com>]

on 6/4/01 12:08 PM, Francisco Ramirez at franramirez AT teo.upco.es wrote:

> I'm actually working on the subject of Paul and the Kingdom of God. I'm
> aware this is a huge theme, although Paul does not say too much about it.
> 
> I'm focusing now on Gal 5,21, and wondering wether we can be sure Paul is
> here pointing to a pure future kingdom or not.

Francisco,
Does not 5:5, where the Galatians are instructed not to gain acceptance the
standard way, but rather, "through the Spirit, by faith," to "wait for the
hope of righteousness," suggest both a future and present sense for this
language? In addition, there is the theme of how they ought to "walk" in the
present throughout this discourse, yet with the hope that God will see to it
that, in the end, they reap what the sow (from ch. 5 through 6:10, and again
in the summary of the letter from 6:11-18). The tension seems to be between
the temptation to comply with the wishes of those who control goods, and the
reward to be gained by non-compliance with them, when it is a choice made in
order to conform with what they now believe to be appropriate because of the
"meaning of Christ's death."

I continue to find it helpful to read Galatians not with an either/or lens,
but with one that accounts for Paul's call to live "now" in view of the
conviction that the "end of the ages/kingdom of God" has "dawned" in the
midst of the present age (in the meaning attributed to the death of a Judean
martyr of the Roman regime = Jesus, who is believed to have been resurrected
= Christ), but the culmination of that period has not yet arrived.

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
nanosmd AT home.com