Corpus-Paul

[Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>]

>>Incidentally, what do you make of the people 'who do not really belong to
the brotherhood' in v4?

What he says:
brothers: presumably male Israelites in Jerusalem

false: perhaps not really in favour of, open to, willing to put up with his
mission to gentiles, pretending they are interested, then resisting his
message in some way, known to be false by their subsequent behaviour as
interpreted by Paul

slipped in: into the private meeting? into a meeting after that? into
discussions in the hallways?

secretly: private meeting had a larger audience than expected? what was
secret? their views maybe; anyway the adjectives predispose the reader to
consider that these were opposed to Paul's message and that their open
opposition could have been avoided if the meetings had been more private.

to spy on our freedom: how does one spy on another's freedom if the freedom
is invisible? perhaps the freedom to worship together - Greek and Jew;
perhaps authority acknowledged to Titus in peer to peer conversation with
those who are of repute.

to bring us into bondage: in this letter as subsequently outlined (chapters
4 and 5), the bondage to be avoided is bondage to the flesh in contrast to
the freedom in the gospel and slavery to Christ (1:10).

He is appealing to in the experience and reason of the Galatians to convince
them that his portrayal of these uninformed brethren is credible and should
be credible in their eyes. (3:1-5)

I don't know if this helps - lots of open questions -

Bob

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