Corpus-Paul

[Don Garlington <dongarlington AT yahoo.com>]

Dear Daniel,

Thank you for your inquiry. I would offer the
following comments.

Hubbard’s book on the new creation in Paul is, I
think, the first major work in English since John
Gibbs’ Creation and Redemption (Brill, 1971) (if I am
wrong about this, please someone inform me). A large
part of its value lies in its survey of the idea of
new creation in central Jewish texts. Hubbard’s
important discussion of Gal 6:15 (pp. 188-232) has
yielded the conclusion that new creation is on Paul’s
mind from the earliest stages of Galatians and forms
its culminating point at the end. In a very real
sense, new creation is what Galatians is about. The
root of the matter is that the new creation assumes a
different shape than the old: the former things that
used to identify the community of faith have now given
way to the age of the Spirit.

Cummins thesis is outstanding from the vantage point
of setting Galatians within the context of the
Maccabean martyr tradition. Cummins contends that the
apocalyptic conceptual framework of Galatians sets the
stage for Paul’s inversion of the Maccabean crisis,
whereby Christ is represented as Israel’s (unexpected)
eschatological redeemer, whose death effects a
reversal of the cause for which the Maccabean martyrs
gave themselves (see, e.g., 123). Both Paul and his
mission were dramatically transformed when God
revealed his son “in him” (Gal 1:15-16a). Explains
Cummins: “This encounter may be seen as representing a
radical reworking of the Jewish messianic expectations
based on Daniel 7:13-14 with regard to a
redeemer/ruler who would rescue and vindicate
afflicted Israel, and inaugurate God’s glorious rule.
It was expected that Israel’s vindication would
include its now condemned enemies’ astonished
recognition that those whom they had formerly
persecuted—not least as embodied in their righteous
representative(s)—were in fact the now exalted
saints/sons of God. However, in God’s disclosure of
Jesus ‘in Paul’ this ‘great reversal’ is itself
reversed. Here and now (not at the future judgement)
it is Paul the exemplary zealous Jew who realizes that
the one whom he had been persecuting—by means of his
pursuit of Jesus’ followers—was in fact Israel’s (and
the nations’) Messiah and Son of God. The rejected and
martyred Jesus now occupied an exalted role within the
divine economy, and those conformed to him (whether
Jew or Gentile) constituted the ‘Israel of God’
rescued from the evil age/sphere, who even now had a
share in the glorious reign of their representative
redeemer” (123).

Some of Cummins’ parallels may be a bit strained, but
all in all I think he is right on target.

Carter’s book is a sociological approach to Paul, with
chap. 4 devoted to Galatians. The thesis is summarized
just before the title page:  “Paul and the Power of
Sin seeks to ground Paul's language of sin in the
socio-cultural context of his original letters. T. L.
Carter draws on the work of social anthropologist Mary
Douglas to conduct a cross-cultural analysis of the
symbolism of the power of sin in the letters,
examining thoroughly Douglas’ ‘Grid and Group’ model
and defending its use as a heuristic tool for New
Testament scholars. He uses this model to examine the
social location of Paul and the communities to which
he wrote and offers a fresh insight into key passages
from I Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. Carter
concludes that an important part of Paul’s purpose was
to safeguard the position of law-free Gentile
believers by redrawing social boundaries along
eschatological rather than ethnic lines.”

I have quibbled with him in a couple of places, but
found his treatment to be quite satisfying in the main
and useful exegetically at various junctures in
Galatians.

At this point, I have given Bryan’s book only a
cursory reading. But its value seems to lie in its
attention to the prophecies of the restoration of
Israel and their implementation in the gospels. Bryan
goes beyond Sanders treatment of the theme in its
detail and its application to specific themes like
Elijah’s restoration. For my purposes in Galatians, I
was helped by the survey of new temple texts and the
matter of purity.

Kent Yinger’s book is particular favorite because of
its treatment of the judgment texts in Jewish sources
and their bearing on Paul. We are accustomed to
thinking that in Paul’s thought there is a tension
between justification by faith and judgment according
to works. But Yinger shows that within the Jewish
context there is no tension: the two sit side by side
very comfortably.

The shorter version of the commentary (about 100
pages) is due to appear in the updated Expositors
Bible Commentary (Zondervan; ed. David Garland). The
longer (about 300 pages) has been accepted by Wipf &
Stock. Actually, I would like to find a higher profile
publisher, but I have been told that a stand-alone
commentary is very difficult to market these days.

I hope these comments are of use.

Regards,

Don





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