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  • From: "Elli Elliott" <elli AT visi.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Gal 5:12
  • Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 20:27:40 -0600

Paul's letter is certainly not a letter to the "galli." Besides a number of
other good reasons, if they were castrated galli, circumcision would not be
likely to be an issue for them. (To be perfectly technical about it, there
is no really clear evidence of exactly what was removed in their
self-castration -- but some of it suggests nearly everything.) As eunuchs,
however, they would already be outside the category of anyone worth
persuading to be circumcised.

Also, if the addressees were galli, the effort Paul makes to use them as a
negative association would be fairly pointless. (That's assuming my
argument, of course.)

Furthermore, "galli" are not "Gauls." "Galli" denotes the self-castrated
cultic functionaries of the Mother of the Gods. The name itself comes into
use after the entry of the Gauls into Anatolia. Eugene Lane makes quite a
persuasive case that this has to do with their association with the river
Gallus near Pessinus, renamed after the invasion. In any case, only a very
few Gauls were galli, and the galli came from other ethnic groups as well.

Elli


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim West" <jwest AT highland.net>
To: <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 7:50 PM
Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Gal 5:12


> I've been thinking a lot about Paul's letter to the Galatians (since my
post
> the other day on 5:12). The "galli" (Gauls) were, after the cult of Cybele
> had been formally established in Rome (203 BCE), the Roman Korybantes of
> Cybele. Gauls had overrun Phrygia earlier in the 3rd century, and their
> region was subsequently known to Romans as Galatia. The galli castrated
> themselves to emulate Attis, the consort of their goddess. Is it possible
> that Paul's Letter to the Galatians is in fact a letter to the "Galli"? Or
> is that an over-reach?
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Dr Jim West
> Pastor, Petros Baptist Church
> http://biblical-studies.org -- Biblical Studies Resources
> http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com --- Biblical Theology Weblog
>
> Bad exegesis is no less worse than bad conduct.
> Tertullian, On Purity
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Corpus-Paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/corpus-paul





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