N.T. Wright’s Galatians– Part Four

Last updated on: July 9, 2021 at 1:40 am by Ben Witherington

N.T. Wright’s Galatians– Part Four 2021-06-20T16:43:29-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Q. I completely agree with you that Galatians is an early letter maybe even Paul’s earliest of the extant letters we have, and it seems clear it was written before the Acts 15 council. He seems to be swimming upstream, whereas if Acts 15 had already happened, he could simply have cited the decree to the Galatians and said— ‘see, the apostles all agree Gentiles don’t have to get circumcised and become Jews in order to be part of Jesus’ community and to have table fellowship together’. It is difficult for me to understand how so many scholars have missed the rhetorical tone of Galatians dealing with an unsettled issue. Paul thinks his work might be for naught if the agitators succeed in getting his converts to cross the Mosaic boundaries into full Jewish expression. And what is really at issue here is what is the basis of Jew and Gentile united in Christ. Do you think that the long history of reading Galatians with Romans is what has prompted the late dating of Galatians, simply because they have some similar ideas? Or is it the larger suspicions that Acts is not a trustworthy historical source about Paul and early Christianity etc.? Or both?

A. I think it’s both, and probably more as well. The idea that Gal must be close to Rom in time (because both use similar arguments) is quite ridiculous. Paul’s letters are not successive drafts of a systematic theology; he is addressing similar issues of course, though actually significantly different, as I point out in the commentary. IN Gal he is saying ‘NO don’t go and become Jews’ whereas in Rom he is saying ‘NO don’t go and become anti-Jewish’ – so, similar terrain but opposite warnings. And in any case the letters are at most only about 10 years apart . . . but this all emerges from the F. C. Baur school in the nineteenth century, and the long legacy of misreading in German scholarship which then leeched across into America in particular (British scholars have tended to stick with Ramsey and others in seeing Gal as early and ‘south’). And yes, that has gone with the prejudice about Acts, which IS simply prejudice, again emanating from F C Baur, and then egged on by Kaesemann and others for whom Luke was writing ‘salvation history’ which K KNEW was wrong because it had been the engine for the Third Reich – which was always a ridiculous misreading of Luke. And so on. We have lived with quite serious prejudices in the discipline for a long time. This, by the way, is another reason for the split we talked about in the first question: a LOT of theologians and pastors studied NT in their first year at college and were told that ‘Jesus never said this or that’ and that ‘Acts isn’t historical’ and so on – all in the name of a ‘historical criticism’ which, as I’ve said elsewhere, was a lot more ‘critical’ than ‘historical’, as Martin Hengel showed so well. (Though the fact that he isn’t listened to, not least in Germany today, shows that the subject is still driven by ideology rather than history…)

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 8, 2021

N.T. Wright's Galatians-- Part Three

Next Post

July 9, 2021 Black Widow---- Sister Act!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz