Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Paul. A Critical Life.
Chapter 8: Conflict in Galatia, p. 185-210

(Detailed summary)

So far, we have established two points: the Galatians we are discussing were members of Celtic tribes in the region around the city of Pessinus (modern-day Balahissar), and the Letter to the Galatians was likely written in the spring of AD 53. We must now examine the new problem they raised, which compelled Paul to further develop his thinking.

1. Galatia: Land and People

   Epigraphic studies conducted in Central Anatolia, a region colonized by the Galatians, reveal the presence of Celtic, Greek, Roman, and Phrygian names within the same family. It would be difficult to find a more striking illustration of the ethnic diversity of the congregations in the churches of Galatia. The Celts or Galatians who migrated to Asia Minor in 278 BC were a particular type of mercenary, with only half of the 20,000 who crossed the Bosporus being warriors. They came with spouses, children, and elderly parents, in search of a new home. Here is what Strabo writes:

   The Galatians were situated south of the Paphlagonians. … This country was occupied by the Galatians after a long period of wandering and the conquest of territories subject to the Attalid and Bithynian kings, until they received, by voluntary cession, present-day Galatia, or Gallo-Greece (Geography 12.5.1).

   This settlement took place around 232 BC, during the reign of Attalus I of Pergamon, and the Galatians then concentrated in the region of Ancyra (present-day Ankara). After the death of this powerful king in 197 BC, the Galatians resumed their incursions westward into Asia. They were decimated during the violent Roman repression of 189 BC, but their lands were not confiscated, and they subsequently became loyal allies of Rome. Some 25 years later, they had peacefully entered the region of the future city of Pessinus.

   As conquerors, the Galatians belonged to an aristocratic caste, but this did not isolate them from their surroundings. The extent of intermarriage with the local population is underscored by Livy’s description of the Galatians as “a mixed race.” They adopted the local Phrygian religion. Not only was it wiser to appease the local gods, but the Celtic nobility gained local power through their membership in the extremely influential clergy of Pessinus. In addition to Celtic, which continued to be spoken until the Byzantine era, Greek was adopted as a second language. It was the indispensable means of communication throughout the region, and anyone who traveled had to be bilingual. Nevertheless, the Galatians themselves were not Hellenized. Around 50 CE, Galatia was essentially non-Hellenized, and tribal structures continued to be maintained.

   The names of the three administrative regions established by Augustus in 22 or 21 BC were Sebastini Tolistobogii Pessinuntii, Sebastini Textosages Ancyrani, and Sebastini Trocmi Taviani. The population of the three Galatian tribes was considered identical to that of the three villages elevated to city status by imperial decree. The territory of Pessinus extended from Mount Dindymus (present-day Günyüzü Dag) to the source of the Sangarios River. Elsewhere in the tribal territory, there were only unfortified villages.

   The Greeks of the province of Asia looked down on the peoples of central Asia Minor with contempt. The Galatians, for their part, were regarded as large, unpredictable, and simple-minded men, fierce and extremely dangerous when angry, but lacking in endurance and easy to deceive. They were the very archetype of barbarians. It would be hard to find a more lenient comment on the mixture of Galatians and Phrygians than that of Livy, who describes them as a “degenerate and bastard race.”

   Here is a description of the territory by the biblical scholar W.M. Ramsey

   It consists of a vast series of bare, bleak up-lands and sloping hillsides. It is almost devoid of trees, except, perhaps, in some places on the north frontiers; and the want of shade makes the heat of summer more trying, while the climate in winter is severe. The hills often reach a considerable altitude, but have never the character of mountains. They are commonly clad with a slight growth of grass to the summit on at least one side. The scenery is uninteresting. There are hardly any striking features; and one part is singularly like another. The cities are far from one another, separated by long stretches of the same fatiguing country, dusty and hot and arid in summer, covered with snow in winter.… In ancient times the aspect of most of the land away from the few great cities was much the same as it is at the present day—bleak stretches of pastoral country, few villages, sparse population, little evidence of civilization. (A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, p. 12-14.)

   Heavy rains and winter snowfall generally begin in November and last until April. Temperatures can drop as low as -20 °C, and long periods of frost are common. The ground remains soft and muddy until June, when the hot, dry season begins. Roman roads certainly crossed Galatia in Paul’s time, even though the major construction projects that provided Asia Minor with its 9,000 km of paved roads date from between the years 80 and 122. Galatia’s main products are revealed by its unique art: carved tombstones. The most common motif is that of the distaff and spindle, highlighting the importance of wool in the province’s economy. Strabo noted: “Although the country is arid, it is remarkably productive in sheep; but the wool is coarse, and yet some have amassed a very great fortune from it alone. Amyntas owned more than three hundred flocks in this region” (Geography 12.6.1). Strabo’s assessment of the wool’s quality was contested by Pliny, who considered it among the finest in the world. On many tombstones, the distaff and spindle are depicted alongside a pickaxe and pruning shears. The importance of viticulture is suggested by the presence of vines or bunches of grapes. Wine may have made life more bearable in this desolate region, but it is unlikely that it contributed as much to the economy as the cultivation of cereals. Ears of wheat and a team of oxen pulling a plow appear on many tombs.

2. Paul’s Ministry in Galatia

   Paul addresses his letter “to the churches of Galatia” without any further qualification such as “in Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:2). What is the significance of this plural form and the absence of any qualification? Perhaps Paul is thinking of house churches in a well-defined area. But it is more likely that, due to his disappointment, Paul decided to treat the Christian communities as mere secular assemblies.

   How did Paul end up in Pessinus in AD 46? Since he felt ill on the way, after leaving Antioch in Pisidia, he must have sought out an urban environment where he could receive proper care. The best route to reach the Sangarios River, a distance of 40 kilometers, with the least effort was to travel by boat, first along the Ak Tsha’yr, which joins the Alander River, a tributary of the Sangarios. From there, only 12 kilometers separated him from Pessinus. Strabo writes:

   Pessinus is the greatest commercial centre in that part of the world, containing a temple of the Mother of the gods, which is an object of great veneration. They call her Agdistis. The priests were in ancient times powerful and reaped the fruits of a great priesthood, but at present their prerogatives have been much reduced, though the market still endures. The sacred precinct was built up by the Attalid kings in a manner befitting a holy place, with a sanctuary and also with porticoes of white marble. The Romans made the temple famous when, in accordance with oracles of the Sibyl, they sent for the statue of the goddess there, just as they did in the case of that of Asclepius at Epidaurus. (Geography 12.5.3).

   Agdistis is better known as Cybele, the Great Mother, whose cult was officially recognized by Rome in 204 BC. She was the supreme deity of Phrygia, and the male god, Attis, was merely her companion and subordinate servant. Unsurprisingly, women favored this cult. Cybele was responsible for all aspects of the people’s well-being, ensuring their fertility and healing, offering oracles, and protecting her followers. One of the hallmarks of the religious practice involved states of ecstasy in which the person became insensitive to pain or uttered prophecies. Paul must have begun his ministry with simple conversations with those who were generous enough to offer him hospitality, pagans (Gal 4:8) who did not know the God of the Jews. The fact that it was a place of pilgrimage to Cybele is perhaps what led Paul to stay in Pessinus after regaining his health: he saw in these visitors the opportunity to reach the vast, remote regions he could never otherwise explore, and they could carry his message to places beyond his reach. This may be why the letter’s address is so vague.

3. The Cause of the Crisis

   The unrest was caused by outsiders who were trying to persuade the Galatians to adopt a view of Christianity that was radically different from Paul’s.

   1. Who were the Intruders?

      In his letter to the Galatians, Paul clearly distinguishes between his converts, whom he addresses as “you” (Gal 3:1–5), and others, whom he dismissively refers to as “some people” (Gal 1:7), “someone” (Gal 1:9), “they, those people ” (Gal 4:17; 6:13). The clear indication that these are outsiders is provided by the verbs “disturb,” “upset,” and “sow confusion” (Gal 1:7; 5:10), which belong to the political language of the time and describe the work of agitators seeking to destroy a formerly peaceful situation. These people are not pagan philosophers or Jews, but Christians of Jewish origin, either by birth or by conversion; they belong to the “circumcision” (Gal 6:13) and regard their message to the Galatians as “the gospel” (Gal 1:6).

      Where do these people come from? They probably come from Antioch. Let us recall that during his first mission, when he founded the churches in Galatia, Paul was the delegate of the church in Antioch. But following pressure from Jerusalem, the church in Antioch opted for a Judaization of Christianity, which Paul refused to accept (Gal 2:11–21). Unable to accept this vision of the Christian faith, Paul severed ties with that church. Faced with this reality, the leaders of the church in Antioch felt it was their duty to ensure that the daughter churches—that is, the churches founded by Paul and Barnabas—remained in communion with them, and not with Paul. We can therefore imagine that they sent delegates everywhere Paul had gone to ensure this Judaization of the Christian faith. Thus, to Paul, these people were intruders interfering with his converts, but to the representatives from Antioch, Paul had forfeited his rights over the churches in Galatia. They harbored no personal animosity toward Paul, but they considered that Paul had disqualified himself by taking a different path from that of the mother church and behaving as if he alone possessed the truth; for them, it was necessary to intervene in the interest of the converts.

   2. The Tactics of the Judaizers

      When they arrived in Galatia, the Judaizers had two objectives: first, to undermine Paul’s authority by discrediting him, and second, to propose their own alternative version of Christianity. Unfortunately, they left us no documents on which we could base our understanding of their thinking. Furthermore, Paul himself had no direct knowledge of their accusations; he learned of them from his supporters among the Galatians. They had had time to familiarize themselves with the Judaizers’ ideas, since the Judaizers spent the winter of 52–53 in Galatia. But they likely lacked the theological training to respond to them and would have settled for passive resistance. However, with the arrival of spring, they would have hurried to Ephesus to inform Paul.

      1. Discrediting Paul

         Paul likely received specific information about the intruders’ tactics. The biblical scholar F.F. Bruce summarizes the scholarly consensus by attributing these words to the Judaizers:

         The Jerusalem leaders are the only persons with authority to say what the true gospel is, and this authority they received direct from Christ. Paul has no comparable authority: any commission he exercises was derived by him from the Jerusalem leaders, and if he differs from them on the content or implications of the gospel, he is acting and teaching quite arbitrarily. In fact Paul went up to Jerusalem shortly after his conversion and spent some time with the apostles there. They instructed him in the first principles of the gospel and, seeing that he was a man of uncommon intellect, magnanimously wiped out from their minds his record as a persecutor and authorized him to preach to others the gospel which he had learned from them. But when he left Jerusalem for Syria and Cilicia he began to adapt the gospel to make it palatable to Gentiles. The Jerusalem leaders practiced circumcision and observed the law and the customs, but Paul struck out on a line of his own, omitting circumcision and other ancient observances from the gospel he preached, and thus he betrayed his ancestral heritage. This law-free gospel has no authority but his own; he certainly did not receive it from the apostles, who disapproved of his course of action. Their disapproval was publicly shown on one occasion at Antioch, when there was a direct confrontation between Peter and him on the necessity of maintaining the Jewish food-laws. (The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, p. 26)

      2. An Alternative Vision of Christianity

         The first question Paul’s followers needed to ask was this: what is meant by the “authentic gospel” or the “true gospel”? And how was it justified? The biblical scholar J. Louis Martyn offers the following reconstruction:

         Listen now. It all began with Abraham. He was the first human being to discern that there is but one God. Because of that perception he turned from the service of dumb idols to the worship of the true God [Jub. 12]. There God made him the father of our great nation; but that was only the beginning, for God made to Abraham a solemn utterance which through our mission has begun to find its fulfillment in the present time. Speaking through a glorious angel, God said to Abraham:

         In you shall all the nations of the world be blessed [Gen. 12: 3] … for I shall multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven [Gen. 22: 17].… Come outside, and look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able … So shall your descendants be [Gen. 15: 5] … for I speak this blessing to you and to your descendants.

         What is the meaning of this blessing which God gave to Abraham? Pay attention to these things: Abraham was the first proselyte. As we have said, he discerned the true God and turned to him. God therefore made an unshakable covenant with Abraham [Gen. 17: 7], and as a sign of this covenant he gave to Abraham the commandment of circumcision [Gen. 17: 10]. He also revealed to Abraham the heavenly calendar, so that in his own lifetime our father was in fact obedient to the Law, not only keeping the commandment of circumcision [Gen. 17: 23], but also observing the holy feasts on the correct days [Jub. 15: 1–2].

         Later, when God actually handed down the Law at Sinai, he spoke once again in the mouths of his glorious angels who pass the Law through the hand of the mediator, Moses (Galatians 3: 19). And now the Messiah has come, confirming for eternity God’s blessed Law, revealed to Abraham and spoken through Moses (6: 2).

         And what does this mean for you Gentiles? We know from the scriptures that Abraham had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael (4: 22). On the day of the feast of the first fruits Isaac was born of Sarah the freewoman [Gen. 21: 1–7], and through him have come we Jews, who are descendants of Abraham. Ishmael was born of Hagar the slave girl [Gen. 16], and through him have come you Gentiles. Thus you also are descendants of the patriarch. We are in fact brothers!

         We also know from the scripture we have just quoted that God made his indelible promise to both Abraham and his descendants, saying ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed. The inheritance of salvation is to your children’s children! [Sir. 44: 21]’. That fact faces us all with the crucial question: Who is it who are the true and therefore blessed descendants of Abraham (3: 7, 29)? And the answer is equally clear from the scriptures: Abraham himself turned from idols to the observance of the Law, circumcising himself and Isaac. As we have said, he even kept the holy feasts at their precisely appointed times. And not least, by keeping God’s commandments [Jub. 21. 2], he avoided walking in the power of the Evil Impulse (5: 16; cf. Genesis 6: 5). It follows that the true descendants are clearly those who are faithfully obedient to the Law with faithful Abraham (Galatians 3: 6–9). At the present holy time God has been pleased to extend this line of true descent through the community in Jerusalem, the community which lives by the Law of Christ (6: 2), the community of James, Cephas and John, and through the community which we represent (2: 1–10).

         What are you to do, therefore, as Abraham’s descendants through Ishmael, the child of Hagar, the slave-girl? The gate of conversion stands open (4: 17; 4: 9)! You are to cast off your enslavement to the Evil Impulse by turning in repentance and conversion to God’s righteous Law as it is confirmed by his Christ. Follow Abraham in the holy and liberating rite of circumcision (6: 13); observe the feasts at their appointed times (4: 10); keep the sacred dietary requirements (2: 11–14); and abstain from idolatry and from the passions of the flesh (5: 19–21). Then you will be true descendants of Abraham, heirs of salvation according to the blessing which God solemnly uttered to Abraham and his descendants (3: 7, 8).

         You say that you have already been converted by Paul? We say that you are still in a darkness entirely similar to the darkness in which not long ago you were serving the elements, supposing them, as Abraham once did, to be gods that rule the world (4: 3, 9). In fact the fights and contentions in your communities show that you have not really been converted, that Paul did not give you God’s holy guidance. Paul left you, a group of sailors on the treacherous high seas in nothing more than a small and poorly equipped boat. He gave you no provisions for the trip, no map, no compass, no rudder, and no anchor. In a word, he failed to pass on to you God’s greatest gift, the Law. But that is exactly the mission to which God has called us. Through our work the good news of God’s Law is invading the world of Gentile sin. We adjure you, therefore, to claim the inheritance of the blessing of Abraham, and thus to escape the curse of the Evil Impulse and sin (5: 16). For, be assured, those who follow the path of the Evil Impulse and sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God (5: 21). It is entirely possible for you to be shut out (4: 17). You will do well to consider this possibility and to tremble with fear. For you will certainly be shut out unless you are truly incorporated into Abraham (3: 29) by observing the glorious and angelic Law of the Messiah. Turn therefore in true repentance, and come under the wings of the Divine Presence, so that with us you shall be saved as true descendants of our common father Abraham. (A Law-Observant Mission to Gentiles: The Background of Galatians, Scottish Journal of Theology 38, p. 321-323)

         Even though this reconstruction of the Judaizers’ preaching contains some fanciful elements, it helps us grasp the persuasive power of their message. And this struck a nerve with the Galatians. Indeed, when we look at Paul’s approach to the Thessalonians, he limited himself to providing general guidelines intended to show the new converts that a new way of life was expected of them (1 Thess 4:1–12); but it was up to each individual to find the best way to put the Gospel teaching into practice. And most of his converts seem to have accepted this challenge. Paul intervened only when he observed unacceptable behavior. Unfortunately, the Galatians seem to have rejected this approach. To them, Paul’s lack of concrete guidelines gave them the impression of being left in the dark: there was no specific law to tell them what was right and what was wrong, no ritual to atone for transgression. For people who were frightened by freedom and paralyzed by uncertainty, the Law seemed like a blessing. The 613 Jewish commandments made it possible to dispel the darkness completely. The pain of circumcision and the burden of all the commandments were a small price to pay for the security offered by the Law.

4. Paul’s Response

   Up to that point, Paul had mainly converted pagans, and the further west he traveled on his missions, the less he encountered Jewish nationalism. He was therefore not concerned about the differing views of Christianity in Jerusalem and Antioch. So one can imagine the shock caused by the completely unexpected news of the Antiochians’ plan to overturn the foundations he had established in Galatia, and of his converts’ receptiveness to a different vision of the Christian faith. The sense of dismay (Gal 5:7), even despair (Gal 4:11), is clearly evident in his response, but the dominant emotion is a restrained anger. The contrast between the venomous virulence of 2 Cor 10–13 and the cold fury of the Epistle to the Galatians is striking. In both cases, the Judaizers are the problem, but Paul’s deep disappointment with the Corinthians finds release in his rebukes, whereas in the Epistle to the Galatians, it is channeled into an argument of icy precision. For there was a real possibility that the Judaizers’ influence would spread to the other churches he had founded. His credibility was at stake. His gospel was threatened, his future in danger.

   1. A Complex Strategy

      The situation was too serious for Paul to let his emotions get the better of him, as that would have been perceived as a sign of weakness and an admission of guilt. For his aim was not to reassure the Galatians that his gospel was the truth, but—since the Judaizers were still in Galatia—to persuade the intruders themselves that their gospel was less well-founded than they believed. Note that even though the letter is addressed to the Galatians, Paul assumes it will also be heard by the Judaizers, since letters were read in public (cf. Col 4:16); and in fact, Paul’s strategy is to address the Judaizers directly. For he had to get to the root of the problem and develop a long-term solution. This was the only way to halt the advance of the Judaizers and undermine their convictions. Moreover, Paul could not expect the Galatians, converts from paganism (Gal 4:8), to grasp the force of arguments based on a deep knowledge of Jewish tradition. These carefully calculated attacks were intended to destabilize the intruders. Paul hoped that the ensuing consternation would be the most convincing argument in their eyes.

      This approach presupposes that Paul had confidence in his rhetorical skill and literary talent. Of course, this approach would have been easier in person. If Paul did not choose this option, it was likely because a visit to Galatia was impossible for him, either because his imprisonment had begun or because specific problems in Ephesus required his presence there.

   2. A Divine Commission

      Even though Paul had been a delegate from the church in Antioch during his first mission, and a delegate from the same church at the meeting in Jerusalem (Gal 2:1–10), it was now imperative for him to assert his independence following the conflict in Antioch. It was a tactical error on the part of the Judaizers to insist on dependence on Jerusalem as the source of the authentic gospel, rather than on Paul’s earlier connection to the church in Antioch. For Paul had very few ties to the church in Jerusalem. Instead, he emphasizes his early contacts with Christians even as he persecuted “the church of God” (Gal 1:13) and the “churches of Christ in Judea” (Gal 1:22); the name “Jerusalem” is not mentioned. After his conversion, he made only two brief visits to Jerusalem: first, three years later for 15 days to meet with Cephas and James (Gal 1:17–19), and then fourteen years later (Gal 2:1). Paul then mentions his mission in Syria and Cilicia, without giving any details. The Galatians knew that it was during this journey that he came among them, on his way westward. Speaking with confidence, Paul felt no need to say more, demonstrating his assurance and dispelling any sense of anxiety.

      From the outset, Paul affirmed that his apostolic mandate did not come “from men or from any man” (Gal 1:1), or from any particular church or leader, but directly from Jesus Christ, whose authority is guaranteed by his resurrection. The implicit implication is that Jesus alone can judge the faithfulness of his messenger. The miraculous nature of his conversion was not something his opponents could question; the Galatians knew full well that Paul had been a persecutor of Christians (Gal 1:13). To refute the Judaizers’ argument regarding the necessity of adhering to the Christian tradition over which Jerusalem had authority, Paul insists: “This gospel that I have preached to you is not of human origin; nor was it transmitted or taught to me by any human being, but through a revelation from Jesus Christ ” (Gal 1:11–12). Even if he had been exposed to Christian tradition during his stays in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Antioch, the core of his gospel—freed from the law—flows directly from the reconfiguration of his ideas following his encounter with the risen Jesus; the entire Christian tradition is viewed through the lens of this decisive encounter. Thus, whatever harmonizes with this perspective is integrated; the rest is rejected. For example, he initially had no objection to Jewish converts continuing to observe the Law, provided they did not impose it on converts from paganism. It was only later that he perceived the dangers of this concession, and it was only then that he repudiated it completely.

   3. The Living Christ

      In his letters to the Thessalonians, Paul had not strayed from the traditional formulations regarding Jesus’ saving death and his glorious return. In the Epistle to the Galatians, on the other hand, we find the first signs of his original Christology. The need to respond to the importance the Judaizers placed on Abraham compelled him to reflect more deeply on Jesus Christ. Thus, he had to explore the humanity of Jesus more deeply. The intruders accepted the messianic nature of Jesus and the inauguration of the eschatological age, which justified the mission to the Gentiles, but by emphasizing the universal power of the messianic reign, they ascribed divine attributes to him. Therefore, Paul had to remind them that Jesus was born of a woman (Gal 4:4), a Hebrew expression for a member of the human race.

      In exploring the humanity of Jesus, Paul emphasizes the faith of Jesus. There is some confusion regarding the expression pistis Iēsou Christou (“the faith of Jesus Christ,” Gal 2:16; 3:22; cf. Rom 3:22), pistis Christou (“faith of Christ,” Gal 2:16; cf. Phil 3:9), and pistis tou hyiou tou theou (“faith of the Son of God,” Gal 3:26). For pistis can mean either belief or faithfulness/loyalty, and the genitive “of Jesus” can be either objective or subjective. Today, most biblical scholars have opted for the subjective meaning: the faith that is Jesus’ own. This implies that Christ’s faith/faithfulness is both the cause and the example of Christians’ faith/faithfulness. Their active commitment is both made possible by Christ’s and modeled on him. Thus, Paul can write: “I have been crucified with Christ; I live, yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. For the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). Furthermore, Paul identifies Christ’s pistis with love that goes so far as to sacrifice itself for others; it is “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). In short, Christ giving himself is the creative act, which is the essence of authentic humanity. Paul thus comes to the conclusion that the law is Christ: “Bear one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Thus, putting on the mind of Christ is the true answer to the Galatians’ question: how to know what to do.

      Unlike the Judaizers, who saw the Messiah as one who confirmed and interpreted the Law—and thus submitted to it—Paul considered that the Law was subsumed in Christ. The perfection of his love (Gal 2:20) was all that the Law could demand. Rather than insisting on faith-obedience, which risked creating a new Law, he emphasized the conduct of Christ. From then on, it was up to each believer to discern how to embody this self-sacrificing love in the various circumstances of life. In this way, each member of the Christian community becomes an integral part of a living being (Gal 5:4), a being that Paul would later call “the body of Christ” (1 Cor 12:12).

   4. Faith and Law
      The argument of the Judaizers was based on a view of salvation history that began with Abraham, then moved on to the covenant and circumcision, and culminated in the centrality of the Law. For Paul, the true history of salvation began with Christ; everything that came before was merely a long preface. His starting point for challenging his opponents’ argument was the observation that the Galatians had received the gift of the Spirit and experienced the power of God simply by accepting Paul’s preaching; the Law was of no help, and its demands only appeared after their conversion (Gal 3:1–5). This was also the case with Abraham, who first responded to God’s word and was blessed for his response (Gal 3:6). Faith is fundamental, and the rest—the covenant, the requirements of circumcision—is secondary.

      After establishing that faith, and not obedience to the Law, is what characterizes Abraham, Paul now addresses the question of his descendants, which is so important to the Judaizers. He relies on the fact that the text of Gen 13:15, when speaking of the recipient of the promise made to Abraham, uses the word “seed” in the singular: “The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed” (Gal 3:16). For Paul, this “seed” can only refer to Christ. Consequently, all those who are “in Christ” and embody his conduct through their lives truly belong to the descendants of Abraham. Paul’s education and his Pharisaic training enabled him to employ this aggressive casuistry. By the very same token, he completely ignores the fact that Abraham was circumcised and diverts attention from this issue by speaking of the “circumcised ” (Gal 2:7–9) to refer to the Jewish people: this serves to focus attention on the present, not the past, and to introduce a term that had a repugnant ring to it in the ears of the Greco-Romans.

      As for the concept of the covenant that the Judaizers linked to the Law, Paul could not dismiss it, for it was part of Christian vocabulary, particularly used during the Eucharistic celebration. Did not Jer 31:33 speak of a new covenant? Paul’s approach was to dissociate the Law from the covenant.

      • First of all, he associated the covenant with freedom. Indeed, Christians are the children of the Jerusalem above (Gal 4:26), whom he identifies with Sarah, who belongs to the covenant of the free woman (Gal 4:31). This is the antithesis of the covenant of the slave woman associated with Mount Sinai and present-day Jerusalem (Gal 4:22–25). The covenant of Abraham is a covenant of freedom that is essentially a promise (Gal 3:16–18, 21; 4:28), not a set of laws.

      • Furthermore, the covenant and the Law cannot be inseparably linked, for the Law was not part of God’s original plan, since it came 430 years after the promise (Gal 3:17), and moreover, it was decreed not by God, but by angels (Gal 3:19). Added to this is the fact that it was given for a limited time (Gal 3:19). Therefore, its role ended when the promise to Abraham was fulfilled in Christ (Gal 3:14).

      In conclusion, believers can be partners in the new covenant without being bound by the Law.

   5. Set Free for Freedom

      A distinctive feature of Paul’s vocabulary in the Letter to the Galatians is the frequent use of the word “slave” (Gal 1:10; 3:28; 4:1) and related terms: “to perform tasks as a slave ” (Gal 4:8, 9, 25; 5:13), to enslave (Gal 4:3), slavery (4:24; 5:1). It is undoubtedly the awareness of the constraints imposed by the Law (Gal 2:23) that leads him to this vocabulary. The Law was not the only source of oppression. It served as a trigger, bringing to light Paul’s experience as a traveler. Society itself imposed certain behaviors on its members, which Paul knew were incompatible with authentic human fulfillment. He remembered the times when he had been forced to act selfishly in order to survive and understood that the Galatians had faced the same pressures. To describe this situation, Paul uses the Greek phrase stoicheia tou kosmou, translated in various ways, including “the elements of the world.” This is his way of conveying the idea that human beings live their lives under the influence or control of primordial and cosmic forces. For him, the very structure of society was oppressive. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul juxtaposes “the tradition of men” (Col 2:8) and “the elements of the world” (Col 2:20). In his letter to the Romans, he speaks instead of the power of Sin (Rom 3:9). In all cases, it is a matter of the total control exercised over individuals by society’s system of false values.

      One of these false values was the blind obedience that the Jews paid to the Law. Just as those who live in polluted environments have no choice but to inhale toxins, those born into this world are automatically contaminated by its attitudes and norms, its fundamental principles. They cannot resist it, any more than wood chips tossed into a fast-flowing river. Paul deliberately invokes slavery to emphasize that no resistance is possible. The echo of his own experience, both religious and secular, is undeniable. Thus, freedom becomes possible only in Christ, more precisely through the Christian community. For the victory of the spirit’s desires over the desires of the flesh is only a victory in principle at the time of conversion. Only those who have in fact crucified the flesh with its passions belong to Christ (Gal 5:24). In other words, the Galatians have been set free to become free (Gal 5:1). It is now up to them to make the right choices between the selfishness of the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19–21)—and thereby return to slavery—and the service of others in love—and thereby become truly free (Gal 5:22–23).

      For Paul, what contributes to the community brings about freedom. Thus, ultimately, freedom is a property of the community, not of an individual. Only those who belong to an authentic community are truly free. For this community protects them from the all-encompassing power of the system of false values.

      As we can see, the crisis with the Judaizers contributed to the development of Paul’s thought by forcing him to explore more deeply the meaning of faith in Christ and its relationship to the Christian life, and to distinguish more clearly between life in the world and life in the Christian community. For the first time, he grasped the nature of authentic freedom.