The Apostle Paul and the Christian Life

Ethical and Missional Implications of the New Perspective

McKnight, Scot, Modica, Joseph B.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780801049767
• eBook ISBN: 9781493403516
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

The "new perspective" on Paul, an approach that seeks to reinterpret the apostle Paul and his letters against the backdrop of first-century Judaism, has been criticized by some as not having value for ordinary Christians living ordinary lives. In this volume, world-renowned scholars explore the implications of the new perspective on Paul for the Christian life and church. James D. G. Dunn, N. T. Wright, Bruce Longenecker, Scot McKnight, and other leading New Testament scholars offer a response to this question: How does the apostle Paul understand the Christian life? The book makes a fresh contribution to the new perspective on Paul conversation and offers important new insights into the orientation of the Christian life.

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The Christian Life from the Perspective of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

JAMES D. G. DUNN

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is of particular interest in any attempt to characterize the Christian life as seen or intended by Paul.1 Not only does it focus on what is the key question here—What is it which makes a person a Christian? What is the central feature, for Paul, of being a Christian?2—but, exceptionally in Paul’s letters, it is in Galatians that Paul gives a clear account of his own conversion (Gal. 1:13–17). So after drawing attention to the weight of authority he sought to invest in the letter, we will then look at Paul’s account of how he himself became a Christian, and then at the way he had to fight to define and defend what he regarded as the fundamental factors which constituted or qualified a person to be counted as “Christian.”

In fact, two words stand out in Paul’s talk of the Christian life in Galatians—pistis, “faith,” and pneuma, “spirit.” Pistis occurs twenty-two times, a higher proportion of usage than in almost any other New Testament writing.3 And pneuma appears more intensively in Galatians 3–5 (fourteen times) than almost anywhere else in Paul, though not with quite the intensity of Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. These basic statistics, almost alone, would be sufficient to indicate that faith in Christ and the gift of the Spirit are central to Paul’s understanding of the Christian life. And this first impression is quickly confirmed by a closer look at the text.

The Unusual Opening of the Letter

Paul begins his letter in his usual style by introducing himself as “Paul, apostle.”4 Notable, however, is the elaboration he adds before he mentions to whom the letter is sent (Gal. 1:2b). In other letters he elaborates the initial self-introduction as “apostle of Christ Jesus” and more.5 But in Galatians Paul can hardly restrain himself, going on immediately to indicate that his apostleship was “not from men or through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (1:1). For him thus to disrupt the normal polite convention of an epistolary introduction is very surprising.6 Paul’s sensitivity on the point is self-evident and striking. Evidently he felt his apostleship to be at issue, a status and authority he has to make clear as he determines to call his Galatian converts to account. And it quickly becomes clear that he is writing to make fresh claim to his apostolic authority in order to give what follows the weight he wants it to have.

The further addition Paul makes following his usual “grace and peace” benediction (1:3) is also a departure from his usual letter opening—the formulaic, Christ “who gave himself for our sins in order that he might rescue us from the present evil age” (1:4). Anyone who was familiar with Paul’s normal and more typical epistolary introduction might well pick up the implication that the conduct and policies he was about to rebuke were too reminiscent and typical of the “evil age” from which the gospel had rescued them.

Most noticeable of all, however, is Paul’s still more striking departure from common courteous convention in what follows. For the normal convention, as we see in other letters of his, was to continue the opening greeting with a word of thanksgiving and prayer on behalf of those addressed, as in what is probably Paul’s earliest letter, 1 Thessalonians (1:2–3): “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly remembering your work of faith” (AT).7 But in this case Paul has no time for such niceties. So far as he is concerned, there is nothing to give thanks to God for in what he has heard concerning the Galatian churches. Having restrained himself thus far, evidently with some impatience, Paul can hold back no longer and turns abruptly to his primary concern in writing.

I am astonished that you are so quickly turning away from the one who called you in the grace (of Christ) to another gospel, which is not another, except that there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to turn the gospel of the Christ into something else. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed! As we said before, I now also say again: if anyone preaches to you something contrary to what you received, let him be accursed! For am I now trying to persuade men, or God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be the slave of Christ. (Gal. 1:6–10)

The issue is clear, and the reason for Paul’s departure from normal epistolary convention is clear too. There were those who had come to the communities/congregations which Paul had established in Galatia and who were, in Paul’s view, preaching a different gospel from the one to which the Galatians had first responded. As the letter unfolds it becomes clear that what these others were trying to achieve was for the Galatian believers to be circumcised (5:2–6). The fierceness of this opening rebuke, totally usurping the usual epistolary pleasantries, makes the passage exceptional in Paul’s letters.8 The nearest parallel in intensity of opposition comes later in the same letter, where Paul wishes that those who were insisting that the Galatian converts should be circumcised “would castrate themselves” (5:12)!9

What was at stake here, in Paul’s view, was whether this new faith in/commitment to Jesus (the) Christ meant that gentile believers were converting to Judaism. Was belief in Jesus (the) Christ simply a first step to becoming a Jew? Paul was clear that the answer was no! It was the incomers (to Galatia) insisting that the Galatians’ belief in/commitment to Christ was only a first step to becoming a full proselyte which so infuriated Paul. In response, and outrage as nowhere else, Paul insisted that pisteuein eis Christon was a full response to the gospel of Christ. To insist on anything more as equally fundamental was to diminish and deny the fundamental character and role of faith. All this becomes clear as the letter progresses.

Paul’s Conversion

In responding to this threat to his gospel, as to his Galatian converts, Paul’s first instinct was to tell, or remind the Galatians of, his own testimony and in doing so to correct false rumors about his relation to the center of the new movement and its chief authorities (Gal. 1:13–17).

He points out, or reminds them, that he had previously been a strong advocate of the views he now contests. His earlier life had been “in Judaism”;10 he was a zealot for the views and policies he now resists, a violent persecutor of the followers of the Jesus whom he now seeks to serve (1:13–14). His conversion from such zealotry had been an act of divine grace, when God “revealed his Son in me,”11 which came to Paul primarily as a commission to preach the Jesus whose followers he had persecuted, and to preach him among the gentiles (1:15–16). Since there is no indication elsewhere in Paul’s writings that he had had any doubts or anxieties about his role as persecutor,12 it is hard to grasp the extent of the (total) upset and transformation in what mattered to him, which was occasioned by his conversion.13

That after his conversion Paul spent three years in Damascus and (significantly) Arabia suggests a lengthy and penetrating rethinking of his priorities and goals. It was evidently also of importance to him to insist that he did not consult with anyone whom the Jerusalem authorities would recognize, nor did he return to Jerusalem during that time (1:16–17). His insistence that even when he did go to Jerusalem three years later, he stayed with Cephas for only a fortnight (otherwise seeing only James of the Jerusalem leadership, 1:18–19), suggests that there were those who wanted to maintain his dependence on and subordinate status to Cephas and the Jerusalem apostles.14 The fact that he adds a solemn oath—“What I write to you, please note, before God, I am not lying” (1:20)—assuredly indicates (or confirms) that for Paul, the God-given character of his gospel and its degree of independence from the Jerusalem leadership (including, of course, those who had been Jesus’s own closest disciples) were the unarguable givens of his apostleship.

That Paul continued in effect to narrate his own biography as a disciple of Jesus Christ, commissioned directly by him, indicates what he saw to be of first importance in writing this letter. After that short visit to Jerusalem he had been absent from Jerusalem for another fourteen years.15 During that time he had preached in Syria and Cilicia, with some success and the warm approval of the churches of Judea (1:21–24). Only after fourteen years had he and Barnabas gone up to Jerusalem, under divine authority (2:1–2), and there successfully resisted the attempt by some Jewish believers to insist that their uncircumcised (gentile) companion (Titus) be circumcised (2:3–6). The backing of the pillar apostles (James, Cephas, and John) was of particular importance in their recognition of a legitimate (noncircumcision) gentile mission, even while they continued to prosecute an equivalent mission among the circumcised (2:7–10).16

This degree of concord was shattered by “the Antioch incident” (2:11–14). Presumably as a result of the advocacy of “certain individuals who came from James,” Peter and the other Jewish believers, who had been accustomed to eating with gentile believers, withdrew from table fellowship with and “separated” themselves from these gentiles because they “feared those of the circumcision” (2:11–12). One can almost hear the sob in Paul’s voice when he adds that “even Barnabas”—his close companion and fellow missionary during that first mission (2:9)—“was carried away with their hypocrisy” (2:13). Paul could not agree that this was what the gospel demanded—that Jewish believers should refrain from table fellowship with gentile believers. So he confronted and rebuked Cephas/Peter17 publicly on the issue. Such policy and practice, Paul argued, was not in accordance or straight with the gospel. The gospel did not compel gentile believers to “judaize” (2:14). It was this confrontation, following his experience of the total transformation of his own principles and priorities, and following too the previous agreement in Jerusalem, which made Paul realize that the believers in Galatia had to be told even more firmly that participation in Christ and the church of those who believed in Christ was by faith alone.

The Centrality of “Faith” in Galatians

We should be grateful for the Antioch incident since it seems to have been the confrontation which caused Paul to dictate (in his letter) one of the clearest and most emphatic statements of the gospel, of what he understood to be good news.

We are Jews by nature and not “Gentile sinners,” knowing that no human being is justified by works of the law but only through faith in Jesus Christ, and we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Gal. 2:15–16)

I put “Gentile sinners” in quotation marks since I infer that Paul was echoing (or quoting) the reason which some of the Jewish believers gave for separating from the gentile believers....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction by Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica
• 1. The Christian Life from the Perspective of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians
• 2. The New Perspective and the Christian Life in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians
• 3. Faith, Works, and Worship
• 4. The New Perspective and the Christian Life
• 5. Participation in the New-Creation People of God in Christ by the Spirit
• 6. The New Perspective and the Christian Life
• 7. A Symphonic Melody
• 8. Paul and Missional Hermeneutics
• Selected Bibliography
• List of Contributors
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Authors
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources
• Back Cover