The covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14) and the situational antitheses in Galatians 3:28

Journal of Biblical Literature

Volumn 122, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 111-125

  Martin, Troy W ^a  

^a SAINT XAVIER UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149210668     PISSN: 00219231     EISSN: 19343876     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3268093     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. J. Louis Martyn, Galatians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 33A; New York: Doubleday, 1997)
2. Martyn, Galatians, 376
3. Thus, scholars such as Henning Paulsen ("Einheit und Freiheit der Söhne Gottes - Gal 3.26-29," ZNW 71 [1980]: 87-88) presuppose that the antitheses in Gal 3:28 existed independent of this verse
4. See also Michel Bouttier, "Complexio Oppositorum: Sur les Formules de 1 Cor. XII.13; Gal. III.26-28; Col. III.10-11," NTS 23 (1976): 7
5. and Dautzenberg, "Da ist nicht männlich," 196
6. for a summary of these arguments, see MacDonald, No Male and Female, 5 n. 8
7. For an analysis of the differences in the Pauline passages, see Bouttier, "Complexio," 3-11
8. and Dieter Lührmann, "Wo man nicht mehr Sklave oder Freier ist: Überlegungen zur Struktur frühchristlicher Gemeinden," WD 13 (1975): 57-63
9. For passages other than those discussed here, see Thyen, "Nicht mehr männlich," 138-44
10. and Paulsen, "Einheit," 80-85
11. Paulsen, "Einheit," 79
12. Troy W. Martin, "The Scythian Perspective in Col 3:11," NovT 37 (1995): 249-61
13. See also Douglas A. Campbell, "The Scythian Perspective in Col. 3:11: A Response to Troy Martin," NovT 39 (1997): 81-84
14. and my reply, "Scythian Perspective or Elusive Chiasm: A Reply to Douglas A. Campbell," NovT 41 (1999): 256-64
15. Gerald Downing agrees that the presence of "Scythian" in Col 3:11 indicates a link between this list and Cynicism (review of Troy W. Martin, By Philosophy and Empty Deceit, JBL 117 [1998]: 542-44)
16. Dautzenberg, "Da ist nicht männlich," 186-87
17. and MacDonald, No Male and Female, 123-24
18. For the primary and secondary sources of this commonplace, see Wayne A. Meeks, "The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity," HR 13 (1974); 167 nn. 7-8
19. For additional arguments for the pagan nature of this time-keeping scheme, see Troy W. Martin, "Pagan and Judeo-Christian Time-keeping Schemes in Gal 4:10 and Col 2:16," NTS 42 (1996): 105-19
20. idem, By Philosophy and Empty Deceit, 124-34
21. See Troy W. Martin, "Apostasy to Paganism: The Rhetorical Stasis of the Galatian Controversy," JBL 114 (1995): 437-61
22. Martyn, Galatians, 21 n. 26
23. See also T. B. Allworthy, Women in the Apostolic Church: A Critical Study of the Evidence in the New Testament for the Prominence of Women in Early Christianity (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1917), 40-41
24. and Ben Witherington III, "Rite and Rights for Women-Galatians iii.28," NTS 27 (1980-81): 595-96
25. Meeks, "Androgyne," 181
26. Thyen, "Nicht mehr männlich," 109-10, 116
27. In contrast, see Dautzenberg, "Da ist nicht männlich," 193
28. Clark, Man and Woman, 141
29. see also Witherington, "Rite," 599
30. Allworthy, Women, 40-41
31. and Colin Brown, NIDNTT 2:570
32. Jervell's and Paulsen's inability to relate each of these antitheses equally illustrates the failure of scholars to relate all of these antitheses to the stipulations of the covenant and circumcision. Robin Scroggs criticizes attempts to justify the slave/free antithesis in Gal 3:28 by appealing to the slave/free analogy in ch. 4 ("Paul and the Eschatological Women," JAAR 40 [1972]: 291)
33. He argues, "The usefulness of this analogy depends upon the reality of the distinction, not its abolition." Scroggs thinks that Gal 3:28 is a rhetorical comment taken from the baptismal liturgy and that only the Jew/Greek antithesis has any relevance for Paul's argument in Galatians (p. 288). For a critique of Scroggs, see Elaine H. Pagels, "Paul and Women: A Response to Recent Discussion," JAAR 42 (1974): 538-44
34. I still prefer the term Agitators, popularized by Robert Jewett ("The Agitators and the Galatian Congregation," NTS 17 [1971]: 198-212), even though I recognize that it is not a neutral term
35. Martyn proposes Teachers as more neutral, but this designation of the opponents is no more neutral than the term Agitators since it arises from and supports Martyn's historical reconstruction of the situation in Galatia. See J. Louis Martyn, "A Law-Observant Mission to the Gentiles: The Background of Galatians," SJT 38 (1985): 312-14
36. Thyen, "Nicht mehr männlich," 155
37. Eduard Lohse, Colossians and Philemon (Hermeneia; Philadephia: Fortress, 1971), 144-45
38. Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke, Colossians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 34B; New York: Doubleday, 1994), 415
39. See Hermann Ringeling, "Frau IV. Neues Testament," TRE 11:433
40. and Meeks, "Androgyne," 207-8
41. James E. Crouch (The Origin and Intention of the Colossian Haustafel [FRLANT 109; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972], 144)
42. and Robert Jewett ("The Sexual Liberation of the Apostle Paul," JAARSup 47, no. 1 [1979]: 55-87) also interpret Gal 3:28 as a present reality and recognize the tension between this verse and the station codes. They resolve this tension by proposing that the station codes respond to excesses that arose in Christian communities by an overly enthusiastic application of Gal 3:28
43. For a summary and critique of their position, see Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983), 205-7
44. Dautzenberg, "Da ist nicht männlich," 193; cf. 196-97, 199-200
45. Lührmann, "Nicht mehr Sklave," 57, 59, 71-83