Café Apocalypsis

Posted By Jason Meyer on June 7, 2009

This post is a slightly revised version of a discussion in my forthcoming book: Jason Meyer, The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology (Nashville: B & H Academic, 2009).

The last post surveyed the various scholarly approaches to Paul’s logic in Galatians 3:10.  The weakest view in my opinion is Dunn’s view, which assumes a misunderstanding motif with regard to the Law.  This interpretation leads to a glaring problem because Dunn’s focus on Israel’s misunderstanding of the law means that Christ merely redeemed humanity from that misunderstanding (i.e., Jewish nationalism).[1] I personally don’t think that Paul’s portrayal of Christ’s atoning work in Galatians 3:13 can be boiled down to Christ dying to alleviate a Jewish misunderstanding and its corresponding effect upon the Gentiles.

It is difficult to decide between the “traditional” view and this “redemptive-historical” view.  The present author proposes that they are not mutually exclusive, if properly nuanced.  These scholars are right to insist that the cross brought an end to the old age and introduced the dawning of a new age.  The danger with the “redemptive-historical” view as some articulate it is a failure one to recognize that Paul’s persecution of Christians (i.e., Jews not observing the law) reveals that his pre-conversion plight is not the same as the problem he sees post-conversion with the universal sinful nature of Jews and Gentiles.[2] Therefore, perhaps the most serious[3] charge against this view is that it presupposes a substantial continuity between the plight of Paul before and after his conversion.[4]

Neither the traditional nor the redemptive-historical view goes far enough in its analysis of the law.  The problem with the Law is three-fold: (1) anthropology, (2) ontology, and (3) chronology.  I will briefly touch upon the first and second points in this post.

First, the traditional view is right in its insistence that the problem is anthropological.  The presence of an implied proposition makes the most sense of the verse,[5] despite repeated scholarly attacks.[6] Interpreters should not dismiss the probability of implied propositions because Paul often leaves the reader to supply key inferences.[7] This particular implied proposition is one that Paul teaches elsewhere and enjoyed widespread ascendancy among Christians.[8]

Furthermore, interpreters often forget  that Deuteronomy itself assumes that Israel will not obey and will suffer the curses of the covenant.  Israel will fail because the problem in Deuteronomy is anthropological: “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear” (Deut 29:4).

This focus on the overall message of Deuteronomy creates a different angle from which one can examine Paul’s quotation of Deuteronomy.  Paul could have quoted Deuteronomy with a view to its underlying message that Israel will not obey the law and will experience its curse.  Therefore, Paul’s assumption of human inability is grounded in the message of the source of his quotation.  Frank Thielman also proposes a version of this argument in his excellent book, Paul and the Law, 126-27.

Second, Paul’s assessment of the Law and the inevitability of its curse does not end by focusing on the people.  Paul also assumes a problem with the nature of the law itself: it does not provide the power to obey.  This assumption is confirmed by looking at the contextual clues around Galatians 3:10.  Paul clearly argues throughout Galatians 3:1-14 that the law does not contain any intrinsic elements that can overcome the anthropological problem inherited from Adam.  Paul accentuates the polarity of the law/flesh path and the faith/Spirit path in a sustained way throughout Galatians 3:1-14.  The following chart allows the reader to see this contrast at a glance:

Law-Works/Flesh Path                                    Faith/Spirit Path

“from works of the law” (v. 2)                               “from hearing with faith” (v. 2)

“by flesh” (v. 3)                                                           “by Spirit” (v. 3)

“from works of the law” (v. 5)                               “from hearing with faith” (v. 5)

“those of the works of the law” (v. 10)                “those of faith” (v. 7)

“live by them” (v. 12)                                                 “live by faith” (v. 11)

The joining of the Law and flesh highlights the two problems we have been discussing.  The Law (though good and spiritual) does not have the power (ontological problem) to overcome the flesh (anthropological problem).  Romans 8:3 brings these two points together: God, through Christ, did what “the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.”

[3] There are other problems with this view as well.  Many doubt whether all Jews believed that they still suffered under exile.  See Mark A. Seifrid, “Blind Alleys in the Controversy Over the Paul of History,” Tyndale Bulletin 45 (1994): 90 n. 53.  Dunn makes the claim that some of the texts that scholars like N. T. Wright use to prove the exilic situation of Israel actually refer to the end of the exile.  Dunn, The Theology of Paul, 145 n. 90.  Normand Bonneau has also pointed out that Paul’s plight involves individuals and not just Israel as a corporate entity.  See Normand Bonneau, “The Logic of Paul’s Argument on the Curse of the Law in Galatians 3:10-14,” Novum Testamentum 39 (1997): 61-62.

[4] Hafemann argues that Paul’s plight as a Pharisee “is the plight he still fights as an apostle to the Gentiles.”  Scott J. Hafemann, “Paul and the Exile,” 369.

[5] So also Mußner, Der Galaterbrief, 224-26; Burton, Galatians, 164-65; Schoeps, Paul, 176-77; Albrecht Oepke, Der Brief des Paulus an die Galater, 3rd ed., Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1973), 72.

[6] Stanley, “Under a Curse,” 500-01; James M. Scott, “‘For as Many as Are of Works of the Law Are Under a Curse’ (Galatians 3:10),” in Paul and the Scriptures of Israel (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993), 187-221; Betz, Galatians, 145-46.

[7] Silva makes this point repeatedly throughout his excellent treatment of Galatians 3:6-14. Silva, “Abraham, Faith, and Works,” 253-55; 262-263.

[8] H. J. Schoeps and R. N. Longenecker make the case that many Jewish writers of Paul’s day shared this conviction.  Schoeps, Paul, 177; Richard N. Longenecker, Paul: Apostle of Liberty (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1964), 40-43.  Paul has already made the same charge concerning human inability to live up to God’s standards because of the weakness of the “flesh” through the quotation of Psalm 143:2 in Galatians 2:16.  See Eckstein, Verheißung und Gesetz, 28-29; Barclay, Obeying the Truth, 178-215.

Categories: Biblical Theology, Exegesis, Pauline Theology
Tags: Paul and the Law