The performance of Galatians: A critical study of J. Louis Martyn's apocalyptically committed translation of Paul's letter to the Galatians in light of the necessity to speak the text in Christian worship

In 1997 J. Louis Martyn published his magisterial commentary on and translation of Galatians, representing the culmination, to that point, of Martyn's life-long study of Paul's letter. Martyn's translation efforts, guided by his construal of Paul's apocalyptically committed theology, have significant and compelling implications for speaking the text of Paul's letter in public, corporate worship. This is so precisely because Martyn's translation draws attention to God's free initiative in self-disclosure amid human affairs and to the hearing of Galatians as an event of the reproclamation of the gospel in which God is the active agent who makes of the hearers an addressable community.; In this project I argue that Martyn's paraphrastic, though apocalyptically charged, translation of the text at the level of performance compromises, in a measure, that very apocalyptic commitment. Martyn's translation seeks to elucidate the urgent and dramatic tone in which Paul addresses the Galatian churches through the public reading of his letter. I find that Martyn's translation, though, when performed, does not fully embody the dramatic impact of Paul's apocalyptic, cruciform mode of argumentation and self-presentation in service to the proclamation of the gospel.; Chapter one provides an overview of (1) the genesis and methodological structure of our project, (2) Martyn's understanding of Pauline apocalyptic, and (3) functional definitions of key terms. Chapter Two explores how Martyn uses the conceptual schema of drama throughout his commentary as a means of conveying the eventfulness of hearing Paul's letter to the Galatians as an instance of the reproclamation of the gospel. Chapter Three offers critique of Martyn's translation of Galatians according Martyn's own construal of the letter's apocalyptic, cruciform, proclamatory function, and provides a detailed, annotated assessment of Martyn's translation, as well as an emendation of that text according to performance criteria set forth in the chapter. Chapter Four explores component aspects of performance through the theoretical, aesthetic models of oral interpretation advocated by Wallace Bacon and Alla Renee Bozarth, and explores the theological implications of employing such aesthetic models for the task of the public performance of Galatians. Chapter Five offers assessment of the actual performance of Galatians and the role of such performance in shaping translation, contributing to a deeper understanding of Paul's letter and reflecting on the theological issues at stake in performing the scriptural text as word of God.