THE LAW AND THE SPIRIT: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE THEOLOGY OF GALATIANS (PAUL (APOSTLE))

This dissertation argues that Paul's statements on the law in Galatians can be adequately interpreted only when considered in the light of the letter's specific occasion (Chapter One). Epistolary and thematic analysis (Chapter Two) reveal that reconstruction of that occasion must begin with 3:1-5 (and its context, 3:1-18). An investigation of 3:1-5 within the context of 3:1-18 indicates that Paul responds in Galatians to the community's recent persuasion, under the influence of certain Judaizing "agitators," that the ongoing presence of the Spirit in their midst depends on the "works of the law." Paul tells them that the Spirit comes not from the law but "faith." The Galatians continue to enjoy life in the Spirit because they are believers, not because they have adopted practices of the Torah. To the contrary, those "from works of the law" find themselves under the law's own curse upon transgressors (Chapter Three).;Set free from the old situation "under the law" (but not from the law itself) and enlivened by the Spirit, believers fulfill the law. The form of the law which they keep is that popular "common ethic" current in the Jewish Diaspora and conceived there as an expression of the Torah's demands suited to life with and among Gentiles (Chapter Seven).;In appropriating the "common ethic" of the Diaspora, Paul takes a step which Hellenistic Jews did not: he rejects at the same time the so-called "ceremonial law." But Paul rejects these practices not as law (nor as part of a general attack on the law) but as "Judaizing," which contradicts the fundamental universality of the gospel (Chapter Six).;Paul's disconnection of the law and the Spirit does not place the two in antithesis. The law was never intended to mediate spiritual power. It is true that in a situation of cosmic bondage to sin, this "powerless" law serves the negative function of pronouncing God's righteous curse upon sinners. Nevertheless, although redemption from that curse reverses this situation for believers and brings the life-giving Spirit, it does not entail liberation from the law as such (Chapter Four, Chapter Five).