Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / Thesis advisor: Matthew Monnig / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No description available.

The thrust of this thesis is encapsulated in the title – Paul, Jerusalem and the Judaisers: The Galatian Crisis in Its Broader Historical Context – which reflects the author’s insistence that reconstructing all the events surrounding the crisis that impelled Paul to compose his letter to the Galatians is essential to understanding this letter. The position taken in this study is that the Galatian crisis was initiated by a group of Judaising opponents acting under the direct authority of the Jerusalem church. The origins of this controversy can be traced back to the early dispute between the Hellenists and the Hebrews described in the Acts of the Apostles, which led to the expulsion of the Hellenists from Jerusalem and the establishment of the community in Antioch. Paul’s opponents apparently cited Jerusalem as the source of and the warrant for their Law-observant gospel. In Galatians, Paul alludes to events involving Judaising opponents that transpired in Jerusalem and Antioch prior to the outbreak of the crisis at Galatia. Thus, the immediate background of the crisis is found in the Jerusalem Council (Gal 2:1-10; Acts 15:1-35) and the Incident at Antioch (Gal 2:11-14). Turning to the conflict in Galatia itself this thesis attempts to explore the links between these earlier events and the Galatian crisis. The primary avenue for this examination will be via a consideration of Paul’s argument in Galatians. By the careful use of the mirror-reading technique, this thesis will endeavour to reconstruct the message and the origins of Paul’s opponents. The thesis concludes with a brief examination of Paul’s later conflicts with Judaising opponents at Corinth and Philippi, as well as the autobiographical material in Romans, all of which will provide an insight into the eventual outcome of the crisis in Galatia

This dissertation examines various contemporary Protestant views of Christian Spirituality in light of Galatians 2:20 in order to correct some common errors caused by the elevation of personal subjectivism and the misinterpretation of Scripture. The purpose is to demonstrate the continual necessity of the Scriptures as the normative grounds for evaluating and correcting the theological and practical expressions of Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality focuses on the way that one lives as led by the Spirit in light of one's understanding of and experience with God. While the role of the Spirit in Christian spirituality is critical, direct emphasis on the necessity of grounding one's spiritual understanding and experience within the context of Scripture is often an absent element. Without the governing standard of the Bible, and with the increased influences of ecumenicalism, mysticism, secularism, subjectivism, and relativism within Protestantism, Christian spirituality remains somewhat ambiguous and covers a substantial range of religious beliefs to include biblical as well as extra-biblical ideas. Thus, to demonstrate how the Scriptures can help govern limits within Christian spirituality, Galatians 2:20 will be examined. This dissertation, then, employs Galatians 2:20 as a guide for establishing essential concepts concerning the spiritual life and, in so doing, corrects some common misunderstandings of the spiritual life. Chapter 1 defines spirituality and provides a brief history of interpretation for Galatians 2:20. Chapter 2 demonstrates that the cross is central to the justification of the believer and results in a transformation of life. Chapter 3 reveals that the Spirit serves as Christ's representative to the believer empowering them for Christian living. Chapter 4 emphasizes the reality that although the believer is to progress in sanctification, they will continually experience spiritual tension in this life between the Spirit and the desires of the flesh. Chapter 5 explains that personal faith is the means by which the believer lives out the indwelling presence of the Spirit. This lived faith is motivated by the sacrificial love of God. Chapter 6 provides a conclusion based on the preliminary thought regarding the necessity of biblical spirituality in light of some current trends within Christian spirituality.

This dissertation uses Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians as a guide for gospel-centered preaching. The dissertation argues that evangelical Christianity suffers from a lack of gospel rich preaching, assesses that Galatians can be understood as a sermon, and then analyzes each passage in light of the gospel. In Galatians 1-4 Paul alternates between proclaiming and defending the gospel; in chapters 5-6 Paul applies the gospel. The final conclusion is that pastors who wish to be gospel-centered in their preaching do well to look to Galatians and ask three summary questions of any passage from which they will preach: 1) How does this Scripture proclaim the gospel? 2) How does this passage defend the gospel? 3) How does this text apply the gospel? The gospel-centered preaching paradigm is a tool to help contemporary expositors follow Paul's model and become gospel-centered in their preaching. The goal of these sermons is to help unbelievers receive the gospel and to continually become more like Jesus as they walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

ABSTRACT ADOPTION AND THE FORMATION OF ESCHATOLOGICAL IDENTITY: AN EXEGETICAL STUDY OF HUIOTHESIA Christopher Frederick Wehrle, PhD The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2016 Chair: Dr. Mark A. Seifrid Paul used divine adoption (υἱοθεσία) as a religious metaphor in a rich and diverse way. The variety of approaches to this theme in scholarship attests to this depth and richness. This study argues that the most important purpose of υἱοθεσία within the Pauline correspondence was to help create, define, and ground the identity of believers in Jesus Christ in the early church, especially in the face of difficult and disconcerting questions regarding the role of ethnicity within the eschatological people of God. To this end, this study combines the modern tool of Social Identity Theory with detailed exegesis of key texts in Galatians in order to demonstrate that υἱοθεσία is an eschatological event which creates a new identity for believers in Jesus Christ and functions as a resolution to difficult questions regarding ethnicity and membership in the people of God. Chapter 1 provides a summary and critique of the most important recent studies of υἱοθεσία, followed by a brief outline of the contours of Social Identity Theory. Chapter 2 gives an introduction to the historical and theological background to Paul's letter to the Galatians. This includes an exegetical overview of Galatians 2:15-21, along with an introductory summary of how Social Identity Theory relates to Paul's rhetorical strategy in the epistle. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 supply detailed exegesis of key passages within Galatians, with specific reference to how they contribute to the theme of adoption within the epistle, and noting how Paul follows patterns recognizable to the categories of modern sociology. Chapter 6 addresses the four other occurrences of υἱοθεσία within the Pauline corpus (Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Eph 1:5). It offers a brief analysis of the background and purpose of these epistles, and supply an introductory foray into the adoption pericopae. Finally, it will give a synopsis of primary conclusions from each of the texts, and attempt a synthesis of these results.

The Galatians were a group of Celts who arrived in Anatolia from the west in 278 B.C. According to the historical sources, they earned their livelihood by plundering and by serving as mercenaries in the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient authors state that the Galatians constituted a definite threat to the cities of western Asia Minor before they were settled in central Anatolia. Galatia became a Roman province in 25 B.C.; by that time, the Galatians had been thoroughly absorbed by the local population. The purpose of this paper is to see what archaeological evidence exists for the presence of the Galatians in Anatolia during the pre-provincial period, and how that evidence can be obtained. Three types of evidence are examined: pottery, burials and grave goods, and forts and settlements. Galatian pottery is still a controversial subject requiring more study and excavation. Only one burial site, Karalar, can definitely be identified by an inscription in Greek. The evidence from this site suggests that the Galatians adopted various types of Hellenistic tomb architecture and that they placed a fundamentally Hellenistic selection of grave goods within their tombs and graves. Galatian burials are therefore hard to distinguish from ordinary Hellenistic burials in Anatolia. Three tores and three fibulae from burials at Karalar, Bolu, and Bogazk5y are probably Celtic; that there are so few of them suggests that they had been imported from Europe, and that the Galatians were not themselves metalworkers in the Celtic tradition. Such objects cannot be used as the sole means of identifying Galatian burials. The situation is little better for forts and settlements. Some have been identified because they were inhabited by literate people before or after the arrival of the Galatians; others have been suggested because of the likelihood of their location. Settlement seems to be more dense west of the Halys but more surveys and excavation are necessary to test this emerging pattern. So far, the pre-provincial period has yielded little in the way of archaeological evidence for the presence of the Galatians in Anatolia, despite the solid background provided by the historical sources. The Galatians had little connection with the European Celts and adapted easily to local customs. This capacity for adaptation makes it difficult to say what is Galatian and what is Anatolian Hellenistic. Only further work in the field can remedy this state of affairs. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

<p>This dissertation investigates the text of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and its history, how it changed over time. This dissertation performs a stemmatic analysis of 92 witnesses to the text of Galatians, using cladistic methods developed by computational biologists, to construct an unoriented stemma of the textual tradition. The stemma is then oriented based on the internal evidence of textual variants. After the stemma is oriented, the textual variants near the base of the stemma are examined and the text of Galatians is established based on stemmatic and eclectic principles. In addition, two branches of the textual tradition, the Western and the Eastern-Byzantine, are studied to assess the nature of textual variation in their history. This study reaches the conclusion that a modified stemmatic approach is an effective way to study both the text of a New Testament book and its history.</p> / Dissertation

In the Letter to the Galatians the law has been superseded by Christ's cross and faith in Christ is contrasted to the law. The juxtaposition of the law and the cross occurs in 2.19, where Paul speaks of them in terms of dying and living. The purpose of the present study is to do four things. First, Paul's letters have been examined for their uses in context of 'cross, crucifixion' and 'law', so that the basis for theological reflection might be the texts themselves. We conclude that although Paul's references to 'law' oscillate in stridency and meaning, and his references to 'cross, crucifixion' are few, the law and cross represent the before and after of Paul's life. Second, our exegesis of Gal 2.19 leads to three observations. 'Dying to-living to' refers to death and life within specific relationships, that to law and that with God. 'Being crucified with' refers to Paul's own inclusion and participation in the death of Christ, so that when Christ died Paul also died. 'Through the law' indicates the death-bringing character of the law itself. Behind Paul's statements about dying and living are the death and resurrection of Christ, which serve as the frame of reference for Paul. Third, Gal 2.19 has been compared to the argument of Galatians 2-3,4.1-7, and Paul's summary statement in 6.14-15. Our test question is what Paul means by dying 'through law' and whether law should be understood as the cause of death. s Finally, it is the conclusion of this study that Paul views the law as death-bringer, causing the death of Christ and the death of Paul in relation to law. This heightens the singularly life-giving character of faith in Christ.

<p>Vastly different opinions exist within New Testament scholarship regarding the relationship between Paul's ethical exhortations in Gal 5-6 and the theological portions of the letter. In an attempt to argue for the cohesiveness of Paul's argument in the letter as a whole, numerous commentaries outline the letter according to the principles that are described in the ancient handbooks on Greco-Roman rhetoric. Although outlining Galatians according to the typical parts of an ancient speech does provide a way of viewing the correspondence as a coherent argument, studying Galatians from the standpoint of Paul's adherence to the conventions of the technical rhetorical handbooks has produced problems of its own. First, there is no consensus as to whether or not Paul actually had obtained the highest level of rhetorical education in which the handbooks were studied. While some commentaries on Galatians (e.g., those written by Hans Dieter Betz and Ben Witherington III) propose that the apostle exhibits a rhetorical strategy in the letter that follows the conventions described in the rhetorical handbooks, other studies (e.g., the one by R. Dean Anderson Jr.) that compare Paul's letters with ancient rhetorical theory have concluded that Paul most likely had no knowledge of the principles of the rhetorical handbooks of his day. Another problem with minutely analyzing Galatians in terms of the conventions described in the ancient rhetoric handbooks is that Galatians is a letter, not a speech. Although ancient letters did usually follow the conventions of ancient epistolary theory, de Boer has most recently pointed out that efforts to classify Galatians as a particular type of rhetoric are misguided since ancient letters were freer compositions than ancient speeches. J. Louis Martyn has proposed that Galatians should be understood as an apocalyptic sermon and, therefore, since Paul was a divine messenger in preaching the gospel, the letter does not actually follow the conventions of a particular classification of ancient rhetoric. However, even scholars who propose that Paul had no technical knowledge of the rhetorical handbooks admit that certain rhetorical principles of speech and letter writing were ubiquitous in the Greco-Roman world. <br> </p><p>This dissertation argues that one of the rhetorical principles that was prevalent in the first-century Greco-Roman world was the device of rhetorical parody. Although the word "parody" is usually associated today with the connotation of burlesque or absurdity, a type of humorous parody that did exist in the ancient world, ancient <italic>rhetorical</italic> parody should be understood as either an altered quotation of a recognizable text or saying or a newly created saying that closely resembles a recognizable one. Also, ancient rhetorical parody should be understood as a stylistic rhetorical device that was designed to add vividness and polemical intensity to an argument by way of incongruity. In an effort to persuade an audience, a recognizable text or saying was transformed and given a new meaning, one that might be quite incongruous with its original meaning. While this type of rhetorical device was discussed by ancient rhetoricians, its use was common in the everyday conversations of a literate person in the first century. Therefore the ability to use the device of rhetorical parody did not require a rhetorical education in which one studied the handbooks. Rather, it was a process by which a person altered an existing saying or text, possibly one that had been used by one's opponent in an argument, in order to gain an advantage over the opponent. Ancient rhetorical parody differs from irony in that irony presents a meaning different from the normal meaning of the words spoken. Irony, therefore, does not require an underlying saying or text.<br></p><p>After determining a definition of ancient rhetorical parody, this study investigates whether or not an understanding of Paul's use of rhetorical parody in Galatians might clarify some of Paul's puzzling statements. The investigation is limited to the statements that Paul made in Galatians and does not attempt to understand the letter via Paul's other letters. This study seeks to determine if Paul's scriptural quotations and allusions might be a parodic reinterpretation of Scriptures that demanded Torah-obedience in order to dissociate obeying the Mosaic law from faithfulness to God. The study is not limited to the Scriptures that were later canonized by the Church, but it is limited to the Greek text of writings since rhetorical parody is a play on the words of the hypotext. <br></p><p>A comparison of Galatians with Scriptures that demanded obedience to the Mosaic law or praised individuals who championed the law reveals that Paul parodically reinterpreted scriptural passages in order to dissociate the rejection of the Mosaic law from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is shown to refer not only to slavery, but also to spiritual death. This study also reveals that the law-free Galatians were being excluded from the faith community on the basis that they were unrepentant sinners. Additionally, Gal 3-4 is best understood as Paul's argument against the confluence of the covenant with Abraham and the Mosaic law. <br></p><p>This dissertation concludes that understanding Paul's use of rhetorical parody not only clarifies several puzzling statements in the letter, but also demonstrates that Paul's exhortations in Gal 5-6 address the Galatian situation just as much as the theological sections do. <br></p> / Dissertation