12
Galatians
This fiery letter seems to provide the immediate background for the Apostolic
Council described in Acts 15. If Matthew 23 contains the strongest sustained invective of
Jesus against his most serious opposition, Galatians presents perhaps Paul's harshest
moments. Bypassing the customary thanksgiving, Paul launches immediately into the
problem of believers turning to a "different gospel--which is really no gospel at all" (1:6).
It "perverts" the "gospel of Christ" and anyone who promotes it should be anathematized
(vv. 8-9).
31
Sadly, this kind of rhetoric has often been used by professing Christians to
attack all those with whom they disagree, now matter what the issue. We must always
balance Galatians with 1 Corinthians 9, in which Paul labors to be all things to all people
so that by all means he might save some (vv. 19-23).
32
Four observations help explain
the force of his rhetoric here: (1) This language is no stronger than and even milder than
much other Jewish and Greco-Roman rhetoric promoting religious truth; it would not
have jarred the ancient audience as much as it does a modern one.
33
(2) Paul is not
necessarily addressing the false teachers directly with this rhetoric, but warning his own
converts about their insidious influence. (3) These are alleged Christians and Christian
leaders promoting the heresy, who have every reason to know better. (4) Most
importantly of all, this is an issue in which people's very salvation is at stake. Paul never
vilifies his opponents with such harsh language except where people's eternal destinies
are clearly involved.
31
The most detailed reconstruction of Paul's Judaizing opposition appears throughout J. Louis Martyn,
Galatians (New York: Doubleday, 1997).
32
For this balance, see esp. D. A. Carson, "Pauline Inconsistency: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 9.19-23 and
Galatians 2.11-14," Churchman 109 (1986): 6-45
33
Cf. esp. Luke T. Johnson, "The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and the Conventions of Ancient
Polemic," JBL 108 (1989): 419-41.