17 (1970-1971): 204-6. Cf. also F. F. Bruce,
The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text
(Grand Rapids
:
Eerdmans, 1982), 31-2.
14
J. B. Lightfoot,
The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians
(1865; reprint, Grand Rapids
:
Zondervan, 1982), 75.
15
Morland notes that regardless of how the original audience viewed the word play, they would certainly
understand Paul's point that there is a correct gospel, and that they should reflect upon the illegitimacy of the Judaizers'
teaching. Morland,
The Rhetoric of Curse in Galatians
, 143.
16
F. F.
Bruce,
The Epistle to the Galatians
: A Commentary on the Greek Text
,
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982),
32.
17
Nanos,
The Irony of Galatians
, 287-88.
18
Cf. Acts 23:14; Rom 9:3; 1 Cor 12:3; 16:22. For the verb: Mark 14:71; Acts 23:12, 14, 21.
Morland masterfully summarizes various higher critical attempts to explain the meaning of Paul's use of
anathema in the context of other biblical curses. Morland,
The Rhetoric of Curse in Galatians
, 1-9. My study will not attempt to describe and counter these views individually since they are similar to the
Magical Curse View below. Brun went so far as to conclude that curses in the NT were remnants of ways of thinking
that were passe and had been overcome in principle. Lyder Brun,
Segen Und Fluch in Urchristentum
(Oslo: Kommisjon hos Jacob Dybwad, 1932) 6, 134. "In diesem Zusammenhang werden wir auch die
Entwicklung berühren müssen, die sich auf alttestamentlich
jüdischem Boden nachweisen lässt: von einer primitiven Auffassung zu einer (nach unserem Massstab)
höheren, wo die althergebrachten Gedanken über Segen und Fluch durch die spätere Entwicklung der Religion und des
Ethos modifiziert und abgeändert worden sind." "In this connection we will have to touch also the development, which
can be proven on Old Testament Jewish ground: from a primitive view (after our yardstick)
to
a higher one, where the traditional thoughts over blessing and curse were modified and amended by the later
development of the religion and the ethos." (p. 6).