Paul notes: Galatians

Lent 2001

During Lent 2001 I participated in a weekly Friday morning study of Paul's letters; now, during Lent 2006 I've finally typed my notes! Here they are.

Paul notes: Galatians

Circa 55
Roman province in Asia Minor
Galatia was largely an immigrant community and it hadn't been Jewish
Gaul: Gaelic; Welsh; Celtic
The freedom and bondage of the gospel
Where is this? Galatia had shifting boundaries!

Galatians 1

1:7 a "Travesty" of the gospel!
Judaizers argued you had to be Jewish before Christian, vs., Gnostics and secret knowledge

Christ: But I say to you...!

Law:

Order society
Drive us to grace

1:6 I am astonished
Gospel=Good News

The epistles started happening with missionary activity
Conversion: you get it!
1:15 set me apart and called me...
1:16 when – God's timing

Galatians 2

Jerusalem, Antioch
2:2 "by revelation"
2:4 pseudo-Christians=false brethren
2:4b bondage JBP, "rules and regulations" – dialogue or debate
there's an edge to Paul!

Muhlenberg was a circuit rider in Pennsylvania
What do I make of this circumstance???

Barnabas, a pastor at Antioch, was Jewish, one of the originals
2:10 right hand of fellowship
2:11 Cephas came from Antioch
"= walk together ="

Custom laws that make us right with God!
"Our collective history"
"JUSTIFY???!!!"

reckoned, accounted righteousness=everything works together in harmony, like a righteous engine!

Justified by...made right with God

Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Epistles
"Why OR meaning"

Galatians 3

2:19 giving up the law! In order truly to live
Paul's conversion

Last part of Galatians 2 is about the primacy of grace!!!
Trust/Belief
This is more ultimate trust???
We died with Christ

3:7 preached the gospel to Abraham!
Reckoned=considered (accounted, added up)
"nations"=people-groups

Commandments and promises
Law: order civil society
Drives us to grace

Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:13 ...hangs on a tree

3:24 law as tutor, temporary person – not so much teacher as walking alongside the child wherever they go
Put together by God and by Abraham

Cultural: Jew/Greek
Legal: slave/free
Gender: male/female

* the TRUST word *

Don't make belief a work or a law!

Galatians 4

Chapters 3 and 4 are connected? Paul's eyesight?

In chapter 2, Paul makes distinctions here
The age of 13 was adulthood; everyone was a minor until bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah in Christ

4:3, 9 elemental spirits—paganism was nature-oriented
hill-folk, non-city folk=pagan - people named Heather?!
"Those who are of the countryside";
Heathen=of the heather; of the heath; the natives!! Urban vs. country/rural

Galatians mostly had been non-Jewish
4:4 Kairos, fullness of time=when it was meant to be
4:4 "born of woman"
"born under the law=as a minor, in slavery to the world (see note supra on adulthood)

* Colossians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 8:3 *

4:8 beings that by nature are no gods
4:11 you stagger me! Philip's place-gods disappointed father here

4:17 "they" – who are they?
4:24 this is an allegory

Paul doesn't even mention Ishmael! But, still, born under the law: moving from blood relation to faith relation

In 7th century Arabia, Hagar became a wife—a blessed relationship with a child!

Qur'an: Hagar's story is more compelling!
Sarah's sending Hagar away was a sign of her unfaithfulness!

Born in the lap of the 1st wife—literally!

4:24-25 now Paul calls Jews children of Hagar

Mount Sinai, "mother of slavery"
4:26 the Jerusalem above is free—New Jerusalem

4:29 children of the flesh persecuting children of the Spirit

Genesis: Hagar the Egyptian

Listen to the Law! LEGAL argument!
Spirit looks like the law!

Galatians 5

5:4 outside of the range of his grace! (Philippians)
out of the domain
fallen away from grace

* this is current experience of God's presence or not, not our eternal salvation *

sarxos || pneumatos (ruach)

5:1 for freedom Christ has set us free
Spirit is more of who we are
* by the clan and by the tribe * power of the mob, power of culture

Sign of the covenant! Baptism is sign of the new covenant

5:16-25 Greek ethics – good person, bad person. Here, parties, orgies and hypersex
Paul is extremely dualist – compare Mark, Zoroastrianism
Tons of dualism in Paul

"Peace, assurance, gratitude, love" =meta-psychiatry, Thomas Hora

gratitude fuels, drives everything else

Galatians 6

Gentleness—5:22, 6:1 "A stick has 2 ends" knocking the china off the mantle
6:2, 5 bear on another's burden; bear one's own load—not untypical Pauline double-speak!

Without identity, calling, who they are...not just without job—"devastating"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6:7 peace and mercy
6:11 Large Letters – emphasis or eyes? *geese fly south in winter!*
6:17 being whipped and beaten="marks of Jesus"

World=Flesh, for Paul
6:15 only a new creation counts: this sums it up!!!

"but the power of new birth" (Philippians)

until the Christ Event, and then there's a new creation
Paul believes we can live this life!