Traditionally, the exclusionary command of Gal. 4.30 has been interpreted as
proclaiming the exclusion of Jews from salvation, and more recently as commanding
the Galatians to cast out the circumcising missionaries and their followers. Tracing
the denotations of the respective mothers and sons in Paul’s
‘allegory’, and noting in particular the singular form of the
imperative in v. 30, this article offers an alternative interpretation: in Gal.
4.30, as in Gal. 3.8, Paul’s converts overhear Scripture preaching the
gospel to Abraham. The proclamation that the fulfillment of the promise comes only
through divine faithfulness rather than through any human activity functions as a
warning directed at those Galatians seeking circumcision.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barclay, J.M.G.1988Obeying the Truth: A Study of Paul’s Ethics in Galatians (
Edinburgh: T&T Clark
).
2.
Barrett, C.K.1982‘The Allegory of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar in the Argument of
Galatians’, in Essays on Paul (
Philadelphia: Westminster Press
): 154-170.
3.
Betz, H.D.1979Galatians: A Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Churches in
Galatia (
Philadelphia: Fortress Press
).
4.
Bligh, J.1969Galatians: A Discussion of St Paul’s Epistle (
London: St Paul Publications
).
5.
Bonnard, P. 1953 L’épitre de Saint Paul aux
Galates (CNT, 9; Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé).
6.
Boyarin, D.1994A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (
Berkeley: University of California Press
).
7.
Briggs, S.1994‘Galatians’, in
E. Schüssler Fiorenza
(ed.), Searching the Scriptures, II (
New York: Crossroad
): 218-236.
8.
Bring, R.1961Commentary on Galatians (
Philadelphia: Muhlenberg
).
9.
Burton, E.D.1988 [1921] The Epistle to the Galatians (
Edinburgh: T&T Clark
).
10.
Castelli, E.1994‘Allegories of Hagar’, in
E.S. Malbon
and
E.V. McKnight
(eds.), The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament (JSNTSup,
109;
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press
): 228-250.
11.
Cosgrove, C.H.1987‘The Law Has Given Sarah No Children (Gal. 4.21-30)’
, NovT29.3:
219-235
.
12.
Dunn, J.D.G.1993A Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (
London: A. & C. Black
).
13.
Engberg-Pedersen, T.2000Paul and the Stoics (
Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
).
14.
Esler, P.1998Galatians (
London: Routledge
).
15.
Fewell, D.N.1998‘Changing the Subject: Retelling the Story of Hagar the
Egyptian’, in
A. Brenner
(ed.), Genesis: Feminist Companion to the Bible (FCB, 2nd
series;
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press
): 180-194.
16.
Gruber, M.I.1998‘Genesis 21.12: A New Reading of an Ambiguous
Text’, in
A. Brenner
(ed.), Genesis: Feminist Companion to the Bible (FCB, 2nd
series;
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press
): 172-179.
17.
Hanson, G.W.1989Abraham in Galatians: Epistolary and Rhetorical Contexts (
Sheffield: JSOT Press
).
Jobes, K.1993‘Jerusalem our Mother: Metalepsis and Intertextuality in
Galatians 4.21-31’
, WTJ55:
299-320
.
20.
Kramer, P.S.1998‘The Dismissal of Hagar in Five Art Works of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries’, in
A. Brenner
(ed.), Genesis: Feminist Companion
21.
Kuck, D.1994‘Each Will Bear his Own Burden: Paul’s Creative Use of
an Apocalyptic Motif’
, NTS40:
289-297
.
22.
Lightfoot, J.B.1905Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (
London: MacMillan
).
23.
Longenecker, B.1998The Triumph of Abraham’s God: The Transformation of Identity in
Galatians (
Nashville: Abingdon Press
).
24.
Longenecker, R.1990Galatians (WBC, 41;
Dallas: Word Books
).
25.
1979Commentary on Galatians (trans. E. Middleton, ed.
J.P. Fallowes
;
Grand Rapids: Kregel
).
26.
1997bGalatians (AB, 33A;
New York: Doubleday
).
27.
Orr, W.F., and J.A. Walther 1976 I Corinthians (AB, 32; New York: Doubleday).
28.
Perkins, P.2001Abraham’s Divided Children: Galatians and the Politics of Faith (
Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International
).
29.
Schlier, H. 1971 Der Brief an die Galater (KEK, 7/14;
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 5th edn).
30.
Schütz, J.1975Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority (SNTSMS, 26;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
).
31.
2002Metaphor and Religious Language (
Oxford: Oxford University Press
).
32.
Thiselton, A.2000The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC;
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
).
33.
Trible, P.1984Texts of Terror (
Philadelphia: Fortress Press
).
34.
Weems, R.1991‘Reading her Way through the Struggle: African American Women and
the Bible’, in
C. Hope Felder
(ed.), Stony the Road we Trod: African American
35.
1993Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books
).
36.
Witherington, B.1998Grace in Galatia (
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
).
