Galatians 4:15-5:1 A Pregnant Pause

Introduction
While acknowledging that this is not normally treated as one pericope, v. 15 introduces a sequence of images, which allows Paul to claim a deeply intimate kinship connection with the Galatians. These images which centre mainly on the images of maternity, tie the passages together.

Paul’s claim of kinship underwrites his appeal to the Galatians to remain, like him, a child born into freedom through Christ. The theological key is that that the death and resurrection of Jesus had created a new epoch for humanity which was based on faith and grace. His passionate appeal to the Galatians is that they should not renounce this birthright.

The context
The letter was provoked by the concern that the Galatians were considering adopting traditional religious practices, including circumcision. It is clear that Paul saw this development as so incongruent with his teaching that a strong approach needed to be taken. In fact Martyn has written that it is obvious that Paul was in a “white hot anger” when he wrote the letter. Witherington however notes that Paul’s ability to use rhetorical techniques to get his point across is still obvious. In relation to vv.12-20 he notes that Paul “pulls out all the stops” appealing to pathos and emotional bases as part of his argument in order to remind the community of the depth of their relationship.

It has been surmised that Jewish Christians were inviting Gentile Christians to belong to the community which maintained the Mosaic Law. This point becomes particularly pertinent when examining the allegory of Hagar and Sarah.

Textually, the passage selected comes after the identification of theological motifs which reinforce the contrast between Paul’s teaching, and that of his antagonists. Martyn writes that these occur in 4:8-11 and can be summarised as follows:
• Humanity has been enslaved by the elements of the cosmos;
• God terminated that enslavement by doing something (ie “knowing” the Galatians);
• Enslavement to the elements is closely connected to observance of the Law; therefore
• Gentiles who have been known by God, but turn to the Law are returning to the veneration of the elements.

As a result Paul’s passionate attempt to align the Galatian community with himself was driven by the certainty that they had to reject the Law in order to avoid enslavement. Witherington writes,

“Paul writes to the Galatians in an atmosphere of discord, both in his own situation and in that of his converts. Concord… will be re-established if he can persuade his audience to ignore or renounce the advice of the agitators and resume following the Gospel he had preached when first in Galatia.”

Rhetorical and literary features
It is clear that the passage comes from a section of the letter which is designed to persuade the community to align themselves with Paul. Witherington defends the highly emotive content of the passage when he writes that “…this entire Galatian discourse can be analysed as an effective and powerful example of deliberative rhetoric, following Asiatic convention and style which tended to be more abrupt, bombastic and emotive.”

According to Witherington, this passage belongs to the probatio of the text, namely Paul sets out the arguments designed to persuade the audience of the truth of his claims. Witherington identifies v. 15-20 as belonging to an argument which is intended to highlight Paul’s shared experience with the Galatians, and v.21-5:1 as consisting of an argument which illustrates the antipathy between freedom in Christ and the enslavement which is the consequence of following the Law. (Whether the argument was successful is a matter of speculation, although some have concluded that it was not. )

As such, it is the desire to draw the community almost irrevocably close to him that might have compelled Paul at v. 19 to identify himself as re experiencing the pain of labour. This image comes after the claim that Paul knows the Galatians were so close to him that they would have torn out their eyes in order to assist him. The images of people so close that they would suffer for each other introduce and reinforce the depth and level of intimacy which Paul is claiming existed between them.

While it is argued that the mother/child formula is used in order to reinforce Paul’s request that the Galatians imitate him, the extraordinary reference to the pain of birthing (odinein) invites a deeper engagement with the text. One writer who has done so is Gaventa. She notes the failure of most commentators to engage thoroughly with the image – and concludes that it is because the metaphor is usually acknowledged as a persuasive tool rather than a verse dealing with the theology of Paul.

However, her premise is that v. 19 actually contains the theology of Paul implicit within it. She notes that although Paul claims the pain of labour as his own, presumably at the time of his initial preaching to the community and then again as he writes to admonish them; it is the community which he claims is giving birth to Christ. Her contention is that the split image provides a theological link between Paul’s appeal to kinship, and his deliberate point that it is the action of God in the community that will form Christ.

In reading the verse in this way – the distress of Paul is further enhanced as we are drawn into a place where God’s gift of this new life is rejected. However, Paul does not leave this painful image there. He reuses the word odinein in the second phase of his argument as he appeals to scripture, namely when quoting Isaiah 54:1. Gaventa concludes that the word was used as a way of illustrating “the anguish of the whole created order as it awaits the fulfilment of God’s action in Jesus Christ.”

The linking of the two images of birthing pains, one from experience and one from scripture can take the reader further into Gaventa’s premise. For if Gaventa is right in concluding that v.19 illustrates the theology of Paul by juxtaposing earthly anguish with God’s gift of Christ to the community, v. 19 becomes an experiential prelude to the allegory developed in vv. 21-31, distinguishing those born of the flesh and those born of the promise. Indeed, this is further advanced when noting Witherington’s commentary on Paul’s use of Isaiah. He argues that Paul uses this text to identify himself with the barren woman, rejoicing as God acts amongst the Galatians.

Paul’s use of scripture
Thus the images of birth form a natural bridge between the experiential and scriptural phases of the probatio. Paul uses scripture to distinguish between Law and faith, and to demonstrate that his interpretation should be seen as more authoritative than that of his antagonists.

Verse 22 begins with the well used “It is written”, but what follows is a retelling by Paul of the Hagar/Sarah story in such a way that has excited much commentary, in particular Paul’s contrast of the two mothers and the inheritance they represent.

Using the story as allegory is seen as acceptable; however the details of the Hagar/Sarah story do not fit Paul’s argument. This is not seen as a problem by some commentators. Witherington argues that “as a pastor, he (Paul) was using a widely recognised rhetorical manner of handling a text so as to contemporise it.” Dunn distinguishes Paul’s hermeneutical principle, i.e. that Jesus was the Christ, with his technique. He also argues that Paul’s adaptation of scripture was wholly characteristic for the time. As such, he concludes that considering Paul’s hermeneutical principle, “Paul continued to respect and use Jewish scriptures as God’s word.”

However other writers appear to be more troubled by the way Paul has used the text. For instance Matera writes “Paul’s allegorical interpretation goes against the plain and literal sense of the Book of Genesis by apparently associating the descendants of Hagar with the Sinai covenant,” therefore neglecting the fact that the covenant is a covenant of circumcision.

To counter this, it has been argued that the most satisfactory explanation of Paul’s “allegorical equation” is stated in Gal 4:25: “for she is in slavery with her children”.

“Paul had already attributed this feature of slavery to the Mosaic Law (Gal 3:22-24; 4:1-10) and to a certain faction at Jerusalem (Gal 2:4). While the Hagar-Sarah allegory serves primarily as the basis for Paul’s biblical appeal to resist the influence of the intruders, it also sets up a conceptual foundation for the ethical instruction for the rest of the letter.”

Mentioning two covenants also appears to have been without exegetical parallel although Matera points out that during his exegesis Paul only identifies the one covenant (diatheki) with Hagar. Dunn’s approach is to conclude that despite the paralleled structure of Paul’s argument, to draw a notion that there are two covenants is erroneous. Instead he argues that only one covenant is under discussion, the descendents of Abraham. While Hagar represents the covenant “misconceived”, the free woman represents the covenant of promise.

It is Martyn’s approach however that most explicitly draws out the theme of this paper, namely that the strong images of maternity, birth and kinship tie Paul’s experiential and scriptural arguments together. In exploring why Paul has ignored significant motifs in the Hagar /Sarah story, and drawn out and enhanced others, Martyn argues that Paul uses the allegory because of the overt theme of birth. As a result, he concludes the associated concepts of freedom and slavery attach themselves to “the two different ways in which churches are being begotten among Gentiles at the present time, and thus of two different Gentile missions.”

Conclusion
As such, the self identification as a woman in labour, the concept of the community giving birth and the oppositional inheritance of the children of Hagar and Sarah, all serve Paul in his greater purpose of making the Galatians understand their choice. The imagery evokes a theology that is designed to powerfully overcome the traditional view of the Law.

As result, he appeals to the Galatians through scripture and shared experience to align themselves with him as kin, as part of the new family, whose mother is the free Jerusalem above. His final appeal to scripture asks the Galatians to metaphorically and perhaps even literally drive out those who would deny this inheritance.

Bibliography

Dunn, James D. G. The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997.

Gaventa, B. “”The Maternity of Paul”.” In The Conversation Continues, ed. R. Fortna, Gaventa, B. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990.

Hawthorne, Gerald F., Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. Downers Grove, Ill :: InterVarsity Pr, 1993.

Luhrmann, D. Galatians: A Continental Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

Martyn, J. Louis. Theological Issues in the Letters of Paul Studies of the New Testament and Its World. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997.

Matera, Frank J. Galatians Sacra Pagina Series ; 9. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1992.

Perkins, Pheme. Abraham’s Divided Children : Galatians and the Politics of Faith The New Testament in Context. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2001.

Witherington, Ben. Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Edinburgh; Grand Rapids, MI: T&T Clark; Eerdmans, 1998.