Wasn't the world -- pagans and Jews -- held in bondage under the elements of the world until the coming of Christ, according to Paul? Do you think that Paul thought the Jews had it right but not the pagans? Here is Gal 4:...insofar it is based on the dogma that Paul was 100% a Jew.
Also, the triple "we" in Galatians 4:3, which connects the pre-Christian past of "Paul" with that of the Galatians ("So also we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world"), finds a plausible explanation for anyone who has understood the pseudepigraphic nature of the writing and recognized that the Jewish guise of Paul here and elsewhere is merely a masquerade. The entire "letter" is the product of a non-Jewish author who, at this point, becomes momentarily inattentive and inadvertently reveals himself by identifying with the pagan past. This likely corresponded to the historical facts but unfortunately not to the epistolary fiction that the letter's author is the Jew Paul.
(source, my bold)
Gal.4
[1] Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
[2] But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
[3] Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
[4] But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
[5] To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons...
...
[8] Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
[9] But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
[10] Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
[11] I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
[12] Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all...
...
[21] Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
[22] For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
[23] But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
[24] Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
[25] For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
[26] But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all...
...
[30] Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
[31] So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
[1] Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
[2] But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
[3] Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
[4] But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
[5] To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons...
...
[8] Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
[9] But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
[10] Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
[11] I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
[12] Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all...
...
[21] Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
[22] For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
[23] But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
[24] Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
[25] For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
[26] But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all...
...
[30] Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
[31] So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
For Paul, both the Jews and the pagans had it wrong, ultimately. If you look at Gal 4:3-5, those redeemed "under the law" are also freed from the "bondage of the elements of the world". The Law was good for a while, but made people slaves to the flesh. He believed that ultimate freedom for both pagans and Jews came from Christ.
The New Perspective on Paul wasn't that he was a 100% traditional Jew, but that he was a Jew influenced by Hellenistic philosophy. From Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Perspective_on_Paul
[N]ew-perspective scholars see Paul as talking about "badges of covenant membership" or criticizing Gentile believers who had begun to rely on the Torah to reckon Jewish kinship.[18] It is argued that in Paul's time, Israelites were being faced with a choice of whether to continue to follow their ancestral customs, the Torah, or to follow the Roman Empire's trend to adopt Greek customs (Hellenization, see also Antinomianism, Hellenistic Judaism, and Circumcision controversy in early Christianity). The new-perspective view is that Paul's writings discuss the comparative merits of following ancient Israelite or ancient Greek customs. Paul is interpreted as being critical of a common Jewish view that following traditional Israelite customs makes a person better off before God, pointing out that Abraham was righteous before the Torah was given. Paul identifies customs he is concerned about as circumcision, dietary laws, and observance of special days.
Statistics: Posted by GakuseiDon — Sat Sep 14, 2024 2:01 pm