Being that my class was canceled this Tuesday, my professor made an MP3 that corresponded with the power point for the class. I needed to take a break from listening and taking notes to jot this down and share it with my little audience (reference to quantity not size).
We began our exegetical work on Galatians with the concluding remarks of Paul’s letter. First, we looked at the form of letter writing, not only of Paul’s other works, but also of ancient secular letters to determine some basic rhetoric and structure to Paul’s composition. In essence, in every introduction, as well as conclusion, the purpose of the writing is clearly stated (This is vast over simplification but it will suffice for now).
Something that our professor stated in his lecture was that his purposes were for us to take off our protestant lenses and see Galatians a bit differently.
This is a man who taught at Westminster Seminary, a man very committed to the hermeneutical principals of understanding authorial intent and audience reciprocation. Here is the question and answer that has literally just blown my mind.
“What would we think is missing from Paul’s concluding remarks in Galatians? Well, there is no mention of:
· Faith
· Works
· Abraham
· Justification
Galatians has served as the quintessential book for understanding Law and Grace (at least it has for me). Something that I have been grappling with (even more so now), is whether or not the reformers were asking questions of the text pertinent to the condition of their own hearts (as do we all). Our understanding of these texts therefore, has been prejudiced by the historical questioning of those who have gone before us. This is of course not to negate in any fashion Justification by Faith or to say that the reformers got it wrong, it is only to suggest that we ought to delve deeper into these texts, and be willing to challenge our presuppositions; a principle that is in fact taught and honored by most Protestants alike.
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