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I suppose we're making some progress here. At least perhaps in terms of narrowing the focus on our points of disagreement. Just to review, I’ll attempt to summarize what seems to be our primary differences on this pivotal passage in Galatians (4:4) ---
Your interpretation ---
The “fullness of time” = Paul’s own time = a recent death of Jesus Christ
My interpretation (we agree on the first two equivalents) ---
The “fullness of time” = Paul’s own time = when Paul revealed the long-secret mystery of the salvific and redemptive death of Jesus Christ and the imminent Parousia, as he found in creative and generative readings of the Jewish Scriptures
I see your two primary arguments here as ---
That “God sent forth his Son”/”God having sent his Son” in Galatians 4:4 and in Romans 8:3 refer to the time of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
And, that God sending forth his Son in Galatians 4:4 and God sending forth the spirit of his Son in Galatians 4:6 refer to two different time periods --- with 4:4 referring to the time of the death of Jesus Christ, and 4:6 referring to Paul’s day when the Galatians accepted the faith and received adoption as sons of God.
I’ll address each in turn ---
As for Romans 5:6, again, there is no reasonable level of confidence in the original text, and hence not in any subsequent translation and interpretation. However, in the preceding 27 verses, the author of Romans reviewed in some detail the story of Paul’s Christ strictly in terms of the Scriptures and the requirement for faith in those scriptural ‘events’. Such context does not favor the death of a recent historical figure as the focus of the passage.Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:05 am
The original sending of the son is described in Galatians 4.4-5, in Romans 8.3-4, and in Philippians 2.5-11 ... [and] happened in the fullness of time (Galatians 4.4) or at the right time (Romans 5.6).
I think Philippians 2:5-11 is only marginally relevant here. I agree the passage represents what you refer to as the “original sending”, but the passage does not indicate any specific time frame for the death.
I think that Romans 8:3 is, in part, a paraphrase of Galatians 4:4. Romans, in general and in several portions, presents versions of similar arguments in Galatians, sometimes with a shift in focus. No time period is specified in Romans 8:3-4, but the sending in Galatians 4:4 was said to have occurred “at the fullness of time”.
And I contend that "the fullness of time" in Galatians 4:4 was in Paul’s own time when --- through predestination, revelation, and assignment from God --- Paul brought forth the Son to the Gentiles.
I think another passage from Paul provides the appropriate context here ---
I think this wider citation from Isaiah 49, as apparently understood and used by Paul, helps to put his words from Galatians and 2 Corinthians in the appropriate perspective ---
In the passage above from 2 Corinthians and the explicit use of Isaiah 49, Paul’s intention is clear --- he was chosen by God from the womb to be "his own servant" and to be "a light of the Gentiles". And that "now is the acceptable time" (νῦν καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος), the favorable time, the right time when God placed in Paul "the word of reconciliation" since "now is the day of salvation". Paul, with his evangelizing, is the means by which God sent forth his Son, "God is making an appeal through us".
Just like in Galatians 4:4, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son”. Paul is the conduit, “Thus says the Lord, In the acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you, and I shaped you, and I gave you for a covenant of nations" (Isaiah 49:8)
The relationships between these passages in Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Isaiah 49 are illustrated in the following table ---
Galatians | 2 Corinthians and Isaiah 49 |
… the One having selected me from my mother's womb, and having called me by His grace … (1:15) |
… the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his own servant … (Isaiah 49:5) |
… was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles ... (1:15-16) |
... behold, I have given you for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6) … that God … placed in us the word of reconciliation … (2 Corinthians 5:19) |
… when the fullness of the time had come … (4:4) |
… behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation … (2 Corinthians 6:2, from Isaiah 49:8) |
… God sent forth His Son … (4:4) |
… that God … placed in us the word of reconciliation … Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God is making an appeal through us … (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) ... I shaped you, and I gave you for a covenant of nations … (Isaiah 49:8) |
And also, the phrase “the fullness of time” served another purpose for Paul in chapter 4 of Galatians. The phrase completed an analogy. The sequential verses represent, first, a human example of inheritance in legal terms that is followed directly by an analogous example of spiritual inheritance.
The “fullness of the time” when God sent forth his Son is used as an analogous phrase to the human example, “the time appointed by his father”. The focus of the passage through verse 7 is to reassure the Galatians that, in fulfillment of their apparent desires, their faith does indeed make them sons of God ---
Your interpretation here assumes your opinion that “The original sending of the son is described in Galatians 4.4-5”. As I have discussed above, I don’t think Galatians 4:4 refers to an "original sending" (the time of the salvific death).Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:05 amGalatians 4.4-7: 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Notice that there are two different sendings in this passage, and they cannot be the same sending. The first sending happened in order to redeem those under the Law, so that there might be an adoption; this first sending, then, must necessarily predate the adoption. The second sending, however, comes as a result of the adoption ("because you are sons"), and so must necessarily postdate it. Notice also how the first sending is fleshly ("his son, born of a woman"), whereas the second sending is spiritual ("the spirit of his son"). These are manifestly two different things happening at two different times: first the fleshly sending of the son into the human world, and then the spiritual sending of the spirit of the son into our hearts.
The original sending of the son is described in Galatians 4.4-5 ... we are told that the first set happened in the fullness of time (Galatians 4.4) ... The second set is happening "right now," contemporaneously with Paul in his dealings with his churches in the epistles.
The sending in Galatians 4:4 and in 4:6 can both be seen as having occurred in the same period of time. Or more specifically, both within a sequence of events in Paul’s own times.
The redemptive death alone, whenever that might have been seen to have occurred, did not redeem anyone. It was only knowledge and faith in that death that brought redemption from the law and adoption as sons. And, according to Paul’s letters, it was Paul and Paul alone that brought the knowledge and faith to the Gentiles --- Paul that brought forth the Son to the Gentiles.
In the letter Galatians, and in his other letters, at least four foundational and significant sequential events in Paul's system are revealed ---
First, the death in times of the ages ---
Jesus Christ had died a previously hidden salvific and redemptive death at some non-explicit time within the current “age/aeon” (1 Corinthians 2:6-8, and in a summary of Pauline thought in Romans 16:25-26). Paul found these events in the Scriptures --- for example Galatians 3:13 from Deuteronomy, and Galatians 1:4 and Romans 4:25 from Isaiah 53).
Then the bringing forth the Son in Paul’s own times ---
Paul was predestined at birth to bring the knowledge of the Son to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15-16, from Jeremiah 1 and Isaiah 49)
Then later, Paul experienced a revelation of the Son from God, and was appointed by God to proclaim the Son to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15-16, from Jeremiah 1, Isaiah 49, and Numbers 12).
Then, lastly, by his evangelizing, Paul brought forth to the Gentiles the long-secret mystery of the redemptive and salvific death of Jesus Christ using his creative and generative readings of the Scriptures. And Paul brought the opportunity to accept faith in that salvific death. Paul’s proclamation was extremely timely because Paul also proclaimed an imminent Parousia, and a coming wrath of God upon those left behind (much derived from Joel 2)
For such a critical and pivotal issue in relation to the origins of the Christian faith --- and for such a foundational event for Paul --- I just can’t see anything that approaches clear or adequate evidence in Paul’s letters for a recent death.
In his letters, when Paul did characterize the death of Jesus Christ, it was primarily in scriptural terms. The framework of Paul’s Christology can be shown to be derived from novel, creative, and generative readings of the Jewish Scriptures. There is no need for a recent human figure.
My conclusion is still this ---
No recent Jesus Christ figure that recently died is clearly to be found in Paul’s letters --- at best, there are a handful of verses in which the shadow of such a figure might be glimpsed if one presupposes the existence of such a figure.
robert j