"The God and Christ who loved me" (Gal 2:20) and "a hermeneutic of the more difficult text"

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Post Reply
gryan
Posts: 1120
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:11 am

"The God and Christ who loved me" (Gal 2:20) and "a hermeneutic of the more difficult text"

Post by gryan »

Thanks to Paul the Uncertain for introducing me to (and perhaps coining) the phrase, "a hermeneutic of the more difficult text". Here is my "hermeneutic of the more difficult text" for Gal 2:20.

The more difficult text of Gal 2:20
The life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith[fulness], that of the God and Christ [the Son of God], who loved me and gave himself for me.

The sense of the word "God" and "Christ" is the royal sense echoed in Hebrews 1:8-9/Ps 45:6-7

But about the Son He [God] says:
“Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever,
and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness
and hated wickedness;
therefore God, Your God, has anointed (echrisen) You
above Your companions with the oil of joy.”

This royal sense of "God and Christ" informs the the interpretation of what it means to live "now in the flesh" both for the apostle in Gal 2:20 and for the audience in Gal 3:3

"The life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith[fulness]--that of the God and Christ who loved me...

O, unperceptive Galatians...
Having begun in the Spirit, now in the flesh you are being made perfect.
You have suffered so much in vain, if it is in vain.

Gal 3:3 is a word of encouragement for those participating in/imitating the faithfulness of the enfleshed God and Christ, not a sarcastic criticism of fools.
Post Reply