Paul and the victims of his persecution: the opponents in Galatia

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Winter, 2002 by Richard B. Cook

Confronted by the truthful allegations of his victims, Paul's belletristic intention was to move quickly past the allegations by way of a truncated and perfunctory admission (Gal 1:13) and focus his rhetorical skills on a defense that emphasized his freedom from any judgment whatsoever. In asserting that Paul's pre-literary situation (and therefore his motives in writing the letter) has been generally misinterpreted, this writer invites the reader to consider Paul in his pre-literary consciousness. Look upon Paul as an ambitious, impassioned man, desiring to reassert his influence with people who had moved away from their allegiance to him. Consider why Paul wrote this letter before trying to understand what he wrote.

If the letter is read aloud, one can fairly quickly see that Paul intends to avoid the burden of self-elucidation while discharging the burden of self-defense. Paul's propositions are designed to call attention to themselves while undermining counter-propositions. This approach is intended to mischaracterize the pre-literary situation--that is, Paul wants to win an argument. Specifically, Paul's hope is to garner support by misstatements (by making arguments) about his relations with interlocutors (both friends and enemies) in Anatolian Celtica, whom he addresses and characterizes in the document in question.

Paul's intentional neglect of his actual pre-literary situation is replaced in the document by his claim to sovereignty over his own history. Like others before and after him accused of serious misconduct, Paul wishes to control how he is portrayed to people he cares about. Unable to deny the accusations, he wishes to be seen as a reformed persecutor, without any responsibilities or consequences for having been a persecutor. He therefore mischaracterizes the position(s) of those who have denounced him by asserting that their accusations are of no real importance.

What happened to Paul's victims?

Those who suffered persecution by Paul were probably few in number. After making pilgrimage to Jerusalem, becoming associated with Judean believers in the Messiah Jesus, abused by a temple militia and/or brought before religious authorities for corporal punishment and finally evicted, deported or "voluntarily" removed from Jerusalem, the survivors went back to their homes in the Diaspora, where they were waiting, as it were, for Paul. Thus in Anatolian Celtica, i.e., Galatia, Paul was confronted by the living testimony of his own victims--one or two would have been enough--not by "teachers" of circumcision or Judean-Christian missionaries or "Judaizers."

"You have heard about me"--the Key to the Pre-literary Situation

In Gal 1:13, Paul writes (rather, dictates), "You heard [ekusate] about my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God to the extreme [oti kath uperbolen] and tried to destroy it."

This statement, which is an important key to the pre-literary situation, is taken here as an admission that Paul did not first bring up his past activities as a persecutor. If Paul, when first in Galatia, had already made known his past to his recruits, there would have been little reason for him further to defend his pre-Christian career in the letter before us. The construction "you heard" (2nd person plural, aorist, active indicative) does not require an information source other than Paul, but already Paul has distinguished for his readers what he has told them, over against what others have said; see Gal 1:8 ("the gospel we did proclaim"), 1:11 ("the gospel which was proclaimed by me"), and 1:23 ("they heard"). The construction of Galatians 1:13 indicates that Paul is acknowledging what others have said about him--not reminding his readers of what he himself had already told them.