“This only I want to learn from you: did you
receive the spirit out of works of law or out of hearing of faith? Are you so
senseless? Having begun [in] spirit, are you now being perfected [in] flesh?”
(Galatians 3:2-3).1
The
readers had apparently discounted much of what they had originally learned from
Paul, so now he (sarcastically) wants to “learn” from them. The questions asked
(in view of what is said later in the epistle) indicate they had been led to
believe that in order to be spiritually “perfected,” one must submit to the
Jewish rite of circumcision (cf. Acts 15:1, 5, 24; Phil. 3:2-3), along with
other ritualistic “works of law,” like food restrictions (2:12)
and special days (4:9-11). Paul considers such an idea
absurd.
He wants
them to remember the beginning of their Christian experience (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1-5;
2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13). What did circumcision (or any other “works of
law”) have to do with it? Their initial reaction to the gospel is described
here as akoē pisteōs (“hearing of faith”).
Unfortunately, the significance of this expression is all but lost in English
translation. Surely more than merely receiving audible sounds is in view (cf.
Matt. 13:13-17; 1 Thess. 2:13; Jas. 1:22-25).
The
sense is much clearer in light of the parallel idiom in Romans 1:5 and 16:26, hupakoē pisteōs (“obedience
of faith”). Both akoē and hupakoē (hupō [‘by’] + akouō [‘hear’] = to give ear, hearken,
obey) reflect the Hebrew sense of שָׁמַע (shema), i.e.
“responsive hearing” (cf. Ex. 24:7; Deut. 31:11-13; Rom. 10:16-17).2
The idiomatic phrase “hearing of faith” is clearly an allusion to receptive and
responsive hearing, i.e. obedient faith.
--Kevin L.
Moore
Endnotes:
1
Author’s own translation.
In the absence
of qualifying prepositions, an important question here is how to understand the
use of the dative nouns pneumati (“spirit”) and sarki (“flesh”). Often the dative of means is inferred and translated as “by
the Spirit” and “by the flesh” (ESV, NASB), assuming pneuma is in reference to God’s Spirit.
However, other uses of the dative are just as plausible, e.g., the dative of reference (“with respect to
spirit/flesh”), or the dative of sphere
(“in the realm of spirit/flesh”), or the dative of rule (“according to spirit/flesh”). In view of the repeated
contrast in Galatians between the spiritual and the physical (3:2-5, 14; 4:6-7,
23-31; 5:5, 13, 16-25; 6:1, 8, 12-15), these datives are taken here as
representing the dative of manner,
conveying the way in which the verbal action is performed and answering the
questions: how have you begun and how are you being perfected? (See D. B.
Wallace, Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics
153-71; R. A. Young, Intermediate NT
Greek 49-51).
2
See W. Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies
211-12; J. D. G. Dunn, Theology of
Galatians 360-61 n. 107.
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