Paul used to dictate to a writer from his assistants probably because he was weak sighted as some exegetes have said. He started this part of the epistle to the Galatians by saying: “See what big letters I make as I write to you now with my own hand”, despite having started the epistle by signing it traditionally. When he says here “See what big letters I make as I write to you now with my own hand”, it means that he has asked the pen from his secretary to write with his own handwriting using capital letters, which are detached from each other in Greek.
He wanted to show them his love, to give an intimate feeling. The issue that he raises is that some Christians that were close to James the bishop of Jerusalem used to see that circumcision was a condition to enter Christianity, while Paul had had a council with the apostles in Jerusalem where they refused circumcision.
The apostle refused to be proud of an overturned circumcision because it was a physical sign between God and Abraham i.e. a relation to an old promise. And there is no more need for it since the new promise between God and us is through Jesus’ blood which ended the need of the old sign between God and Abraham.
So the apostle moved immediately to say: “As for me however, I will boast only about Jesus Christ”. What kind of pride is this? It’s a pride of the cross. When he says “for by means of the cross the world is dead to me” i.e. the world is dead; and “I am dead to the world” this means that if the people of the world thought that they are alive therefore I am dead, and by world he means the evil world.
And he goes back to the issue of circumcision saying: “for neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation.” You will become this new creation if you were renewed through Jesus’ faith and if you took the baptism that kills your whims and gives you the consequences of Christ’s resurrection as Paul says in his epistle to the Romans.
This new law is not in the sense of legislation but in the sense of the rule of the eternal life. “As for those who follow this rule in their lives; may peace and mercy be with them, with them and with all of Israel”. Here, he refers to the new Israel which is constituted of converts from both Judaism and Paganism which form together the nation of God and the holy people.
Old Judaism with the Talmud that was written 500 years after Christ didn’t remain the Judaism of the prophets. It became hybrid, and those Christians that say that we have one common book with the current Jews are wrong. We don’t care about this – if the Talmud didn’t appear – that we read Moses and the prophets together, because what’s important is to read the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament i.e. directed from God to the vision of Christ.
The cross became the center of our faith in the sense that it showed the salvation and prepared for the savior’s resurrection. And because of the Calvary and the resurrection our aim is to become new creations that live through the faith and the promises of our baptism.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “الخليقة الجديدة” – 24.10.2010-Raiati no43
