Galatians Controversy

The present paper will test an interpretation of σάρξ in Galatians, which may have bearing on the ecclesiology that is expressed in this letter. While polysemous approaches have dominated the interpretation of σάρξ, a monosemous approach will adpoted in the sense that the function of σάρξ functions as a resource in the construct of collective identity will be explored. The hypothesis implies that Paul was highly critical to the way collective identity was used, and the meaning it was given, by some of his contemporaries. Galatians as a letter is focused on intra- and intergroup relations, and the function of religious and political identity is at the core of its message. Σάρξ seems to belong to the semantic domain of the construct of collective

However, the meaning of religious and national collective identity seems to have been a point of controversy within the early Christ-movement. As indicated in several passages, the relation between ‘Jews and Gentiles’ was a complicated issue for Paul and the other apostles (see, e.g., Gal. 1.13-2.21; cf. Acts. 10.1-11.18; 15.1-35). In Paul’s view, Christ-loyal people of all nations could and would eat together. In Galatians 2.11-21, the inclusive table fellowship is even described as the proper conduct. Everything else is to misbehave and to show disrespect for people of other nations. Moreover, the changed meaning and performance of collective identity implied that also the meaning of the embodied signs of that collective identity were transformed. For instance, in Paul’s perspective male circumcision was not a condition for the inclusion into the group of fellowship and sharing food. Paul even seems to finds the incitements to circumcision as heretical, and cutting at the very root of the newly revealed path of the pious (Gal. 5.2-12). In this respect, Paul was stepping into an emotionally loaded discussion, to which his letter to the Galatians bear