Pneumatology and Social Categories in Galatians 3:28

A Guest Post by Matthew K. Robinson

(avg. read time: 5–11 mins.)

Today marks the first successful attempt to get a guest post on this Substack. Various others have fallen through for one reason or another, and this one ultimately had to be made off-schedule, but I wanted to make sure Matthew K. Robinson’s work is spotlighted. I first met Matt in our class with Dr. Craig Keener on Historical Jesus studies. It was clear that he had a good head on his shoulders for faithful biblical scholarship, so we connected during my time as a PhD student and his time as a ThM student at Asbury Theological Seminary (and I was shocked to learn he is actually older than me, even if he doesn’t look it). He has since moved on to his own PhD program at a little up-and-coming school called the University of Oxford, where I expect he will do yet more great things for the kingdom, the Church, and the academy en route to the completion of his dissertation. He hails from London, but not that one. I mean the one in Kentucky. He is married to Mayara and they have two beautiful children named Isabelle and Athanasius.

I reached out to him to write something on Galatians because I remembered that one of his published articles was on Gal 3:28. This text has been one of those touchstones in Pauline scholarship and in larger arguments about the Church’s relationship to the social categories listed therein (and, by extension, others). What you will find below is, as with some of my own posts on this Substack, an adapted extract of his article:

Matthew K. Robinson, “According to the Promise: Situating Galatians 3:28 within Paul’s Pneumatology,” EvQ 92 (2021): 293–311.

Without further ado, I will let Matt speak for himself.

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“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”¹

Introduction

In the past century, several scholars began to focus on the social implications of Gal 3:28.² However, some scholars argued for more radical readings which entail the abolition or obsolescence of the negated categories in 3:28.³ Krister Stendahl understood Paul’s declaration to be ‘against what we call the order of nature.’⁴ Addressing the third couplet, Hans Dieter Betz claimed that ‘not male and female’ amounts to ‘the metaphysical removal of biological distinctions’ and ‘androgyny.’⁵ More recently, Douglas Campbell has argued that Gal. 3:28 announces the obliteration of creation categories. For Campbell, Paul's soteriology is expressed in 3:28 as a kind of eschatological realisation which precludes ethnic, social, and gender differentiation within the community of faith.⁶

One problem often found in these radical readings (removal of distinction) is that they often fail to take full stock of the work of the Spirit in Paul’s argument.⁷ Throughout chapters 3 and 4 of Galatians, Paul argues against the necessity of the law and circumcision on the grounds that all believers have gained both salvation and a new identity in Christ.  When we carefully trace this argument, we find that at its centre is the Spirit of promise who grants this new identity to believers, making them ‘sons’ through Christ’s work on the cross. Galatians 3:28 stands as the climax of this argument wherein the salvific efficacy of the Spirit transcends all social categories in bringing all believers into the ‘sons of Abraham.’  This is made especially clear by Paul’s use of ‘according to the promise,’ an implicit reference to the work of the Spirit, in 3:29. This new identity then serves as the foundational rationale behind the Spirit’s work in cultivating and sustaining a community of mutual slavery and humility in 5:13–6:10.

The Continuation and Relativisation of Social Categories  

What of the radical readings? For example, does Betz have good reason to believe that Gal. 3:28 amounts to ‘the metaphysical removal of biological sex distinctions as a result of the salvation in Christ’ and ‘androgyny?’⁸ Or, can we say with Campbell that Gal. 3:28 entails the ‘universal abolitionist consequences’ of Paul’s soteriology which does away with creation categories?⁹ These readings should be rejected for two reasons: Paul’s affirmation of these categories elsewhere and the role of 3:28 within the larger pneumatological framework of Galatians 3:1–6:10. In the following section, we will briefly survey each reason in turn.

Continuation of Social Categories in Paul

Paul often affirms the continuation of the negated categories from Gal. 3:28.¹⁰ For Campbell, evidence for the continuation of creation categories in Paul entails that Paul is simply ‘inconsistent’ and elsewhere contradicts his ‘soteriological centre,’ epitomized in Gal. 3:28.¹¹ However, if Campbell is correct, Paul is not just ‘inconsistent,’ but incoherent. Paul exhibits no reservations about invoking the categories ‘Greek’ (2:2, 3) and ‘Jew’ (2:14) earlier in Galatians; elsewhere, Paul even details the particular advantage of Jewish heritage (Rom. 3:1–2). The distinct expectations for men and women found elsewhere in the Pauline corpus not only reinforce the inherent and ongoing difference of the categories ‘male and female’ but imbed those distinctions in Paul’s paraenesis (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:2–16) as well as his ecclesiology and theology (e.g., Eph. 5:22–33). It is doubtful that Paul would so often and so profoundly contradict the ‘centre’ of his own theology, even in the very epistle in which that centre is articulated. Thus, Gal. 3:28 most likely does not entail ‘universal abolitionist consequences’ but instead requires a simpler explanation.

Community of Love

The work of the Spirit in Galatians spans two sections of material. First, as noted above, Paul argues in Gal. 3:1–4:7 that the Galatians’ shared experience of the Spirit entails that ‘the promise’ is received by faith and grants believers a new covenantal identity. Next, in Gal. 5:13–6:10, the Spirit creates and sustains believing communities via love. Here, the Spirit-born status and identity realised in 3:1–4:7 is expressed socially through believers via the power of the Spirit. Verse 25 reads, ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.’¹² The first-class conditional construction in v. 25 establishes that the life lived via the Spirit (2:20; 3:11) is inseparable from the social expression of the Spirit through believers. According to Gal. 5:25, then, this Spirit-governed community is an essential and necessary expression of the experience and identity outlined in 3:1–4:7. Thus, John Barclay is correct in his observation that the Spirit both ‘constitutes their new mode of existence’ and ‘shapes their practice (5:25)’ so that to reject the social expression of the Spirit would be to ‘deny one’s identity (6:7-8).’¹³ 

What scholars often overlook is how 3:28 is instrumental in the movement from ‘new mode of existence’ to ‘practice.’¹⁴ Galatians 3:28, although embedded in the first pneumatological block (3:1–4:7), both anticipates and provides a theological basis for the Spirit-led community of the second block (5:13–6:10). First, it is at 3:28 that Paul begins to move from ‘new mode of existence’ (the bulk of 3:1–4:7) to the social dimension of ‘the promise.’ It is here that Paul first announces that believers have all—regardless of ethnic, social, or gender status—received the Spirit and with it a new identity and locus of value which stands outside the value system of the old world. Second, this new identity, shared by all, necessitates that the individuals within the community of faith relate to one another in a new way. The social implications of the first block are encapsulated in 3:28 which, then, acts as an underlying rationale for the paraenetic material detailed in the second block: the Spirit creates a new covenantal identity (3:1–4:7) that provides a new system of value (3:28) that, then, entails a new mode of community (5:13–6:10).  Thus, the paraenesis of 5:13–6:10 denotes the Spirit-empowered expression of the Spirit-born identity articulated in 3:28. Galatians 3:28, then, acts both as the conclusion of the first block and the premise of the second block.

The role of 3:28 detailed above becomes clearer when we consider Paul’s understanding of Christian community to be, as Barclay observes, ‘non-competitive’ and ‘ordered by a new calibration of worth.’¹⁵ Barclay explains that, in Greco-Roman communities, individuals sought for ‘honour’ which ‘was derived from comparison’ and by standing ‘higher on some hierarchical scale’ over and against others.¹⁶ This jockeying for ‘honour’ engenders strife, jealousy, and division. However, in Galatians, the Christian community operates according to the ‘Christ-event’ which is not beholden to the old system of value but ‘changes the story of the cosmos’ and ‘challenges the default setting of every classificatory system,’ removing the impetus for competition.¹⁷ Paul’s emphasis on selflessness, servitude, and love in place of selfishness and strife in 5:13–6:10 confirms this to be the case.  In Gal. 5:16, Paul sets ‘walking by the Spirit’ against his warning to not ‘bite and devour one another.’ In Gal. 5:19–23, Paul sets the fruit of the Spirit against the works of the flesh, among which are ‘strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions.’ Believers are to ‘through love δουλεύετε (be slaves) to one another’ (5:13). These exhortations toward mutual slavery and love require that the Galatians replace the old system of social value—wherein one’s status may afford him/her greater or less honour than others—with a new system of value which removes competition for honour. Moreover, because the Spirit generates and sustains this non-competitive community, its new value system must be Spirit-directed. It is likely, then, that this new system of value is expressed in 3:28, wherein a shared identity, grounded in the work of the Spirit, replaces the old powerful/powerless imbalances. The selfless and Spirit-directed nature of the community in 5:13–6:10, then, suggests that the new shared identity in Christ announced in 3:28 gives rise to an entirely new Christ-centred and non-competitive system of value.¹⁸

As established above, 3:28 articulates a new reality, born of the Spirit and bound to the Christ event which is, thus, not beholden to the value system of the old world. For this reason, the more radical readings of 3:28 appear to be contiguous with that of the ‘troublers’ with whom Paul contends. That is, to posit that Paul must abolish these categories and eliminate diversity to cultivate non-competitive communities assumes that the community of faith derives its value from the old social order. As Peter Oakes observes, ‘It is Paul’s opponents who are seeking to eliminate diversity. They want gentiles to adopt circumcision, to Judaize, to become Jews, losing their distinction in identity.’¹⁹ Indeed, the new covenantal identity makes the homogenization of believers along ethnic, social, and gender categories unnecessary. Value is now derived from identity in Christ, which is signified by the shared experience of the Spirit: there is no need to homogenize believers according to ethnic, social, and gender categories because value is no longer dependent upon these categories. All may remain in their respective categories and still share in one singular identity, namely, ‘one in Christ Jesus.’

Galatians 3:28 announces that, although they remain functional in many respects, the negated categories have been relativized in Christ; by supplanting the old system of value, the shared status of ‘one in Christ’ has vacated these categories of their power to assign value and has endowed all believers with equal value as ‘heirs according to the promise.’ Thus, as A. Andrew Das has noted, rather than denoting the abolition or obsoletion of its negated categories, the declaration in 3:28 ‘leads any given societal relationship into a new Christ-like direction.’²⁰ The result is that, although ‘the master-slave relationship may not be abolished,’ the new shared identity ensures that ‘the way the master and slave relate to each other will be transformed by the presence of Christ and the Spirit’s fruit in action’ and that the relationship of husband and wife ‘will be characterized by the presence of Christ and the Spirit’s selfless fruit in action.’²¹ The realization of ‘the promise’, then, requires that each member of the community derive value from his or her identity in Christ, acknowledge that same value in each other and, thus, regard each other with love and servitude, regardless of ethnic, social, or gender category.

Conclusion

Because the non-competitive community of 5:13–6:10 is characterized by mutual slavery and the fruit of the Spirit, it requires the subversion of the value disparities listed in 3:28 via the shared, Spirit-born identity ‘one in Christ.’ Moreover, because the community of faith no longer depends upon social categories for value, Paul has no need to declare the abolition of the categories in 3:28. Thus, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ declares both that access to salvation is indiscriminate and that, in Christ, social categories have been relativized so as to afford all believers equal value, giving rise to a community of selfless servitude and love.

1. This article is mostly an extended excerpt from my article, "According to the Promise: Situating Galatians 3:28 within Paul’s Pneumatology," EQ 92, 4 (2021): 293–311.

2. For an interesting study on the use of Gal. 3:28 for social causes in the holiness movement, see Stephen J. Lennox ‘“One in Christ”: Galatians 3:28 and the Holiness Agenda,’ EvQ 84 (2012): 195–212.

3. Although these scholars usually provide distinct rationales for their conclusions on 3:28, this article addresses the common feature of their various readings: the removal or obsolescence of the distinctive categories negated in 3:28. I would also include here readings which understand 3:28 to entail the total cessation of the functionality of these categories in Christian society, e.g., Brigitte Kahl, ‘No Longer Male: Masculinity Struggles behind Galatians 3:28?’ JSNT 79 (2000): 37–49.

4. Krister Stendahl, The Bible and the Role of Women: A Case Study in Hermeneutics (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966), 32.

5. Hans Dieter Betz, A Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Churches in Galatia, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 196.

6. Douglas A. Campbell, The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy, JSNTSup 274 (New York: T&T Clark, 2005).

7. This article will argue that the location of 3:28 within Paul’s pneumatological framework supports a third reading—namely, that 3:28 relativises but does not abolish social categories—which will be detailed and represented in what follows.

8. Betz, 196.

9. Campbell, 103.

10. For examples of instances wherein Paul recognizes the category of ‘Jew’ see Rom. 1:16; 2:9, 10, 17, 28, 29; 3:1; 10:12; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:14. For ‘Greek’ or ‘Gentile’ see Rom. 1:13, 16; 2:9, 10, 14, 24; 3:9, 29; 9:24, 30; 10:12; 11:11, 12, 13, 25; 15:9; 1 Cor. 5:1; 10:20, 32; Gal. 2:2, 3; Col. 3:11. For ‘slave’ see 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 6:5, 8; 3:11, 22; Col. 4:1; 1 Tim. 6:1; Tit. 2:9. For the continuation of gender categories within the Church, see 1 Cor. 11:1–16; 14:34–35; Eph. 5:21–33; Col. 3:18–19; 1 Tim. 2:8–15.

11. Campbell, 127.

12. Εἰ ζῶμεν πνεύματι, πνεύματι καὶ στοιχῶμεν.

13. John M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 429.

14. Barclay, Gift, 429. Barclay addresses Gal 3:28 and notes its role in the new ‘story of the cosmos’ (399) but does not go far enough in assessing the function of 3:28 in the relationship between 3:1–4:7 and 5:13–6:10.

15. Barclay, Gift, 425.

16. Barclay, Gift, 433.

17. Barclay, Gift, 399.

18. Paul uses the shared experience of the Spirit to ensure unity while sustaining diversity in 1 Cor. 12 as well. Here, rather than abolishing diversity, diversity is relativized via an ethic of unity and humility demonstrated by the ‘more excellent way’ (12:31) of love (ch. 13). Likewise, οὐκ ἔνι in Col. 3:11 is used in Paul’s exhortation against strife and towards ‘compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience’ (Col. 3:12).

19. Peter Oakes, Galatians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015), 128. See also Barclay, Gift, 423, which reads, ‘it is in the Spirit and on the basis of faith (in Christ) and not on the basis of the Torah (5:4) that believers anticipate that God will recognize their worth.’

20. A. Andrew Das, Galatians ConcC (Saint Louis: Concordia, 2014), 387.

21. Das, 387.