|
Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Galatians
Abstract
return to the main-page article on Galatians
Paul of Tarsus makes one of the most audacious claims of history. This scholarly Pharisee, one who had not been a follower of the itinerant Rabbi from Galilee, would persuade us that he alone – not the Twelve who had lived with Jesus for three years; and not even James, the very blood-brother of Jesus – stood as philosophical heir to the true meaning of the teachings of Christ. We shall not be surprised to find such a claim vehemently attacked by the Jerusalem mother church, the famous expression of which comes to us in the New Testament document, Galatians. Though he is charged by his critics with antinomian heresy, Paul will adamantly insist that his own mystical version of Christianity has become the Mosaic Law’s true fulfillment, a vision that allowed a tiny Jewish sect to blossom into a great world religion that would alter the flow of history.
|