Yesterday Paul argued from the Galatians' own experience. Today he brings the texts — four of them in eight verses, three from the Torah and one from a prophet — and constructs the exchange the rest of the letter rests on.
What happens
"Realize then that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham. Scripture, which saw in advance that Theos would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, 'Through you shall all the nations be blessed.' … For all who depend on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all the things written in the book of the law.' And that no one is justified before Theos by the law is clear, for 'the one who is righteous by faith will live.' … Christransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,' that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
What to notice
Galatians 3:8 does something startling with a verb Paul appears to have coined for the occasion: proidousa de hē graphē… proeuēngelisato tō Abraam — "the scripture, foreseeing, pre-gospelled Abraham."Proeuangelizomai occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The scripture is personified as a prophet with foresight, and what it did to Abraham was preach him the good news — which means the gospel is older than the law by four hundred and thirty years. The text quoted is Genesis 12:3, and the hinge is two words: panta ta ethnē, all the nations.The Galatians are not applying to join Abraham's family. They were named in the charter. Then the curse texts, where the argument is tighter than it looks: Deuteronomy 27:26 stresses the word all, so Paul's claim is not that the law is bad but that it comes with an all-or-nothing clause, and anyone who takes it on as the basis of standing has taken on that clause too. Against it he sets Habakkuk 2:4 and Leviticus 18:5 as two different systems. Habakkuk 2:4 is worth pausing on, since the Greek is genuinely ambiguous and the whole Reformation turns on it: ho dikaios ek pisteōszēsetai can be "the righteous shall live by faith" or "the one who is righteous by faith shall live" — and Paul does not disambiguate. The Hebrew underneath reads tzaddiq be-emunato yichyeh, where emunah is closer to faithfulness, steadiness than to belief. Galatians 3:13 contains a purchase and an omission. Exēgorasen — he bought us out of the market; agora is the marketplace, and the compound is the verb for buying a slave in order to free him. The metaphor is manumission. And then the omission, which is almost never noticed: Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:23, "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" — but the Hebrew reads qilelat elohim taluy, "a hanged man is a curse of Theos."Paul drops those two words. He is willing to say Christ became a curse; he is not willing to write that Theos cursed him. Note too genomenos hyper hēmōn katara — not cursed, but "having become a curse", the abstract noun standing where a person should be.
Psalm 111 came on Monday with its later verses. Today the lectionary takes the earlier half — and two of these verses land on the Gospel with unusual precision.
The selected verses
Psalm 111:1–2."I will give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart in the company and assembly of the just. Great are the works of Yahweh, exquisite in all their delights." Psalm 111:3–4."Majesty and glory are his work, and his justice endures forever. He has won renown for his wondrous deeds; gracious and merciful is Yahweh." Psalm 111:5–6."He has given food to those who fear him; he will forever be mindful of his covenant. He has shown his might to his people by giving them the inheritance of the nations."
What to notice
Psalm 111:5 is more violent in Hebrew than in any English version. Terefnatan li-re'av — and teref is not the ordinary word for food. It is prey, torn flesh — what a lion carries off (Amos 3:4, Psalm 104:21), what Judah is called in Genesis 49:9. "He gave prey to those who fear him." The manna and the quail are described in the vocabulary of a kill, and the word is about to matter, because today's Gospel is a story about taking plunder off a strong man. Psalm 111:4 is a compressed quotation: channunv'rachum Yahweh, gracious and compassionate — the core of the formula Yahweh speaks about himself at Sinai in Exodus 34:6, the most-quoted self-description in the Hebrew Bible. And the first half of that verse is odd and lovely: zekher asah l'niflotav, "he has made a memorial for his wonders."The deeds come with a built-in remembrance — a festival, a rite, a psalm like this one. And then Psalm 111:6, today's link to Galatians: latet lahem nachalat goyim, "to give them the inheritance of the nations." In its own setting that means the land of Canaan; read on a morning when Paul is arguing that the promise to Abraham was always about panta ta ethnē, the sentence turns over.
Jesus has just cast out a demon from a man who could not speak, and the crowd is amazed. The response splits three ways — some are amazed, some demand a sign, and some produce an explanation that keeps the miracle and removes the miracle-worker.
What happens
"Some of them said, 'By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.' … 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste… But if it is by the finger of Theos that I drive out demons, then the reign of Theos has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils… When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, "I shall return to my home from which I came." But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spiritsmore wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first.'"
What to notice
Beelzeboul is a mangled title — either Baal-zebul, "Baal the prince", or the deliberate Israelite insult of 2 Kings 1:2, Baal-zebub, "lord of the flies."The accusation is not that he is a fraud; nobody disputes that the man was freed. It is that the power is real and comes from the wrong place — the more sophisticated charge, and the harder one to answer. En daktylō theou — "by the finger of Theos" — is the day's best detail, because Matthew's parallel says by the Spirit of Theos (Matthew 12:28) and Luke's finger is almost certainly older. The phrase comes from Exodus 8:19: when Pharaoh's magicians can no longer reproduce the plague, they tell him "this is the finger of Theos."Luke has Jesus answer a charge of sorcery by quoting the moment the professional sorcerers conceded — and the sentence that follows, then the reign of Theos has come upon you, is the only place in Luke where the reign is said to have already arrived rather than drawn near. The strong man is a compressed allusion: ho ischyros kathōplismenos, the strong one, fully armed, until ho ischyroteros, a stronger one, takes the panoplia he trusted in. Underneath is Isaiah 49:24–25, "can the prey be taken from the mighty?" — and the psalm this morning has just said teref, prey. And notice what the stronger one does with what he takes: ta skyla autou diadidōsin, he hands the spoils around. He does not keep them. Then the swept house, the strangest paragraph in the chapter: the spirit returns and finds it sesarōmenon kai kekosmēmenon, swept and put in order.Those are both compliments. The house is not filthy; it is clean, tidy, and empty — and empty is the problem.The passage denies that removal is sufficient: a vacancy is an invitation, and the house has to be occupied, not merely cleaned.
How They Fit Together
Someone taken off somebody else — and what it cost
The stronger one takes the armor, and hands the spoils around
Both readings today are about someone being taken off somebody else, and about what it cost.
Paul's picture is commercial and legal. Exēgorasen is what you do at a slave market when you buy a person in order to release them, and the whole verse is built as an exchange with a price in it: we were under a curse; he became the curse; the blessing of Abraham went out to the nations. The logic is a swap, and Paul does not soften the middle term. He does not say Christbore the curse or removed it — genomenos katara, he became a curse, the abstract noun standing where a person should be.
And it is worth registering the small, deliberate thing he does with the proof-text, because it tells you where his own limit was. Deuteronomy 21:23 says a hanged man is "a curse of Theos." Paul quotes the verse and drops of Theos. He will write that Christ became a curse; he will not write that Theos cursed him. Every atonement theory built on this verse has to reckon with the fact that the apostle who first cited it declined to quote it in full.
The psalm sits underneath both readings with a word most translations wash out. Teref natan li-re'av — he gave prey to those who fear him. Not food: the torn meat a predator carries off. It is a strange way to describe the manna, and it belongs on a morning whose Gospel is about somebody's possessions being taken by force. What the psalm calls provision is described in the vocabulary of a raid — and then, two clauses later, he gave them the inheritance of the nations, the phrase Paul has been rewriting all week.
Then Luke, where the same idea is told as a house-breaking. The strong man is not a fool — he is kathōplismenos, fully armed, guarding his own courtyard, and his possessions are genuinely safe until somebody stronger arrives. Jesus does not deny that he is dealing with a real power; the whole force of the Beelzebul reply depends on granting it. What he claims is not that the strong man is imaginary but that he has been beaten, and the evidence is a mute man who can now speak.
And the detail that keeps this from being merely a story about a bigger bully is the last verb. Ta skyla autou diadidōsin — he distributes the spoils. He does not move into the palace. The point of the raid is the redistribution, which is exactly Paul's structure too: the blessing does not stay where it was won, it goes out to the Gentiles.
And then the swept house, which is the warning the Galatians need and the reason this Gospel belongs with this epistle. The house in the parable is not dirty. It is clean, tidy, and unoccupied — and that is what makes it available. A man can be genuinely liberated and end up worse off, because removal is not the same as occupation. The Galatians have been bought out of the market; they are now standing empty and impressed, and something well-organized and respectable is proposing to move in and put the place in order.
Sesarōmenon kai kekosmēmenon.Swept, and beautifully arranged. It is not a description of a relapse into chaos. It is a description of a tidy life with nobody living in it.
A Question to Sit With
The house in the parable is not squalid. It is swept and put in order, and that is precisely what makes it available. I know how to tidy — how to impose a discipline, adopt a practice, get the surfaces clean — and I am much less sure what I have actually invited to live in the place. If the danger is not disorder but vacancy, what is currently occupying the room I cleared out, and did I choose it?