Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Galatians 6:11-18, Large letters in his own hand, and the marks of Jesus
Taking the pen himself, Paul writes in large letters that the rivals want the Galatians circumcised so they can boast in their flesh and avoid persecution, while he boasts only in the cross; he blesses those who follow this rule and the Israel of God, and says he bears the marks of Jesus.
Galatians 6:11-18, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul takes the pen himself and writes in large letters to underline his final point. The rivals want the Galatians circumcised so they can boast about it and escape persecution for the cross, though they do not keep the law themselves. Paul will boast only in the cross, through which he and the world are dead to each other, because circumcision means nothing and new creation is what matters. He blesses all who follow this rule and the Israel of God, and points to the marks of Jesus he bears on his body.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/circumcision\/","n":"Circumcision and becoming a Jew","s":"Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham and the mark of a Jewish man. A Gentile man who joined Israel was circumcised; the first great quarrel in the church was over whether Gentile believers had to be.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/crucifixion\/","n":"Crucifixion","s":"Rome's public, shaming death for rebels, after flogging, with the charge posted for passers-by to read.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jewish-prayer\/","n":"Prayer in Jesus' day","s":"Set prayers, set hours, standing to pray, God addressed as Father, and prayers for his name and his kingdom. Jesus taught his own disciples a prayer inside that world.","r":""}
Letters this long were dictated to scribes, and "not a scribe but Paul himself writes this section, as the handwriting shows" (Keener and his notes). Why the letters are large is read differently: eyesight (the CSB Study Bible, as one view), which Wright calls speculative; emphasis or an untrained hand (Keener and his notes); or, Wright suggests, dark humor against the rivals' fine showing in the flesh. Wright reads the pressure as coming from the Jewish community, the civic authorities or both: Jews were exempt from worshiping the city's gods, and uncircumcised Gentiles who stopped worshiping them put that exemption at risk. Pisidian Antioch styled itself new Rome (Wright); it was a Roman colony and garrison town and capital of southern Galatia (the Zondervan dictionary). Peace on Israel was a regular synagogue prayer, a fitting opposite to the curse of 1:8-9; scholars dispute whether the Israel of God means the faithful Jewish remnant or all believers, more favoring the latter (Keener). Paul's word for marks could mean any mark or wound and here probably means scars from persecution (Keener; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles); Carson, Moo and Morris read 6:17 as his last answer to attacks on his authority.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Galatians 6:11-18, and on Galatians 6:11, 6:12-13, 6:16 and 6:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Galatians 6:11
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Galatians 6:11 and 6:17
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Galatians 6:11 and 6:17
- N. T. Wright, Galatians, Introduction, The Situation in Galatia, and Commentary, Final Warnings and Example (6:11-18)
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Antioch (2)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 10, Galatians, Occasion
