Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians by Ben Witherington Iii

Author:Ben Witherington Iii [Witherington, Ben Iii]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Biblical Commentary, New Testament
ISBN: 9780802844330
Google: U32E-iZV_WgC
Amazon: 0802844332
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 1998-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

It will be remembered that at the beginning of his first argument, Paul appealed to the experience of the Galatians when they became Christians. It is obvious that Paul feels that this is rhetorically a strong move liable to persuade his audience and so he returns to it here in both divisions of argument three. In the first division of this argument Paul will focus on the experience of the Galatians before and after their conversions, and then in the second division in 4:12–20 in an emotion-laden move Paul will appeal to the experiences he shared with his Galatian converts when he visited them. Both portions of this argument will conclude with an appeal to the emotions as Paul conjures up feelings of fear, anxiety, pity, compassion and the other deeper emotions that come under the heading of pathos (cf. 4:11 to 4:19–20). In short, Paul has once again carefully crafted his argument so that it will have the maximum persuasive impact.

To understand what Paul is doing in this third argument it will be well to review briefly what Quintilian says about the appeal to emotions. Firstly, it was appropriate to appeal to the emotions in every portion of a speech, though it was especially appropriate to appeal to the deeper emotions in the peroration. Quintilian stresses that the deeper emotions “present great variety, and demand more than a cursory treatment, since it is in their handling that the power of oratory shows itself at its highest” (Inst. Or. 6.2.2). He goes on to add that while logical arguments may induce the audience to consider one’s case believable or superior to the case being argued by others “the appeal to the emotions will do more for it will make them wish our case to be the better. And what they wish they will also believe. For as soon as they begin to be angry, to feel favorably disposed, to hate or to pity, they begin to take a personal interest in the case … For it is in its power over the emotions that the life and soul of oratory is to be found” (6.2.5–6).

It is no surprise that Paul’s arguments in Galatians are so emotion laden. He believes that a matter of enormous consequence lies in the balance, namely whether or not the Galatians will commit apostasy from the one true Gospel, and so he is prepared to move heaven and earth rhetorically, and pull out all the emotional stops to get them not to pursue the course the agitators are urging them to adopt. He knows that the appeals to the emotions and to the Galatians’ own experiences are more likely to move them than all the logic in the world. As an effective rhetor, then Paul adopts tactics he deems most likely to accomplish his rhetorical aims.

4:8 begins with a strongly adversative connector, ἀλλὰ, setting apart what follows from the previous argument just concluded. Verses 8–9 must be read together as a contrast (μὲν … δὲ, on

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