Further along in Chapter Six, one finds a fuller engagement by Brigitte Kahl, with some of Paul's statements taken from the text of the Galatains letter. This engagement is welcome but problematic.
A discussion of only selected statements falls well short of detailed exegesis. The lack of this kind of investigation is a disappointment in a book, which wants to see Paul in Galatians mounting a critical (yet cryptic) argument against the public worship of the emperor.
Professor Kahl’s treatment of Gal 6:4 (p. 271) may serve as an example.
Professor Kahl’s treatment of Gal 6:4 (p. 271) may serve as an example.
My translation:
“Each person should assess one’s own work and so take pride in (eis) one’s own alone and not in (eis) that of another.”
Kahl translates differently,
“Everybody should evaluate the work of himself or herself and then will have the boast in front of (eis) himself or herself alone.”
By way of this awkward translation, Kahl utilizes this statement to assert (see quotation below) that Paul, sarcastically, is arguing against public display, that is against the public show of allegiance to the emperor.
To enlist Paul’s sentence in the service of an argument against a display of public allegiance to the emperor, Kahl deploys the preposition eis, in translation to mean, “in front of.” By way of this translation, Paul can be said to have public acts ("works") in mind, which he then, sarcastically, dismisses: display yourself privately, not in front of anyone else.
But the issue in this statement is not display but judging. Kahl substitutes display for judging by combining the two appearances of the preposition, eis.
The preposition eis entails a range of meanings depending on its context (see Gal 3:17 and 4:11).
But this preposition cannot be said to mean “in front of” to the exclusion of the notion that Paul is calling on his readers to make, individually, an internal or private assessment of one’s own conduct.
In Gal 6:4 Paul clearly admonishes his readers not to assess the conduct of others. Kahl does not allow this meaning to be given to this verse.
Why not?
Kahl wishes to use Gal 6:4 to characterize Paul as mounting an “up-front attack on the competitive system of euergetism/benefactions, which, as we have seen, is a key feature of imperial order in a province like Galatia, ‘works’ are declared to be no longer the showcase of the self in the public race for status.”
To make Gal 6:4 carry all of this weight, Kahl declares that chapters 5 and 6 of Galatians have been dismissed by many of the commentators, who find earlier sections of the letter to be more substantive.
But in fact, the very statement Kahl enlists here, Gal 6:4, is best understood as Paul’s invocation of a general counsel to right conduct.
NOTE: The Greek text of Gal 6:4 has been taken from:
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