Galatians

Review: Galatians and Ephesians Through Old Testament Eyes

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Cover image of "Galatians and Ephesians" by Gary M. Burge

Galatians and Ephesians Through Old Testament Eyes, Gary M. Burge. Kregel Academic (ISBN: 9780825445187) 2025.

Summary: A commentary drawing out the Old Testament allusions and references Paul makes.

Galatians and Ephesians sit side by side in our Bibles. But they are so different. Galatians begins harshly. Ephesians glows with a marvelous prayer and thanksgiving. Galatians is unanimously attributed to Paul. The authorship of Ephesians is disputed. But we treasure them both.

Gary M. Burge sees these books as written by an author or authors (he opts for Paul as author for both) steeped in the Jewish scriptures and in his commentary on these two books notes the references and illusions that inform the writing. This is one of the distinctive features of the Through Old Testament Eyes series. In addition to the running commentary, “Through Old Testament Eyes” insertions explain references and allusions in the text. There are also periodic insertions on “What the Structure Means” and “Going Deeper.” The latter unpacks implications of the text for present day readers.

Befitting this series, I will focus on some of the Old Testament material discussed in the commentary for each book. In Galatians, the discussions of circumcision, meals, Gentiles and separation, and the material on Abraham and his seed. What is most striking is that Burge sees the promises made to Abraham as applying to all who, by faith are children of Abraham. And the land promise? It is no longer limited to a strip of land on the eastern Mediterranean but extends to the whole world. In Going Deeper discussions, Burge elaborates the significance of this for present day Israel

Turning to Ephesians, Burge first elaborates the Old Testament concept of “blessing,” so much a part of the opening prayer. Several articles elaborate Ephesians 2:11-22, discussing relations of Jews and Gentiles, and the dividing wall of the temple (and Christ’s new temple. In Ephesians 4:20-21, he contrasts Old Testament codes and learning Christ. Then, he sets the household codes not only in their Gentile context but also in terms of Old Testament teaching on marriage and slavery.

In addition, the “Going Deeper: sections move from commentary to challenging implications. He challenges racism and sexism in the church on the basis of Galatians 3:28. Instead of allegiance to an earthly Jerusalem, he calls for allegiance to Christian Israelis and Palestinians and our expectation of the New Jerusalem. His words on our use of words and anger from Ephesians 4:29-32 are much needed as is his calling out of marital abuse and the misuse of Ephesians 5:21-33.

In addition, Burge offers helpful background and timeline material based on and including a well-argued southern Galatia hypothesis. He offers helpful structural observations of Paul’s argument in both books and background on letter-writing conventions, so important given Paul’s breech of those conventions in Galatians. In conclusion, this is a valuable commentary for devotional study, teaching, and preaching.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Reviews of other commentaries in this series:

Matthew: https://bobonbooks.com/2024/06/11/review-matthew-through-old-testament-eyes/

Mark: https://bobonbooks.com/2017/12/04/review-mark-through-old-testament-eyes/

John: https://bobonbooks.com/2023/12/18/review-john-through-old-testament-eyes/

Revelation: https://bobonbooks.com/2022/11/28/review-revelation-through-old-testament-eyes/

Review: Galatians: A Life in Letters

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Cover image of "Galatians: A life in Letters by johannes W.H. van der Bijl

Galatians: A Life in Letters, Johannes W. H. van der Bijl. Langham Global Library (ISBN: 9781839739200), 2024.

Summary: A narrative commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, reconstructing the circumstances leading to, and the actual composition of the letter.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is usually given pride of place as the foremost of Paul’s letters. But the letter to the Galatians deserves consideration as a tighter, rhetorical masterpiece, written to address an urgent theological challenge facing the nascent Christian mission to the Gentiles.

The Challenge

Johannes W. H. van der Bijl has penned a concisely written commentary that captures the singular character of this work. It is the first in a series of narrative commentaries on Paul’s letters. Rather than offer one more discursive commentary on the propositional truths of Galatians, he wants to explore the story of and the stories within the commentary. He does this through an imaginative narrative that begins when Paul and Barnabas receive reports of efforts to persuade the Gentiles converts of Galatia to submit to Jewish practices beginning with circumcision. Paul and Barnabas are back in Syrian Antioch. Paul responds in anguish arising from his own past as a zealous Jew. That zeal culminated in his attempts to exterminate the Christian movement until that day on the Damascus road. And so Paul determines to write a letter….

The Letter

The two decide to summon the the other prophets and teachers at Antioch, Lucius, Simeon, nicknamed Niger, and Manaen. The rest of the book traces a long evening of dialogue, with Niger writing down what became the letter. They begin with a prologue in which Paul cites his authority as well as the shared origin of the letter. Through questions and answers, the content emerges, beginning with why adopting Jewish practice was so dangerous, another gospel. They recall their mission and the reception of the gospel, including Paul’s stoning and the receptiveness of young Timothy.

Returning to the letter, they consider the promise to Abraham and his singular seed and the place of the law, as a custodian for a young people. All this awaited the promise fulfilled in Christ’s faithfulness through which they live. Hence Paul’s concern that they don’t return to slavery, having been freed in Christ. Rather, they live in love, the fulfillment of the law. “We obey it because we are free, not because we want to be free.” They then conclude with Paul penning his own closing words.

The Value of This Approach

This narrative commentary does several things well. For one, it helps the reader understand Paul’s anguished tone. Secondly, it interweaves the Acts passages from the first missionary journey into the narrative of the writing, giving context a vivid reality. Thirdly, the question and answer dialogue between the five and Paul’s responses brings to life the argument of a book. Thus, we are enabled to better grasp how Paul’s ideas build upon each other.

In addition to the narrative commentary, a glossary of names and places is provided along with a timeline for Paul’s life. A bibliography is provided for those wanting to pursue more in depth study. This is a brief work, coming in at 100 pages. Obviously, that doesn’t allow for the textual discussions of other commentaries. Rather than focusing on all the individual trees, we get a sense of the forest and the lay of the land. And we get some sense of the anguish, love and passion of Paul as he wrote, or rather, dictated. I look forward to other books in this series!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life

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The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life, Jarvis L. Williams. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.

Summary: The saving work of Christ in its vertical, horizontal, and cosmic dimensions is the reason for why the Galatians are able and commanded to walk in the Spirit, living lives of Spirit-empowered obedience, participating both now and into the age to come in eternal life.

Often, discussions of Paul’s letter to the Galatians focus on justification through faith in the work of the crucified and risen Lord and not on the basis of works of the law. Jarvis L. Williams addresses what he believes to be a neglected aspect of this letter. He believes that Christ’s saving work has vertical, horizontal, and cosmic dimensions that are realized in the life of the believer in the gift of the indwelling Spirit, in whom we may and must walk in ethical lives of empowered obedience. The believer must do so, not turning back to flesh-empowered adherence to the law. To do so is to cease to participate in the gift of eternal life, both now and in the age to come. To walk in the Spirit is to participate in eternal life now in anticipating of the age to come.

The author begins with a literature survey of other scholars who have addressed these questions in Galatians from Hermann Gunkel through David de Silva. He follows with a chapter on the death and resurrection of Jesus showing that the apocalyptic inbreaking of God’s rule is connected with the outpouring of the scripture, demarcating the old age of the flesh and the new age of the Spirit, freedom from bondage under the law and the elemental spirits and freedom in the Spirit to love God and each other (the vertical, horizontal, and cosmic dimensions of salvation). He argues then that those justified in Christ can, will, and must walk in the Spirit in order to inherit the kingdom. Those who do so enjoy empowered personal agency and ethical transformation. Paul’s anxiety, then, over the Galatians in turning away from the gospel for works of the law is that they will cease walking in the Spirit and participating in the reality of eternal life and will not inherit the kingdom. Williams then concludes with observations about the dangers of separating soteriology and ethical transformation and eternal life. He also makes observations about Christian social engagement around issues of race and ethnicity, and the implications of being one new people for how we pursue that engagement.

I thought the thesis of this work an important one, and indeed, often overlooked in Galatians. My problem with the book was the over-repetition of that thesis as well as the organization of the material. The author confines the literature survey to one chapter, without extensive interaction with the scholars in subsequent ones. The chapters following are thematically oriented and move back and forth throughout Galatians and other scriptures. I found myself wondering if a more effective approach would have been a consecutive theological exposition of the text of Galatians, showing how Paul develops the ideas that form the basis of his thesis, incorporating relevant scholarship in his commentary. I think that would have offered a more integrated, persuasive, and understandable rendering of the author’s thesis. Perhaps the author might consider this in a follow-up work for a more general audience.

That said, the author’s argument, that Galatians connects the saving work of Christ to God’s empowering presence in the Galatians’ lives as part of the new thing God is doing, is an important one. His contention that we must not disconnect theology, and particularly soteriology, and ethics is a trenchant one that we do well to heed. Likewise the warning, that to claim to be among the justified but to not walk in the Spirit in freedom from bondage to the cosmic powers and love for God and others, and the implications for participating in the kingdom, is one we ignore at our peril. It’s literally a matter of (eternal) life or death.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.