The new age of the Spirit - 5 November 2010 |
|
Here are the questions for session 37 of the Emmanuel Evangelical Church Guided Reading Course.
In a break from our study of Calvin’s Institutes, we’re looking this week at Derek Olliff’s short article, “When the Fullness of Time Had Come: Paul’s Gospel to the Galatians,” described in the opening paragraph as a “mini-commentary” on Galatians. This article is available online here.
Besides giving a helpful perspective on the topic of justification from one of the major New Testament letters on the subject, this article also serves as a good example of careful contextual exegesis, and connects with our previous discussion of the progression of God’s covenants through salvation-history. It’s a fairly short article, so I encourage you to read it carefully and also to take the opportunity to dig deeper into Galatians itself.
Page numbers refer to the pdf version of the article, and unless otherwise stated all biblical references are to Galatians.
1. What is “the common Protestant view” of Galatians? What does Olliff think of this position? How does he summarise Paul’s argument in Galatians? (p. 1)
2. How is Olliff’s understanding of Paul’s chastisement in 1:6-9 related to his understanding of the gospel? How does this differ from what he might call the “traditional” understanding of these verses? (pp. 1-2)
3. How might Paul’s mention of Jesus’ resurrection (1:1) and “the present evil age” (1:4) support Olliff’s understanding of 1:6-9?
4. How does Olliff’s mention of Peter’s dissociation from Gentiles fit into this stage of the argument? (p. 2)
5. What, according to Olliff, were the Judaizers teaching? What were they not teaching? How does Olliff support his argument here? (pp. 2-4)
6. How did Paul respond to Peter’s separation from Gentiles? How does this support Olliff’s claim that Paul was not addressing legalism? (p. 4)
7. How does 2:14–16 fit into Paul’s argument?
8. How do the following verses fit with Olliff’s argument? You may find it helpful to paraphrase Paul’s logic in these sections.
3:2–6
3:7–9 (Note especially the function of the quote from Genesis 12:3)
3:16
3:17–18
3:19–25
9. How does Olliff articulate the “traditional Protestant understanding” of 3:10–14? How does he respond, and what place does Deuteronomy 27:26 have in his argument? (pp. 5–6)
10. What does Olliff think is meant by “the law is not of faith” (3:12)? (p. 7)
11. How does Olliff answer Paul’s question, “What, then, was the point of the law?” (p. 8; 3:19) Try to work through the logic of 3:19-25, addressing the following questions along the way:
What does “faith” mean in 3:23?
What does Paul mean by describing the law as a “guardian” in 3:24?
12. What two features of Paul’s conclusion in 3:26–29 does Olliff highlight on p. 9?
13. What were those “who desire[d] to be under the law” (4:21) seeking to do? How does Paul respond in 4:22-31? (pp. 10-11)
14. How does 5:1–6 pick up and develop the themes of slavery and bondage from the previous section? (p. 12)
| Tweet | Post comment via Facebook |
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Guided Reading Course, Minister's Blog