Biting again

Philip Esler draws on the anthropological work of Anthony Cohen to suggest that Paul’s reference to “biting” and “devouring” may describe the actual internal life of Paul’s churches: “Anthony Cohen’s argument about the persistence of liminality among persons once they have crossed a boundary to join a new group raises the prospect that the members of the congregations had not yet internalized the values expected of them and continued to treat one another in the fiercely competitive way typical of unrelated persons in this culture. We should expect that the process of acquiring a new identity to be a a very difficult one.”

This line of argument has several advantages: First, it helps to show the coherence of Galatians. Paul hasn’t changed the subject once he gets to the beginning of chapter 5. Second, more specifically, he hasn’t changed the meaning of his terms. “Flesh” still refers to adherents of Torah and Judaizers and those who remain under the managers and guardians; it hasn’t changed meaning to “sinful nature.” Paul’s list of “works of the flesh” describes the way of life among the false teachers.