Male and Female

In Galatians 3:28, St. Paul affirms our unity in Christ. As the Revised Standard Version translates: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Author of a fine commentary on St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians published as part of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (for which I serve as general editor), Kathryn Greene-McCreight observes, “Contemporary interpreters of Gal. 3:28 sometimes read it as a resource for empowering a vision of justice, inclusivity, and diversity.” But St. Paul was not a liberation theologian or gender theorist.

As Greene-McCreight notes throughout her commentary, Paul writes to the Galatians because he has received reports that “another gospel” has taken hold. This “gospel” teaches that men must be circumcised in order to be followers of Christ. Paul does not reject the Jewish practice of circumcision across the board. He consistently endorses Peter’s ministry to the circumcised. Rather, Paul warns against its adoption by Gentiles. On his account, circumcision is not a requirement for membership in the household of God.

Greene-McCreight argues that St. Paul is not concerned about “legalism,” and she resists reading Reformation-era debates about justification by faith back into Galatians. Paul is concerned about idolatry. This form of false worship trades on the vain hope that by fashioning images in stone or wood we can propitiate God. Something similar happens when the Galatians fix on a man’s foreskin, thinking that “carving” the penis will propitiate God. Against this view, Paul teaches that, circumcised or uncircumcised, the followers of Christ receive their inheritance in baptism. Thus, “neither Jew nor Greek.”

Paul’s polemic against the requirement of circumcision for Gentiles provides the leitmotif for Galatians. As Greene-McCreight notes, this ritual argument concerns men, making Galatians a highly “gendered” text—a fact that runs against any reading of Galatians 3:28 that says Christianity urges us to transcend the male–female difference.

Paul emphasizes the male–female difference. In Ephesians, he ascribes sacramental significance to the marital bond. In marriage, the headship of the husband and obedience of the wife follows the pattern of the church’s subjection to Christ as its head. The “mystery” of their one-flesh union refers, Paul says, “to Christ and the church.”

How can we square Paul’s emphasis on the distinction between male and female with the formulation “neither male nor female,” found in Galatians 3:28? Greene-McCreight begins by noting that this translation strikes a false note. In the Greek, the first two pairings—Jews/Gentile, slave/free—are hinged by oude (neither), whereas male is linked to female with kai (and). The New International Version offers a more accurate translation: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The kai is significant. In Genesis 17, God commands Abraham to have all his male children and slaves circumcised. Under this arrangement, there is a uniquely male way of entering into the household of God, the way of circumcision. This is not true for the female. She enters in a different way.

In Christ, a new pattern obtains. God creates male and female, and his redemptive plan does not change this primordial fact. Yet when it comes to receiving God’s inheritance in Christ, circumcision is not required for men. Men enter into the household of God by the sacrament of baptism, and women enter in exactly the same way. Echoing Galatians 3:28, there are not male and female ways of becoming Christian, one by circumcision and the other not. There is only one way: through baptism. Greene-McCreight writes: “Baptism brings humanity as male and female created in the image of God into the heavenly dwelling, the Jerusalem above, the church (2 Cor. 5:1–5, Gal. 4:26).” Properly read, Galatians 3:28 cannot serve as a proof-text for those who hanker for “radical inclusion.” It’s a scriptural passage that illuminates the significance of the sacrament of baptism.