Nature in Paul

We instinctively distinguish nature and nurture, genes and training, and the Greeks did too with their distinction of physis and nomos . Paul’s use, though, doesn’t fit easily into this binary.

Paul at times uses physis in a sense close to our own, describing what is given to a thing by its biology. Romans 1:26 is arguably an example.

Elsewhere, though, he includes characteristics that are given by birth but not by biology. That is, physis expands to include what we think of as “religion” and “culture.”

In Galatians 2:15, for instance, he refers to Jews as people who are “Jews by nature,” in contrast to those who are “sinners” from among the Gentiles. In context, he is condemning the Jewish Christians like Peter who want to compel Gentiles to Judaize. Gentiles who receive circumcision are “Judaized,” and become Jews even though they are not Jews by nature. “Nature” here could refer to blood, but the context indicates that Jewish identity is established not by blood but by circumcision. We would not say that anyone is “naturally” circumcised, unless they have a genetic deformity.

Romans 2:27 shows the same usage, but from the opposite direction: Paul speaks there of those who are “uncircumcised by nature.” Again, this is redundant and nonsensical for our use: Everyone is naturally uncircumcised.

Romans 11:21, 24 speaks of “natural” branches in the olive tree. This might be taken as referring to a biological inheritance: The blood of the patriarchs flows in the veins of the natural branches. That would not be true, of course, since most of the original “circumcision” had no blood connection to Abraham, Genesis 17. And, again, the inclusion or exclusion of branches from the tree is more to do with circumcision, or faith, than with biology.

One of the interesting effects of this usage is that Paul is able to speak of a “Jewish” nature (Galatians 2:15). That is, human beings don’t all have the same “nature.” According to Galatians 2, we might conclude that there is Jewish nature and Gentile nature, or even Jewish nature and the nature of “sinners.” And, it seems, an individual’s “nature” can change; Gentile sinners can “Judaize” by being circumcised and beginning to live “Jewishly” rather than “Gentilely” ( ethnikos ; Galatians 2:14). Possibly, Paul would consider circumcised Gentiles “unnatural” Jews, which throws his usage back closer to ours. Still, he describes a Jewish specification of human nature, by the human/cultural/religious act of circumcision, and that fits poorly with our understanding of nature.