The Middle of the Bridge (3)

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!  As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!  Galatians 1:8-9  NASB

Contrary – About a month ago we looked at this verse in relation to the present circumstances of those of us who don’t fit religious orthodoxy.  I didn’t say Jewish orthodoxy or Christian orthodoxy because the truth is that we don’t fit into either camp.  But Paul must have had something in mind when he used the Greek preposition pará (“beside, without regard for, in spite of, against”).  Doesn’t Paul suggest an “orthodoxy” that must be maintained if one is to be “saved’?  That is the way this verse is usually interpreted, but the usual interpretation depends on treating Paul as an objector to historical Judaism, as a man who “converted” to Christianity.  This view has plenty of problems, not least of which is Paul’s own confession of Jewish affinity.  Furthermore, it assumes that there was an orthodox position, and that Paul is warning against leaving that position.  But what if there wasn’t?  What if what existed during the time of Paul’s writing was a variety of Jewish religious views, Paul’s apocalyptic Messianic orientation being just one of them, and Paul is arguing not about “orthodox” versus “false” beliefs but rather about sticking with his version of Judaism versus other versions.

Daniel Boyarin drops a bombshell about this possibility when he writes: “In the earliest stages of their development—indeed I suggest until the end of the fourth century, if we consider all of their varieties and not just the nascent ‘orthodox’ ones—Judaism and Christianity were phenomenologically indistinguishable as entities.”[1]  What this means is that when Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, there was no practical difference between his version of Judaism and other versions of Judaism.  Boyarin’s term is “phenomenological,” that is, how the spiritual involvement with God and the community is experienced.  No difference!  The same prayers, the same rituals, the same festivals, the same communal connections, the same history.  But something clearly happened because it isn’t like this anymore.  Today Judaism and Christianity sit on opposite sides of the religious chasm with long histories of embattlement and persecution,  with apparently irreconcilable doctrinal orthodoxies designed to keep them apart.  A lot has happened since the fourth century—and most of it not very good.  Paul’s constant cry for unity has been shattered by the rabbis and the preachers.

I wonder if being in the middle of the bridge isn’t precisely where we should be.  It took a long time for men who wanted power to come up with a scenario of self-validation.  Those of us in the middle of the bridge refuse to accept their self-perpetuating claims.  That seems to be exactly what needs to be done.  Paul would have been a  man in the middle too.

Topical Index: orthodoxy, contrary, Galatians 1:8-9

[1] Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: the Partition of Judeo-Christianity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), p. 89.