Thursday, February 22, 2007

New Exodus and Gal 5:18

Studying Galatians 5 has sort of been a pet project of mine throughout my time in seminary, so I'm excited when scholars produce helpful and insightful exegesis of this passage, particularly when they are sensitive to the redemptive-historical motifs that run through Paul's writings. So I was delighted when I happened upon this review about a book entitled "Echoes of the Exodus Narrative in the Context and Background of Gal. 5:18" by William Wilder. (Gal. 5:18 says, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law") Here is a snippet of the review:

"What Wilder observes is that - contrary to conventional interpretations of this verse - Paul has in mind a 'new exodus' typology in which the guiding Spirit corresponds to the exodus cloud and existence 'under the law' to the Israelites' bondage in Egypt...Wilder looks at the contexts of salvation history, exodus typology, and Paul's apocalyptic perspective before probing Ps. 143:2, 10 as the specific background for Gal 5:18."

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