Texts in Conversation
1 Maccabees describes intense zeal for the Torah with actions like tearing down altars and forcibly circumcising boys. In Galatians, Paul recalls his own zeal using similar language but now using it to criticize those who want Gentiles to be circumcised.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Maccabees 2:46
Deuterocanon
41 So they decided that day, saying, “Whoever comes against us to battle on the Sabbath day, let’s fight against him, and we will in no way all die, as our kindred died in the secret places.” 42 Then a company of the Hasidaeans, mighty men of Israel, everyone who offered himself willingly for the law, were gathered together to them. 43 All those who fled from the evils were added to them, and supported them. 44 They mustered an army, and struck sinners in their anger, and lawless men in their wrath. The rest fled to the Gentiles for safety. 45 And Mattathias and his friends went around and pulled down the altars. 46 They forcibly circumcised the boys who were uncircumcised, as many as they found in the coasts of Israel. 47 They pursued the arrogant, and the work prospered in their hand.
Date: 134–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Galatians 5:12
New Testament
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight—the only thing that matters is faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you! 9 A little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise! 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will accept no other view. But the one who is confusing you will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11 Now, brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those agitators would go so far as to castrate themselves! 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.
Date: 54–55 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Paul gives further description to his former way of life in verse 13 by saying that on the one hand he persecuted exceedingly the assembly of God, no doubt because he believed it to be beyond the pale, an apostate community and no doubt Torah-true Jewish one, not the assembly of God at all, and on the other hand he himself was heading in the opposite direction from the assembly of God hand advancing and progressing in Judaism beyond most of his Jewish contemporaries. The key to both the negative and positive behavior of Paul was what he describes in verse 14 as his exceedingly great zeal for the traditions of his ancestors. The verbs [he uses] are both in the imperfect and refer to past repeated actions, not one time aberrations from a person's normal conduct. The two verbs must be interpreted together with the latter making more explicit what is implicit in the former. These are political terms, with the latter regularly used to refer to the sacking or destroying or devastating of a city, and the former in this sort of context referring to persecution, not mere pursuit (compare Josephus The Jewish Wars 4.534 and 1 Maccabees 2:47; 3:5 where in a close parallel it refers to the pursuit and persecution of apostate Jews) ..."
Ben Witherington, Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 100.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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