Description

Katherine H. Burgett examines three metaphors in Galatians that cast the law as enslaved: the law is an enslaved pi d Gamma Gamma (3:19-25), an enslaved pi pi and ni mi (4:1-11), and Hagar the enslaved pi d s (4:21-31). Galatians famously depicts humanity's enslavement under the law, whereas the author focuses here on Paul's depictions of the Law as an enslaved enslaver, situating these metaphors in the complex context of first-century Roman slavery and drawing out their implications for Paul's theology of the law in Galatians. She argues that Paul uses these metaphors to make a series of claims about the law's agency in relation to other agents. Before the coming of faith, the law worked effectively with God in a preparatory role. But when the Galatians try to come under the law's authority after receiving the spirit, they end up frustrating both their own intentions and those of the law.