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HEINZ-WOLFGANG KUHN 159
Galatians 6:14–15: “New creation” (kainh_ kti/siv) stands in opposition
to “the world has been crucified.”
Qumran
1QH a 11.21–22 (3.20–21 Sukenik): “(there is hope for him) (22) whom
you have created away from the dust for the eternal council (htrcy
Mlw( dwsl rp(m).”
1QH a 19.16–17 (11.13–14 Sukenik): “to be renewed together with all
that [(…)] exists” (hyhn[(.)] (17) [(…)] lwk M( #dxthl).
Explanations
Galatians 6:11–18 was added by Paul himself to a letter he dictated (see
v. 11). The text in 2 Cor 5:17 speaks of the Christian individual (whether
kti/siv is understood as “creature” [as in Rom 8:39] or “creation” [as in
Rom 1:20]), while Gal 6:14–15 clearly refers to a “new creation” in a cosmological
sense. In both cases, as in the texts cited above (A 1), a future
eschatological event is taken into the present. Concerning the Qumran
texts we find in 1QS 4.25 (h#dx tw#(w … d(, “until…a new creation”)
the “normal” idea of a future new creation. 16 Both texts in 1QH a belong
to “soteriological confessions” 17 in two “community songs,” the second
text seems to depend on the first one, 18 and both texts speak of a present
experience. “You have created” (htrcy) does not relate to the first
creation of man and human birth. The sentence refers to a new creation
that takes place with the entrance into the community. 19 Besides the argument
that the omission of a word for “new” in our text is normal in
16. For the idea of a new creation in Palestinian Judaism (in the future) see ibid.,
75–78. Especially for the understanding of conversion as new creation in the Jewish
Diaspora writing Joseph and Aseneth, see Moyer V. Hubbard, New Creation in Paul’s
Letters and Thought (SNTSMS 119; Cambridge: University Press, 2002), 54–76. Cf.
also Christina Hoegen-Rohls, “Neuheit bei Paulus: Kommunikative Funktion und
theologische Relevanz der paulinischen Aussagen über den Neuen Bund, die Neue
Schöpfung und die Neuheit des Lebens und des Geistes” (Theol. Habilitation,
University of Munich, 2003), 99–144; soon to be published.
17. See H.-W. Kuhn, Enderwartung, 26–27.
18. See ibid., 80–85.
19. Against Ulrich Mell, Neue Schöpfung: Eine traditionsgeschichtliche und exegetische Studie
zu einem soteriologischen Grundsatz paulinischer Theologie (ZNWBeih 56; Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1989).