DeConick A.D

130
PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6; 2:5; Colossians 2:20–21). He demands
to know why, if with Christ they had died to the elemental spirits, his converts
now wanted to submit to the regulations of the law, which consisted
of human commands and teachings (Colossians 2:20–21). Why, when they
had freedom in Jesus the Messiah, did they want to be enslaved again
(Galatians 2:5)?
Paul reminds them that they are the descendants of Abraham and heirs
to the promise of God. Yes, they had been minors enslaved to the cosmic
forces before Jesus’ advent. But at the designated time God sent his son,
who was born of a woman, born under the law. His job was to liberate
everyone from the law so that all believers could be granted legal status
as God’s children. And because we became God’s children, Paul explains,
God sent into our hearts the spirit of his son. “So you are no longer a
slave, but a child, and if a child, then also an heir, through God” (Galatians
4:1–7; my translation).
He asks the Galatians whether they received the Spirit by observing
the laws or by believing the gospel that Paul disclosed. He wants to know
whether they experienced it all for nothing (3:2–9). He tells them that
before their conversion they did not know God but were enslaved to entities
that are not really gods. Now that they had come to know the true
God and to be known by him, how could they turn back to the elemental
spirits and powers? How could they want to be enslaved by them again by
observing the Jewish law (4:8–12)?
To illustrate his point, Paul uses the story of Sarah and Hagar, who
each bore Abraham children, according to the Jewish scripture. In a very
transgressive reading of the passage, Paul turns the tables. Traditionally,
the Jews had claimed to be Sarah’s offspring, but Paul says otherwise. He
argues that Hagar represents the Jews who are enslaved to the laws given
at Sinai. The Jews who live in Jerusalem are Hagar’s children, not Sarah’s.
Sarah, the free woman, is the mother of Christ’s followers, who are the
heirs to God’s promise (4:23). He admonishes the Galatians to stand firm
and to never again submit the yoke of slavery (5:1).
This antinomian message had its consequences, once it was mobilized
within Paul’s communities of converts. The converts put into practice
Paul’s message of gnosis and liberation. They had learned from Paul that
they were Gnostics, that “all of us possess knowledge” (1 Corinthians
8:1–3). They believed Paul’s message that this knowledge released them