LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

CHAMBERS: PISTIS CRISTOU IN PAUL
possible contrast Hultgren might imagine between “the believer doing ‘A’
(works of the law)” and “the believer doing ‘B’ (faith)”. Yet Hultgren has a
point. Some, following Krister Stendahl, might challenge the assumption
that salvation for Paul’s first-century Jewish audience could possibly revolve
in so narrow an orbit around their own “introspective consciences”. 54 But the
way in which Paul himself phrases the contrast here in Romans does at least
seem to allow the possibility—if not require the certainty—that this in fact
precisely what he has in mind. 55
ii) Galatians 2:16, 20
Here, too, Hultgren argues from the internal logic of 2:16 that pi,stij
Cristou/ vIhsou/ must refer to the faith of the believer. 56 The hinge of his
rather creative argument is the kai, in the centre of the verse. In 2:16a Paul
speaks of what he and other Jews know—”that a person is justified not by
the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Then in 2:16b he
goes on to speak of what they accordingly do: “And [kai,] we have come to
believe in Christ Jesus.” Justification, in other words, on this reading,
involves both “knowing” and “doing”: knowing that one cannot justify
oneself, and believing instead in God’s justification. Not only does this
explanation diminish some of the redundancy within this verse that
supporters of the subjective interpretation find so distressing (the double use
of pi,stij, bracketing pisteu,w), but it also acknowledges the concurrently
active and passive nature of justification: not doing works of the law
(passive), but believing (active).
A more substantial argument springing from internal considerations
within Galatians 2:16 is mustered by James Voelz. 57 He begins by noting that
authors sometimes assume meanings “under” the meanings which they
actually express. Normally these assumed-but-unexpressed meanings are
difficult to uncover; but sometimes (and this verse is a signal example) the
unexpressed meaning can actually be detected through a “hint” of some kind
in the context. In this case, Voelz attaches a great deal of significance to the
presence of the verb pisteu,w right in the midst of the two pi,stij Cristou/
clauses: “A person is justified … dia. pi,stewj Cristou/, and we have come
54 Krister Stendahl, “The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West”, in
Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976) 78-96.
55 A superb defence of this classic Lutheran understanding of what is really at stake for Paul
in Galatians and Romans—over against Stendahl and many other 20 th -century challengers
who deny that Paul is really concerned about justification by grace through faith—is Stephen
Westerholm’s Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988).
56 Hultgren 261.
57 James Voelz, What Does This Mean? (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995)
193-94.
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