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1. Contents After an introduction (Gal. 1:1–5), Paul omits the usual thanksgiving and refers at once to the reason for writing, which is the appearance of those who preach “a different gospel” (vv. 6–10). He then develops the theme of the letter (1:11–5:12): the gospel—faith or the law? In accordance with the thesis of 1:11–12, he describes to his readers his own path from Damascus to Galatia as the path of the gospel (1:13–2:21). He then presents the gospel in 3:1–5:12, especially in its relation to the law. In 5:13–6:10 comes the parenesis, in which he shows what it means ethicall…

Overview In the church and its milieu, the word “faith” is used with sometimes irritating generality (the English word perhaps even more crassly than its German equivalent, Glaube). One can distinguish at least three uses, as well as two areas of scholarly inquiry. In one of its uses, the term “faith” is almost synonymous with “religion”; it means essentially the basic personal disposition of individuals or communities. In analogy to “Christian faith,” we can speak also of “Jewish faith” and of the “faith” of Muslims, Buddhists, and so o…

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. History of Religion – III. Old Testament – IV. New Testament – V. Early Church History I. Comparative Religion Epiphany is a descriptive term borrowed from the phenomenology of Greek religion. In the terminology of the comparative study of religions, “epiphany” stands for the widespread conception that gods are accustomed to “appear” under certain conditions …

[German Version] In the course of their wanderings throughout Europe, Celtic tribes from the lower Danube region ultimately arrived in Asia Minor via Greece (278 near Delphi) in the 3rd century bce. Settled in the central Anatolian plateau and cut off from other Celtic settlements for several generations, they constituted a linguistic and cultural island in the region between the rivers Sangarikos (Sakarya) and Halys (Kilil Irmak), thus in the vicinity of the modern Turkish capital, Ankara. They ¶ competed with the Phrygian population and with the neighboring Pergamum; the…

[German Version] The Greek loanword (lit. “unwritten,” pl.) is a term with only limited usefulness in modern Jesus research. In contrast to “written” and requiring specification by a noun (“logia” in the sense of “dominical sayings”), it does indeed allude to Early Church diction, but is now used as a collective term for dominical sayings not contained in the canonical Gospels. These are to be found in ancient literature of Christian, but also of Jewish and Islamic provenience, while the term does not presume a …

[German Version] I. Introduction – II. Content – III. Interpretation I. Introduction Galatians, like the other authentic letters of Paul, stems from the period of his activity around the Aegean (c. 50–55). These letters were probably collected in Asia Minor even before the turn of the century, and thus Galatians was also transmitted as part of the Corpus Paulinum. The occasion for this letter was the news of the attempt to re-evangelize the Galatian congregations; we do not know how Paul learned of this. He saw the gospel as so fundamentally questio…

[German Version] Named after a patron of the British Museum, Papyrus Egerton 2 (= PLondon Christ.1) was purchased in Egypt in 1934; the exact location of its discovery, however, cannot be ascertained with certainty. At the time of its publication in 1935, the papyrus was considered to be the oldest extant Christian document (dating to “c. 150”), though it lost that status in the …

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. History – III. Medicine Today – IV. Bible – V. Medicine and Religion I. Terminology The word medicine dervies from Latin medicina, strictly speaking an adjective modifying ars but also used independently as a noun ( medicina, -ae, fem.); the phase means “the art of healing” and is thus the Latin equivalent of Greek τέχνη ἰατρική/ téchnē iatrikḗ. The term indicates that before medicine became the domain of a university faculty in the late Middle Ages, the profession was classed as an ars mechanica (rather than liberalis). The same root is used …