QUESTIONS IN GALATIANS

This letter of Paul is unusual in that he advances his arguments to that church in the form of a series of questions, generally rhetorical ones. There is even a pattern of sorts associated with these twenty queries in that (a) they often appear in pairs and (b) they form a roughly symmetrical organization overall.

                                                 Figure 1: Questions in Galatians

A. Am I seeking the favor of men or God? Am I still trying to please men? (1:10)

    B. Why have you not listened to the gospel? (2:14)

        C. Is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! (2:17)

            D. Who has bewitched you? (3:1)

                E. Did you receive the Spirit by works or faith? (3:2)

                    F. Are you so foolish? (3:3a)

                E. Starting with the Spirit, are you ending with the flesh? (3:3b)

                    F. Did you experience so much for nothing? (3:4)

                E. Does God give you the Spirit by works or belief? (3:5)

        C. Why the law? Is the law against the promises of God? Certainly not! (3:19,21)

            D. How can you turn back? How can you want to be enslaved? (4:9)

A. What has become of your goodwill to me? Have I become your enemy? (4:15-16)

    B. Do you not hear the law? (4:21)

        C. What does it say? The child of promise will inherit. (4:30ff)

            D. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? (5:7)

A. Why am I still being persecuted? (5:11)

“A” Units

You can see from the above composition that from the first “A” Unit to the second one forms a wholly symmetrical literary structure followed by a recap of units B-D and a return to the major question that began the book. Paul seeks to find out why he himself has been rejected by the Galatian churches.

“B” Units

A related, and even more important, question that Paul asks here is why first Peter and then the Galatians have rejected God's own word. Interestingly, this is posed to Peter in terms of ignoring the Gospel and to the church in terms of doing the same regarding the Old Testament writings.

“C” Units

The first two units labeled “C” ask a purely hypothetical question, which Paul proceeds to deny in no uncertain terms. Then the final “C” unit picks up on the key word “promise” which is found in the second parallel passage.

“D” Units

The first and last of these three questions directed pointedly to the church members turn from the “why” questions in the B units and zeroes in on the “who.” The answer is obviously the Judaizers within the church who were trying to steer the new Gentile believers back to reliance on the OT legal requirements such as circumcision.

The next two types of questions form the heart of the overall symmetrical structure and are heavily theologically loaded.

“E” Units

These ring all the changes on competing concepts such as Spirit vs. flesh and faith vs. works. The second of these questions introduces “the flesh” into the equation and so could be considered the real center of the whole opening chiastic (i.e. exhibiting mirror-image symmetry) structure.

“F” Units

Alternating with the above theological ideas are Paul's direct questions to the Galatians asking them whether they really understand what they are turning to and away from by their decisions.

If you attempt to compare the organization of Figure 1 with that derived in a totally way and defended in the post “Galatians: Introduction to Literary Structure,” you will find virtually no overlap between the two. This demonstrates what is even more obvious in the Book of Revelation, namely, that the books of the Bible are so carefully constructed that it is possible to view them equally well from several completely different angles.