. . . Paul also claims that those who “have been baptized into Christ have been clothed in Christ” (ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε, Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε, Gal 3:27; cf. Rom 13:12-14). This language of being clothed in Christ within a context stressing the promised pneuma, suggests that the Galatians have been pneumatically placed into Christ (3:26). Although Gal 3:26-29 lacks any explicit reference to the pneuma, the language of “enclothing” (ενδυω) often occurs in pneumatic contexts. For instance, Judg 6:34 states that the pneuma of God enclothed Gideon, empowering him to defend the nation of Israel. Likewise, 1 Chron 12:19 LXX states that the pneuma enclothed Amasai, leading to his verbal commitment to David, while 2 Chron 24:20 portrays the pneuma of God enclothing Zechariah enabling him to prophesy against the sins of Judah and Jerusalem. Closer to Paul’s time, the speaker of the Qumran scroll known as “Bless O My Soul,” states, “[God has] clothed me in the ruaḥ of salvation” (4Q438 frag. 4 ii.5). Writing after Paul, Luke portrays the risen Jesus saying to his disciples: “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed” (ἐνδύσησθε) in power from on high" (Luke 24:49). This latter passage, with its connections between the pneuma, the promise, and being enclothed, closely parallels Paul’s argument in Gal 3:24-29. David John Lull observes, “When Paul first speaks of the Spirit in 3:1-5, where he refers to the Galatians’ receiving of the initial gift of the Spirit, he mentions neither baptism nor ‘sonship.’ In 3:26-28, where he does mention baptism and ‘sonship,’ he does not mention the Spirit.” This shift from discussing the pneuma to baptism and “sonship/adoption” suggests that Paul equates baptism and sonship/adoption with the reception of the pneuma.
To receive the pneuma is to be enclothed in Christ because the pneuma is the pneuma of God’s son, who is Christ (Gal 2:20; 4:6; cf. Rom 8:9; Phil 1:19). In the words of Johnson Hodge, “Baptism ushers gentiles ‘into’ Christ; it forges kinship relationship between them and Christ. In the same way that the descendants share the same “stuff” as ancestors, gentiles are ‘of Christ’—they have taken in his pneuma.” The Galatians envelop Christ—Christ’s pneuma is in them (3:13; 4:6), and are simultaneously enveloped by Christ—they put on Christ (3:26-28). This mutual enveloping occurs also in Pseudo-Philo, which asserts that Kenaz was able to defeat Israel’s enemies because he “was clothed in” (indutus est) a spiritus of power, while having this same spiritus inhabit (habitans in) him (L.A.B. 27.10, 28:6; cf. Judg 10:3). Such mutual interpenetration recalls ancient debates about mixtures, a question that ancient philosophers spent considerable time discussing. (Matthew Thiessen, Paul and the Gentile Problem [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016], 111-12)
