. . . Deuteronomy 27:26 is the
final one of Israel’s curses; furthermore, the text of Paul’s amendment, . . .
(including 28:58; 30:10), functions to emphasise the representative nature of
this final curse. Following Deuteronomy, then, it appears that Paul’s ‘curse of
the law’ is the curse the law threatens for those who disobey it and that which
Deuteronomy clearly anticipates Israel’s disobedience will invoke. For Paul,
therefore, Israel as a whole is the recipient of the law’s curse. The case that
this scheme underlies his argument is supported by the Christological resolution
Paul sets out.
In Galatians 3:13 Paul returns to
the language of curse to explain that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us (Χριστος ημας εξηγορασεν εκ της καταρας του νομου γενομενος υπερ ημων καταρα). Again, Scripture provides an
explanation: ‘Since it is written: cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’ (οτι γεγραπται επικαταρατος πας κρεμαμενος επι ζυλου). The first significant aspect of
this second composite citation, created from LXX Deuteronomy 21:23 (κεκατηραμενος υπο θεου πας κρεμαμενος επι ζυλου), where it describes the dead
body of a hanged criminal, is the replacement of κακετηραμενος with επικαταρατος, a term
occurring frequently in Deuteronomy 27. Apparently, this provides support for
the assertion in Romans 3:10: the curse Christ bore was the one invoked by
Israel’s faithlessness. A second significant aspect is the omission of υπο θεου, leaving the source of the curse
unspecified. While these few verses are undoubtedly fraught with interpretive problems
when viewed from Paul’s rhetorical scheme, his dependence on Deuteronomy’s
narrative and Deuteronomy’s curse language in relation to Christ’s death is
less troublesome: Paul cites Scripture to demonstrate how the curse pronounced
by the law, which faithless Israel would inevitably experience, is brought to
an end with Christ’s crucifixion.
Blessing and curses are a theme
with origins in the Genesis narrative (and Paul has just cited Genesis 12:3 in
Galatians 3:8), but Paul’s Deuteronomy citations go on to appeal to the
blessing and curses attached to the Deuteronomy covenant. The way that Paul can
move between Genesis 12:3 and Deuteronomy 27-28 within the space of two verses
(Galatians 3:8, 10) points us to the Deuteronomy covenant-renewal text being in
view as the interpretive framework for the climax of the promises made to
Abraham. This coheres with our findings regarding the conflation of these
traditions in the oath to the fathers from Deuteronomy. Wisdom has developed
the implications of this juxtaposition: he explains how Christ’s death exhausts
the covenant curse, which leads to the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham.
Yet what is noted less often is that Paul seems to see not only the blessings
to Abraham coming to pass but also the covenant blessing of Deuteronomy; beyond
the law’s curse, Israel would again be established as a holy people. Indeed,
this is borne out by the citations in the catena, including Moses’ Song, which
establishes the Gentiles as legitimate participants in Israel’s restoration.
There is some discussion about the
referent of ημας in Paul’s statement about Christ’s redemption (Χριστος ημας εξηγορασεν—Galatians 3:13), but the
consensus seems to be that it is both Jew and Gentile for whom Paul sees the
curse of the law being removed, inasmuch as the Gentiles are also outside the
covenant. If to be under the curse means to be outside the blessing of
covenant, so too the Gentiles, idolaters by definition, are outside. But
whether they are actual lawbreakers or lawbreakers by implication only, they
are recipients of the covenant’s curse by virtue of being Gentiles. The πας and πασιν
in Galatians 3:10 are emphatic: all are in view. The fact that redemption from
the law’s curse specifically leads to Gentile inclusion—by fulfilling the
promises to Abraham by the gift of the Spirit—confirms this. We will return to
Romans 15:7-8 and to a focus on our findings.
Our findings suggest that Paul’s
declaration that ‘Christ confirms the promises to the patriarchs’ in the midst
of the catena of texts attesting to Israel’s restoration functions as a
reference to more than the Genesis narrative. Christ’s suffering, interpreted
as his becoming a servant of the circumcision on behalf of God’s truth and
mercy, finds its parallel in Paul’s discussion of Christ bearing the curse of
the law, where ‘Jesus entered so fully into Israel’s enslaved condition that he
absorbed that exhausted the curse fully in his own innocent death’ (Richard B Hays,
“The Letter to the Galatians: Introduction, Commentary and Reflections,” The
New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 11 [2000], 260). This is important because
Paul does not just go from Abraham to the fulfilment of promise of children for
Abraham without passing through the Deuteronomic story of the covenant and
consequent curses, and the blessing which would follow the divine
activity—interpreted by Paul as the coming of the Spirit. Romans 15:8 is
likely, therefore, to have the whole of Israel’s story in view in its
description of Christ as servant of the circumcision, including that of a
people established as the renewal of the covenant in an act of consecration.
We have shown how Paul juxtaposes
the blessing for Abraham with the redemption of the curses of the covenant. And
we have also shown that this concept is present in Deuteronomy. But it is
significant that it is not only the blessing to Abraham in view here. Just as
the representative under the law’s curse, so too the representative blessing for
obedience of Deuteronomy 28:9 seems also to be in Paul’s sight. Beyond the
curse of exile, Israel would be restored, and this would take place on the
basis of the oath to the fathers: ‘The Lord will establish you as his holy
people, as he has sworn to your fathers (ωμοσεν τοις πατρασιν σου), if you hear the voice of the Lord and walk in his ways.’
Apparently, Christ’s curse-bearing death enables not only the blessings of
Abraham to come to pass, but also the blessings of Deuteronomy in the Sinai
covenant-making tradition.
Seemingly, the ‘Christological pro
nobis’ set out in Romans 10:5-11 (cf. Deuteronomy 30:11-14) extends to
Christ’s curse-bearing death in Romans 15:6-8 (cf. Deuteronomy 27:26; 21:23).
As a result, the Gentiles, who we have already ascertained are in view in
Paul’s rewriting of Israel’s covenant-renewal texts, are also in view in this
climactic constitution of a holy people beyond the curses of the covenant.
Christ’s death means both that the Spirit makes children for Abraham and that,
beyond the curse of exile, this community might be established as God’s holy
people. In Paul’s understanding, it is the gift of the eschatological Spirit
which makes this possible: at the same time as making children for Abraham, the
Spirit consecrates the Gentiles. They are both made children (8:14) and made
holy (15:16) as a result of the promise. As a consequence, the community is
exhorted to glorify God with one voice as the fulfilment of Christ’s
confirmation of the promises to the fathers. (Sarah Whittle, Covenant Renewal
and the Consecration of the Gentiles in Romans [Society for New Testament
Studies Monograph Series 161; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015], 152-55)
