Apostolic Lawsuit

Paul’s letters follow epistolary conventions of his time, but I suggest that it is just as illuminating, perhaps more, to classify his letters as members of a biblical “genre,” the “prophetic lawsuit” or the “covenant lawsuit.”

Covenant lawsuits are embedded in Israel’s covenant-relation with Yahweh. The covenant sets up certain requirements for Israel, and positive and negative sanctions attach to these, blessings for faithfulness and curses for breaking covenant. When Israel goes astray, Yahweh sends his prophets as representatives of the divine court, and they read the charges against Israel, inform them the sentence, and urge them to repentance so that they can (cf. Judges 2:1ff; 6:8). 

Paul writes Galatians in something like the same situation. The Galatians have been called into the new covenant, a relation with God in Christ that brings the obligation to continue in faith and love. They have been enticed by troublers who are calling them to return to old ways, to the worship and service of the “not gods” (4:8).

Paul describes himself in terms reminiscent of the prophets. Like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4), Paul is consecrated as prophet from my mother’s womb (1:15). He is an apostle to the Gentiles as Jeremiah was a “prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah announces the doom on Jerusalem before the exile, and Paul is suggesting that he’s another Jeremiah warning about the doom over Galatia. Even more suggestively, Paul alludes to Isaiah 49:1, 5, where the servant of the Lord, Israel, is said to be consecrated from his mother’s womb. This, of course, refers to Christ, but Paul says that Christ lives in him, and Christ speaks through the apostle to His church.

Paul’s letter is the lawsuit of Jesus against the Galatians, much like the letters to the seven churches in Rev 1-3. It has a structure similar to that of the prophetic lawsuits. Covenant lawsuits often begin with a historical recital of Yahweh’s covenant with Israel and the ways that they have fallen away. Paul begins Galatians with a long review of his relation to the Jerusalem church. Covenant lawsuits specify charges, and Paul brings specific complaints against the Galatians. Prophets warn of coming curses, and Paul pronounces curses against the troublers in Galatia.