The Four Most Important New Testament Words?

The Four Most Important New Testament Words? February 11, 2014

What if I told you that the Paul provides the key themes of the New Testament in his letter to the Galatians by means of a specific grammatical structure?

In Galatians, four times Paul modifies an abstract noun with the genitive Christos. Notice the list we end up with:

  • The Grace of the Messiah (1:6)
  • The Gospel of the Messiah (1:7)
  • The Revelation of the Messiah (1:12)
  • The Faith of the Messiah (2:15-16; 3:22)

Grace, Gospel, Revelation, and Faith. Are there four more important words in the New Testament?

I’m thinking about whether these four structures are in parallel and should be seen in relationship to each other Paul’s argument. If so does that affect the way we should interpret any particular one. Perhaps most interesting in light of the current field of Paul study is what would the connection mean, if anything, for how we understand pistis christou, “the faith of Christ” in Galatians? Since, as Doug Moo notes in his recent Galatians commentary, the literary context is “the single most important factor in deciding the meaning of the (proposed) faith-of-Christ phrases” (45).

Would anyone, especially those who have worked on this problem, wish to chime in?


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