375 GAL 3,28 AND ITS ALLEGED RELATIONSHIP TO RABBINIC WRITINGS gratitude found in rabbinic texts reflect, the discussion becomes even more difficult. Concerning the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts, we are faced with the difficulties of understanding the Sitz im Leben as well as Sitz in der Literatur of the three sayings contained in each rabbinic text. Questions arise as to what are the social context and historical setting in which the three blessings may have been formed or used, either in its written or oral form? Or rather, what factors dictated the composition of the three blessing of gratitude found in rabbinic writings? Knowing that rabbinic texts were literature made and used by scholars, another question is whether the three blessings had any social function. Put in another way, since it is believed that the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts were used in a prayer setting, in the morning prayer of blessings, how much did this prayer influenced the daily life of the people? How might the relationship between a Jew and a Gentile, between a Jewish male and a Jewish f e m a l e and between a wise Jew and an ignorant Jew be reconstructed on the basis of the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts? Owing to our limited access and knowledge of rabbinic Judaism, as well as the history of the Jews in that period, we will not be able to deal in detail with any of the questions posed above. We will make an attempt, judging from what the three blessings of gratitude presuppose and assert, as well as information from other sources, to see what we can be said about the historical context and uses of the three blessings in the framework of Judaism in antiquity. We shall present what we have understood as a minimum consensus in the research on the meaning of the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts. The first concerns the origin of the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic writings. In tracing the origin of the blessings, we are faced with the difficulty that there is no direct evidence of such or similar expressions either in Scripture or in pre-rabbinic writings. But Meeks and some others have pointed out that the sayings were of Hellenistic origin, namely, that the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts reflect a similar formulation found in Greek writings, wherein a sage negatively expresses his gratitude for his status in a threefold formula: first, that he was born a human being and not one of the brutes; next that he was born a man and not a woman; thirdly a Greek and not a