387 GAL 3,28 AND ITS ALLEGED RELATIONSHIP TO RABBINIC WRITINGS b) Common tradition or shared assumption Against the background of the historical, religious and social observations we made concerning Gal 3,28, the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts, and the three expressions of gratitude found in Greek texts, our view is that the direct or implied uses of pairs of opposites in these passages reveal dependence on a common tradition and the interaction of the different cultures with the larger Greco-Roman world of the time. This common tradition stretches back to the early Greco-Roman world and even earlier. It is generally agreed upon that the uses of relationships of opposites are by nature inherent in the social organizations of every society 27. It is a system rooted in every human society that comes to expression in either a very negative or positive way, and clearly defines the way in which relationships, religious orga- nizations, political and social structures, household and every other existing reality are arranged 28. Its usage varies slightly from every culture and society depending on the social cultural values, sym- bols and biases guiding the society in question, as well as how reli- gion is conceived and expressed 29. In the context of ancient Greek society, for instance, Lloyd argues that the pairs right and left, male and female, and light and darkness were most symbolic and were imbued with religious meanings, usually associated as they are with either negative or positive evaluation of the items in the list 30. Space does not allow us to cover this issue here. For further details, see 27 R.W. BULLIET – P.K. CROSSLEY – D.R. HEADRICK, The Earth and Its Peoples. A Global History (Boston, MA 22001) ; V HARLE, Ideas of Social Order in the . Ancient World (Westport, CT 1998). See T. ILAN, “The Woman as ‘Other’ in Rabbinic Literature”, Jewish 28 Identity in the Greco-Roman World (eds. J. FREY – D.R. SCHWARTZ – S. GRIPENTROG) (AGJU 71; Leiden 2007). See G.E.R. LLOYD, Methods and Problems in Greek Science (Cambridge 29 1991) 38-39; LLOYD, Polarity and Analogy, 90. See also L.J. MARTYN, “The Apocalyptic Gospel in Galatians”, Interpretation 54 (2000) 246-266, 256; MEEKS, “The Image of the Androgyne”, 166. See LLOYD, Polarity and Analogy, 42-47. See also N.M. SAMUELSON, 30 Judaism and the Doctrine of Creation (Cambridge 2007) 196.