391 GAL 3,28 AND ITS ALLEGED RELATIONSHIP TO RABBINIC WRITINGS Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts. Tomson’s identification of the contrast between ÃIoydaıov and ˜ ™Ellhn as distinctions created by halakhah (the Law) is essentially important for reading texts like Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude where pairs of opposites are used. Assuming that the idea of the use of distinctions goes to back to Judaism as he argues, and Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude contain pairs of opposites, then our view is that both Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic text share a common background. Here there is no literary or direct connection between the passages in questions but that both passages draw from a common tradition, and each text has a different historical background that accounts for the respective variable uses of pairs of opposites. Although Tomson’s interpretation of Gal 3,28a from the point of view of Paul’s Jewish background has partially provided a context in which we can situate the relationship between Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts, entirely missing in his presentation is any discussion about why Paul chooses and uses the remaining distinctions or pairs of opposites listed in Gal 3,28. The question is, Why does Tomson elaborate only on the contrast between ÃIoydaıov and ™Ellhn, and leaves ˜ out the contrasts between doylov and eleyuerov and between ˜ ߥ arsen and uhly ? Is it that the pairs doylov and eleyuerov and ¶ ˜ ˜ ߥ arsen and uhly are not important for Paul, even though they have ¶ ˜ been used in the context? Or that halakhah does not recognize the distinctions between doylov and eleyuerov and between arsen ˜ ߥ ¶ and uhly ? Certainly not, for as the three blessings of gratitude ˜ make clear, the terms slave, free, male and female are fundamental categories of identity for Jews. On the basis of our observations above, our explanation for the similar terms found in both Gal 3,28 and in the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts is that both passages share a com- mon language and concept. Gal 3,28 and the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts were influenced by the antithetical uses of pairs of opposites and the social cultural construction of differences present in the ancient Greco-Roman society. Never- theless, they are independent texts with independent backgrounds. The different applications and adaptability of the pairs Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free explain the background of each of the texts. Each text answers a different question, and this