04_Biblica_Aletti_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 412 412 JEAN-NOËL ALETTI allowing themselves to be subjected to the flesh (5,13). Actually, the Law cannot judge and a fortiori condemn the fruits produced in them by the Spirit (5,23). In short, in this rhetorical unit, Paul wants to remind his readers of the ethical (and not only salvific, as in Galatians 1‒4) results that a return to the Law would have — that it would concretely mean a return to the slavery of the flesh. The opposition of the flesh/Spirit in these exhortations thus refers indirectly but surely to the thought of Galatians 1‒4 on justification. It is not a question of exhortations touching on particular sectors of life but of a radical attitude upon which all concrete decisions de- pend. In this respect, one will have noted that in Gal 5,16-25 there is a paucity of verbs that have believers as their active subjects 52; this obviously shows that Paul wants to emphasize how ethical be- havior is conditioned by the salvific status, or even: doing by being. If the background of Gal 5,16-25 is actually constituted by the status of the believers, who are not “under the Law” and thus are not slaves of the flesh, in other words, free, the passive in v. 18a (“if you are led [ἄγεσθε] by the Spirit”) seems, however, to denote a real de- terminism 53; but one also finds the same expression in Rom 8,14 54, and one cannot see in it any heteronomy whatsoever. If in Gal 5,16- 25 Paul makes little of the believers’ behavior, it is only to highlight the power and the efficacy of the Spirit in their favor. Recently I have shown, in regards to Gal 3,10-14, that in Gala- tians one cannot limit the problem of the Law to rules about Jewish festivals, food, and separation alone 55. And therefore, there is no reason to be astonished that if in Gal 5,16-25, in which Paul is re- minding the believers of Galatia of what is at stake and the radical- ness of the choice to be made — the flesh or the Spirit —, there are no specific exhortations concerning these rules. As was his custom, Paul is radicalizing the questions and emphasizing the stakes that In v. 16 (exhortation), two verbs: “walk” and “do not gratify”; v. 17δ, two 52 verbs: “what you would”, “prevent you from doing”; v. 25 “let us also walk”. Cf. Prov 18,2 (LXX); 2 Tim 3,6, in which the determinism is clear. For 53 non-biblical examples, see the BAGD, ἄγω, §3. Incidentally, Rom 8,14 confirms the divine designation of the word 54 pneuma in Gal 5,16-25. J.N. ALETTI, “L’argumentation de Ga 3,10-14, une fois encore. Diffi- 55 cultés and propositions”, Bib 92 (2001) 182-203 (English version ALETTI, New Approaches for Interpreting the Letters of Saint Paul, 237-260). © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati