04_Biblica_Aletti_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 413 04_B 413 PAUL’S EXHORTATIONS IN GAL 5,16-25 often have not been perceived by the churches he is addressing. This radicalization goes hand in hand with the focusing on what is essen- tial; that is why the exhortations in Gal 5,16-25 place so much value on agapē and kindness towards the other believers 56. If the list of vices (Gal 5,19-21) and virtues (Gal 5,22-23) are encountered else- where in Paul 57, here the vocables denoting agapē or attitudes asso- ciated with it are more numerous 58. Such an emphasis is understood if one recalls the statement in Gal 5,15: “if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another” 59.The condition is true (“if it is true that”), and one can assuredly conclude that the question of the circumcision of the believers coming from the Gentile world must have provoked large divisions in the local communities, and what was at risk was the destruction or the disap- pearance of the church: here, the radicality of the ethical exhortations is in the service of ecclesial life. This also explains why all, or almost all, the exhortations that go from Gal 5,13 to 6,10 concern ecclesial life and not the relationships of the believers to “those outside” 60. In short, after having led the believers in Galatia to the radicalness of the Gospel (Gal 1,11 to 5,1), Paul is reminding them that the ethical and ecclesial stakes of the situation are no less decisive 61. One will have noted that these exhortations are not saying how to be- 56 have towards those on the outside, in other words, those who are not members of the church. This does not mean that Paul is ignoring them, but that the question of circumcision was so urgent that he indirectly returns to them in the exhortations (Gal 5,16-25 and 6,8) and explicitly in the epistolary post- scriptum (6,12-16). In the Pauline letters: 2 Cor 6,6-7a; Eph 4,2-3,32; 5,9; Phil 4,8; Col 57 3,12, 1 Tim 3,2-4.8-10.11-12; 4,12; 6,11.18; 2 Tim 2,22-25; 3,10; Titus 1,8; 2,2-10, but also elsewhere in the NT and non-biblical literature. On the sub- ject, see J.T. FITZGERALD, “Virtue/Vices Lists”, Anchor Bible Dictionary, VI, 875f. For the list of vices in Paul other than Gal 5,19-21, see Rom 1,29-31; 13,13, 1 Cor 5,10-11; 6,9-10; 2 Cor 12,20-21; Eph 4,31; 5,3-5; Col 3,5-8; 1 Tim 1,9-10; 6,4-5; 2 Tim 3,2-4; Titus 1,7; 3,3. Love (ἀγάπη) 2 Cor 6,6-7; Eph 4,2; peace (εἰρήνη) only in Galatians 5; 58 patience (µακροθυµία) 2 Cor 6,6; Eph 4,2; Col 3,12; kindness (χρηστότης) 2 Cor 6,6; Col 3,12; goodness (ἀγαθωσύνη) Eph 5,9; meekness (πραΰτης) Gal 6,1; Eph 4,2; Col 3,12, 2 Tim 2,25. Translation RSV. 59 The exhortation in Gal 6,10b, “[L]et us do good to all men (πρὸς 60 πάντας)” (tr. RSV) is the only one to enlarge the ethical horizon. If the exhortations in Gal 5,13-25 stress agapē and kindness towards 61 © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati