102 olE JAKoB FIlTvEDT Although Buell has published mainly on texts written after the time of the New Testament, it still makes sense to enter into dialogue with her work in an article that focuses on the interpretation of ethnic reasoning in New Testament texts. For one thing, Buell has been an important influence on New Testament scholarship.4 Moreover, Buell also argues that her views have a bearing on New Testament texts. In a co-authored article, Buell and Hodge demonstrate how their shared theoretical assumptions have implications for the interpretation of Paul 5. Since the article engages both Buell and Hodge together, this co-authored article will serve as the starting point of discussion, al- though reference will also be made to other works of Buell and Hodge. Despite their differences, a shared emphasis for Buell and Hodge is that traditional interpretations of ethnic reasoning tend to operate with a misconstrued understanding of what “ethnicity” is, and that misconstrued conceptions of ethnicity give rise to over-simplified, flawed or even morally problematic reconstructions of early Christi- anity. Based on their new approach to what ethnicity is and how ethnic language functions in ancient sources, they attempt to demonstrate that several texts stemming from the early Jesus movement construct an ethnic identity for their audiences 6. They thus reject the view that ethnicity became irrelevant for, or was transcended by, the Jesus movement. Their arguments are insightful, provocative and worth engaging. The present essay will take Gal 3,26-29 as the starting point. What Paul writes here is often referred to as evidence for precisely the view that Buell and Hodge want to challenge, namely that ethnicity is irrelevant to the question of whether one is a member of the people of God now that Christ has come. John M. G. Barclay, for instance, claims that Paul attempted to “create an ethos in which there was ‘nei- 4 For a recent example, see J.A. HARRIll, “Ethnic Fluidity in Ephesians”, NTS 60 (2014) 379-402, who claims that Buell is among the recent researchers who have been most helpful to his own perspective (p. 381, n. 6). See also D.G. HoRREll, “‘Race’, ‘Nation’, ‘People’. Ethnoracial Identity Construction in 1 Pet. 2.9”, Becoming Christian. Essays on 1 Peter and the Making of Christian Identity (lNTS 394; london 2013) 133-163. 5 D.K. BuEll – C.J. HoDGE, “The Politics of Interpretation. The Rhetoric of Race and Ethnicity in Paul”, JBL 132 (2004) 235-251. 6 For a helpful and more general overview of the topic of ethnicity in biblical scholarship, see the three essays by D.M. MIllER: “Ethnicity, Religion and the Meaning of Ioudaios in Ancient ‘Judaism’”, CBR 12 (2014) 216-265; “Ethnicity Comes of Age. An overview of Twentieth-Century Terms for Ioudaios”, CBR 10 (2012) 293-311; and “The Meaning of Ioudaios and its Relationship to other Group labels in Ancient ‘Judaism’”, CBR 9 (2010) 98-126.