116 olE JAKoB FIlTvEDT Gal 3,26-29 seems to make sense only as a reaction against another well-known interpretation of what it takes to be reckoned as a descen- dant of Abraham, focused on the importance of physical kinship 54. As a contrast to this interpretation of descent from Abraham, Paul argues that his non-Jewish addressees are descendants of Abraham in so far as they have been baptized. Paul also emphasizes that this does not imply that the Galatians have become or should become Jews. For, Paul argues, in Christ — and thus also among the descendants of Abraham — there is neither Jew nor Greek. Paul’s use of the phrase “descendant of Abraham” in Gal 3,29, in connection with his larger argument, thus hinges on Paul’ specific un- derstanding of what kind of birth makes one a descendant of Abraham. only those who are born through a promise (Gal 4,23) and according to the Spirit (Gal 4,29) are really descendants of Abraham and heirs to the promises (Gal 4,30). Even if Paul’s notion of birth “through a promise” and “according to the Spirit” obviously departs from the ordinary experience of birth, it also logically presupposes it, in that Paul invites his addressees to think of what happened to them as they believed God’s promises and received the Spirit (Gal 3,1-14) in terms of what happens to someone who is born. This could accurately be described as a metaphor. To argue that Paul metaphorizes concepts of birth and kinship in no way entails the claim that Paul denigrates the reality of the change which God’s promises occasioned in the lives of his audience as they received the Spirit. Nor does this interpretation imply that one distin- guishes between socially constructed identities on the one hand and naturally given identities on the other. There is also nothing in this in- terpretation that would suggest that claims concerning descent accord- ing to the flesh are somehow neutral or factual statements, exempt from ideological criticism 55. I also fail to see how this reading would make birth and kinship less central to Paul’s argument, or that it would threaten the reality of the relationship Paul depicts between the Gala- tians and Abraham. Paul clearly does describe a real and socially significant process of change, but that process is interpreted and understood by means of a different conceptual domain, namely that of birth. In using language of birth in a way that departs from ordinary usage, and by applying it 54 B. HANSEN, ‘All of You Are One’. The Social vision of Gal 3.28, 1 Cor 12.13 and Col 3.11 (lNTS 409; london 2010) 98-103. 55 Cf. BuEll’s prudent comments in Why this New Race?, 208-209, n. 41.