Abstract

In this investigation, I use Wilhelm Dilthey's Lebensphilosophie as a theoretical framework. Most significant are Dilthey's tripartite interrelations of lived-experience, expression, and understanding, his concept of the acquired psychic nexus, and most importantly his hermeneutical understanding of autobiography as the most revealing access to a person, in which the events of one's life are selected and articulated according to what is valuable, meaningful, and purposeful at the time of writing. ;In the light of Dilthey's Lebensphilosophie, I contend that what we should look for in Gal 1--2 is not autobiographical information about Paul's past, but autobiographical meaning, that is, what it was he wanted to communicate to the Galatians through his autobiographical narrative. The clue to reading Gal 1--2 from Dilthey's perspective is most apparent in the way Paul's presentation of the incident in Antioch in 2.10--14 flows seamlessly into the expression of his concerns about the Galatians in 2.15--21. The interpretative task is, therefore, to discern what Paul wanted to achieve among the Galatians. ;It becomes clear that Paul wanted to stop the Galatians from submitting themselves to circumcision, and so to the Jewish law. Accordingly, Paul draws on his past to argue that justification of Jews as well as Gentiles comes through the faith of Christ. He reminds his readers of the parallel, equally valid missions to the Jews and Gentiles , a point sustained throughout 2.11--2.14. There is no demand that the Jews give up their Jewish ways; nor must Gentiles become Jews through circumcision and submission to the law. ;However, having established the parallel justification of Jews and Gentiles, Paul has not yet achieved his purpose. In 2.17--21 he articulates the heart of what he wanted to proclaim to the Galatians, viz., that justification through works of the law is incompatible with justification by faith, which forms the basis for his subsequent reasoning against the Galatians' having themselves circumcised. That Gentiles are justified as Gentiles, and should not become Jews through circumcision, is the meaning of Christ that Paul brings to expression throughout his autobiographical narrative in 1.11--2.21