Paul and the Stories of Israel: Grand Thematic Narratives in Galatians

Much recent scholarship on Paul has searched for implicit narratives behind Pauls scriptural allusions especially in the wake of Richard B. Hays groundbreaking work on the apostles appropriation of Scripture. A. Andrew Das reviews six proposals for grand thematic narratives behind the logic of Galatianspotentially six explanations for the fabric of Pauls theology: the covenant (N. T. Wright); the influx of nations to Zion (Terence Donaldson); Isaacs near sacrifice (Scott Hahn Alan Segal); the Spirit as cloud in the wilderness (William Wilder); the Exodus (James Scott Sylvia Keesmaat); and the imperial cult (Bruce Winter et al.). Das weighs each of these proposals exegetically and finds them wantingmore examples of what Samuel Sandmel famously labeled parallelomania than of sound exegetical method. He turns at last to reflect on the risks of (admittedly alluring) totalizing methods and lifts up a seventh proposal with greater claim to evidence in the text of Galatians: Pauls allusions to Isaiahs servant passages.