Cutting Too Close for Comfort: Paul's Letter to the Galatians in Its Anatolian Cultic Context (Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series #248)

A thick description of the Anatolian cultic context of the audience provides solutions to several persistent puzzles in Paul's letter to the Galatians. Starting with problems in the so-called "Hagar and Sarah" passage (4.21-5.1), this book argues that Paul attempts to dissuade his audience from being circumcised by identifying circumcision with the enslaving self-castration of the galli of the Anatolian Mountain Mother of the Gods and by portraying the Law as a Mountain Mother. This background is also seen in the flesh-spirit dichotomy in Gal. 3.1-5 and in the two-ways form in Galatians 5-6. Further implications are sketched.