The structures of Gal 2:4 and 2:6

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Apr 23 15:54:27 EDT 2002


> [Moon] The difficulty with this interpretation is that the meeting
> described at Acts 15 is a public conference, while the meeting described
in Gal 2 is
> a private one.

I see no problem or discrepancy. Gal 2:2 talks about a meeting with the
recognized leaders which would be the apostles and elders of the church.
Acts 15:6 says that Paul and Barnabas met with the apostles and elders to
discuss the matter, after the initial meeting in a larger circle. It is
quite understandable that the initial meeting in Jerusalem involved a
welcome by a larger circle and a report to them (v. 4). During that larger
meeting, the question about circumcision was again raised by some Pharisees
in Jerusalem (v. 5). The leaders decided that the issue was too hot to
discuss in the large meeting, so they met privately, as v. 6 tells us.

> [Moon] The function of DE as the indicator to flashback and background
> comment
> is what I never paid sufficient attention to. But "flashback and
> background
> comment" seems to be too strong. I thought that DE describes simply
> different aspects to the theme being developed by the preceding discourse.

No, DE has a number of different discourse functions, all somehow related to
the function of indicating a shift or change.  If you have Levinsohn's book
on Greek discourse, several sections deal with DE. Section 5.4.1 is about
background material introduced by DE. (I could also send you one of my own
little discourse studies on this.)

> [Moon]
> Again the function of DE as the indicator to returning to the mainline
> seems
> to be too strong. Is there any evidence to this use of DE? MEN ... DE ...
> is used to describe related but different aspects of a given situation.
> Isn't DE alone a weaker form of MEN ... DE in that the preceding discourse
> plays the role of the clause introduced by MEN?

No, DE is not a weaker form of MEN ... DE. DE has its own functions,
completely apart from MEN, and one of its many change functions is to change
back to storyline.

Iver Larsen




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