Tradition,Revelation and Gospel: a Study in Galatians

Abstract

Focusing on Galatians, the article discusses Paul's understanding of the roles played by 'tradition' and 'revelation' in spreading the gospel. It is argued that Paul sees tradition—whether Jewish or Christian—as a human mechanism. While the gospel is transmitted by human words, these words are not the gospel; the gospel is an event which can be described with various words but made known only by divine power; this is reflected in Paul's usual terminology, which is not that one receives the gospel, but one is called. The apparent contradiction between Paul's affirmation of tradition in 1 Corinthians 15 and his denial of it in Galatians 1 results from the dif ferent arguments he makes in the two letters; only in Galatians is he talking about how the gospel is spread.