The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

186 faith as "an individual act of believing" as either "coming" or "being revealed," for Paul has already argued that faith is as old as Abraham, 120 but both would be appropriate if Paul were speaking of the "faithfulness of Jesus Christ." World history can be easily and appropriately divided by speaking of the time before the coming of Christ and the time afterwards . Likewise, the faithfulness of Christ was preeminently revealed at Calvary . Similarly , in 3:23 Paul argues that before faith came we were kept under the law, so that the reader expects him to say in the next verse that the law leads us to faith . Instead, of faith however , Paul substitutes Christ because in the context he has defined Ttjv n(anv more completely as the "faith of Christ. " In 3:25 he smoothly switches back again from Christ to faith : "now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. " It appears then, that Paul's subject in this section is not human belief but the historical category or dispensation which has been ushered in by the appearance of the Messiah . Certainly Jesus ' "coming" which includes his death caused an epochal change in history. Many scholars agree that the "faith " of 3:23 does not refer to human believing but to a more objective historical event. Betz argues that n (an c; in 3:23 "describes the occurrence of a historical phenomenon, not the act of believing of an individual ." 121 The question is in des Gesetzes fo lgt, ja einen Gegensatz zu dieser darstellt (vgl. 8E). Man darf jedoch da artikulierte n(anc; nicht gleich als 'Christentum' ... sondern mit Ttjv n(aT1 v wird da vorhergehende EK nlaTEwc; ( 'I11aou Xp1aTou) anaphorisch wiederaufgenommen . " MuBner, Der Galaterbrief, 254. 12 °Fung notes "That Abraham wa ju tified by faith how conclu i el that Paul cannot mean that prior to the 'coming' of faith no one had e er i ed a ing faith," alatian , 1 8, n . 6 . 121 Betz, alatian , 176, n. 120. W. D. Da i r admg of Paul so much f P t inn r tandin Da 1 "Paul , 1:.. a 1 tn Honou of