“While the New Testament may be seen as anti-Jewish, it need not be taken that way, because words inevitably mean different things to different readers. More problematic are those verses that on the surface appear quite benign, but when heard with different ears can be quite difficult.
“[For example,] Galatians 3:28, which proclaims that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, is grand if you’re a Galatian Gentile who’s feeling somewhat marginalized, y’know, because Jesus was a Jew and Paul was a Jew, and the one ‘Bible’ they have happens to be the Tanakh, which tells them amongst other things that in order to be part of the covenant community they have to be circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin if they’re men. To be told that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek is great if you’re a Galatian Gentile.
“But to proclaim that verse today, after Auschwitz, is a little difficult because it suggests that the ideal world is a world in which there is no Jew. Different time period causes a different reading.” —Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
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I’ve been reading that Galatians text for more than 20 years, mostly in regard to gender and class rather than ethnicity.
Listening to Dr. Levine today was the first time that the text reminded me of Ellen White’s supposition that “In heaven there will be no color line; for all will be as white as Christ himself.”
White made this claim to a congregation of Black Adventists in 1901 (whether in Vicksburg, MI, Vicksburg, IN, or Vicksburg, MS, I’ve not been able to determine). I wish someone had thought to poll attendees’ for feedback during pot luck afterwards.