The Forgotten Creed: Christianity’s

Original Struggle against Bigotry,

Slavery, and SexismStephen
Patterson

Reviewed by Alden Bass

According to Stephen Patterson, Paul
was reluctant to make the statement
which we now know as Galatians
3:28: “There is no longer Jew or
Greek, there is no longer slave or
free, there is no longer male and
female; for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus.” As Patterson explains in his
new book, these words were already
well-known when Paul took up his
pen to write to the Galatians, a bit of
liturgical language which would have
been familiar to any Christian who
recited it at their baptism. Paul
incorporated the formula into his
letter in an effort to ease tensions in
the nascent Galatian Christian
community between Jews and
Gentiles. The old social order built on
race, gender, and class differences
was dead, at least among those
walking “in newness of life.” Paul
hesitated, Patterson suggests,
because these words were dynamite.

Patterson, a specialist in early

Christianity, hopes to recover
something of the explosive potential
of this early creedal statement. The
issues it sought to address two
millennia ago seem strangely
relevant today, as he notes in several
pointed references to the Age of
Trump. The election has proved that
pitting one group against another – in
this case, the white middle class
against immigrants, the poor, and
uppity women – is still an effective
way to gain and maintain power.
More than ever, he argues, Christians
need to witness to a different politic,
a new human family not defined by
“the pattern of this world.” Baptism
is the voluntary assumption of a new
identity expressing solidarity with all
people, but especially outgroups like
foreigners, sexual minorities, and the
indigent.

Patterson begins with an examination

of the Galatians text. His assertion
that 3:28 is a pre-Pauline baptismal
formula is not original. There are
several such statements in the
writings of the New Testament, such
as primitive creed in 1 Corinthians
15:3-7 and the “Christ Hymn” of
Philippians 2:6-11. Nevertheless,
Galatians 3:28 has not often been
classified among these passages. His
strong claim that it reflects “one of
the oldest statements of faith in all of
the New Testament” is fairly
controversial. Rather than work
through the textual questions though,
Patterson makes a historical and
theological case for its priority. As he
explains in his second chapter, the
three binaries of Galatians 3:28
illustrate the power differential in the
ancient world captured in a cliché
shared by Jews and Greeks:
essentially, “I thank God I was born a
man not a woman, a Greek not a
barbarian/Jew not a Gentile, and a
‘human’ not a slave.” Jesus was
opposed to such structures of
domination. As Patterson shows
using canonical and noncanonical
material (one of his specialties is the
Gospel of Thomas), Jesus taught that
all humans are equally “children of
God,” that the heavenly Father sends
rain on the just and the unjust alike.
For Jesus’s followers, the “second
birth” of baptism became a way of
reclaiming this creational identity.
Hence the formula preserved in
Paul’s letter.

In the last three chapters of this short

volume, Patterson explores each
social binary in its historical context.
Even those familiar with biblical
backgrounds will benefit from this
material. For instance, in order to
make sense of the conflict between
Peter and Paul recorded in Galatians
2, he narrates the fascinating
backstory of the Jewish pogrom in
Alexandria, the intra-Jewish
controversy around the Roman-
loving Herod Agrippa, the embassy
of Philo to the emperor Caligula, and
the nonviolent protests in the Galilee
in the 40s, all of which culminated in
the mood of acute racial tension
which Paul describes in Galatians 1-
2. With a historian’s eye for detail and
a storyteller’s sense of pace,
Patterson also explores the situation
of slaves and women in the ancient
world. As mentioned above,
Patterson thinks Paul hesitated to
include the formula in his letter; this
is because Paul was less certain
about relativizing the subordinate
positions of women and slaves than
about the need for racial
reconciliation. Paul’s refusal to
openly condemn slavery is a source
of some embarrassment to modern
Christians, and his record on
women’s equality is also not as
clearly stated as some would like.
Patterson offers some fresh insights
on these issues, particularly in his
concluding thoughts on 1
Corinthians 7:20: “in whatever state
you were called, remain therein.”
Paul may have been absolutely
convicted on the question of racial
equality, but the other issues were
more vexing to him.

Patterson’s privileging of Galatians

3:28 as one of the earliest and most
important statements of Christian
belief is bold and controversial; many
of his claims could be contested on
exegetical and historical grounds.
Yet he forces us to take seriously this
singular verse which seems at odds
not only with our world and our
churches, but even with much of the
New Testament. Just as that old
Pharisee Paul found himself
wrestling with this radically inclusive
statement, twenty-first century
American Christians committed to
the evangelical proclamation of
Jesus have an obligation to continue
the struggle, assured of this one
thing: “If you belong to Christ…you
are one in Christ…for in Christ you
are all children of God.” We may also
be transformed by a reconsideration
of that oneness which makes
impossible any “us” and “them.”