Just about every translation I've consulted insists on translating
Galatians 3:28 as "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male NOR female...." Yet the Greek has
KAI between ARSEN and QULH, i.e., "...there is not male AND female...."
Despite reading that the standard Jewish prayer book supposedly has a
prayer thanking God for not making [the Jewish man] "a gentile, a slave,
or a woman" - hence implying that Paul was addressing that here
(assuming the prayer was used in the first century), I view this as a
clear allusion (exact quote, in fact) to Genesis 1:27 LXX - in line with
Paul's view that in Christ Jesus a new creation had been brought about.
(In the old creation God made HA-ADAM/TON ANQRWPON "male and female,"
whereas the new creation - the One New Man - is Christ.) I have several
books on the New Testament view of women, yet only one of them (GOD'S
IDEAL WOMAN by Pape, IVP) addresses this, but only as a brief comment,
and otherwise consistently translates the phrase "male [n]or female."
I lack commentaries on Galatians so I can't check this out further
without a library. Does anyone out there also see a reference to Genesis
1:27 in Paul's use of KAI here? Or is it a policy of Greek grammar to
end a string of OUK...OUDE OUK...OUDE pairs by joining the final pair
with KAI but meaning the same as OUDE (i.e., "[n]or") - which would
justify the way everyone seems to want to translate this verse?
-- "Eric S. Weiss" http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm