The Mother as Receptacle

In Gal 4:19, Paul describes himself asamother in travail until Christ is formed among the Galatians. In Gal 4:27, he quotes Isa 54:1, the praise of a barren woman who is not in travail. A look at these two verses as part of a (Middle) Platonic discourse on motherhood shows that they depict Paul and the barren woman as intermediary receptacles. The divine promise is materialized through, not by, them. This article draws discursive lines between Paul, the Septuagint, Philo, and Plato's Timaeus. It demonstrates that the notion of mothers as receptacles conceptualizes Paul's birthing activity as part of the process that forms Christ among the Galatians, although it is not the origin of the form of Christ. There is, therefore, an explanation for the causality and the change of subjects between the first and second parts of Gal 4:19.An approach that combines cultural analysis and cultural history shows that a shared concept of motherhood links ancient texts to current philosophical debates, as exemplified by Judith Butler's discussion of the Timaeus. This article, therefore, not only offers a contribution to the question of Paul's discursive embeddedness but also suggests that engagement with New Testament texts can lead to a denaturalization of culturally shaped norms.