Sententiae Nil

The folks over at Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians have quite a helpful blog if you are interested in Galatians. Among the great services they provide are notifications of PhD dissertations that are available online. Recently, they posted concerning Bruce Hansen’s 2007 dissertation, “All of You are One.” I began reading the abstract and the initial pages as I am quite interested in this topic. Yet, I am quite puzzled! Hansen furthers what I think is a strange argument to make. Consider the following passages:

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. (Gal 3:28)

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor 12:13)

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! (Col 3:11)

Can we reasonably say that these verses contain a formula which concern social divisions? Hansen writes, “this formula is universally recognized” (1). But, if this was a formula, wouldn’t it be the same in each context? No two contexts have this so-called formula written the same! Although “Jew and Greek…Slave and Free”  are a common denominator, there are significant additions to this saying depending on the context. Anyone else have a problem with calling this a formula, or is it just me?