....binary contraposition between body and spirit can be deconstructed by providing a transcultural reading of Paul, namely, rereading him in Syriac and (Modern) Hebrew.
... he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Rom 2:28–29 KJV)
he is not referring to a difference in behavior and therefore that the contraposition that he claims would rather be metaphorical. In other words, it would not reflect a distinction in someone’s “flesh” (σάρξ) but rather in his “spirit” (πνεῦμα), as Paul himself strongly holds.
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supports not only the prominence of the circumcision of the heart over the circumcision of the flesh but also the prominence of orality over letter.
“circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Rom 2:29 KJV).
this allusion to “letter” (γράμμα) would reinforce the aforementioned opposition between circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the heart and, by extension, between an apparent Jew and a covert Jew.........
namely, the Platonic polemics against “writing” (γραμμή) that is fundamentally opposed to the creative ability of “speech” (φωνή), as eloquently reported in his most famous dialogue, the Phaedrus....
This traditional reading of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans has traditionally reinforced Christian anti-Semitism and suggested that Judaism should be accounted as an outdated, carnal, and literal understanding of God’s commands......
When read in a Semitic language like Syriac or Hebrew, Paul’s concepts sound remarkably different and seem to introduce a number of hidden connotations that would have escaped a non-Jewish, Greek-speaking audience but that, on the contrary, would surely have sounded familiar to a Jew of the period. The Syriac and Hebrew translations of the Epistle to the Romans mobilize a series of concepts that prevent establishing those binary oppositions examined so far. ...
But he is a Jew, who is so in what is hidden: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God.....
the election of Israel, due to the association between circumcision and the alliance with God; the connection between circumcision and God’s word, due to the homophony between the two words; the assumption that a covet Jew actually is an individual who is uncircumcised and yet still liable of being called a Jew; finally, the assumption that one should not refer to Scripture as such, but rather approach it
by oral interpretation.
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