376 David J. Armitage message, but something fundamentally different, so “contrary” is appropriate here. ajnavqema, found in the apodosis of this condition, is used to denote something which is either consecrated to God, or delivered over for destruction by God (63), and is used in the Septuagint to translate µrj (‘ban’) (64). Betz suggests that Gal 1,8-9 may constitute “the first instance of Christian excommunication” (65). However as Longenecker notes, what is in view here is not disciplinary action imposed by the church; rather the idea is “delivering up to the judicial wrath of God”(66). Kuhn similarly notes that when the term is used in the New Testament humans are never presented as the agency by which the curse is carried out (67), a pattern reflected here by the use of a third person imperative, e[stw, in relation to ajnavqema. b) Conditional clause semantics The message of this letter implies that for Paul to start preaching contrary to the gospel would be unexpected: he was zealous for the gospel. Thus this conditional clause undermines the idea that third class conditions necessarily imply higher probability. It is curious that both Longenecker (68) and Witherington (69) persist in describing this clause as “future more probable”. If something is “more probable” it must have a higher degree of probability than something else. In classical Greek that alternative might have been a fourth class condition, but use of these diminished in Hellenistic Greek and the semantic field of the third class condition expanded correspondingly. To be fair, both Longenecker (70) and Witherington recognise the surprising nature of the supposition in the protasis, but this makes their use of the “future more probable” terminology even stranger. (63) LONGENECKER, Galatians, 17; J. BEHM, ajnavqema, ajnavqhma, katavqema, TDNT, I, 354. (64) LONGENECKER, Galatians, 17. See also F.F. BRUCE, The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (NIGTC; Exeter: 1982) 83. (65) BETZ, Galatians, 54. (66) LONGENECKER, Galatians, 17. See also BEHM, ajnavqema, 354, and J.B. LIGHTFOOT, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (London 1905) 78) who observes that use of ajnavqema to denote excommunication was a later development. (67) H.W. KUHN, ajnavqema, ato", to, EDNT, I, 81. (68) LONGENECKER, Galatians, 16. (69) WITHERINGTON, Grace in Galatia, 83. (70) LONGENECKER, Galatians, 16. He states that in this third class condition “…what is expressed is a matter of some doubt but with the possibility of realization”.