35 PLEASING GOD PLEASING PEOPLE ? OR strive to please (peıuw) people or God 31? Or do I seek to please ¥ (areskein) people?” In his initial question he makes two ߥ assumptions that are pertinent to his argument. One is that in this context seeking to please God and seeking to please people are mutually exclusive 32. The other is that he will try to please one or the other. Therefore if Paul seeks to please one, he does not seek to please the other; and if he does not seek to please the one, he does seek to please the other. Whether or not Paul applies these categories to other people is moot: here he speaks of himself. Paul spoke of preaching the gospel in vv. 8-9. He uses the two questions in v. 10ab to pinpoint the category into which he falls if he preaches a false gospel: that of pleasing people. His denial of pleasing people inherent in these questions does not look back to “ anathema ” (anauema) in vv. 8-9 as if those verses illustrate his ߥ refusal to accommodate the false teachers 33. Instead, he connects a desire to curry human favor with a lack of service to Christ in v. 10c — “If I still pleased people, I would not be a servant of Christ” — and in vv. 11-12 describes the single aspect of serving Christ he develops in the context: preaching the gospel God gave him. Verse 10c thus bridges v. 10ab and vv. 11-12 using the natural cause and effect relationship between whom one seeks to please (v. 10) and what one does (vv. 11-12). If Paul, having been commissioned by God to preach, sought to please God, he would teach the gospel of Christ. If he sought to please people, he would alter his gospel to suit them (cf. 6,12) 34. Paul makes this relationship explicit in part at W. BAUER, “peıuw ”, BDAG, 791-792, lists “convince”, “persuade”, ¥ 31 “ appeal to”, “win over”, “strive to please”, “conciliate”, “pacify”, “set at ease/ rest ” as possible meanings of the active indicative of peıuw. “Strive to please” ¥ fits the context, but “to persuade (etc.) God” would be difficult to interpret. This need not be true in general — Jesus himself increased “in divine and 32 human favor” as a child (Luke 2,52 NRSV). See also OEPKE, An die Galater, 54. In Galatians seeking to please people is done for advancement among them (e.g., 1,13-14). And the fault may be similar to that in John 5,39-44. On the other hand, to please others rather than oneself as Paul commands in Rom 15,1-3 means to help them for their edification. Contra LYONS, Pauline Autobiography, 145-146; MUßNER, Galaterbrief, 33 63. In 1 Cor 1,17-25 Paul says that the crucified Christ is a stumbling block to 34 the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles (v. 23). Thus the gospel message was unpopular with both.