Unsurprisingly, then, in his determination to combat the ‘false brothers’25 and their teachings, he did not pull his punches. ‘I wish they would go the whole way, and castrate themselves!’26 Scabrous and bitter, the joke dramatised for the Galatians the twin perils that Paul dreaded now threatened them. Circumcision was little better than castration. To submit to the Law of Moses would be as sure a betrayal of Christ as to take to the roads in praise of Cybele.
