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Bernard Lategan's Reading of Galatians in A “NOT ACCORDING TO HUMAN CRITERIA”: BERNARD LATEGAN’S READING OF GALATIANS IN A CRUMBLING APARTHEID STATE Cilliers Breytenbach ABSTRACT This essay explores the influence continuous reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians had on Bernard C. Lategan. During the eighties, his reception of the letter freed him, an Afrikaans speaking academic, to move beyond the racist and nationalistic constraints of his personal environment in the apartheid state, to further the course of an inclusive South African democracy. Lategan’s biography illustrates the force that a methodologically guided reading of an ancient text can exert upon the actions of an academic. 1. Introduction South African NT scholarship played an ambiguous role since its coming of age in the second half of the 20th century. Though pride can be taken in the scholarly achievement of the New Testament Society of South Africa (NTSSA) since its foundation in 1965,1 one is saddened by the fact that this professional society which, by constitution, is explicitly ecumenical and non-racial, has never chosen to demonstrate the relevance that its study of the NT has for the society in which its members did their research. It must be stated from the outset, that the society did reject all forms of discrimination and that some individual members of the society were clear and decisive in their critique against and rejection of apartheid.2 Nevertheless, the silence of the majority of its members and the commitment of some of the society’s leading members to a “neutral scientific” stance until the 1 For overviews see Du Toit (1993a; 1993b) and De Villiers (2005a; 2005b). 2 See De Villiers (2005b), cf. sec. 2: “The Society and socio-political structures”. I thank the author for allowing me to read through his pre-publication draft. 54 cilliers breytenbach end of apartheid is revealing,3 especially in the light of the fact that the NT scholar who was most influential in the post war era, E. P. Groenewald, stood at the cradle of the Dutch Reformed Church’s theological underpinning of the heresy of apartheid.4 Some would still call Groenewald the doyen of South African NT Studies.5 He and many other theologians of Afrikaans origin played a leading role in the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond that had great influence in disseminating apartheid ideology into all aspects of South African culture.6 Very few Afrikaans speaking NT scholars dared to oppose the apartheid policy of the white minority government, and the influence of the Broederbond on the white only Afrikaans “churches”.7 In the third quarter of the 20th century, most South African NT scholars came from an Afrikaans reformed background. In the course of their careers, many of them were asked to become members of the Broederbond, which had first and foremost as goal the furtherance of the supremacy and interest of white Afrikaans-speaking people. There was, however, an exception. Andrie B. du Toit, who arguably was the most influential NT scholar in South Africa during the last quarter of the 20th century, declined for theological reasons, the “honourable” invitation to become a member of the Broederbond.8 3 Cf. the hermeneutical critique against the use of the Bible in the apartheid ide- ology by Vorster (1983). On the issue cf. Smit (1990). 4 Cf. Breytenbach (1988), and Vorster (1983). 5 Neither Colenso nor J. du Plessis ever exerted a comparable influence. Groenewald promoted the careers of several post graduate students and directed them to the Netherlands for doctoral research. 6 In his exposé of the Afrikaner Broederbond in 1979, Serfontein lists the names of influential NTSSA members, including E. P. Groenewald, J. C. Coetzee (Professor for New Testament, University of Potchefstroom), G. M. M. Pelser (Professor for New Testament, Faculty of Theology [Section A], University of Pretoria) and B. A. du Toit (who would ten years later become senior lecturer for New Testament at the University of Stellenbosch); cf. Serfontein (1979). See also Wilkins and Strydom (1978). For the earlier history see Bloomberg (1989). 7 Albert Geyser (cf. Hartin 1988) and J. H. Roberts did. 8 After being elected as successor to E. P. Groenwald as professor for New Testament at the University of Pretoria (Section B) in 1971, Andrie du Toit was asked to join the Broederbond. He declined with the argument that if Christ has set you free, no human should ever again bind your conscience. (Personal communication to myself and J. P. H. Wessels, in his office during our third semester in Theology 1977, warning us not to be recruited by those professors in theology [he mentioned no names] who select students for membership of the Ruiterwag). Willem Nicol, son of one of the founder members, also refused to become a member. This deci- sion caused his scholarly career to be terminated before it even started..
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