Gal 3:19-20 Solved by Shema informed by the deity of Christ

[mikew]

Appreciate the help, it's tough to parse all this out.

Lenski's commentary I think was published after his death from his notes, if I remember correctly. His admirers (congregation?) may have published it due to respect for him -- like his ideas or his ministry.

[mikew]

just to be clear ... there is no theological problem that i find raised with Paul saying "but God is one." The riddle is in stating that, in the promise between two parties, that a mediator does not intervene for one party. The issue then is how Paul shares that the promise only has one party.

I guess that's not clear - frankly, I don't really understand what you're saying. As a lawyer, well familiar with covenants and promises, it really doesn't seem that difficult to me even though the greek is a bit sparse. But, you keep referring to a riddle. I don't see any riddle here - just something that requires interpretation. [by the way, hundreds of interpretations should speak against anyone with an expansive view of perspicuity]

It gets a bit clumsy to interpret a text as being straightforward when it is a riddle. The recognition of the riddle here was by process of elimination. It was the only thing that made sense of the pieces. Again, the attempt to interpret the text as a directs statement of truth has failed to achieve a consensus.
Now, it would have helped if you mentioned that you would not follow my proposal because you currently are of the belief that the trinity doctrine is not correct. However, the approach I have given may be the only way to make sense of the passage. I will see whether this approach takes hold though.