Dear Mishpochah
(family):
After two months, the newsgroup is alive
again! I was on a
I was in
Now since I have returned from these
trips, the HHMI newsgroup can continue.
THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF GALATIONS
While I was in
Apparently in this person's mind, the book
of Galatians spoke against believing in Yeshua as the
Messiah and following Torah. Since I was coming to speak on the subject of how
believers in Yeshua as the Messiah need to embrace
our Hebraic roots and follow Torah, this person apparently concluded that I
somehow wished that Galatians wasn't in the Bible to validate the Hebraic roots
message that I came to teach.
In truth, Galatians does NOT contradict
that believers in Yeshua as the Messiah need to
express their faith by following Torah (John 14:!5).
The problem has been OUR UNDERSTANDING and INTERPRETATION of the book of Galations based upon our dispensational theology.
One of the greatest hindrances to people
in traditional Christianity to embracing their Hebraic roots is a lack of
understanding and misinterpretation of the book of Galatians. One of the
greatest stumbling blocks to understanding the book of Galatians is confusion
over the meaning of the term "works of the law". Traditional
Christianity usually interprets this to mean "following Torah".
However, the article below comes from an analysis of discoveries found in the
dead sea scrolls which clearly reveals that the phrase "works of the
law" refers to the
While I was in
I pray that this article will be a
blessing to you and your studies.
Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int'l
*************************************************************
THE DEAD
http://www.triumphpro.com/dead_sea_scrolls___works_of_the_law.htm
Millions of people have wondered what the
expression, "works of the law" means as used by the apostle Paul.
What are they?
Are "works of law" the Ten
Commandments? Are they the "Law of Moses"? Or
something else? Paul said "a man is not justified by the works of
the law," and that "by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified" (Gal.2:16). What did he mean? What is the
Christian's relationship to "works of the law"?
William F Dankenbring
In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul
makes it plain that a true Christian is not "justified" by
"works of the law," or made righteous in God's sight by them. Paul
declared, "He therefore that ministereth to you
the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he
it by the WORKS OF THE LAW, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal.3:5).
Paul went on, "For as many as are of
the works of the law are under the CURSE: for it is written, Cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal.3:10). What are these
"works of the law"?
In his translation, Ferrar
Fenton refers to them as "rituals of the law." Most Christians,
Protestants and others, think they refer to the "deeds" of the law of Moses -- the entire Law of God given to
But is this assumption true?
The title of an obscure Dead Sea Scroll is
MMT, which stands for Miqsat Ma'ase
Ha-Torah. This phrase was originally translated "Some of the Precepts of
the Torah," by Dead Sea Scholars Strugnell and Qimron. However, the word miqsat
does not just mean "some." The same word is used in Genesis 47:2
where Joseph presents five of his brothers before Pharaoh -- where the word
could be translated as most important, select, or choice brothers.
More importantly, however, is the rest of
the phrase -- ma-ase ha-Torah. Strugnell
and Qimron translated this as "precepts of
Torah." However, the most common GREEK word for ma-ase
is ergon -- which in the New Testament is usually
translated "works." The Hebrew word Torah is usually translated as nomos, which in the New Testament is generally translated
"law." Thus the expression ma-ase ha-Torah
then simply means "works of the law." This would be a very excellent
translation. The Septuagint version of the Old Testament leaves no doubt -- it
translated the Hebrew expression ma-ase ha-Torah by
the Greek ergon nomou. This
Greek expression is commonly translated in the New Testament as "works of
the law." This expression is found in Romans
Interestingly, when the British Bible
Society translated the New Testament into modern
Hebrew in 1976, when the text of the MMT Dead Sea Scroll was known only to a
few scholars, they translated the Greek ergon nomou (works of the law) as ma-ase
ha-Torah.
Says Martin Abegg,
author of an article entitled "Paul, 'Works of the Law' and MMT," in
the November-December 1994 Biblical Archaeological Review,
"In short, ma-ase
ha-torah is equivalent to what we know in English from Paul's letters as 'works
of the law.' This
"The works of the law that the
Finally, then we can put to rest the
question, just what are the "works of the law" that Paul wrote about!
Finally, an argument which has raged for centuries, and still rages today, can
be settled by clear evidence from the first century!
Let's take a look at this mysterious
document MMT, and see what it is all about.
THE
The MMT scroll records the remains of
nearly two dozen legal issues. Perhaps another dozen issues perished. The
scroll calls attention to the subject of boundaries between what was to be
considered pure and impure. The phrase rohorat haquodesh, "purity of the holy," sums up the
contents of the scroll and its purpose. Says Abegg,
this means, "Do not allow the holy to be profaned by what is impure."
The issues discussed, says Abegg, were:
"The issues include bringing Gentile
corn into the
Other issues involve the transmission of
impurity by a flow of water (musaq), the intermixture
of wool and linen (sha-atnez) and perhaps the climax
of the discussion: the intermarriage of priests with the common people.
"Most of the rulings espoused by the
author of MMT are based directly upon Biblical law (for example, the
prohibition against plowing with unlike animals in Deuteronomy
Notice! These "rulings" or
"works of the law" included "INTERPRETATIONS OR AMPLIFICATIONS
OF MOSAIC PRESCRIPTIONS."
The
Notice again! The "RABBINIC
EXTENSIONS" reflected in the Talmud, that corpus of Jewish religious and
rabbinic literature accumulated over the centuries, known as the Babylonian and
Jerusalem Talmuds, was spurned by the writers of the
MMT Dead Sea Scroll. They developed their own interpretations, expansions, and halakkah. But both came under the over-all description of
"works of the law" -- and included various rabbinic interpretations,
amplifications, and extensions of the Law of Moses to Jewish life during the
first century.
The expression miqsat
ma-ase ha-torah -- "pertinent works of the
law" -- nowhere appears in rabbinic literature. However, clearly the Qumranites, like the apostle Paul, were against these
rabbinic "works of the law," though from a different point of view.
They were espousing their own version of the "works of the law."
Paul, very clearly, condemns in no
uncertain terms these "works of the law" in both Romans and
Galatians!
Writes Abegg:
"Looking at Galatians and Romans in
the light of MMT, it seems clear that Paul, using the same terminology, is rebutting
the theology of documents such as MMT. I do not mean to suggest that Paul knew
of MMT or of the zealous members of the Qumran community, but simply that Paul
was reacting to the kind of theology espoused by MMT, perhaps even by some
Christian converts who were committed to the kind of thinking reflecting in
MMT."
What does this all mean? Clearly, even in
Paul's day, the Jewish scribes and Pharisees were building "fences"
around the law of God, and making it int a burden --
a "yoke of bondage" (Gal.5:1). Paul warned of "false brethren
unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out
our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into
BONDAGE" (Gal.2:4). He warned the Galatians that we are not justified
before God by "works of law" (Gal.2:16).
Paul was upset, disturbed, about the
reports he had received concerning them. He wrote, "O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among
you?" (Gal.3:1). He asked them, "This only would I learn of you,
Received ye the Spirit by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye
so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal.3:2-3).
Paul urged the Galatians not to become
entangled in the "works of the law" -- the deeds and decisions and
rulings of rabbinic Judaism or its offshoots. He wrote, "Stand fast
therefore in the
Writes Martin Abegg
in Biblical Archaeology Review:
"Some scholars have suggested that
Paul misunderstood the Jewish teaching of his day or, at the very least, that
he created a straw man to bolster his own teaching regarding faith versus law.
In the past, this view was supported by the fact that the phrase 'works of the
law' nowhere appears in the foundational books of rabbinic Judaism. MMT,
however, provides the 'smoking gun' for which students have been searching for
generations, not from the pages of rabbinic literature, but from the sectarian
teachings of
Clearly, in Romans and Galatians Paul
taught against "legalism" and the teaching that one could be saved
and achieve salvation through the Law of Moses -- which was the Jewish teaching
of the time. Rabbinic Judaism still teaches today that obedience to the LAW is
the way to salvation -- that the Torah is the key to eternal life. Yet they
reject the Messiah, and the atoning work of the Messiah, as of no consequence
and unnecessary for salvation.
They have seriously missed the boat. Paul
makes that issue crystal clear in Romans and Galatians. Clearly, there can be
no salvation, and no eternal life, apart from Jesus Christ our Lord! And in
following Christ, we should not become burdened by or under the bondage of
"the works of the law" of rabbinic halakkah
and traditions, rulings, precepts, and extensions of the Torah, as it is in the
Scriptures.
On the other hand, we also need to be
careful not to come under the "bondage" to the "oral law"
or "halakkah" of various
Christian-professing churches, who create their own rules, regulations,
prescriptions, and dogmas -- traditions of "men" which Jesus clearly
rejected -- which violate the written Word and Law of God. It is interesting
that those churches which seem to object the strongest against the Jewish
"oral law" themselves create their own "oral law," although
they do not call it that.
Historically, even the Sadducees, who
rejected the "oral law" preserved by the Pharisees, found it
necessary to create their own "halakkah"
and "oral tradition," in order to expound the Scriptures. However,
any "tradition" or "church custom" which contradicts the Word
of God -- Torah, or divine Revelation of the Scriptures -- must itself be
rejected and avoided.
The bottom line, therefore, is that Christ
Himself has the last word -- He is the "second Moses," the Prophet
like unto Moses, who had FINAL AUTHORITY to "interpret" the Mosaic
Law -- and provide a new "halakkah" of true
interpretation and obedience (see Matthew 5-7). He came to "fill
full" the Law, and make it complete (Matt.5:17-19).
To really understand God's Law, therefore,
and its application to Christians, and the New Covenant, we need to search the
Scriptures, and the words of Christ. We need to avoid all the "works of
the law," or man-made religious taboos and constraints, which men have
added from time to time, for one reason or another, to the Scriptures, leading
into a yoke of heavy-handed
authoritarian bondage and spiritual slavery.
The "works of the law" that
Christ and Paul condemned were the human additions to God's Law which made it a
system of bondage and misery. Neither of them were condemning the keeping of
God's commandments or referring to obedience to God's Law as "works of the
law" -- not at all!
Let's thank God for this precious truth
and revelation -- and for the beauty of His Torah Law and Revelation!