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The missunderstood "Works of the Law" in Galatians 3:10

Galatians is probably the text least understood by the evangelical comunity. To many Pastors used it as the basis to descualify the Mosaic Law, even though in Matthew 5:17-20, Yeshua (Jesus), the chosen Messiah and of divine nature, affirms that the Law of Elohim (God) will never be abolish, until heaven and earth dissapears first (something that has not happen up to October 2011):

Mat 5:17-20 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. ."


But the most long and incredible battleground has being the term "works of the Law" in Galatians 3:10. Every unbeliavable conclution has been reached based on this text. But the truth is this is an easy text if we stop our prejudice against judaism and everyone who thinks different from us.

First let's examine the passage together and it's context: Galations is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia. The earliest reasonably complete version available today, dates approximately to the year 200 A.D., about 150 years after the original was written. The letter was written at a very early stage in church history, when the vast majority of Christians were Jewish or Jewish proselytes, communly refer as Jewish Christians. The main point was that the people of Galatia have turned away from Paul's teachings, into "another gospel" (which centered around salvation through "the Mosaic law" some said, but we better call it legalism). But let us read for ourselves and see what was really happening at that community:

Gal 3:1-13 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Yeshua the Messiah hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the "works of the law", or by the hearing of faith?

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 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?

Even as Abraham believed YHVH, and it was accounted to him for righteousness Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that YHVH would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the glad tidings unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 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.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of YHVH, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

The Messiah hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree


There seem to be two basic things going within the Galatian community:
1.There is something that they are doing that is taken them away from the true of the Gospel and and
2.Paul assures them of a curse against "the thing" that they are practicing.

To understand problem one (1) in the passage, let us examine the second (2) point first: the curse. This curse comes from Deuteronomy 27:26 and says:"Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.". This curse is to be apply to all those who do not want to practice the Law in ther lives. So in reality, this curse in the context of Galatians, is telling us, that the community was not practicing the Law of Moses and were doing something diferent instead. So the curse was upon them.

To make sure about this point, let us see he following pasage of Galatians:

Gal 4:8 How be it then, when ye knew not YHVH, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known YHVH, or rather are known of YHVH, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.


That makes everything clear: the comunity in Galatia was in idolatry (ye did service unto them by nature are no gods), and they turned away from YHVH and His Gospel(verse 9). They even practice theirs traditions and observations on the prescribe dates of their godīs commands. Naturally we have to ask what is this new gospel and where did it come from ?. The answer came more than 1900 years latter in some pages of rabbinic literature, from the sectarian teachings of Qumran; the wrong interpretations made by people of the real "Laws of God", called "traditions", "Mishna", "Talmud" or the "Oral Law". All of which were condemned by Yeshua himself and His apostles, including Paul.

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 (Dead Sea Scroll), 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 Qumran. MMT demon strates that Paul was not jousting with windmills, but was indeed squared off in a dramatic duel -- not with mainstream Judaism but with a sectarian theology that ultimately defined Christianity. If I have understood rightly, the importance of MMT for New Testament research is nothing short of revolutionary" (ibid., p.55).(Martin Abegg, author of an article entitled "Paul, 'Works of the Law' and MMT," in the November-December 1994 Biblical Archaeological Review).

Now the truth of this pasage come out: "works of the law", does not represent the Law of Moses, but rather an wrong interpretation of it, a man made teology, a yoke against the true gospel of Yeshua, various rabbinic interpretations, amplifications, and extensions of the Law of Moses. They did not follow the Law, they invented it, so the real Mosaic Law curses them . So let us see the passage as it was supposed to look right for us:

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of "the traditions of men" 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.

Pastor Yosef Ben Marques © 2013

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