Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah - “Works of the Law”
Introduction to "Works of the Law"
"Works of the Law" (ergon nomou) in Pauline theology primarily refers to observances within the Mosaic Law. Historically, interpretations have oscillated between viewing these as literal observance, forms of legalism, and identity markers within the Jewish community. Understanding these terms is crucial for interpreting key passages in Galatians and Romans.
Does the Apostle Paul use ergon nomou as a polemic against Jewish observance of the Torah, against a kind of salvation-by-works doctrine? Are "works of the Law" just observing the Mosaic Torah? Are "works of the Law" some kind of legalism? Or, are "works of the Law" the identity barriers set by an ancient sect of Judaism?
Introduction to Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has done much to help the understanding of the context of the New Testament in some incredible ways. "Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah" (sometimes spelled "Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah"), which translates to "Some of the Works of the Law," is a phrase that appears in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls known as 4QMMT. This document has garnered significant attention because it provides insight into how specific Jewish groups during the Second Temple period understood and practiced the Law, or Torah. And through our study of second temple Judaism, in the world of archaeology, we understand a lot of things about what first century Judaism understood about the Torah.
The Torah is Divided into Three Sections
The Jews had broken down the law into three sections. Christians have often talked about the three sections of the law, and they haven't gotten those divisions correct, and it's jacked up the conversation. Usually Christians talk about like moral law, civil law and liturgical law, but those are not the correct distinctions. But scholars have identified in Second Temple Judaism, three different portions of the law:
1. Cultic law - Cult is a reference to the practice. It's the part of the law that has to do with liturgical worship at the temple. If you need a temple to do it's a part of the cultic law. This is the levitical system, the priesthood, the sacrifice, and temple worship.
2. Ethical law - No matter who you are or where you are, these laws are universally true for all people. Ethical law isn't true just because God said so arbitrarily. Ethical law is true because it's the way God made the universe to function. Ex. Do not murder.
3. Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah - The works of the law. This is the part of the law that makes a person Jewish. After presenting the ketubah of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, after God's people said yes to his wedding vows, they voluntarily agreed to carry the law that would make them a kingdom of priests. God wanted them to be different than the world around them, and he wanted them to put their God on display for the nations. He did this by giving them the works of the law that would do the work of making them different. This includes circumcision, eating kosher, and practicing the Sabbath.
Historical Context and Scholarly Interpretations
E.P. Sanders challenged traditional views by arguing that ancient Judaism was not a legalistic, works-righteousness religion. Much of what we are preparing to consider regarding "works of law" can find its origins in E.P. Sanders' book Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977). Prejudices abasing Judaism as a works based religion had consistently failed to examine quotations from ancient Jewish literature such as the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, Midrashim, and by the time of Sanders' writing, the Dead Sea Scrolls. While many scholars who followed after Sanders may not have agreed with all of his conclusions on Paul himself, Paul and Palestinian Judaism certainly did stimulate an interest in Pauline scholars to investigate more into the Jewish background and setting of his letters. His book prompted scholars to reconsider Paul's references to "works of the law" within their Jewish background.
While traditional perspectives on Paul's view of Judaism, the Law of Moses, and whatever "works of law" were continued through the 1980s and 1990s, what is now called the New Perspective of Paul (NPP) also grew considerably. The "New Perspective of Paul" was a title given by British scholar James D.G. Dunn in a 1983 article by this same title, where aside from the various aspects of Paul and "works of Law" that Dunn wanted readers to consider, he specifically wanted to remove "a misunderstanding of Paul, based on the standard Protestant (mis-)reading of Paul through Reformation spectacles. "
While he was clear to state how he was not trying to deconstruct foundational doctrines such as justification by faith, he did want people to reconsider the scene in Antioch in Galatians 2, with Peter separating himself from the non-Jewish Believers, and what the issue regarding "works of law" actually was. In his words, ergön nomou can be specifically classified "as badges: they are simply what membership of the covenant people involves, what mark out the Jews as God's people; given by God for precisely that reason, they serve to demonstrate covenant status." James argued that these works were not about earning salvation but were identity markers like circumcision and dietary laws, distinguishing Jews from Gentiles. Dunn opened an important door for Bible readers to see that a targeted issue regarding "works of law" was present in Antioch, and likely also in the other places where "works of law" appears in both Galatians and Romans.
Since this time in the 1980s, with Dunn writing a considerable number of articles on the NPP, and his own commentaries on Galatians and Romans, a number of scholars have come to agree with him that "works of law" are not just rote observance of Mosaic rituals, and a number of scholars have been quite pessimistic of such a proposal.
The full release of the Qumran document 4QMMT, includes the only outside attestation of something similar to Paul's usage of "works of law," appearing as the Hebrew ma'asei haTorah. And today, in various entries on "works" in general Bible encyclopedias and dic-tionaries, "works of law" being something other than just rote observance of the Mosaic Law is discussed to some degree or another.
Into the early 1990s, Dunn was the main voice in New Testament theology credited with proposing that "works of law" regarded identity barriers that defined the ancient Jewish people, and not just rote observance of the Mosaic Law. But very few outside of New Testament theology, other than those teaching at the academic level, or new students acquiring a seminary degree, would be aware of these proposals. The discussion would simply not affect your average evangelical Protestant church. Your average evangelical Believer well into the 1990s would not even be aware of proposals made about "works of law," ancient Judaism, and Pauline theology.
This began to change because of the writings of Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright, sometimes considered to be "the C.S. Lewis of the Twenty-First Century.” In his 1997 book What Saint Paul Really Said, he summarized his view of how "works of the law" were "the works... which marked [the Jewish people] out as covenant-keepers," labeling such works as "sabbath, food-laws, circumcision. “ So while Dunn may have been the first to use the actual description "New Perspective of Paul," and has probably written the most about it, Wright's publications have probably been the most read and influential at the popular level. And indeed, for a relatively easy-to-read analysis of the relevant issues to the NPP, I would recommend Wright's book Paul in Fresh Perspective. We can be thankful for the NPP opening up the discussion on Paul's First Century Jewish background.
Identity Markers and Legalistic Practices
"Works of the law" as identity markers become particularly significant in Paul's disputes, such as with Peter in Antioch (Galatians 2). Paul critiqued Peter for withdrawing from Gentile believers, highlighting how identity markers (like dietary laws) were creating division within the Christian community. These practices, while important for Jewish identity, were argued by Paul to be unnecessary for Gentile believers, emphasizing faith over cultural or ritual law adherence.
That "works of law" were something that negatively affected the First Century Body of Messiah is difficult to argue against. In Galatians 2:12, Paul records how Peter, "prior to the coming of certain men from James…used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision." The "works of law" evidenced by Peter disrupted the unity that was supposed to be occurring among the Jewish and non-Jewish Believers in Antioch at their common fellowship meals. Previously, it is thought that Peter would have eaten whatever he wanted with the non-Jewish Believers, but once some highly conservative Jewish Believers from Jerusalem arrived, Peter immediately had to start eating kosher again. This caused a ruckus that forced Paul to rebuke Peter in public (Galatians 2:14).
The main proposal made by advocates of the NPP is that "works of law" are things purposefully intended to separate people. This idea is supported by sentiments seen in ancient Jewish literature, such as Jubilees 22:16: "Separate yourself from the gentiles, and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs. And do not become associates of theirs. " Philo discusses how Israel "will never mingle with any other nation so as to depart from their national and ancestral ways" (Life of Moses 1.278). For Dunn, it must have been the Maccabean crisis of a century-and-a-half earlier, where the Jewish people were threatened with significant cultural assimilation by the Greek Seleucids, that the "works of law" became more or less defined. 1 Maccabees 1:60-63 summarizes how,
"According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks. But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.”
Dunn observes how "these demands of the law had become a principal target of Syrian persecution," and how easily they would have become "a way of marking off the entity of Jewish self-identity from a Hellenism that had swamped and threatened to obliterate such national distinctiveness." So by the First Century, the NP asserts that distinctively Jewish observances like circumcision, the kosher dietary laws, and the Sabbath had swelled to such a degree of national pride for Judaism -that they would deliberately impede the mission of Paul among the nations. The "works of law" separated the Jewish Believers from the non-Jewish Believers, and they would need to at least be minimized, or eliminated altogether in some cases. Dunn claims that "in Paul's view, making these works a requirement additional to faith" was totally unnecessary for membership within the people of God.
What is revolutionary about the NPP claim that "works of law" were only those things that marked out Jews as members of God's covenant people, is that Paul is not speaking against the Law of Moses in total when he uses the term ergon nomou. Paul is still free to recognize God's Torah as having continued ethical and moral validity for all of His people, including the new, non-Jewish Believers. In Wright's assessment, "The new covenant work of the Spirit, transform[s] the heart so as to enable it to keep the commandments of the Torah. " He also comments, "much of what Paul says he can draw upon the Torah for outline guidance." The greater aspects of the Torah, summarized best by Yeshua in His Sermon on the Mount, were the kinds of things that the Apostle Paul wanted all of the Believers to focus on. We can be thankful that the NPP has helped many Christians to see that Paul was not at all anti-Torah, instead claiming that he was only opposed to various Jewish "works of law" that disrupted unity and cohesiveness in the ancient Body of Messiah.
Scholarly Debates and Contemporary Views
Scholars remain divided over the interpretation of "works of the law." Daniel Lancaster points out that these works included specific purity laws and rituals that might have been relevant only within certain Jewish sects like those from Qumran. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly 4QMMT, supports this view, indicating a sect-specific understanding of law observance that Paul might have been addressing in his letters.
It is quite easy, especially if one is outside the current conversation in Pauline theology, to just casually disregard or summarily reject the idea that "works of law" might be something other than rote observance of the Mosaic Law. Even while there has been scholastic resistance to the idea that "works of law" is something more specific than just following the Mosaic Law, we really cannot disagree with scholars such as Douglas J. Moo, who argue that:
"Works of the law'...is a subset of the more general category 'works.' The Reformers and their heirs were quite right to use these verses to deny that human beings could be justified before God by anything that they might do. “
If we were to use the broad definition of "works of law" as being any human activity associated with the Mosaic Torah, and that such activity will not bring justification, I would not be in substantial disagreement. Yet the issue we have to address is why "works of law" and "justification" are connected in passages like Galatians 2:16 and Romans 3:20. Are these intended to just amplify the fact that people are not saved by their actions or works (Ephesians 2:8-9), or were these statements targeted for a specific reason for ancient First Century circumstances? These verses were delivered in an ancient setting that must first be considered and cannot at all be casually disregarded.
Wrapping one's brain around the idea that "works of law" might be something specific to the First Century can be very difficult for today's evangelical Christians, who often hear sermon after sermon with passages like Galatians 2:16 and Romans 3:20 quoted as to why human activities will not bring salvation.
The current array of opinions regarding what "works of law" - ergôn nomou in Paul's actual letters -actually are in today's Biblical Studies, can be divided into three broad categories:
1. ”Works of Law" as Keeping the Law
2. ”Works of Law" as Legalism
3. ”Works of Law" as Identity Markers
The following is a breakdown with some quotations of various scholars to consider, relevant to our examination of what "works of law" actually are. This will give you a good idea about where various streams of thought have led, when you engage with any of these individuals' writings:
”Works of Law" as Keeping the Law
…when Paul used the phrase "works of Law" he referred to doing what the Law commanded..."works" (erga) in Paul refers to "deeds that are performed," and that "works of Law" signifies the "deeds" or "actions" demanded by the Mosaic Law.
- T.R. Schreiner, in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
It would seem clear from the fact that Paul uses the phrase 'works of the Law' interchangeably with just the word 'works' to speak about the same subject...and from the fact that ergon is regularly used of actions rather than attitudes…
-Ben Witherington III, Grace in Galatia
"Works of the law"…as most interpreters have recognized, refers simply to "things that are done in obedience to the law."... "Works of the law" are inadequate not because they are "works of the law" but, ultimately, because they are "Works."
-Douglas J. Moo, NICNT: Romans
”Works of Law" as Legalism
..the Greek language of Paul's day possessed no word-group corresponding to our 'legalism', 'legalist' and 'legalistic'. This means that he lacked a convenient terminology for expressing a vital distinction, and so was surely seriously hampered in the work of clarifying the Christian position with regard to the law. In view of this, we should always, we think, be ready to reckon with the possibility that Pauline statements, which at first sight seem to disparage the law, were really not directed against the law itself but against that misunderstanding and misuse of it for which we now have a convenient terminology.
-C.E.B. Cranfield, /CC: Romans
We agree with C.E.B. Cranfield that Paul had no separate word-group to denote “legalism, " "legalist," and "legalistic." Consequently some of the passages translated "law" are incorrect, for what he is opposing is the quest for a righteousness obtained as a result of one's own efforts and works.
-Walter C. Kaiser, Toward Old Testament Ethics
”Works of Law" as Identity Markers
We may justifiably deduce, therefore, that by 'works of law' Paul intended his readers to think of particular observances of the law like circumcision and the food laws…..we know that just these observances were widely regarded as characteristically and distinctively Jewish.
-James D.G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul and the Law
..'works of Torah' here is not about the works some might think you have to perform in order to become a member of God's people, but the works you have to perform to demonstrate that you are a member of God's people….. works of Torah would simply create a family which was at best an extension of ethnic Judaism...
-N.T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective
"works of Law"…refers not to meritorious deeds in general but specifically to those practices that stand as outward symbols of Jewish ethnic distinctiveness: circumcision, dietary observances, and sabbath keepinq.
-Richard B. Hays, NIB: Galatians
Some theologians fall into some combination of the categories listed above, perhaps altering a previous position they held, to account for new proposals made in New Testament scholarship.
Among contemporary scholars, perhaps the most significant that will affect our examination, is how Walter C. Kaiser slightly alters his position between "works of law" just being legalism, seen in his 1983 Toward Old Testament Ethics, and now including some kind of sectarian Jewish observances. In his 2008 book The Promise-Plan of God, he indicates, "It would appear that in light of the Qumran document called the Misgat Ma'ase ha-Torah [4QMMT], which uses the same phrase Paul used...that this phrase is used at Qumran and later Rabbinic Judaism to refer to what was known as the halakah." Kaiser goes on to define "The halakah [as] an interpretation of the law of Moses that demanded obedience to the law as a basis for acceptance into membership of the people of God.”
One cannot avoid the fact that the view of "works of law" in Galatians, and to a lesser extent Romans, being some kind of ancient Jewish identity markers, has not been entirely met with a great deal of enthusiasm among some evangelical Christian writers. D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo suggest in their New Testament introduction, that Paul only wanting things like "circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath...dropped because he wants to build a unified church composed of Jew and Gentile alike...is too narrow." They cannot accept the NPP proposal that only part of the Torah could be in view, because their view of Pauline theology requires them to advocate that he only taught Believers to follow a "Law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2), something entirely independent from the Pentateuch itself. One of the most significant reasons why such theologians oppose the idea of "works of law" in Paul being something specific -and not just general observance of the Mosaic Torah- is that it would require them to similarly reevaluate the justification language frequently associated with it (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, 28). As Dunn describes,
"Paul... prefaces his first mention of 'being justified' with a deliberate appeal to the standard Jewish belief, shared also by his fellow Jewish Christians, that the Jews as a race are God's covenant people. Almost certainly, then, his concept of righteousness, both noun and verb (to be made or counted righteous, to be justi-fied), is thoroughly Jewish too, with the same strong covenant overtones... God's justification is God's recognition of Israel as his people, his verdict in favour of Israel on grounds of his covenant with Israel. “
Some evangelical theologians believe that the NPP proposals on "works of law" and "justification" are deliberately trying to dismantle the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. This is actually not the case, as the issue regarding "justification" as inclusion among God's covenant people is limited to only a handful of passages in Galatians and Romans where ancient issues are in specific view. The NPP has never argued against the overall Biblical doctrine of justification by faith - only that something more specific to First Century Judaism is present in passages like Galatians 2:16-17 or Romans 3:20-21. Dunn clarifies how for him,
"My concern has not been to attack or deny the classical Christian doctrine of justification by faith. My concern has always been that the doctrine of justifi-cation, as rediscovered (or reasserted) by Luther and as consistently expounded within Protestantism, has neglected important aspects particularly of Paul's original formulation in the context of his mission.”
I believe that today's Messianics can safely engage with the various proposals of the NPP, and theologians like Dunn and Wright, realizing that their intention-as ours should be -is to understand "works of law" in the context that the Apostle Paul used the phrase.
"Works of the Law" in Ancient Texts and Sects
The document 4QMMT from the Dead Sea Scrolls uses the phrase "works of the law" in a way that appears to reflect sect-specific practices rather than general Jewish law. This suggests that Paul's use of the term might have been influenced by similar sectarian practices known to his audiences, focusing on those specific "works" that marked community boundaries and defined group identities.
In the past two decades, various New Testament scholars have recognized that there is a likely connection between Paul's usage of the Greek ergon nomou, and the Hebrew ma'asei haTorah. Up until the discovery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), and the Qumran document 4QMMT, there had been no significant extant Jewish literature that ever used the phrase "works of law." Martin G. Abegg summarizes his view of how:
"Although it would be rather too bold to propose that Paul knew of 4QMMT, or that zealous members of the Qumran community had been the perpetrators of the problems in Galatia, it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that Paul consciously reflected the term 'works of law' which was used by the author of 4QMMT... [It appears highly likely that Paul was reacting to a position that was espoused in 4QMMT by the Qumran covenanters. “
In order for one to know the possible orientation of Paul in employing the phrase "works of law," and its background from the ancient Judaisms, it is important to be familiar with how "works of law" is seen in the document 4QMMT, and the religious attitudes expressed by the Qumran community. The fact that the Qumran community was exclusivist- seeing themselves as the only true Israel of God-is difficult to avoid encountering in the DSS. Their literature expresses how "This is the rule for all the congregation of Israel in the Last Days," which included only "the men appointed to the society of the Yahad" (1QSa 1.1, 28)-their own initiates. To what extent was this comparable to the Influencers who Paul warned the Galatians about? The Influencers upsetting the Galatians argued that in order for the new, non-Jewish Believers to be accepted among God's people, they needed to undergo a ritual proselyte circumcision that only they could provide.
Paul told Peter, "we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16a, NRSV). The plural participle eidotes or "(we] knowing," would seem to indicate that "works of law" was a term known and used by ancient Judaism- people like Paul and Peter -to describe something. When Paul uses it to rebuke Peter, he is rebuking Peter for doing something that caused unnecessary division among all the Believers in Antioch. This is where we need to understand what the Qumran document 4QMMT actually summarized by defining various "works of law." Are these "works of law" really specific things like the Sabbath or dietary laws, or are they more specific practices, ideas, and attitudes that would identify one as a member of a particular Jewish sect?
The final stanza of 4QMMT says that "we have written to you some of the works of the Law," or miqtzat ma'asei ha Torah. What we specifically see are community regulations regarding ritual purity, what they considered to be the right course of action on any number of diverse subjects, and most importantly what separated them from the other people.
Within 4QMMT, we find that "works of law" were not, actually, some kind of macro-Jewish identity markers such as the Sabbath, appointed times, dietary laws, or circumcision. These appear to have been assigned somewhat arbitrarily by New Testament scholars. On the contrary, what we see is a strict, sectarian style of halachah, not only focused on purity - but a praxis that will inevitably keep more people out of God's community than welcome people into it. The "works of law" may be considered as some kind of micro-Jewish identity markers, specific to the group or sect that held them to be important. The issue in 4QMMT, in a manner of speaking, is the club rules of the Qumran community, which they felt were the proper interpretation and application of the Torah. Dunn concurs,
"deeds of the law' denote the interpretations of the Torah which marked out the Qumran community as distinctive, the obligations which members took upon themselves as members and by which they maintained their membership."
Wright offers a further and more detailed explanation:
"The (sectarian) code of MMT is designed to say, 'Do these particular "works of Torah," and they will mark you out in the present as the true covenant people.' These 'works' in question in MMT were not sabbath, food laws and circumcision…Rather, the particular and very specific codes in MMT include various aspects of ritual performance (the calendar, regulations about water, marriage laws and so on), some of which were markers against Gentiles, but most of which were markers designed to demonstrate membership of the particular sect, the people that believed itself to be the inauguration of God's new covenant people.”
What the author is saying is: these 'works of Torah' will bring upon you God's reckoning of righteousness' here and now, and that verdict will be repeated 'on the last day.""
Traditionalists argue that "works of law" simply means obeying the Mosaic Torah by rote. NPP advocates, in light of the evidence that 4QMMT provides, would argue that ma'asei haTorah employed here is "simply a sectarian and more particularist expression” than how Paul would have used ergon nomou in a more general sense to concern broad Jewish identity markers. Tim Hegg, noting the connection between ergön nomou and ma'asei haTorah, would instead conclude,
"What we now understand is that the phrase works of the Law/Torah' was used in Paul's day to refer [to] specific sets of rules or halachah which a group required for its self-definition. Simply put, such a list of 'works of the Torah' constituted the entrance requirements into the group...'Works of the Torah,' then, refers to halachah required for entrance into the covenant community (as required by each sect), not personal obedience to God's word."
This is quite concurrent with the tenor of what we see in 4QMMT. From this vantage point, when Paul uses ergön nomou or "works of law" in Galatians and Romans, he is referring to the specialized halachah that defined a particular sect of ancient Judaism. In his letters of Galatians and Romans, "works of law" would have been a style of Torah observance that likely impeded or made more difficult the spread of the gospel, and the Lord's plan of bringing His salvation to the larger world. In 4QMMT, we see extra-Biblical rulings that are to restrict interactions between the Qumran community and outsiders.
Similarly in the Pauline letters, a major area of contention was how the Jewish and non-Jewish Believers were to all get along as one in the Lord, not only being united in Him - but also overcoming any ungodly social prejudices. Various "works of law" practiced by some of the Jewish Believers, deterred the Apostolic mission among the nations that Paul had been Divinely commissioned to accomplish (cf. Acts 26:17-18).
If "works of law" in the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans might be considered a negative, sectarian style of Torah observance -one which would impede the Torah's mandate to Israel to be a blessing to all (i.e., Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 4:6)-then how does it affect our reading of specific passages that have been traditionally read from a grid of Paul refuting a salvation-by-works doctrine?
Implications for Modern Theological Understanding
Understanding "works of the law" as more than just legalistic adherence to Mosaic Law but also as community-defining practices invites a more inclusive view of Christian identity, which does not require Gentiles to adopt Jewish identity markers. This view supports a broader interpretation of justification by faith, as advocated by Paul, and challenges traditional Christian doctrines that may impose unnecessary burdens on believers.
Theological Understanding: The discussions around "works of the law" and the insights from "Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah" suggest a nuanced understanding of Paul's criticisms. Paul's arguments may not be against the Law itself but against its misuse to justify or exclude based on identity markers.
Interpretation of Pauline Texts: Recognizing "works of the law" as identity markers rather than general legalism influences the interpretation of key biblical texts, shifting the focus from a universal denouncement of the Law to a critique of its application that segregates or discriminates.
Jewish-Gentile Relations in Early Christianity: Understanding "works of the law" in light of first-century practices, as seen in "Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah," helps clarify the social and religious tensions addressed in Paul's letters, particularly in reconciling Jewish and Gentile believers within the early Church.
Modern Theological Debates: This perspective challenges traditional views within Christian theology regarding the Law and justification by faith, promoting a more inclusive understanding of faith that transcends ethnic and cultural barriers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the exploration of "works of the law" through the lens of Pauline theology and the insights from Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah has significantly deepened our understanding of the complex interplay between ancient Jewish practices and early Christian teachings. These studies illuminate how Paul's references to "works of the law" were not broadly targeting the Mosaic Law itself but were specifically critiquing its application as identity markers that could segregate or exclude. This nuanced understanding highlights the importance of context in interpreting religious texts and suggests a more inclusive approach to faith that transcends strict legal adherence, focusing instead on the ethical and communal intentions of religious observance. By reevaluating these key concepts, scholars and believers alike are encouraged to consider how historical perspectives can inform more harmonious and inclusive practices within contemporary faith communities.
References
This lesson was curated from the following sources: 1) The New Testament Validates Torah by J.K. McKee, 2) FFOZ “Holy Epistle to the Galatians”, 3) BEMA Podcast episode 140 “Not to Burden You.”