Yeah, I know we've discussed this subject here before, and I really don't want to argue about diets or observing the Sabbath, but I'm just following up on a past discussion.
It seems that Christians are not under the Law of Moses: Paul wrote that the Law was a tutor (custodian/pedagogue) leading "us" to Christ (Galatians 3:24). He continues: "Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian" (3:25 NIV). If we're no longer under the guardian/tutor/pedagogue, then how could we still be under Law?
Romans 7:12 also speaks of the Law as being holy, just, and good, but due to human weakness, the Law led to death rather than life (Romans 8:3-4). A solution was needed and Paul teaches that the solution (our Teacher) is Christ: "So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24 NIV).
What about observing days like Sabbath, Yom Kippur or Sukkoth? Galatians 4:8-11 appears to teach that these days are unnecessary for Christians. See also Col. 2:16-17.
Yet Romans 6-7 demonstrates that followers of Christ are not without law, but under charis. May I sin although I'm not under law. May that never happen! This is the exclamation of the inspired apostle.
Regarding the food laws, Col. 2:21-23 and 1 Timothy 4:1-5 strongly indicate that Christians have great latitude when it comes to diet; besides, food laws were only given to Jews, not to Gentiles. Acts 14 speaks about God allowing the nations to continue in their own way, even though he provided rains for them and governed the nations. Ps 147:19-20 likewise speaks of Jehovah given his laws to Israel alone, not to mention 2 Cor. 3:7-11. Compare Romans 3:1-2.
If you have something new to add, please comment. However, I will be limiting this thread to theology/exegesis alone. Let's avoid the "weeds." :)
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Are Christians Still Under the Law of Moses? (Draft in Process)
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33 comments:
https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/377/1/Dean%20Lowe.pdf
Footnote 17
Dunn agrees that the issue in Galatians was not dietary laws but circumcision. There is also good reason to view table practices as covenant obligation concerns like that of circumcision. Although Paul highlights secondary issues relating to the observance of days, months, and times of the year (4:10), these may or may not have been promoted by „Judaisers‟. James D. G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul and the Law Studies in Mark and Galatians, (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 258. However,
the issue regarding Peter‟s withdrawal from Gentile Christians over dietary issues may have had its roots in the failure to circumcise Gentiles rendering them excluded from the covenant and therefore excluded from fellowship meals.
Off topic but worthy of note:- 1 Corinthians 7:39-40 - 1 Timothy 2:15.
I might get to look up more later, but see the dissertation, "Sons, Seed, and Children of Promise in Galatians: Discerning the Coherence in Paul’s Model of Abrahamic Descent by Bradley R. Trick (Duke University).
See page 390ff.
Compare Romans 7:1-7.
Circumcision could not have been the only issue in light of the days, months, seasons and years reference.
What are "days, months, seasons and years"?
"Most scholars regard these calendrical observances as references to the obligations specified in the Mosaic law.375 In contrast to the clearly Jewish list in Col 2:16—“a festival, new moon, or sabbaths (ἑορτῆς ἢ νεοµηνίας ἢ σαββάτων)— however, the time-keeping scheme of days, months, seasons and years actually
corresponds better to pagan time-keeping practices."
Pg 391.
"The Pharisaic/Rabbinic concept of ‘oral law’ shows that they wanted to assert that the law given to Moses was adequate in all respects—even when they were in fact adding to it, deleting from it, and otherwise altering it. Similarly in 1QS a distinction is made between the ‘hidden things’ in the law, which are known only to the sect, and the rest (1QS 5.IIf.). Entrants to the community pledge to keep ‘every commandment of the Law of Moses in accordance with all that has been revealed of it to the sons of Zadok’ (1QS 4.8f.). Thus the sect’s special rules were formally considered to be in ‘the law of Moses’, though from our point of view they are additions and modifications (E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 248-249).
Relevant to our verse here in Galatians 5:3 is the striking similarity in verbiage between the Apostle Paul and those in the Qumran community of his day! Did you catch it? For those who would seek to be identified by the particular Jewish sect of their choosing, both Paul and the Qumran community spoke of the reality to “keep every commandment of the Law of Moses!”"
https://brill.com/view/journals/jsj/51/1/article-p43_3.xml
https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/paul-the-pagans-apostle/
I see that nongbri is part of this.
I was talking the days, months, etc., mentioned in Galatians 4:8-11. Like "most scholars," I view them as calendrical references to the Mosaic law. For instance, Atonement day, the new moon, Passover and the Pentecost . Christians are not obligated to commemorate those times.
Paul actually writes that it's impossible to keep the law perfectly. Only Jesus did it.
Sanders should read Galatians 5:3 again 😀
I wonder, do you think the Jerusalem congregation ever bought on fully to Paul's theology that not even Jews who follow Jesus need to follow the law? Based on Acts 21:18-26?
For Christians today we of course accept Paul as inspired, but just as a matter of historical record, do you think Paul and James would have agreed on the place of the law for Christians who were ethnically Jews?
So what about Acts 16:1-5, doesn't this go somewhat beyond "all things to all men" & where did that leave Timothy in light of Gal 5:3?
If you say that Timothy was half Jewish anyway, then Paul has not done away with Circumcision for those of Jewish descent.
1QS 5.IIf. may also be relevant to James 2:10.
Roman, it's not always easy to piece together a narratival account for what transpired over time, but I think much of what Paul does in Acts is conditioned by time and circumstances. In other words, I do believe he is being a Jew to the Jew and giving the brothers time to realize that the Law led the Jews to Christ, but now we have our teacher. The circumcision issue went on for years as evidenced by the Pauline writings, but the apostle is often stern when it comes to criticizing those who want Law instead of charis. So I would not be surprised if the Jerusalem congregation eventually acquiesced with Paul.
Duncan, Acts 16:1-5 indicates that Timothy was circumcised to keep from offending Jews. Gal. 6:15-16 makes the argument that circumcision is not wrong: it just does not "justify" followers of Christ and it has no religious significance in the Christian ecclesia, according to Paul.
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/13630/1/fulltext.pdf
See last paragraph of page 92.
See:- Galatians and the Imperial Cult. Mohr Siebek, 2008
In review - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/justin-k-hardin-galatians-and-the-imperial-cult-a-critical-analysis-of-the-firstcentury-social-context-of-pauls-letter-wunt-237-tubingen-mohr-siebeck-2008-pp-xiv-190-7900/DF989AF08E6EF835D61A0D39B86B5C91
"The other important argument for Hardin’s thesis is that the calendrical system of Gal 4:10 is not Jewish, but pagan. If the Galatians were observing a pagan calendar, then there is probably more to the crisis than the issue of circumcision. It is from this text primarily that Hardin suggests that the Galatians had begun to embrace the imperial cult to allay their social dislocation. Granted, the calendar of Gal 4:10 is intriguing, however, it can also be read as a polemical reference to the Jewish calendar.
Regardless, even if the calendrical system reflects pagan observances, this would not necessitate the Galatians participating in the imperial cult. Therefore, the evidence of Gal 4:10 appears to be inconclusive for Hardin’s thesis."
There are many opinions about Gal. 4:8-11. Here's yet another one by Richard Longenecker (Galatians in the Word Biblical Commentary Series):
Extensive debate has focused on what precisely Paul means by “days . . . months . . . seasons . . . years.” That they all have to do with the Jewish cultic calendar in some way has seemed obvious, at least for most, from the context. Furthermore, though παρατηρέω (“watch,” “observe”) occurs nowhere else in the NT or LXX in a religious sense, its use by Josephus in contexts having to do with the observance of the Jewish law supports such a supposition (cf. Ant. 3.91; 11.294; 14.264; Ag.Ap. 2.282). But what exactly do the four terms themselves signify? ἡμέρας (“days”) probably refers to sabbath days, but may also include special festivals of a day’s duration. μῆνας (“months”) may have reference to monthly recurring events (cf. Isa 66:23) or to the appearance of the new moon that marked the beginning of each month (cf. Col 2:16; also Num 10:10; 28:11; 1 Chr 23:31). καιρούς (“seasons”) seems to have in mind the great feasts of the Jewish calendar, such as Passover and Tabernacles, that were not limited to one day. And ἐνιαυτούς (“years”) could mean the recognition of sabbatical years, of the year of Jubilee, or of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the new year on the first day (or first and second days) of the month Tishri. Debate as to what each of these terms signifies seems endless. Burton, however, is probably closest to the truth in concluding: “Formal exactness in such matters is not characteristic of Paul. It is, indeed, most likely that, as used here, μῆνας is included in ἡμέρας, and ἐνιαυτούς in καιρούς or ἡμέρας, the four terms without mutual exclusiveness covering all kinds of celebrations of days and periods observed by the Jews” (Galatians, 234).
Longenecker cntinues with further discussion about παρατηρέω, but I'll stop here.
See https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiX8qbx5rnsAhULh-AKHXDIBgoQFjAAegQIBRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fecommons.luc.edu%2Fluc_diss%2F2976%2F&usg=AOvVaw2sgybfe_q5veWBsrlVkOoE
"Benefaction in Galatians" by F. Okorie.
There references to "days" by Betz are too generic:-
"five days" in Judith.
"solemn days" are mentioned in 1 Mac.
"Sabbath day" in Colossians, this does not coincide with 1 Mac as sabbath is referenced independently of the "solemn days".
"Therefore, the evidence of Gal 4:10 appears to be inconclusive for Hardin’s thesis." and it cuts both ways.
There were more "dies fasti" than "dies nefasti".
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/VOTA/dating.html
We've also got to consider the setting of the epistle. The contexts indicates Paul has Jewish days and months in mind--not just any observances.
John Chrysostom writes:
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Ver. 10. "Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years."
Hence is plain that their teachers were preaching to them not only circumcision, but also the feast-days and new-moons.
Lest we also forget that the Sabbath was given to Israel alone and God only dealt with Israel before the Christian congregation started. See Exod 31:12-17.
Gal 2:14?
Gal 6:13?
For Galatians 6:13, see https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/sabinet/neotest/1994/00000028/00000001/art00013
For Gal. 2:11-14, see https://www.academia.edu/26651921/One_Torah_for_Another_The_Halakhic_Conversion_of_Jewish_Believers_Paul_s_Response_to_Peter_s_Halakhic_Equivocation_in_Galatians_2_11_21
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8fa5/ec1ab4bb05ca172405432ace202fdac00cb2.pdf
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=jats
">>men who forbid marriage<< and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth."
forbid marriage - a part of Torah?
I don't think so. Where did the Torah ever forbid marriage except for making limitations on priests as to what kind of women they could marry and there were Nazarites, who took solemn vows regarding wine and their hair. Jeremiah was also commanded not to marry and we have people like Jephthah's daughter, who abstained from marriage and child bearing. However, the words in Timothy are forward looking anyway: they pertain to the last times or times to come.
Additionally, the letter to Timothy associates prohibitions on marriage with apostasy or deviance from the Christian faith.
Another thing to consider is why would a Christian associate parts of the Torah with teachings of demons?
This is a interesting blog on the subject.
https://salvation-vs.blogspot.com/2017/05/vs-mosaic-law-introduction.html?m=1
Thank you, T.
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