Background To Galatians, Paul, The Torah Law & Legalism

Lots of Ideas About What Paul Means in Galatians

Its fair to say that there are a number of different views about how Galatians should be interpreted. Apart from those who argue that it does away with the Sabbath, Holy Days Clean and Unclean Meats etc, some say it’s written to address Gnostic influences which were superimposed onto the Jewish religion. Others say it does away with the Levitical sacrifices.

A lot has been written on these subjects.

We’re going to look at Galatians from an additional perspective, which hopefully you’ll find helpful. By bringing some additional background to bear on this subject we should be able to make our understanding of one of the most contentious issues in theology more robust.

Why is What Paul Wrote About the Torah Law and Legalism in Galatians so Confusing ?

Probably one of the reasons that the Epistle to the churches in Galatia is as confusing as it is, is because the issues that Paul wrote to address are not as familiar to us church members today. Back then, at the time of the Roman Empire, in the FIRST century, they were BIG doctrinal issues. But today the same issues don’t really come up on our “radar screen” so to speak.

In fact in the TWENTY first century they hardly resonate with us at all.

The Galatian Churches

When we say Galatian churches of course, we should clarify that Galatia was a region of what today we know as Turkey; and there were a number of congregations, in that region including Antioch, Iconium and Lystra to which the letter is addressed. We'd call them churches (or "called out ones", as John did in Revelation, which is what the Greek word means), but often we forget that these were groups of people who, for the most part, were members of the cities's synagogues, whether they were gentiles from the local area and had converted to become Jews or were born Jews. Gentile converts of course, were known as PROSELYTES.

As such, most synagogues in gentile areas like Asia Minor would have been comprised mostly of Jews (descendents of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi) but also of local converts or gentile proselytes.

Paul's impeccable credentials; having been taught by the great Jewish scholar Gamaliel; being a Pharisee's Pharisee, an EXPERT in the written Torah-law and the oral Torah-law, and ultimately a special emissary (read enforcer) of the Sanhedrin, ensured that when he walked into any synagogue in Asia Minor they were only too delighted to hear what he had to say.

By way of example let's take a look at what happened to Paul and Barnabus at Antioch.

Acts 13: 14 ¶ But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. 15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, (Paul and Barnabus) saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

Although Paul's message explaining how the Old Testament prophecies pointed to a Messiah who (rather than coming as an all conquering King) would be crucified, was sometimes well received in the Synagogue, on other occasions it didn't go down so well.

Let's take another look at what happened next in Antioch for example, dropping down to verse 42 in Acts 13:

Acts 13:42 ¶ And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. 43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and RELIGIOUS PROSELYTES (the gentile converts to Judaism) followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. 44 And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Very clearly then, and its no surprise to us, even in predominantly gentile parts of the world, what became known as the Christian church, had very Jewish origins. That sounds obvious, but the implications are probably more complex than we think because the Jewish religion is much more than what we read in the Old Testament.

Judaism Was Much More Than The Old Testament

Of course the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im), and the writings (Kethuvim), the things that we refer to collectively as the Old Testament, are the bedrock of Judaism, BUT since the times of the Babylonian exile Judaism also included the Oral Torah-law.

That means that at the time of the FIRST century, when Galatians was written, the Jewish members of the church in Asia Minor to whom it was written, would have come from a background which had been steeped in the ADDITIONAL oral torah-laws as much as they understood the written scriptures that we too keep. They had to "unlearn" these oral "traditions of the fathers", like some of us had to "unlearn" some doctrines that we learned before we were called.

Understandably most of us (and indeed most Christians in the 21st century) know little if nothing about these added aspects of the Jewish law and religion. And of course therein lies at least part of the problem in really getting to grips with what Paul was addressing in his Epistles to the churches in that part of Asia Minor.

OK then, with this in mind; let's get a gentle introduction to the key issues in Paul's epistle to the Galatians.

Return to the start of Galatians, Paul, The Torah-Law and Legalism a Judianity website ?

In Acts, a small and predictable change to one "Old Testament" law about the circumcision of gentile proselytes caused massive turmoil in the predominantly Jewish first century church. Why then, isn't any comparable fuss recorded in the New Testament if most of the other Old Testament laws were "done away" and why also do many christian theologians believe even after the crucifixion, that Paul kept Nazirite vows and offered sacrifices at the temple?

Let's take a closer look at the Introduction - Galatians, Paul, The Torah Law and Legalism
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