On Circumcision, Antinomianism, and New Life (Interlude)
Our Present Age Vol. 3, No. 2
On Circumcision, Antinomianism, and New Life (Interlude)
Jacob Patrick Collins
23 June 2023
Prelude (Πέρι Λυκειῷ)
Before beginning the theological lifting required in the second part of our work, we need to examine one more relevant passage which can help further and more clearly illuminate the issue. This is Galatians 3:10–14, a passage in which Paul carefully establishes, through a series of tightly bound-together quotations and allusions to the Old Testament. For it is here that Paul establishes, not as directly as he does in Romans, but with greater connection to the Abrahamic covenant and the issue of circumcision, the righteousness of God made manifest in Jesus Christ and thereby in us because of our faith in him. New life, which is life indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is given to those who believe in the one who became a curse.
Translation
Gal 3:10For as many as are [justified] by the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written that “Cursed is every man who is not abiding by all the things which have been written in the book of the Law, to do them.” 11Now it is evident that no one is being justified in the presence of God in the law, because “The righteous will live by faith.” 12Now the law is not by faith, but “The one who does them will live by them.” 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse in behalf of us, because it is written: “Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree,” 14in order that the blessing of Abraham might come unto the nations in Christ Jesus, in order that we might receive the promise[1] of the Spirit through faith.
Introduction
Galatians 3 is central to a Protestant understanding of theology, for in it Paul establishes man’s justification by faith as the means by which he is made right with God. He contrasts this with “the works of the law” (ἔργων νόμου), thereby suggesting that salvation does not come from any Jewish law, but in Christ (Gal 2:16).
This passage is justification, or grounds, for what came before; namely, that those who are saved are heirs of the covenant with Abraham, not by works, but by faith. The law was a curse, which Christ removed by his own sacrifice, in order that the faithful might receive the Spirit. The message of Galatians is summarized in this series of four Old Testament quotations to suggest that righteousness does not come by keeping the works of the law. Rather, man is made righteous by faith through Christ. The sign of that promise is the inclusion of Gentiles into the covenant family of Abraham and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who seals the community of faith for their future salvation.
Literary Context
Paul argued that the message his enemies preached in Galatia was contrary to the Gospel of Christ and led the people, not to a right relationship with God, but from it (Gal 1:7–9). Paul received his message directly from Jesus, who is the Messiah (1:1–12). Paul argues most emphatically that no one is “justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, and we believed in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be justified by faith in the Messiah and not by the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law” (2:16). Paul uses the example of Abraham to make this point, for it is by faith Abraham was made right with God. It is because Abraham had faith that all people might have the opportunity to also be made right with God, for they become heirs of the covenant with Abraham (3:6–9).
Thus, Galatians 3 is central in Pauline theology, for in it Paul establishes in a unique way a few things: one, salvation is tied into becoming an heir of the Abrahamic covenant; two, one becomes an heir of the covenant with Abraham by means of faith.[2] The justification for this claim is provided in 3:10–14. All who rely on keeping the “works of the law” cannot be made right with God, for faith alone does so. Indeed, the law places us under a curse; but Christ became a curse for us for two reasons: first, so that the Gentiles could also receive the blessing of Abraham; and second, so that the faithful could receive the Holy Spirit.
As has often been attempted in Biblical scholarship, Galatians 3:10–14 should not be separated (as they are in this paper) from 3:6–9. For 3:10–14 provides the causal grounds of Paul’s primary argument in 3:6–9: that it is faith which counts for righteousness, not the works of the law. This is signaled most strongly by the γὰρ (“for”; “because”) which begins verse 10.[3] To separate 10–14 from the point which Paul makes in 3:6–9 (and restates in a different way in 3:14) confuses the issue.
Historical Context
Now historical context, while not necessary for the interpretation of the passage, does give the modern reader an idea of the thoughts in some contemporary minds, indicating that Paul was not alone in his ideas against the Judaizers. A midrash halakha (rabbinic exegesis of the OT) of Exodus says that the Holy Spirit was given to Israel as a result of their faith, for Abraham “inherited this world and the world to come only as a reward for the faith that he believed.”[4] Faith was the means by which someone came into the community of faith and received the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.
In Galatians 3:10–14, Paul weaves together a number of Old Testament quotations to provide a dynamic interplay between blessings and curses: blessings for keeping the covenant, and curses for abandoning it. And since no one can keep the covenant, it is only curses which the people of Israel receive. And while being heirs of the Abrahamic covenant was a blessing, the Mosaic covenant placed the Jews under a curse, for they were unable to uphold the strictures which God placed on them. Jesus Christ became a curse so that they would no longer bear the curse of the law, so that the covenant with Abraham could extend to the world. Blessing belongs to the covenant members, saved by faith and so made heirs of the Abrahamic covenant.[5]
Verse 10
“For as many as are [justified] by the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written that ‘Cursed is every man who is not abiding by all the things which have been written in the book of the Law, to do them.’”
Verse 10 functions as grounds for what came before in verses 6–9 (signaled by γὰρ) by using an argument from the contrary.[6] Paul set up an interplay between the curses and blessings of the covenant community. For since salvation was always intended to reach the Gentiles, it follows that they too receive the blessings of the covenant with Abraham (Gal 3:8; Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). Thus, the Gentiles (and even the Jews) become sons of Abraham, not by the works of the law, but by faith; the justification for this claim consists of an Old Testament quotation in verse 10.
Paul suggests that all those who rely on the works of the law for their justification, or right standing before God, are placed under a curse. Now he does not mean that anyone can be justified by keeping the law, as he makes clear elsewhere, for justification comes through faith (Gal 2:16; Rom 3:20). Rather, anyone who wishes to be saved by means of “the works of the law” is in fact cursed. Space does not permit a full analysis of that important phrase ἐξ ἔργων νόμου (“from the works of the law”), as the full meaning of the phrase remains a source of contention. Some suggest that “the works of the law” refers to the commandments of God given in the Mosaic covenant, both ceremonial and moral.[7] However, others have argued that “works of the law” refers specifically to Jewish boundary markers, such as circumcision, dietary laws, and observance of the Sabbath. The rationale is based primarily in Jewish cultural observations: Second Temple period Jews heard the law and thought of these things primarily, rather than the whole Torah.[8]
Some suggest, following the classical Lutheran view, that the argument Paul makes in this verse is structured as follows: (1) If anyone wishes to be made right with God, he must perfectly obey the law. (2) Implied premise: No one can perfectly obey the law. (3) Therefore, no one can be right with God (by means of the law). However, as Paul makes clear later, Jesus Christ himself stands in as the one who perfectly obeyed the law, thereby expiating the necessity of justification by means of obedience to the law.[9] And the law itself is fulfilled by the Christian who lived in the Spirit in love. Paul is not setting up a conflict between perfect obedience (legalism) and perfect freedom (antinomianism). He still operates within the Jewish framework. What he is suggesting is that the keeping of the law cannot justify, for it was never intended to.[10] Indeed, Paul means to say that the Judaizers have not kept the law because they have ignored the eschatological fulfillment of it in Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy says those who fail to keep the law are cursed. Paul agrees with this; but suggests that the keeping of the law is not the doing of it, but believing that it is fulfilled, not in works, but in the death and resurrection of the Messiah.[11]
Paul grounds his support for these claims in an OT quotation from Deut 27:26. For Paul does not say that anyone can keep the works of the law; rather, anyone who does not do the whole law bears a curse. Thus, the law must be fulfilled, which is in Christ. The Jewish idea of the “works of the law” is inferior because no one can keep it. It is only in Christ, who fulfills the law, that anyone can be saved from the curse of the law.[12] The law brings a curse because keeping the law itself could never save, nor was it ever intended to do so. The law is concerned with doing, not with believing. Faith was always the means of justification.
Additionally, since the Galatians are not Jews, they are not under the curse of the law in the same way the Jewish nation is. However, if they abandon Paul’s gospel and follow the Torah as the Judaizers would have them, they actually place themselves under that very curse. This is to exclude themselves from the blessings that come about as a result of faith.[13]
Verse 11
“Now it is evident that (ὅτι) no one is being justified in the presence of God in the law, because ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
The curse of the law finds its remedy in the curse of Christ in verse 13, but between the curse and counter-curse is an important point, and expands on the implied premise of verse 10: no one is made righteous by keeping the law, because it is not the law which makes anyone righteous. Rather, the “righteous will live by faith.” Since anyone who lives under the law is under a curse, it follows that no one can be made right through the observance of the law.[14] Paul’s citation of Habakkuk 2:4 shows that righteousness based on obedience is not adequate for salvation, as it is faith alone which saves.[15]
The Septuagint reads “Now the righteous one will live through my [God’s] faithfulness” (ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται), which suggests that it is through God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises man is justified. For justification is fundamentally a question of identity: to which family (Sarah or Hagar, to use Paul’s own language in Gal 4) does an individual belong? Justification is properly belonging to the covenant family, so that one receives the blessings promised to Abraham, becoming his son, whether Jew or Gentile.[16] But even if the Septuagint Greek text is incorrect, Paul also does not prefer the Hebrew, for he omits the pronoun altogether, though most commentators say it does not significantly alter the meaning.[17] However, this reference would lend some support to Wright’s position, which suggests that man is justified, not by placing faith in Christ, but because Christ is faithful to the covenant God made with Abraham (and Adam in Gen 3:15). The extra-biblical literature illustrates this point well: the object of faith is only God. On Habakkuk 2:4, the Qumran commentary states that this passage, “concerns all those who observe the law in the House of Judah, whom God will deliver from the House of Judgment because of their suffering and because of their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness.”[18] If we prefer the Septuagint reading, then the emphasis shifts from our faith to God’s faithfulness; it is not my belief but rather God’s word which ultimately can provide for my salvation.
All this suggests that Paul is on sure ground when he says, “the righteous will live by faith.” Whether it is “faith in Christ” (1QpHab) or “faithfulness of God” (LXX Hab 2:4) is irrelevant here, for the point is the same: eternal life is only for the ones saved by faith, while the ones who seek to be saved by the law remain under a curse and will not receive the blessings of eternal life.[19] And within the broader context, Habakkuk exhorts his readers to follow the example of Abraham, who was counted righteous because of his faith. Paul picks up on this same idea and exhorts the Galatians to follow this same example.
Verse 12
“Now the law is not by faith, but ‘The one who does them will live by them.’”
Paul must establish and make clear that “the works of the law” are not in themselves acts of faith. For righteousness by faith is distinct from righteousness by the law, which Paul once again proves from the Old Testament. Both Leviticus 18:5 and Habakkuk 2:4 (quoted in verse 11) point to Israel’s plight (both sin and exile) and God’s eschatological solution, which is Jesus Christ.[20] The one who obeys all the law can have life by the law, and this is what Paul’s opponents advocated. But the way of faith presented in verse 11 stands distinct from the method of law, and thus one cannot be made righteous by faith if one also thinks he must keep the law.[21]
Paul continues to emphasize the distinction between faith and law here in this verse. For since the righteous receive eternal life by faith, it must follow that the one who wishes to live by the law must keep the whole law. The broader text of Leviticus makes this clear. The same verb (ζήσεται) is in both 11 and 12, which signals that Paul is contrasting two methods of receiving eternal life: faith and law.[22] However, as Paul has made clear elsewhere, eternal life cannot in fact be received through the law. Faith for Paul does not include the Torah like it does for Jews; the doing of the law is not the means by which the Galatians become heirs of the covenant with Abraham. The law is not a system of faith, and thus to suggest (as the Judaizers did) that the Galatians must keep also the law as an aspect of faith misunderstands the nature of faith.[23] The covenant at Sinai belongs to a “different redemptive epoch” than the Gospel and the covenant with Abraham.[24]
Even when Paul seems to criticize it, he does have a positive view of the law, as it is holy and just and good and given by God (Rom 7). What the law was never intended to do was give life. While it is the word of God, it is not God himself, and thus it cannot give life.
Verse 13
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse on behalf of us, because it is written: ‘Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree,’”
Galatians 3:13 presents the opposite picture, or the “counter-curse,” given in 10–12.[25] Justification by the law only placed the Jews under a curse, for they could not keep the whole law, and thus could not be right before God. The redemption from that curse was Jesus Christ who became a curse for the faithful. The curse belongs to all who fail to keep the law in order that they might be justified. Thus, Christ freed all those who were under the law (i.e., Jews) from the curse of the law—if they believe in him.[26] The Apocryphon of James (early second century) attributes this idea directly to Christ himself: “For your sake I have placed myself under the curse, that you may be saved” (13:19–25). Christ became a curse by hanging on a tree – that is, through his crucifixion. Both Jews and Greeks understood that anyone who is crucified is cursed.[27] In the Jewish tradition, God gave this command directly to Moses on Mount Sinai:
If a man slanders his people and delivers his people to a foreign nation and does evil to his people, you shall hang him on a tree and he shall die…For he who is hanged on the tree is accursed of God and men. You shall not pollute the ground which I give you to inherit.[28]
The Jews based this on Deuteronomy 21:23, which they interpreted in terms of crucifixion: “Because of a man hanged alive on [the] tree, He proclaims, ‘Behold, I am against [you,’ says the Lord of Hosts].”[29] Crucifixion brings about God’s judgment, or a curse upon the one who is crucified. In quoting from the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 21:23, Paul follows the interpretation of the Ruth Targum and thereby legitimizes using Deuteronomy in the context of crucifixion, following the practice of his contemporaries. And even though crucifixion is unique as a method of persecution to the time of Paul, it was the exposure itself on the tree that brought the curse in Deuteronomy.[30]
Also of note in this verse is the word “redeemed”: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Historically, this has been understood in the context of slavery, so that man’s redemption indicates he was bought with a price, freed from his slavery to sin and made a slave to Christ.[31] However, the word “redeemed” refers to any general kind of manumission or even some business transaction, not necessarily sacral manumission (as that of slaves to a deity).[32] The idea in view here is specifically freedom from the curse; that is, the Jews are no longer under the curse of the law.
Ultimately, Christ’s death on the cross fulfilled the Law and thereby offered freedom to the community of faith.[33] The curse that is borne by the one who is crucified has come to be called “the scandal of the cross” (Gal 5:11; 1 Cor 1:18–31). Paul’s gospel centered around a crucified Messiah, though he and his audience knew that crucifixion on the cross was itself a scandalous affair. Paul understood that the curse of the law was placed on Christ at the cross; but through his resurrection and ascension, Christ overcame the scandal and freed man from the curse (Rom 4:25). Christ’s death freed the Jews from the curse of the law, and, as Paul explains in verse 14, allows Gentiles to be incorporated into Abraham’s blessing.
Verse 14
“in order that the blessing of Abraham might come unto the nations in Christ Jesus, in order that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Verse 14 provides two reasons why Jesus became a curse for man: (1) for the salvation of the world, and (2) so that the faithful might receive the Spirit of God who was promised to the people of God. Here, Paul anticipates what he later says in 3:28: faith makes man right with God, which in turn makes him right (Paul goes so far as to say “one”) with his neighbor.[34]
There is also a link between justification and the reception of the Spirit. The one counted righteous before God has the Spirit poured out on him, which is the mark of the extension of God’s covenant blessings to him.[35] Jews taught that the blessing of Abraham is his inheritance of the world to come, with the Spirit as a foreshadow and guarantee of that world.[36] The New Testament often interprets the person and work of Jesus against the context of the Old. Here, Paul does the same thing with the blessing of Abraham: it is through Christ that the blessing of Abraham extends to the nations.[37]
Now the ones who submit themselves to the Law willingly, as the Galatians are tempted to do, are not the true sons of Abraham (Gal 4:21–31). Thus, it is faith alone which makes Jews true sons of Abraham. The era of the law is over because Christ has defeated its power by becoming a curse, allowing the Spirit, the seal of the New Covenant, to come into the faithful. This is not the “individual spiritual experience” for which some argue. Rather, it is the seal which marks the covenant family of faith apart as the unique heirs of the Abrahamic covenant. For Paul is not assuming a narrative about how individuals are made right with God. Rather, the implicit narrative is covenantal: that is, how is God going to be faithful to the covenant he made with Abraham, to be a blessing to the nations.[38] The Holy Spirit is the seal that guarantees God will be faithful to that covenant, and thereby establish a new creation.
Membership in the covenant is not defined by the Torah, but by faith, for the renewed family of God (and sons of Abraham) consist of all those marked by faith. Membership in that community is fundamentally eschatological, for it is bound also with the inauguration of the “eschatological Spirit.” The criterion for membership into the covenant family is not the keeping of the law, but the mark of faith. Justification and future eschatological life go hand in hand in the thought of Paul.[39]
Conclusion
This essay has explored a number of different avenues with regards to these five verses, for these are some of the most contentious verses in Galatians.[40] To summarize: Paul is setting up a contrast between the justification by the works of the law and justification by faith. Paul suggests that all those who wish to be justified by the law are actually under a curse, for the one who wishes to live by the law must keep the whole law. But the one who is righteous lives by means of faith, escaping the curse of the law through the death of Jesus Christ. Christ died on a tree so that “we” (inclusive) would be free from keeping the obligations of the law. And as a result of this, and even for this purpose Christ died: that the Gentiles might be included in the covenant family and that the promised Spirit might come as a seal of salvation to all those who are made righteous by faith.
In part two, we’re going to more clearly tease out the implications of this reading of Galatians. For now, we can see that the traditional Protestant reading which affirms the death of Christ as sufficient to fulfill all that the law requires is in fact grounded in the writings of the New Testament.
[1] Several important witnesses (P46 D* Fgr G 88* 489 927) replace ἐπαγγελίαν with εὐλογία, probably because of εὐλογία in the previous clause. The broader witness (א A B C K L Ψ 056 6 33 69, et al.) supports ἐπαγγελίαν; so, Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 525.
[2] Gal 3:9. See also Paul’s discussion of the covenant in Gal 4:21–31 and Rom 9–11 and N. T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 38.
[3] Moisés Silva, “Galatians,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 792.
[4] Rabbi Ishmael, Mekhilta Rabbi Ishmael 7.25–27, qtd. in Hellenistic Commentary on the New Testament, ed. M. Eugene Boring, Klaus Berger, and Carsten Colpe (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 462. See too Arren Bennet Lawrence, Legalistic Nomism: A Socio-Rhetorical Reading of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Kashmere Gate, Delhi, India: ISPCK, 2016), 1.
[5] G. J. Brooke, “Testimonia,” in Dictionary of New Testament Background (ed. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 1207.
[6] David A. deSilva, Galatians: A Handbook on the Greek Text (BHGNT; Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014), 59.
[7] Timothy George, Galatians (NAC; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 195. George draws on Gal 5:3 to support his argument. Of equal importance is δια πιστις Ιησου Χριστου, but the phrase does not occur in the pericope. For a helpful analysis, see Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective, 47. See also Jonathan Van Neste, “An Exegetical Analysis of Galatians 2:14–21” (Union University, 2019), 7–8.
[8] James D. G. Dunn, “Works of the Law and the Curse of the Law (Galatians 3.10-14),” NTS 31 (1985): 523–42. See also Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians, 153.
[9] George, Galatians, 230–31.
[10] Ronald Y. K. Fung, The Epistle to the Galatians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 142-43.
[11] Silva, “Galatians,” 799.
[12] Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians: A Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Hermenia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 146. Scot McKnight, Galatians (NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 154–55.
[13] Betz, Galatians, 144.
[14] George, Galatians, 233; Betz, Galatians, 146.
[15] Keener, IVP Bible Background, 530.
[16] Wright, Paul, 121, 159.
[17] For example, Fung, Epistle to the Galatians, 143. Silva suggests Paul is correcting the LXX, but fails to provide a reason under that reading why Paul would not then quote from the Hebrew itself (Silva, “Galatians,” 802). See too Wright, Paul, 47, who uses this passage as one of the foundations of his argument.
[18] 1QpHab 7:17-8:3, quoted in Hellenistic Commentary, 462.
[19] Betz, Galatians, 147.
[20] George, Galatians, 236, n. 61.
[21] Keener, IVP Bible Background, 530.
[22] deSilva, Galatians, 62.
[23] Betz, Galatians, 148; McKnight, Galatians, 155.
[24] Silva, “Galatians,” 804.
[25] Debbie Hunn, “Galatians 3:13-14: Mere Assertion?” WTJ 80, no. 1 (Spr 2018): 147. Wright frames these verses primarily in terms of exile (The Climax of the Covenant, 140-42, 150), but Hunn offers a compelling refutation of this as the (only) lens through which to read these verses (“Galatians 3:13-14,” 143). Wright also emphasizes elsewhere that the “either/or” dichotomy in Pauline scholarship is often unnecessary, and could be so also in this context (Wright, Paul, 36).
[26] Philip la Grange du Toit, “Galatians 3 and the Redefinition of the Criteria of Covenant Membership in the New Faith-Era in Christ,” Neotestamentica 52, no. 1 (Spr 2018): 47-49. Keener, IVP Bible Background, 530.
[27] Boring, Hellenistic Commentary, 464-65. ξύλου can refer to the wood of a cross; deSilva, Galatians, 64.
[28] 11Q Temple, The Temple Scroll from Qumran 64:6-13, quoted in Hellenistic Commentary, 465.
[29] 4QpNah 1.17–18, quoted in Hellenistic Commentary, 464. This was especially because of Alexander Janneus’ (Hasmonean King of Judah) crucifixion of 800 of his enemies in 90 B.C.
[30] B. D. Chilton, “Rabbinic Literature: Targumim,” in Dictionary of New Testament Background (ed. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 907. Silva, “Galatians,” 798.
[31] B. B. Warfield, “The New Testament Terminology of ‘Redemption,’” in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 327–372. See also Leon Morris, “Redemption,” DPL, 784-86.
[32] Paul does use images of slavery elsewhere (Rom 6:6), but is not what he has in view here. See Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 60.
[33] Betz, Galatians, 152.
[34] George, Galatians, 243.
[35] Sam K. Williams, “Justification and the Spirit in Galatians,” JSNT 9, no. 29 (1987): 97.
[36] Keener, IVP Bible Background, 530. See Hag 2:5; Ex 12:25; 13:5.
[37] E. Ulrich, “Hebrew Bible,” in Dictionary of New Testament Background (ed. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 457. See also Gen 12:3; 18:18.
[38] Frank J. Matera, Galatians (Sacra Pagina; Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 124–125; Betz, Galatians, 152–53; McKnight, Galatians, 157; Fung, Epistle to the Galatians, 151; Wright, Paul, 37.
[39] Debbie Hunn, “Pistis Christou in Galatians: The Connection to Habakkuk 2:4.” Tyndale Bulletin 63, no. 1 (2012): 83; Wright, Paul, 113; du Toit, “Galatians 3 and the Redefinition,” 52–53.
[40] Fung, Epistle to the Galatians, 139.