may 21, 2011 1 - house of david fellowshiphouseofdavidfellowship.com/pdfs/21may2011.pdf · 2011. 5....

May 21, 2011 http://hodf.org 1


Conclusion of Galatians

� The Merits of Character Assassination� Love Your Enemies…Not so much� What is an Intra-Jewish Polemic?� Peter and Paul do lunch� 4QMMT – The Works of the Law� The Holy Spirit as key� How life in the Spirit proceeds



� The Custodian ( Greek paidagwgo.j )� The Role of Torah� Review: Circumcision = Conversion� Overview of Galatian Letter� Chapter 4:1-7 Heirs and slaves� Days, months, times, and years� Conclusions


How we're going to roll

� Consider my presentation like an attorney presenting a case, establishing a baseline of facts, and then connecting all the dots to understand the letter to the Galatians.

� I will demonstrate how Paul has to explain Hebraic concepts mis-taught by his opponents using Roman principles.


The Merits of Character Assassination

� The act of deliberately attempting to destroy a person's reputation by defamatory remarks.

� Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003



� The slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person.

� Merriam-Webster online



� It may involve exaggeration, misleading half-truths, or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person.

� Wikipedia online� What if the picture is true? Is it still

character assassination?� Is that a problem?


Love Your Enemies…Not so much

� But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. KJV Matthew 5:44



� But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. KJV Galatians 1:8



� As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. KJV Galatians 1:9



� Yeshua had his moments too…� “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,

how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” KJV Matthew 23:33.


Intra-Jewish Polemic

� What is a Polemic?� A polemic is a variety of argument or

controversy made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion.

� The word is derived from the Greek πολεmικός, meaning ‘warlike, hostile’.



� What is a Polemic?� A polemic is a form of dispute, wherein

the main efforts of the disputing parties are aimed at establishing the superiority of their own points of view regarding an issue.



� Journal of Biblical Studies, #112, 3 (1993) pp. 459-477, James D. G. Dunn

� Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians



� No one will need to be reminded that Galatians is one of the most polemical documents in all the Bible.

� The typically polite thanksgiving of the normal letter opening is replaced by the indignation and fiery anathema of 1:6-9.



� The Jerusalem opposition is described with a series of weasel words — “false brothers smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy on our freedom” (2:4).



� Jerusalem itself is identified with Hagar and dumped in the slavery column in the opposing columns of 4:21-27,

� And the Galatians are encouraged to throw out the other missionaries as Sarah encouraged Abraham to throw out Hagar and Ishmael…



� Such language and tactics are typical of factional polemic the world over. In spirit and tone at least, it is not particularly Jewish or Christian.1

� L Τ Johnson, “The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and the Conventions of Ancient Polemic,”JBL 108 (1989) 419 - 441



� At the same time, there are some elements that seem to echo more specifically intra-Jewish polemic and it is these on which this [20 page] paper focuses.

� p. 459



� Examples: Intra-Jewish factional disputes abound in the last 200 years of Second Temple Judaism.

� Typically, one faction would claim to be “righteous” and condemn others as “sinners”

� 1 Macc 1:34; 2:44, 48; 1 Enoch 5:4-7; 82:4-5; Pss. Sol. 4:8; 13:6-12



� For while “sinner” still denoted sustained disregard for and breach of the law, the disregard and breach were evidently more often in the eye of the beholder than not.



� What was at issue, in other words, was sectarian (or factional) interpretation of the law, halakic dispute of such intensity that the issues were regarded by the “righteous” as make or break, as determinative of the others’acceptability or unacceptability to God.

� p. 463� Messy-antics



� Matthew 9:10 And it came to pass, as Yeshua sat down for a meal at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

� 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, “Why does your Master eat with publicans and sinners?”



� 12 But when Yeshua heard that, he said unto them, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

� 13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice’: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”



� To be noted once again is the fact that, as in the case of Yeshua, the accusation was being brought by Jews against fellow Jews.

� Although the language referred to non-Jews (“Gentile sinners”), the issue was still an intra-Jewish one — the issue of covenant loyalty, of Torah piety, of avoiding contamination by the “sinner.”



� And since it involved disagreement between Jews on what was and what was not permissible in associating with Gentiles, the issue was in fact one of intra-Jewish factional dispute.

� pp. 464-465



� So the author(s) of Jubilees condemn(s) both the sons of Israel who failed to circumcise their sons as “making themselves like the Gentiles,”



� and also those Jews who used a different calendar to calculate the feast days for ‘forgetting the feasts of the covenant and walking in the feasts of the gentiles, after their errors and after their ignorance” (15:33-34; 6:15).



� So, what is an Intra-Jewish Polemic?� A warlike and hostile argument between

Jews of differing halakhic beliefs with the intention of out yelling one another, thereby establishing their belief as the superior one.


Peter and Paul do lunch

� 2:11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was at fault.

� 12 For before some came from James, he was eating with the gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to withdraw and separate himself, in fear of those of the circumcision.



� What has just happened?� Peter, like these other factions within

Second Temple Judaism, had now made table fellowship a test case of covenant identity and faithfulness, and in concluding that the Gentile believers failed that test (or rather that their company caused him to fail that test) had withdrawn from table fellowship with them.



� 13 And the other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, insomuch that Barnabas also was led astray.

� 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all,

� (so much for taking a brother aside to speak privately about a matter)



� 14 “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

� Peter’s actions said… “You Gentiles will need to become proselytes.”

� His previous actions said that table fellowship with the Gentiles of faith was OK.


4QMMT

� New Testament Studies, #43, (1997) pp. 147-153, James D. G. Dunn

� 4QMMT and Galatians� 4Q397 and 4Q398


4QMMT

� The first point of interest is the self-description of the writer(s) of the scroll:

� ‘We have separated ourselves from the multitude of the people [and from all their impurity]’.

� This has been identified as a Sadducianand Phariseian debate on purity halakah.


4QMMT

� The second point is a discussion of the blessings and curses (Gal 3:8-14)

� The third point is “works of the law”� The Fourth point is “at the end of time,

you may rejoice in finding that some of our words/practices are so/true/correct. And it shall be reckoned to you for righteousness.


4QMMT

� The fifth point is the calendar issues� “To sum up, the four or five points of

parallel between 4QMMT and Galatians surely give us sufficient grounds for concluding that MMT preserves the sort of theological attitude and halakhic practice which in the event determined the attitude and action of Peter and the other Christian Jews in Antioch.


4QMMT

� But the weight of the evidence does seem to suggest that MMT preserves a vocabulary and manner of theologisingwhich left its mark on a wider spectrum of Jewish thought and practice, and that it was just this sort of theologising and practice which confronted Paul in Antioch and which he wrote Galatians to counter. pp. 152-153.


The Holy Spirit as key

� New Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

� Journal of the Science and the New Testament Church of the elderly client

� The Words of the Luminaries, the Curse of the Law, and the Outpouring of the Spirit in Gal 3:10–14 by Rodrigo J. Morales (his translations)



� The key question that drives this section of the letter [3:10-14], and indeed the majority of Galatians 3–6, is the Galatians’ reception of the Spirit.

� “This alone I want to know from you: was it from works of the Law that you received the Spirit, or from the proclamation of faith?” (Gal 3:2).



� Likewise, he rounds out the first part of the argument by describing Christ’s act of (1) redeeming “us” from the curse of the Law “in order that the (2) blessingmight come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, in order that we might receive the promise of the (3) Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:14).



� Clearly Paul sees a close connection between (1) redemption from the curse, the extension of the (2) blessing to the Gentiles, and the reception of the (3) Spirit.

� It is the Spirit, I will argue, that plays a key role in determining how Paul understands the curse of the Law in Gal 3:10–14.



� Specifically, Paul’s conclusion in 3:14 presupposes a Jewish tradition seen in Isaiah, the Words of the Luminaries(4Q504), and the Testament of Judah, that presents the gifts of the (2) blessingand the (3) Spirit as a sign of (1) IsraelIsrael’’s eschatological redemptions eschatological redemption.



� A. Isaiah - In his groundbreaking work The Faith of Jesus Christ, Richard Hays suggests in passing that Paul may join the Spirit and the blessing in Galatians 3:14 in light of a similar conjunction in Isaiah 44:2–3, the only passage in the OT to associate these two words closely.

� The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1–4:11, pp. 182–183.



� A. Isaiah 43:14–21 describes God’s promise to lead Israel in a new exodusby making a way in the wilderness for them and causing water to spring forth there.



� B. Isaiah 43:22–28, provides an account of why Israel suffered: Israel had failed to call upon God and to bring him offerings and as a result God “profaned the princes of the sanctuary [and] delivered Jacob to utter destruction, and Israel to reviling.



� C. Isaiah 44:3b [LXX] God promises to pour out his Spirit upon Israel: “I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children”.



� D. Isaiah 44:1–8 thus speaks of God’s mercy upon Israel following her punishment, and several images from this passage (“seed,” “blessing,” “Spirit,”God as “redeemer”) feature prominently in Gal 3:10–14.



� 2. The Words of the Luminaries (4Q504)� “And [you] did not desert us amongst the

nations. You did favors to your people Israel among all [the] countries amongst whom you had exiled them, to place upon their heart to turn to you and to listen to your voice [in agreement] with all that You commanded through the hand of Moses, your servant.”(4Q504 5.10b–14; cf. Deut 30,1–2)



� 2. The Words of the Luminaries (4Q504)� “For you have poured your Holy Spirit

(hk`dwq jwr) upon us, to bestow your blessings to us.” (4Q504 5.15–16)



� 2. The Words of the Luminaries (4Q504)� The Words of the Luminaries thus

associates the gift of God’s Spirit with the restoration of Israel after its punishment for failure to keep the covenant.

� Drawing on Isaiah 44, the prayer presents Israel’s reception of God’s Holy Spirit and of the blessings as the sign that God has redeemed Israel from the curses of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.



� 3. The Testament of Judah� In ch. 23, Judah laments the sins his

sons will commit and the resultant punishment they will receive, described in the language of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.



� 3. The Testament of Judah� “And the heavens will be opened upon

him [a messianic figure] to pour out the Spirit as a blessing (pneumatoj eulogian) of the Holy Father. And he will pour out the Spirit of grace on you. And you shall be sons in truth, and you will walk in his first and final decrees”.

� 24:2-3



� 3. The Testament of Judah� Following, the text proceeds to depict the

resurrection of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to promise a kingdom to the sons of Israel.

� 25:1-2



� 3. The Testament of Judah� Paul interprets the (3) Spirit both as

the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to (2) bless the Gentiles and as the long awaited sign that God had finally (1) redeemed Israel from the curses of Deuteronomy.


Life in the Spirit

� Galatians 5:13 – 6:10� 13 Brethren, ye have been called unto

liberty; only do not use that liberty for an occasion to indulge the sinful nature.

� 16 This I say then, Walk by the leading of the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

� 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the penalty.


Life in the Spirit

� Galatians 5:13 – 6:10� 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk

in the Spirit.� 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.


Life in the Spirit

� Galatians 5:13 – 6:10� 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of

the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.


paidagwgo.j

� Paul wants to explain to his audience, which is relatively new in their faith, that the role of the Torah, prior to accepting Yeshua, is the paidagwgo.j.

� Paul will use an appropriate element from the Galatians' own culture to make a very Jewish point.


paidagwgo.j

� The law is here represented as an overseer or guardian, to keep watch of those committed to its care, to accompany them with its commands and prohibitions, and to keep them in a condition of dependence and restraint…

� Vincent


paidagwgo.j

� “Originally, ‘boy-leader’, the man, usually a slave…whose duty it was to conduct a boy or youth…to and from school and to superintend his conduct generally;

� When the young man became of age, the paidagwgo.j should no longer be needed.


paidagwgo.j

� This “guardian” (ESV) would try to instill in the boys a basic sense of who a responsible citizen was until the boys were old enough to take care of themselves.

� A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, BDAG, p. 748


paidagwgo.j

� “Our sharp-eyed and efficient supervisor of the education of the young must redirect their natural development along the right lines, by always setting them on the paths of goodness as embodied in the legal code.”

� Plato, Laws 7.809. 428-347 B.C.E.


Role of Torah

� “For the unredeemed, the Torah was intended to preserve the mental, moral and social safety of the environment into which an individual was born and raised.

� The person was protected ‘until the date set by the Father’ (Galatians 4:2) when the Spirit of Holiness would lead them to the Teacher, the Messiah.


Role of Torah

� The Torah does this by providing a safe environment in which they may live. The judgments, commandments, ordinances and other teachings of the Torah all help to create a safe community surrounded by the protective border of the Torah. Anyone who lives within the confines of that border will live in relative safety.


Role of Torah

� This does not mean that the person living within the borders of the Torah is automatically safe spiritually, or ‘saved’; rather, living within the Torah community, his life is being preserved and protected as he awaits the time set by the Father…”

� Torah Rediscovered by Ariel and D’vorahBerkowitz.


Circumcision = Conversion

� Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

� 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

� 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.


Overview of Galatians

� 1. Who is Paul and why you need to know� 2. Where did he get his message from?� 3. My relationship with the pillars� 4. Why I yelled at Peter� 5. An “MMT” mentality is not the way to go� 6. Did you receive the Spirit by ‘works’ or

by ‘faith’?


Overview of Galatians

� 7. Torah is important but we must not overlook the order established with Abraham

� 8. The role of the paidagwgo.j� 9. Roman patria potestas� 10. Reject these false missionaries� 11. Conversion causes a fall from grace� 12. Let the Spirit do her work.


Heirs and slaves

� THINK: What was he combating from the other missionaries?

� 3:29 …heirs according to the promise.� 4:1 The heir, as long as he is a child,

differs not from a slave as far as execution of the business of the estate even though legally, by right of birth, he [is] will be Lord of all.


Heirs and slaves

� 4:2 But is under supervisors until the time appointed by the father.

� 3 So we also, when we were children, were in bondage under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved (personal and elemental spirits).

� “All things had their special angels”Vincent – Lengthy explanation


Heirs and slaves

� 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

� 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

� 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.


Heirs and slaves

� 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

� We are already heirs of God, so we don’t need to “MMT” our way to be an heir.


Galatians 4:8-11

� 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

� 9 But now that you know God - or rather are known by God - how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?


Galatians 4:8-11

� 4:10 You are observing days and months and seasons and years. (not like Col 2:17)

� “Hence the polemical denunciation already noted above: to observe a feast on the wrong date was not to observe the feast, but to ‘forget the feasts of the covenant and walk in the feasts of the gentiles, after their errors and after their ignorance’”(Jub. 6:32-35). Dunn, p. 471


Galatians 4:8-11

� …to commit ‘sin like the sinners’. (I Enoch 82:4-7; see also 1QS 1:14-15; CD 3:14-15).

� Mark 2:23 – 3:5 � “…went through the corn fields on the

Sabbath day ‘doing what was not lawful’…”� “And they watched him, whether he would

heal him on the Sabbath day; that they might accuse him.”


Galatians 4:8-11

� 4:11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

� The calendar they are keeping (which is different from the Hebraic calendar he taught them) tells him that they have fallen for the MMT path which means no more dependence on the Spirit but switching to the flesh to accomplish hiership.

� Omer 28/32

May 21, 2011 http://hodf.org 105September 28, 2010 http://hodsbs.org 105

may 21, 2011 1 - house of david fellowshiphouseofdavidfellowship.com/pdfs/21may2011.pdf · 2011. 5....

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