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Gal 3:10 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (KJV)
Well we encounter another verse that is a lie in Galatians chapter 3. So far we have seen many attempts by the writers of Galatians chapter 3 to purposefully misquote and twist the Jewish Scriptures in a negative way in order to misrepresent the Law and make it "negative." Of course this has to be done if you are going to do away with it and the task was not hard as the Gentile audiences to which these epistles were aimed had little or no prior understanding of Hebrew or the Jewish Scriptures. Little has changed today in the Gentile Church. We must suspend in our thinking when reading this article that Galatians chapter 3 was written long after 150 A.D. and most likely around 180 A.D. when Irenaeus responds to Marcion's first New Testament with one of his own. The writer of Galatians chapter 3 does a masterful job of writing and misquoting the Torah in order to make it look as if the Law has been replaced by "faith" in Christ. Here we have in Gal. 3:10 a rather scary passage that God will curse people if they "continueth not in ALL things that are written in the book of the Law."
We all sin and come short of the glory of God and this is without doubt. We are told in Gal. 3 that if a man does not "continue in ALL that is written in the book of the Law" that his failure to continue in "ALL" the Law brings a terrible curse from God or so we are led to believe. My Christian New Testament has a reference verse from which the Galatians 3 writer quotes and that verse is Deut. 27:26.
Answer for yourself: Does Deut. 27:26, from which the Gal. 3 writer supposedly quotes in verse 10, really say that God will curse mankind if he does not "continue in ALL that is written in the Law." The answer is simply "NO"!
In the Tyndale Commentary on Galatians on page 96 it says "Now it is quite true that the Hebrew Bible does not have the word "all" in this verse; it simply says "Cursed be he who does not confirm (uphold) the words of this Law, to perform them."
Let us see how the verse is written in the Hebrew:
Dt. 27:26 Accursed is one who will not uphold the words of this Torah, to perform them. And the entire people shall say, Amen.
When consulting the Stone Edition Chumash concerning the commentary and exegesis of Deuteronomy chapter 27 verse 26 which is the verse that is misquoted in Gal. 3: 10 we find some interesting comments. Ramban explains "who will not uphold" to mean that every Jew (person since part of the Mosaic Laws are contained in the Covenant and Laws of Noah) must accept the Torah's validity in full, and dare not claim that even one of its commandments is not relevant. He next says that "this curse" is not imposed upon a person who commits a sin, only one one who denies that a part of the Torah is God given or relevant. The curse is not upon one who breaks a commandment although disobedience toward God never brings His blessing. But the curse of this verse refers only to those who look at the Torah and say that it is not from God or not relevant or as Christians have been taught is "passed away" and " not binding." This is dangerous ground for a Christian to not only live in but die with such beliefs cherished instead of the truth concerning the Torah. The Torah become not relevant to all who believe the theology of Galatians 3 and other such replacement religion as expressed in the New Testament. Ramban cites approvingly a view in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sotah 7:4) that this curse applies to anyone who can influence others to be loyal to the Torah, but does not care to do so, especially people in positions of authority, who have the power to mold the behavior of others. Even someone who studies the Torah and is rigorously observant, but is unconcerned about the shortcomings of others, even though he can help them, is included in this verse. This is very scary when you understand the scope of Ramban's comments and consider what Christian Pastors teach concerning the Law and the Torah being passed away today and that mankind is no longer under the Law/Torah. The verse as understood by the Rabbis is that the curse comes to one who denies the Law's validity for one's life and that God gave it all and it's observance is demanded by God. We are to perform these Laws as our test of our love for our God and such performance, as best we can, is commanded by God. Denial of any of the above brings the curse of God and the New Testament is full of religious doctrine that pays the way for such curses in one's life; either now or after we die.
These verses also implies the obligation upon every individual to support Torah study, each according to his ability.
Now if you believe that the Jews are better equipped to interpret their own writings than the monks of Rome then we have a serious problem on our hands. It would seem from the Jewish commentators on their own Bible that the writer of Gal. 3 verse 10 has again completely misunderstood the Jewish Scriptures and tragically misused the verse of Deut. 27:26 in such a way as to negate the whole of the Law as if failing to obey it "all" is a curse upon anyone who tries to live his life dedicated to the Word and Laws of God. Again it must be said that Laws are little more than Covenant responsibilities that one has been given by God to assure one' right-standing before God. Such right-standing before God is assured by one's attempted obedience to these Covenant stipulations and Laws and when one fails this same God has given remedy to restore such a broken relationship. This is not hard and one must have only the desire to try to live a life obedient before God. But again the writer of Gal. 3:10 uses the verse to scare all readers everywhere that failure to uphold and perform "all" of the Law brings a curse upon him when in reality such an attempt brings the blessings of God. Besides there are parts of the Law that apply only to men, to women, and to priests. There is no way a person can "obey" all the Law and Jesus was not an exception. He believed in it "all" as other Jewish commentators have related as the real meaning of the verse in it's Hebraic context. Jesus knew and believed that all of the Torah was from God and relevant to all facets of life. It is we who are Christians who have been opposite and hold contrary beliefs concerning the Law that in reality are sinful and bring the curse that we are assured we won't get. I would hate to die as a "Law/Torah" rejecting Christian and meet God and find out what curse awaits me because I believed the anti-Semitic pro-Pauline writer of Galatians 3:20 over Moses, the Prophets, and Jesus. Again we encounter the purposeful mistranslation of the original verse from Deut. 27:26 and have even the addition of words to the text that are missing in the original ("all) from the pen of the writer of Gal. 3:10. This "curse" again is not for sinning but for denying the Law's validity for one's life and that it all came from God. The verse of Deut. 27:26 is completely taken out of context by the writer of Galatians and such does irreparable damage to the original meaning of the verse and what God intended we know about His Torah.
The real message Paul was sending in his letters to the Corinthians and the Galatians was to separate themselves from a group which had become a serious threat to him because they were exposing his false teachings for what they were…lies based upon false pride. The Biblically illiterate Gentiles of Asia became easy pickings for Paul. It was these Gentiles who had learned about Judaism in the synagogues and felt an affinity to monotheism. Most had not accepted all the precepts of Judaism but were sympathetic to its principles. Paul found them a ready-made community to proselytize and had converted many of them to his faith. Then he discovered that many of his converts were reverting back to Judaism or Jewish practices. They and the Jewish-Christian missionaries who returned them to the fold of the Torah were called “Judaizers.” The Judaizing Christians were a problem to Paul because converts remained Christians while insisting on following a Jewish style such as observing the Sabbath, celebrating Jewish festivals following dietary laws as mandated in the Torah for them. These “Judaizers” were a threat to Paul's efforts to indoctrinate his false beliefs and practices into his converts and followers. Paul expressed his greatest animosity for Judaizer, pronouncing a curse on them, when just the opposite is true for those who add to or take away from the Word of God (Deut.. 4:2). But it is only by understanding the conflict bet Paul and the Judaizers and his bitter resentment of them as competitors that we can appreciate his virulent attacks on the Torah and his use or misuse of quotations from it. The Law is the underpinning of Judaism; by condemning it and its advocates, Paul hoped to weaken both. This, then, is the background and motivation behind Paul's choice of Pentateuchal quotations. He literally took the law out of the Law and transformed it into a mockery of Moses' messages. Paul launched a battery of Biblical citations in Gal. 3. The following paragraphs contain some of Paul's quotations, their original wording in Tanakh, and comments.
Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do every written in the book of the law" (Gal. 3:10).
Paul was saying in essence that once a person became a Jew and agreed to try to live according to the Law, he incurred the wrath and curses of God if he failed to uphold every statute. On the other hand, Paul inferred, if one did not take himself the obligation of living according to principles in Pentateuch, he was then free to violate them without penalty so long as he had faith. Although Paul expressed another view later in the same letter (Gal. 5:19-21, 6:7-9), he nevertheless continued to propound the concept that the individual was not bound by any limitations provided, he professed the belief that Jesus is Christ. So often I hear Christians say that the Jew cannot be “saved” without faith in Jesus because they do not obey the law perfectly, but to one’s amazement if they only knew a little about Judaism; … There is no hint in Rabbinic literature of a view such as the Paul expressed, namely that one must achieve legal perfection through perfect obedience to the Law. This neither corresponds to general rabbinic positions nor to those of any specific branch of the Pharisees such as the Shammaites who were considered stricter than others. “The Rabbis consistently passed up opportunities to require legal perfection.” Paul's version of Dt. 27:26 is predictably different from its original source, viz "Cursed is he will not uphold the words of this Law to do theme .” It is important to know to what the phrase, 'the words of this Law,' refers in it's original context as used in the book of Deut. 27:26. This is the last verse in the chapter and relates to commandments of a very serious nature. Mentioned in the previous verses. There is a series of imprecations against people who commit the following immoral acts: idolatry, dishonor of parents, removal of a neighbor’s landmark (theft of his land), inhumanity to the blind, injustice to the helpless (widowed, orphaned, and foreigner), incest and beastiality, murder, and bribery. Many of these offenses might never be discovered or judged in a law court. The Mosaic Law stated that God would judge the offenders and curse (punish) them for their wickedness. This, according to Torah, would be the fate of those who violated serious ethical laws, whether or not they expressed a belief in the Mosaic code. Paul said in direct contradiction to the Deuteronomic phrase he cited that no one will be justified by the Law because "the righteous will live by faith." This is the same error he makes repeatedly as seen in the previous articles. We discussed this phrase from Habakkuk at the beginning of this series of articles. Of course no one will be justified by the Law or rather the Law will not justify any wanton and deliberate offender. On the contrary, the righteous Jew or Gentile will be justified by his good behavior which is his response to faith in God and His Word.. Immediately after Paul’s quote in Gal. 3 of the phrase in Deuteronomy with his anti-Torah interpretation, Paul will now do something he has not do often; he quotes correctly an Old Testament passage from Leviticus coupled with an explanation consistent with its meaning. He stated that the Law is not based on faith and illustrated this with Lev. 18:5: You shall keep My statutes and ordinances and the man who does so shall live by them.” It is a sad shame that he vacillates between these positions in his writings, and even sadder that the Christian Church as so ill-prepared their flocks that in reading the Bible they overlook such errors.
Answer for yourself: Are you now beginning to see the importance of studying your Hebrew Roots?
It is time for Christians to repent when information like this comes their way. The bottom line is that we have bought lie after lie in the New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Where is your anger that you have been deceived when reading the New Testament as you are now becoming aware of the purposeful misrepresentation of "religious beliefs" once held by the true followers of Jesus? We are admonished not to add to or take away from the Word of God but we see it done on almost every page of the New Testament when passage after passage is purposefully mistranslated, misapplied, taken out of context, twisted to give a different meaning than the original author intended, etc.
Answer for yourself: When will you come to a point in your life that you can say before God "this is enough" and begin to defend God and His truth when such lies are exposed?
In closing the context of Deut. 27:26 and the curse is not for one breaking the Law but denying the validity and relevance of the Law for one's life. This curse ironically comes to those who adopt Paul's theological persuasion of the end of the Law. Paul is simply wrong and we have the testimony of the Jewish nation for 2000 years to this fact. It is the Jew's Law and their Torah and we need to listen to their "light" as they instruct the nations to the truths of God since Israel and not Rome is a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood.