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Gal 3:8 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. (KJV)
Answer for yourself: We must begin with exposing another lie in Galatians chapter 3. The pro-Pauline writer begins by saying "And the scripture, forseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith." What Jewish Scripture says that God's plan is to justify the heathen by faith? Well we just looked at it in Galatians 3:6 where the writer has previously misquoted and lifted out of context Gen. 15:6 by saying "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." In a previous article we demonstrated that when one looks as Gen. 15:6 we find "he" and him" and ascertained through study of the Rabbis and Jewish Commentaries that the Jews have understood the passage as referring to Abraham who believed in the YHVH's promise to him despite his unworthiness and counted it toward God's faithfulness that God would fulfill His promise to Abraham despite Abraham's sin and failure. This was for Abraham a mark of the righteousness of God. Therefore Abraham believed God and Abraham counted it to God for just another example of God's righteousness. The writer of Galatians not only got it wrong but continues to lead his readers astray as he builds off this false premise and that false premise being that if you have "faith" in this Pauline "message" then God considers your "faith" in this Pauline doctrine "righteousness." The original verse properly interpreted does not support such an understanding as Gal. 3 tries to put forth.
The writer goes on to say "in thee (Abraham) shall all the nations be blessed. Here again we have a division of interpretation among the Christians and the Jews.
It is amazing what you find when you really read Christian commentaries on the New Testament. In my hand at present is a very respectful commentary series on the New Testament entitled The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries; in particular, the commentary on Galatians. I used these extensively in Seminary as they deal heavily with the Greek words and their original meanings. In this Tyndale Commentary on Galatians on p. 93 when addressing Gal. 3:8 is says "When Paul says "Scripture says," or as here, "Scripture, forseeing," HE IS NOT CREDITING THE BIBLE...!
Answer for yourself: What does this mean that when Paul says "Scripture forseeing" or "Scripture says" in relationship with Christian commentators who are Greek scholars when they say PAUL IS NOT CREDITING THE BIBLE?
It simply means that there is no Scripture to refer back to for Paul's statements but in Paul's mind that for him; and I quote from p. 93, "it is the equivalent of saying 'The Lord of Scripture says." In other words such statements used by Paul as "Scripture says" or "Scripture forseeing" means that for Paul such wording corresponds to what Paul's ideas of what Scripture elsewhere means or should have meant concerning his Gospel of Christ. the stark reality of the matter is that Paul is lying to his readers and has absolutely no Jewish Scripture to use for his ideas yet he says he does. This is lying about God! The only problem with what Paul does, and what the typical Christian does not know, is that we have 3500 years of Jewish Scholarship which disagrees with Paul! If you have never read the Jewish authorities on their "own" Scripture you should then I challenge you to read Paul who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and ask yourself where he got his ideas from since he is supposed to be a "Pharisee of Pharisees."
This same commentary goes on to say, and I quote, "in no sense, no Christian could speak of the gospel being preached before Calvary" yet we are supposed to believe that Paul's gospel and understanding of "Christ crucified" was somehow preached to Abraham and that Abraham's supposed faith in the death of Jesus as interpreted by Paul much later was his "salvation." I have already shown you how the same writer completely teaches the doctrine of faith in relation to Abraham incorrectly and now we are supposed to believe from the same writer 2 verses later that this "faith" in a religious doctrine concerning man crucified thousands of years later was his "salvation." I can believe almost anything but when you interpret the text wrong and build all other conclusions off of such false assumptions then this stretches the limit of any believability!
In reality the whole context of Galatians chapter 3 verse 8 is a fraud and as you now know was written long after Paul's death and the first copy of it to be seen occurred in 180 A.D. with Irenaeus' response to Marcion's First New Testament. In reality no such "gospel" was ever preached to Abraham because the whole Pauline concept of "Christ crucified" for salvation is built off of pagan sunworship and can be easily proven if you have the courage to read it for yourself.
First of all let us see how the verse reads in the Jewish Masoretic text as taken from the Stone Edition Tanakh:
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you"
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that it says "shall bless themselves" by you?
The Art Scroll Tanakh Series on Genesis tells us on page 431 and following that the simple meaning is" A man will say to his son, "Be like Abraham." This is the meaning of the expression whenever it occurs in the Jewish Scriptures. The best proof that this is the correct interpretation is the indisputable usage of the similar phrase in Gen. 48:20 where we find "by you shall Israel invoke blessings saying, 'May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.'"
According to Ramban, this simply means that all families of the earth will do the same and pattern themselves after Abraham and in so doing receive the same blessings of God.
Now we need to pay close attention. Ramban adds that the word also could be understood in the "passive," implying a certain universal doctrine that the phrase is to be rendered: "through you will all of the nations of the earth be blessed" and Abraham will become the source of all blessings to the world by virtue of himself (for his sake). In other words because of Abraham's righteousness shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because wherever Abraham lived the blessings of God were to overwhelm him and the lands and people where he abided. Whereever Abraham lived those who lived around him would benefit from the blessings upon the land, livestock, harvests, etc. In order that the nations recognize and elevate Abraham God was to begin to shower His blessings upon the lands of those in whose midst Abraham lived during his life and in this way the "nations" would partake of Abraham's blessings (like Philistia and Egypt).
Another perfect example of the above interpretation comes from Gen. 22:18 where it says:
"and all the nations of the world shall bless themselves by your offspring, because you have listened (obeyed) to my voice."
Answer for yourself: Does it really say "because you have listened" to my voice or "because you have obeyed" my voice? Let's look at the Strong's number for the word used in the Hebrew:
8085 shama` (shaw-mah'); a primitive root; to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.): KJV-- X attentively, call (gather) together, X carefully, X certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, X diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear (-ken, tell), X indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, (make a) proclaim (-ation), publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, X surely, tell, understand, whosoever [heareth], witness.
We saw earlier that the "nations" were to "bless themselves" by following Abraham's example and we see again that his example is not "faith alone" as Paul would have us believe but "faith and obedience" to the Laws and Commandments of God! The pro-Pauline author of Galatians chapter 3 has it completely backward! Now pay close attention. On page 812 of the Art Scroll Genesis commentary on Gen. 22:17-18 we find that the Jewish Scriptural authorities are in agreement that because as a result that Abraham had "listened" to God's voice to sacrifice his only son and followed through on it with obedient actions as the fruit of his faith where he took his son to Mt. Moriah and laid him upon the altar that Abraham's descendants were to receive the blessings of Abraham because "Abraham did not withhold his only son." Because Abraham "did" something in response to his faith God would bless his descendants. Notice again "faith" and "obedience" was the message and not "faith alone" as the writer of Galatians 3 would have us believe. The lesson we must learn is to live and "be" like Abraham; a man who responded with concrete actions with his faith.
The issue for Christians is that if these "Laws" as understood as concrete actions demanded and commanded by God are no longer applicable as the New Testament and the writer of Galatians maintains, then we are relegated to doing what we consider "good" instead of what God has declared as "godly." The Church today does a lot of good works but many of them are in direct violation of the Commandments of God. It might appear as a "good work" to those who do not know that the Commandments of God demand a different conduct or behavior be done in that particular instance but God knows the difference. To replace what God commanded done with a "good idea" of your Pastor or Church, when in goes again the positive and negative Commandments of Scripture, is sin and you, not knowing the Commandments because your church has followed Galatians 3 and other such writings that completely twist the Jewish Scriptures, sin before God in doing what you think is "good" when God sees the breaking of what He commanded be done which to Him is Godly. This principle is the terrible fruit we see in Christendom today worldwide where, as Jesus said that man has the propensity to do what he esteems right and let the absolute love and truth of God as seen in His Word go lacking! For Jesus this was sin!
Mark 7:13 13 Making the word of God of none effect (Laws and Commandments) through your tradition (that is not the way we do it in our church), which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. (KJV)
This sickness in Christianity affects everything from our worship to our tithing. We think we are doing right but a quick comparison with the Commandments of God, His Laws concerning these two issues alone, will show anyone who can read that what they and their church is doing is a violation of what God said He wanted done. In reality, and without knowing, Christians dress up today and go to church as Nadab and Abihu and worship with strange fire before God since they have bought a "false gospel" by the very one who warned us not to accept anything but what he said!
Gal 1:8 8 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)
How clever of Paul for he did write that but if you have spent any time reading and studying the Pauline website you understand the rationale of such a saying by Paul. I will leave you with a though from God instead of our pro-Pauline writer:
Lev 20:7 7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. (KJV)
That means we don't have a better idea or plan "B" as the writer of Gal. 3 would have us believe!
Let us learn by Abraham's example correctly related to the reader and not some completely backward account of it as we find in Galatians 3