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  • From: Mike Myers <mmyers AT helium.biomol.uci.edu>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Gal 2:16 (Liz)
  • Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:20:57 -0800


Liz wrote:

Insofar as I understand how Christians feel about the OT there is a
major difference between Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the
Law. My understanding is that the Christian says that for the
Christian the law is no longer in force. To me that implies that it
once was in force, that prior to Christ it was valid and in force
but now no longer is. The Jew does not say that. You point out the
many Jews who feel the law is not valid. But these Jews do not say
that it once was valid and now no longer is. They say that the law
is really nothing but Jewish customs and mores then attributed
to God. These Jews don't believe in the sort of God who stands on
Mt. Sinai and hands out commandments. To these Jews, the law was
never valid in the way you're talking about. Those Jews who do say
the law was valid then say the law is valid now. Jews do not say it
was valid then and not now. This is includes the sacrificial system.
Those Jews who say the sacrificial system was valid then, also say
it is valid now. Those who say it was never valid, ie., never
decreed from God on Mt. Sinai, but just custom, say it is not valid
now.
*************************************************************

Liz, These are certainly useful distinctions. Though "valid" is
perhaps a word that needs some unpacking. I used it because you
originally did so.

One can contemplate a (big) aspect of the law, the Levitical cultus,
from very different points of view, of course. I can easily imagine
modern spectators who look back at the ancient world (just
post-Exile, say) and observe that the Levitical cultus was valid for
those people at that time. It makes lots of sense for an Iron Age
civilization to wrap up in one sacralized literary cloth its need
for meat, ritual, atonement(s), a priesthood, a holy place etc.

This is one species of "valid". I don't know what label to give it.
Maybe a "secular historicist" view. One could hold this view and be
an atheist, skeptic, agnostic, cynic whatever. But I think it's also
possible to hold the above position or something like it and 1)
believe in the God of Israel, 2) believe that this God reveals
himself via history, among other modes, 3) believe that in some
sense, this law was given to the children of Israel, 4) that it was
meant by this God for this people for a finite stretch of historical
time, or had his "blessing" as it were, 5) believe it had served its
purpose, 6), live in 1CE, 7) be a Jew (at least for awhile, until
definitions got rigid). Seems to me that Paul was such a Jew, at a
historical crossroad for this people. The author of Hebrews would
seem to be another such Jew. I think we can safely extrapolate the
existence of many similarly minded Jews from mid-1CE to its end.
This is after all a highly fertile set of concepts. So it's not
surprising that we have evidence for lots of religious ferment at
this time in Judaea, Galilee and the diaspora.

You wrote:

"My understanding is that the Christian says that for the Christian
the law is no longer in force."

But wouldn't the historian, also, say, "From 70 CE on, the law by
definition cannot be culturally 'in force', for Jews or Jewish
'Christians', because there is no temple. God or no God. This people
whose elite constructed a theological culture centered on the Temple
cultus faced a genuine problem." One might say this objectively,
purely as an historian, or cultural anthropologist. The Temple's
non-existence is historical fact. Its centrality to Torah-based
Judaism is another fact. So there is a dilemma. How is one to be
righteoused?

The dilemma gave rise to two principal (clear) historical
trajectories, evidently: Paul and Yavneh. Are you with me so far?

Mike

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael D. A. Myers
University of California, Irvine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<mmyers AT helium.biomol.uci.edu>
05/27/1999
16:20:57





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