Video Transcript
So the book of Galatians honestly is so misunderstood and I misunderstood it, so I’m not getting onto anybody that misunderstands it. Paul is talking to Gentiles and he’s talking what it appears to be negatively about Torah. So people understand the Book of Galatians to be a book where Paul is essentially advocating that the observance of Torah and continuing to really be Jewish no longer matters. So there are a lot of comments and questions about this. We’re going to tackle a few of ’em.
So one of the comments that we got was literally just, “What about Galatians? And as I mentioned, it’s a very misunderstood book. So let me give you a little bit of background that a lot of people aren’t aware of. So in late second Temple Judaism, the Jewish world was largely centered in Jerusalem, but there obviously was a large diaspora or scattering of Jewish people throughout the Roman Empire. Now, two rabbis in the Jewish world became very well known for putting forth how do we live as Jews within this pagan Roman world. One was named Rabbi Hillel, the other name was Rabbi Shamai. Rabbi Hillel had a very open view to Gentiles. He basically said, if you’re a Gentile or you’re a godless heathen, you can kind of put your faith in the God of Israel and you’ll be like a cousin to the Jewish people so you can become saved and go to heaven, but you’re never going to be Jewish. Rabbi Shammai was a lot more strict. He said essentially, you have to go through all these different Jewish religious rituals, conversion, obedience to the Torah, eating kosher, etc… in order to become members of the redeemed family of God so that you would go to heaven.
The reason why Paul is addressing the Galatians, and he’s talking so much about Torah and covenant and all these other things, is because these people are Gentiles, but they are very much influenced by Jewish believers who were under the school of Rabbi Shammai. So they were essentially telling the Gentiles, Hey, if you want to become part of the redeemed family of God, even though you believe in Jesus, you need to do these strict things in order to show that you really are aligned. That’s why Paul is being perceived as coming against so much in the whole book of Galatians. So you have to understand that context in order to understand that number one, Paul’s talking to Gentiles. He’s talking to Gentiles, and he’s telling ’em, Gentiles, you have no reason to do all of this Torah stuff. That’s for us Jews. Let us figure that out. And then the second thing is he’s trying to combat the false teachers who were the Jewish believers that were going out and basically continuing to promote the thinking of Rabbi Shamai, which was very strict on covenantal Torah observance, even for non-Jews. So that’s what about Galatians? That’s why it becomes so confusing for people.
So probably the number one comment that we get in any of our videos, and the number one comment that is sort of like a quick rebuttal is what about Galatians 3:28? Paul says, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile…” Yes, but literally right after he says that, he says, there is no longer male or female. Now, this isn’t because Paul’s saying that gender distinction goes away when you put your faith in Jesus. Paul is actually saying that gender distinction matters. What he’s saying is equality between genders, between ethnicities of Jews and Gentiles, it’s all the same. He talks about this in Ephesians 2. He says, Jesus broke down this wall of partition, this wall of enmity, and he created equality that everybody gets access to God in the same way. But there’s still a distinction. So there is a distinction between Jews and Gentiles, just like there’s still a distinction between male and female after you put your faith in Jesus. So if you’d be willing to promote that there’s no longer Jew or Gentile, then you kind of have to be willing to promote that there’s no longer male or female. And I don’t think in this cultural context that we live in, most Christians are not comfortable promoting that type of erasure of distinction.
But the last thing I would say is Why? Why does it hurt? Why does it offend you that there can still be a Jewish distinction? Why is it so hard? I mean, I’m literally asking you if you feel like, well, yeah, there’s no longer Jew or Gentile. Why is it so difficult for Jews to continue to live Jewish lives? Why is it so easy for us who are Gentiles, to just live whatever gentile identity that we have? Okay, I get it. You’re a Christian. You put your faith in Jesus. There’s a certain set of things that you do or do not do anymore. You still live a Gentile life. You still live a life where you eat whatever you want. You take a Sabbath whenever you want, you celebrate Christian holidays. So why is it so hard for you to make room for Jewish people to live a Jewish life even after they put their faith in Jesus? That’s really the question you have to ask yourself and let God help you answer that question.
Hey, seriously, thank you for commenting on our videos. If you’re somebody that’s commented and you’ve been critical about what we’re saying, literally I hope we love you and we want to keep learning with you. Please, if you don’t agree with what we’re saying, put it in the comments. We just ask you to be kind and let’s learn together. We’re not saying we’re right all the time. Look seriously. But let’s go through the process of learning together and working together to solve some of these technical tricky questions. So please keep commenting, and I hope this was helpful for you as you guys listen to some of these things and looking forward to seeing you in another video.
