25. Saint Paul's Source Text

Tell Me the Story

If you’re familiar with St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the next few chapters of Genesis will be extremely familiar to you. This is because St. Paul almost exclusively sources his arguments on the content of these chapters. In essence the Pauline New Testament is simply reinforcing the correct reading of the Old Testament against the abuses of the religious establishment of Jerusalem in Paul’s time. You see, in first century Judea, the center of religious life was the Herodian Temple. Around the Temple, you had two major classes of Jewish society. The Sadducees were the extremely wealthy and Hellenistic priestly class and the Pharisees were anti Hellenist opponents of that priestly class and devoted their lives to piety and the study of scripture. This was Paul’s background. He was a Pharisee and like all Pharisees, he knew scripture very well. Zealous for the traditions of their forefathers and of Judean identity, the Pharisees weighed their righteousness around the technical following of the Mosaic Law and not only that, they were set to impose that law onto Gentile converts into the faith. Paul, fleeing from this trap, condemned both Judaism and Hellenism and argues in Galatians that Abram was considered righteous by God independent of the Mosaic Law! So how was Abram deemed righteous? Let’s hear the story that Paul heard and find out for ourselves. The painful truth of scripture is that it only upholds our traditions when we force it to do so. But when we read it for what it is, it tears those traditions down. And when I say that Paul tears down Judaism, I am not making a slight against modern Judaism. This is Judaism of the 1st century, and it can function as any religion, including and especially Christianity. This is difficult because we love the traditions of our forefathers, but scripture doesn’t give a damn! Let us be attentive! Intro and outro music Copyright © Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, used by permission. All rights reserved.