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“Living God’s Word by the Power of His Spirit”

P. O. Box 588 • Marshfield, MO 65706-0588 417-859-0882 • 417-859-0883 • www.biblicallifeassembly.org

Teachings to Strengthen Your Walk by

Adam Lawson, B.S., M.Div. (Cand.)Elder in Training

A Brief Overview of the Word of God that He Lived

Theology of the Apostle PaulA Brief Overview of the Word of God that He Lived

by Adam Lawson, B.S., M.Div. (Candidate)(Elder in Training) January 14th, 2007

© Copyright 2007 by Adam Lawson. All Rights Reserved.

Permission is granted for those hungry for the truth of God’s Word to reproducethis article as long as it is left unaltered.

Biblical Life AssemblyP.O. Box 588 Marshfield, MO 65706-0588Website: www.biblicallifeassembly.orgAdam’s E-Mail: [email protected]

http://www.biblicallifeassembly.org/

mailto:[email protected]

Theology of the Apostle Paul Page 2

Abbreviations and Transliterated Words

Apostolic Writings The New TestamentAvraham AbrahamBavli Babylonian TalmudGemara Explanation of the Mishnahhalachah the generally accepted way of

following a particular commandmentKJV King James Version of the BibleLXX Septuagint, Greek translation of the

Old TestamentMishnah collected rulings concerning accepted

halachah - Oral TorahMCED Mounce’s Complete Expository

Dictionary of Old and New TestamentWords

Moshe MosesNKJV New King James Version of the BibleNIV New International Version of the BibleNJB New Jerusalem BiblePesach PassoverShavuot PentecostSha’ul PaulTanach Old TestamentYeshua JesusYitzchak Isaac


Prolegomena

The Apostle Paul, as he is usually referred to, became a man of great

renown. For Christians that have spent much time in the local church, he is

usually known as the founder of Christianity and God’s emissary to the Gentile

world. While he certainly had help, he is largely credited with the spreading of the

Gospel and the establishment of the Church as we know it. Of even greater

importance, he is the one whom God chose to use to “explain” to the Gentiles

how to apply the Word to their lives in a “post-Jesus” world. In modern day

practice, this usually involves a turning away from the Word of God that people in

Bible times had (Jesus and Paul included) because the earlier words of God

were “bondage” that Jesus died to set us free from. Jesus came, “that they might

have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”1 Paul was the man that

Jesus chose to spread that abundant life to the world, by keeping people from

falling back into the old ways of God, specifically the Law.

Part of Paul’s mission, according to generally accepted thought, was to

show how God had changed his mind as to what constituted right and wrong,

and that the earlier words of God were just for the Jews. Now we have a better

way of following God, mainly through the Spirit, and no longer need the earlier

words of God. They were only necessary until Jesus came, and furthermore, they

weren’t written for us “New Testament Christians.” Now that Jesus has come, we

shouldn’t “try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that

neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.”2 The “old” ways that God

gave in the Torah were too burdensome. That’s why that same God came in the

flesh so as to redeem us from underneath the burden so we could be “free in

Christ.” (Incidentally, since God gave the Torah and He also came to “save us”

from it, wouldn’t that mean that He had made a mistake in the initial giving of it?)

1 John 10:10, KJV.2 Acts 15:10, NIV.


And so the story goes. Most people are somewhat familiar with this

viewpoint. While not everyone has all of the terminology to accurately describe it,

most don’t have a theology that incorporates the entire Bible. This is because

they don’t think the whole Bible can be reconciled together, or that it is even

applicable to them. The larger part of “our Bible” is for Jews (which is usually said

with some amount of racial disgust) and the smaller part is for those of us who

really know Jesus. In essence, Paul is the founder of our faith, and we can

always turn to him for an answer to any of our theological questions. At times,

Paul’s “words” can even supersede the words of Jesus himself.

This becomes readily apparent when certain subjects are discussed with

other believers. Most people resist change of any sort, even if it’s a change that

causes their life to more fully reflect the life of Yeshua and His disciples. If you

disagree, tell a fellow believer that they shouldn’t be eating pork. Unless their

hearts are already sensitive to the ways of God and they have an accurate

understanding of the Word, their first response is usually to quote their

“Messiah,” the Apostle Paul, who supposedly tells us that Jesus came to save us

from the tyrannical, burdensome, old ways of God. The response usually goes

like this, “Paul says we aren’t under the law but under grace.” To use the words

of Paul in this fashion requires one to “conveniently” pass over verses like the

following, “Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in

my mind am a slave to God's law (Torah), but in the sinful nature a slave to the

law of sin.3 Evidently, in Paul’s mind, he was either a slave to God’s Torah or to

the “torah” of sin. I’m assuming Paul didn’t consider the last option to be viable

for a believer.

So, what does all of this mean? Did Paul really teach us to forsake the

earlier words of our Father for his “latest and greatest” teaching? Did Jesus really

come to save us from His own words to Noah, Avraham, Yitzchak and Moshe?

Did God really make a mistake for the first several thousand years of fellowship

with man? Or, are Shaul’s (Paul’s) words being used as a scapegoat to “stay

free” from having to obey our Savior in ways that a large part of Christianity finds

3 Romans 7:25, NIV. Parentheses added.


“foolish and devoid of meaning?” Did Paul himself abandon the Word and “do his

own thing” as most would try to suggest?

The purpose of this essay is to answer these questions and to help bring

back into focus the theology of the Apostle Paul. While I am completely aware of

the potential immensity of pages that could be written on this subject, and in fact

have been, I will attempt to keep it as succinct as possible. If nothing else, after

reading this, I hope to have shaken your theology and your understanding of who

Paul was and the life he lived. I hope to show you that Paul kept the Torah of

God his entire life, and in fact, went to extremes to prove that he did so. Finally, I

will show that Paul never taught the new believers to forsake the Torah (the

Tanach being all he had to preach from,) but instead, encouraged them to live it

by the power of the Spirit. As Paul himself said, “So then, the Law (Torah) is holy,

and what it commands is holy and upright and good. . . In my inmost self I dearly

love God's law (Torah).4

Paul the Man

In order to gain a better understanding of Paul (Sha’ul), it’s only proper to

begin by looking at his own life and the Word of God that he obeyed. As

mentioned previously, many believe that Paul started a new religion and taught

different teachings than those of the preceding generations. In fact, some even

go so far as to say that we as believers are not really to model our life after

Yeshua because he had to live under the “old” ways. Paul’s comments about

“law” are taken negatively, and in fact, some are negative, but as we will see

below, he is either talking about a different law, or the act of trying to earn

salvation by keeping God’s law.

How did Paul actually live? In Acts, when Paul is on trial, he boldly

proclaims to be a member of the Pharisees. He states, “I am a Pharisee,”5 in the

present tense! This is a shock to most believers because they have been taught

4 Romans 7:12, 22, NJB.5 Acts 23:6, KNJV.


that all Pharisees were bad, but here, we have the “founder of Christianity” still

claiming to be a Pharisee, even after his coming to faith in Yeshua.

In his book, The Letter Writer, Tim Hegg states:

He did not cease being a Pharisee when he came to faith in

Yeshua, for he never considered Pharisaism to be something negative or

contrary to genuine faith. That he would describe himself as a Pharisee

even while being tried for his faith in Yeshua proves this beyond doubt.

When we read his epistles, then, we must be careful not to read back into

his words what we would expect a modern Christian theologian to say or

think. We must hear Paul on his own terms, as a Pharisee who, being a

pious Jew, had come to a genuine faith in Yeshua as his Messiah, and

who had been called by Yeshua to be His apostle to the Gentiles.6

This powerful quote gives us a good insight into what has happened with

Paul’s teachings. When we start out assuming that most of the Word isn’t for us

today, it becomes extremely easy to eisegetically read our viewpoint into the text.

Unfortunately, when people study the Bible with such an ulterior and evil motive,

they will inevitably be able to justify it to themselves.

However, not only was Paul still a Pharisee, we find that he also continued

keeping the feasts of the Lord. Most Christians celebrate Christmas, Easter,

Lent, etc. None of these “holidays” are prescribed in the Word, and there is no

record in Scripture of those who followed the Lord celebrating them. About the

only words the Lord spoke concerning such matters were the following:7

The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are

about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and

settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be

careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do

6 Tim Hegg, The Letter Writer, 67.7 Deuteronomy 12:29-31 NIV


these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not

worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their

gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates.”

God is not pleased when we take practices done for demons, “slap” the

name of Jesus on them, and call it “good enough.” It only takes a general perusal

of any encyclopedia to know that the aforementioned “Christian Holidays” were in

existence long before Jesus was born. And notice, the Lord didn’t say it was okay

for His people to worship Him in the same way the pagans worshipped their

demonic gods, as long as in their minds they were worshipping the true God of

Israel! It’s not what they thought about it that mattered, or even the intention of

their heart, but what God thought about it! Good intentions are not always good

enough.

We can safely assume that Paul, being a follower of the ”old ways” of

God, would not have participated in any sort of holiday that was conceived with

the worship of demons in mind. However, far from being a “party-pooper,” Paul

went to great lengths to celebrate the feasts of the Lord, the Lord Yeshua that he

now knew personally. In recounting Paul’s journeys, Luke states, “For Paul had

decided to sail past Ephesus, (where he had churches,) so that he would not

have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on

the Day of Pentecost (Shavuot).” 8 For Paul to sail past congregations that he

had started so he could be in Jerusalem for the feast indicates that he

considered the feast to be extremely important.

Not only did he personally keep the feasts, he was expecting the church in

Corinth (and we can safely assume the other churches as well) to do the same.

In regards to removing the leaven from their lives (which has always been

symbolic of sin) during Pesach (Passover), Paul states, “For indeed, Christ, our

Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old

8 Acts 20:16 NKJV parenthesis added.


leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened

bread of sincerity and truth.”9

Interestingly enough, we don’t find much discussion in the epistles about

keeping the feasts of the Lord, presumably because they were already doing so

and didn’t need much correction in this matter. The last sentence of the

Jerusalem Council’s words concerning what rabbinical halachah the new

believers had to follow is this, “For Moses has had throughout many generations

those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every

Sabbath.”10 The new believers were already hearing the Word of God every

Sabbath and the Torah is full of references to the feasts.

After the examples already giving, a person would be hard pressed to say

that Paul did not continue to follow the “old ways” of God. But, what if he kept

doing these things because he enjoyed them, or maybe they were just habits?

Do we really have examples of Paul going out of his way to prove beyond a

shadow of a doubt that he continued to follow the Torah? Yes! The writer of Acts

gives us an account of Paul completing his Nazirite vow, and paying for four

other men to buy their sacrifices in order to fulfill their vows. In this passage we

find James telling Paul, “Take them [the four men] and be purified with them, and

pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know

that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but

that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.”11

Not only do we learn from this that Paul is following Torah, but also, he is

still involved with the sacrifices in the Temple! This is post-Jesus! Tim Hegg gives

us more insight:

If James, Peter, and the others had been of the opinion that the

Torah was finished, and that a new era, initiated by Messiah, had now

made the Torah obsolete for His followers, here was the perfect time to

9 I Corinthians 5:7-8 NKJV parenthesis and italics added.10 Acts 15:21 NKJV11 Acts 21:15-25 NKJV brackets added.


make this absolutely clear. What better way to declare this than by

confirming that Paul was telling the people to forsake the Torah of Moses,

and that he had their full approval? Here was the perfect opportunity to

repudiate the need for Torah once and for all – to proclaim in no uncertain

terms that the Torah was null and void, and that followers of Yeshua were

forever free from any necessary connection to the Torah.

But instead of sending that message they proclaim just the

opposite. They inform Paul of four men who desire to conclude their

Nazirite vows but do not have the funds necessary to purchase the

required sacrificial animals. It is determined that Paul should not only aid

them in this mitzvah, but also go with them and be purified himself. By

doing so, Paul sends the clearest statement possible that the Torah is not

only alive and well, but the he, as a genuine follower of Yeshua and His

appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, joyfully lived by its ordinances.12

It becomes more and more obvious that Paul followed the Torah; even the

parts that most Christians would say have no relevance today. So what was the

problem? Even a few verses later we find that people had stirred up a mob and

were trying to kill Paul by declaring that, “This is the man who teaches all men

everywhere against the people, the law, and this place.”13 This is in contrast to

the Apostles declaring that they knew these accusations weren’t true. It appears

we have a contradiction in the Scripture, when in fact, we now come to the crux

of what made the theology of Paul different, and at times, controversial for his

day.

The Prevailing Beliefs of 1st Century Judaisms

Now that we have shown the Word that Paul lived, we must turn our

attention to how the rest of the Jewish community, and the believing Gentiles

12 Hegg, The Letter Writer, 288.13 Acts 21:28 NKJV


within that community lived. If we lack understanding concerning the prevailing

beliefs of the other Jewish sects of the time, we will end up creating chaos when

we attempt to read and understand Paul’s letters. The overarching issues of

Paul’s day can broadly be broken down into two categories. One, how does one

“get into” God’s covenant (salvation,) and two, what is the true Word of God? For

Paul, how he answered both of these questions was the determining factor that

caused the reaction of the crowd mentioned in Acts 21:28. In essence, the

Gospel Paul preached was in fact the original Gospel given in the Torah itself.

However, over the course of time the sages had distorted and added much to it.

So much so, that when Paul preached the true ways of God, many thought he

was actually preaching against the Word of God itself. They weren’t able to make

the distinction between Written and Oral Torah. Although, as already noted

above, the leading apostles understood the differences and knew Paul was

preaching truth.

The best way to understand the prevailing view of how a person was

saved it to quote the Mishnah passage which states, “All Israel have a portion in

the world-to-come, for it is written, ‘Your people are all righteous; they shall

inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I

may be glorified.”14 Hegg goes on to explain:

The quote from the Mishnah says that a place in the word-to-come

is based upon a status of righteousness. Israel has a place in the world-to-

come because ‘Your people are all righteous.’ What did they mean by this

statement? . . . righteousness is attributed to all who are members of the

covenant. Righteousness is a matter of God’s willingness to reckon the

pious deeds of the fathers to their offspring and to forgive and show mercy

when Israel sins. Thus, the place in the world-to-come which belongs to all

of Israel is a matter of God’s grace, not something earned or merited.15

14 m. Sanhedrin 10.115 Hegg, The Letter Writer, 85.


So where does this logic lead to? It leads to either having to be born by

Jewish parents, or, to become a Jew in order to have a place in the world-to-

come. Therefore, the only way a Gentile could become a part of Israel was to go

through the ritual of becoming a proselyte. This included, but was not limited to

circumcision, mikvah (baptism,) along with several other practices that the sages

had instituted. After the ceremony, the person was considered Jewish, and

therefore, had a place in the world-to-come. This whole process of becoming a

Jew (proselyte) was referred to as circumcision.

However, no where in the Word do we see God outlining a process

whereby Gentiles were to become Jews in order to be saved. As Hegg states:

Though sanctioned by the Sages, it was not God’s way. God never

intended Gentiles to become Jews. What He had revealed was that the

Gentiles would attach themselves to Israel by faith in God, and that in their

attachment to Israel they would be blessed in the covenant, bearing both

the responsibilities as well as the privileges and blessings of the Torah.

Indeed, it is clearly stated in the Torah that there would be one and the

same Torah for both the native born and the resident alien.16

Ultimately, what we find is that Paul was preaching that salvation is by

faith in the Seed of Avraham and has nothing whatsoever to do with

circumcision, the word “circumcision” being the cultural shorthand way of saying

to become a proselyte. This is the foundation of salvation in the Torah itself. The

Word clearly states concerning Avraham, “And he believed in the LORD, and He

accounted it to him for righteousness.”17 Paul quotes this exact Torah passage in

Romans 4:3 in his attempt to keep the Romans from falling into the same rut the

Jewish people had; thinking that salvation comes from being Jewish. In fact, Paul

goes on to point out that Avraham was counted as righteous even before he was

circumcised! “How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or

16 Hegg, The Letter Writer, 290.17 Genesis 15:6 NKJV.


uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”18 God

considered Avraham righteous even before he would have been considered

“Jewish” according to the prevailing halachah of Paul’s day!

Hegg further tells us that:

Those who had been looked upon as ‘dogs,’ as total outsiders, not

only were to be blessed with the same covenant blessings given to

Abraham, but they were to be blessed within the very family of Israel.

What is more, this blessing would come through adoption rather than the

ritual of the proselyte. Faith in Yeshua would bring Jew and Gentile to be

one in the body of Messiah.19

This is what caused Paul so many problems. It wasn’t that he was

preaching anything new, in fact, it was the original Gospel. He himself states,

“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall

be blessed.’”20 However, in his time, this was a teaching that went against the

accepted grain of rabbinical interpretation, not to mention that in some ways he

was lessening the importance of being a Jew. Nationality wasn’t what mattered

when it came having a place in the world-to-come. He tells us, “There is neither

Jew nor Greek. . . for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”21

The other problem Paul ran into, which is what primarily caused the

disturbance in the Acts passage quoted above is this: What constitutes the Word

of God? Is it the actual written Word of God (what we now know and have as the

Tanach), or does it also include the rabbinical rulings, commentary, and opinions

of the sages that had been passed down from generation to generation? Within

most of the sects of Judaisms in Paul’s day, it was the latter. This posed one of

the early Apostles’ biggest problems. The prevailing opinion of the day was that

18 Romans 4:10, NKJV.19 Hegg, The Letter Writer, 92.20 Galatians 3:8, NKJV.21 Galatians 3:28, NKJV.


the rabbinical interpretation of the Word and how it was to be lived – the

halachah – was as equally binding, and in some cases more so than the written

Word itself. What was known as Oral Torah, תורה שבעל פה and later, came to be

written down and formulated as the Mishnah, had taken on an importance that

reviled God’s word. Unfortunately, the real problem was that it was considered to

actually be God’s Word, and the two Torah’s (Written and Oral) had nearly

become one.

To further complicate matters, most people didn’t have a copy of the

written Torah to read on their own, so most of what they knew was what the

sages were verbally telling them. A Mishna commentary says the following:

The Gemara (Berachos 5a) expounds the verse, And I shall give

you the Tablets of Stone, and the Law, and the Commandment which I

have written, to teach them (Exodus 24:12), as follows: Tablets refers to

the Ten Commandments; the Law means the Pentateuch; Commandment

is the Mishnah; which I have written denotes the Prophets and

Hagiographa )כתובים( ; and to teach them means the Gemara. The verse

teaches us that every facet of Torah was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.22

This growing body of extra-biblical rules (thousands) had gotten to the

point where it had become a burden. A burden that was, in fact, not possible to

bear. Peter says, “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon

the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able

to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,

in the same way as they also are.”23

Oral Torah (Law) being viewed as equivalent to Written Torah is the

burden that the Apostles were talking about. This is what Paul went to great

lengths to make sure the new believers weren’t falling into. A distinction had to

be made between what was truly in the Word and what was just passed down

22 Artscroll Mishna Series: זרעים ברחות:סדר Seder Zeraim, Berchos, 5.23 Acts 15:10-11, NASB.


ideas and information. While some of the additional rulings could be helpful,

oftentimes, it led to disobeying the Word. It could even lead to completely

ridiculous conflicts, such as being upset with Jesus for healing a man on the

Sabbath because that was considered “work.” It may have been considered so

according to rabbinic ruling, but you don’t find God ever commanding people to

not heal on the Sabbath. The actual words of God are never a burden. In

contrast to the rabbinical additions, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and

learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for you

soles. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”24

When the Pharisees complained to Jesus because He and His disciples

didn’t wash their hands before eating, Jesus had strong words for them:

Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to

Jesus, saying, 2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the

elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." 3 He

answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the

commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 "For God commanded,

saying, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or

mother, let him be put to death.' 5 "But you say, 'Whoever says to his

father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is a

gift to God" -- 6 'then he need not honor his father or mother.' Thus you

have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7

"Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 'These people

draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their

heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines

the commandments of men.' "25

Jesus is talking about the same traditions that some of the Pharisees were

trying to make Paul’s churches adhere to. The Gentiles, and anyone else for that

24 Matthew 11:29-30, NKJV.25 Matthew 15:1-9, NKJV.


matter, were saved by grace, and were then expected to begin walking the ways

of God as given in the written Word. While it was permissible, and in some cases

helpful, to follow the rabbinical rulings if one wished, it wasn’t necessary, and it

certainly had nothing to do with a person’s salvation. Paul himself followed many

of the traditions and had no problem passing them on to his churches, as long as

nothing was being done to take the people away from the pure Gospel.

Paul says, “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything,

and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.26 Also, “So then,

brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by

word of mouth or by letter from us.”27 And finally, “Now we command you,

brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every

brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you

received from us.”28 Hegg tells us, “While he followed his Savior in doing away

with traditions that stood contrary to the written Torah, we do see in Paul’s letters

a recognition of the value of tradition and even the necessity of it within the

community of faith.29

It was these two points, how salvation takes place, and what constitutes

the Word of God that caused so many problems for Paul. It also was the impetus

for writing some of his epistles. The book of Galatians is not about whether

people should be obeying the Word or not, but whether they have to become a

proselyte (circumcision) in order to be saved.

Conclusion of the Matter

In conclusion, we have seen that Paul was a man that maintained his

Pharisaical status even after his encounter with Yeshua. He also continued to

follow the Torah in all areas of life. Rather than abolishing it, he fulfilled it by his

obedience to it. He celebrated the Feasts of the Lord and upheld the traditions of

26 I Corinthians 11:2, NASB.27 2 Thessalonians 2:15, NASB.28 2 Thessalonians 3:6, NASB.29 Hegg, The Letter Writer, 63.


the elders that didn’t contradict the Word of God. In short, Paul’s main message

was the same message many of us are preaching today – return to the ways of

God. It’s the same message Moses, the Prophets, and Jesus proclaimed – go

back to the beginning and get the foundation right. Yes, we are saved by grace,

and by that grace we have the power to live a life that reflects that reality. He

expects us to live holy and righteous lives. What’s even better, he doesn’t just

leave it up to us to figure out what that constitutes. We aren’t left hoping we’re

doing the right things. We can follow his Word, the same Word Jesus followed,

knowing that God will be pleased with the choices that we are making. As Paul

said, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and

good.”30 We need to take a closer look at this verse, and others like it, and begin

to live a life that shows we believe this Word to be true.

While there is much more that could be said about Paul’s theology, I hope

I have accomplished my goal of showing how far away the church has gotten

from the original Scriptures. I hope you now see that Paul kept the Word of God

and did not teach others to break it. Anytime someone points to a Scripture to

support the opinion that Paul stood against the Torah, you should be able

recognize that Paul is being taken out of context. The church has listened to

comfortable teaching that doesn’t require change. It’s not the teaching of the

Gospel, nor the teaching of Paul. He kept the faith as it had been handed down

to him through the written Word. As he himself said, “Circumcision is nothing and

uncircumcision is nothing (becoming or not becoming a proselyte means nothing

as it pertains to faith), but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”31

Paul, being the follower of the Torah that he was, surely knew he was

paraphrasing one of the wisest men to have ever lived. In Ecclesiastes, King

Solomon tells us, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and

keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.”32

30 Romans 7:12, NKJV.31 I Corinthians 7:19, NKJV.32 Ecclesiastes 12:13, NKJV.


Bibliography

Hegg, Tim. The Letter Writer: Paul’s Background and Torah Perspective.Tacoma, WA. 2002.

Artscroll Mishnah Series. The Mishnah: Seder Zeraim Vol. 1.Brooklyn,New York. 2001.

Documents

“Living God’s Word by the Power of His Spirit” · PDF file“Living God’s Word by the Power of His Spirit” P. O. Box 588 • Marshfield, MO 65706-0588 417-859-0882 • 417-859-0883