What Does Under the Law Mean?
Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our fourth discussion in this series Grappling with Galatians. And if you’ve been following along in this series, you know that instead of going through the book of Galatians verse by verse by verse, I’m addressing those issues that tend to block us — prevent us from really understanding this letter that Paul is writing to the community in Galatia. And so in each discussion we address a roadblock, so to speak, in our understanding, and once we clear that away, hopefully the light comes through this book a bit more.
And so in this fourth discussion, we are going to actually break with that and we’re going to take a section of Galatians and go through it verse by verse. We’ll be starting in chapter 3 verse 23 and going through chapter 4 verse 11. So if you have a Bible with you — if you’re not driving — I strongly recommend that you open your Bible and follow along. And I also strongly recommend that you print out the notes. I have a lot of extra resources in the notes, and you’ll be seeing some of these on the screen as I go through this. But if you go to our website at TorahTodayMinistries.org, you can print out all the notes and see the things that I’ll be discussing but can’t show on the screen.
With that said, before we start — people often ask me: what translation do you use? Well, I start with the New American Standard or the English Standard Version as a base translation to work with. But even these have some preconceived notions, they have some biases, and some distortions in them. The translators did the best they could with what they had, to be able to sell Bibles to a Christian market. But I want to get down to the truth and the literal translation as best as I can.
So there are two translations in addition to those that I really like, and I recommend them to you as well. The first — I couldn’t live without this — and that’s the Concordant Literal New Testament with the Keyword Concordance. This is so hyper-literal that it really isn’t pleasant to read just for enjoyment. You’re not going to pick this one up to enjoy it — you’re going to pick this one up so you can analyze the text and really get down to what’s being said. The people who put this together, back in the 1950s and 60s I believe, were so concerned with not translating any of their own prejudices and biases into the translation that what they did is they created the concordance first — and that concordance is included in this book — and then from the concordance they created the translation. So again, it’s hyper-literal, and the sentence and word structure reflects the same word order as in the Greek. Really a valuable tool for students of the scriptures.
But the other one comes from the other end of the spectrum. This is also a translation, but it is one done by David Bentley Hart, published by Yale University Press. And it’s an excellent translation. I found that Mr. Hart has probably a less biased approach to the Greek scriptures than most translators, and he’s more literal but also literary — he brings out the beauty and the flow of what is being written through the New Testament scriptures in a really great way. And this is a fairly new translation, but it’s one I not only enjoy but find very, very accurate. No translation is perfect — that just goes without saying — but between these two you can really get down to the nuts and bolts of what’s going on in the Greek scriptures.
So with that said, let’s get right into our study.
I’ve taken this section of Galatians — as I said, starting with chapter 3:23 and going through 4:11 — and broken it down into four sections.
I mentioned that we have Paul, who is an orthodox Jew from Jewish culture, and even though he was a Roman citizen he was a Hebrew of Hebrews as he calls himself. He thought as a Jew. He studied the writings of the Jewish people. He knew the Tanakh (תַּנַ”ךְ) from beginning to end — had it memorized, I’m sure. This is the way he thought, this is the way his brain and soul were wired. But he’s talking to a basically pagan culture — a Greek culture under Roman rule — and this group of believers as a community in Galatia. So they had very distinct origins and worldviews as they were coming to Messiah and dealing with truth. But there were other things, because they lived under Roman rule and in the ancient world, that they had in common.
As we go through this section, you’re going to see that Paul draws on his experience, compares it with the experience of the Gentiles in Galatia, and also things that they had in a shared experience. So I’ve broken this into four sections:
The first I call the Jewish experience — Galatians 3:23–25. Then the key — it’s like right here Paul gets down to the nitty-gritty of what’s really going on — the key that opens up the rest of the passage, and that’s chapter 3:26–29. Then in chapter 4:1–7, he starts discussing the shared Jewish and Gentile experience — things they had in common. And then he ends with chapter 4:8–11, the Gentile experience — things that he’ll be using the word you for, not us or we or me, but you. This is what is in your experience. So he begins with the Jewish experience, ends this section with the Gentile experience, but in between we find the key to unlocking all of this — and also the overlapping shared experience of all Jews and Gentiles.
Okay? so let’s get going with chapter 3 verse 23. It says this:
Now before Faith came — we
by using the word we he means we Jews, We [Jews] were held captive under the Torah—the gentiles didn’t have the Torah, it was the Jews who had the Torah and it says we Jews were held captive under the Torah
imprisoned until the coming Faith would be revealed. So then the Torah was our Guardian until Messiah came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. — Galatians 3:23–25
So you see that word we popping up several times in the passage, it’s talking about the Jewish experience. So when you read this you think, wow, Torah sounds pretty oppressive — I don’t want to be under the Torah, and I’m grateful for Messiah that I can be free of all that. Let’s make sure we understand something — at least as best we can — when Paul uses that term under the Torah, or under the law, a term he appears to have coined and uses I believe eight times in his writings. Four of those times are in Galatians. This is the first time we encounter it in Galatians; we’ll encounter it two more times as we go through this discussion.
Under the Torah — we tend to think that means having to obey the Torah. And in chapter 5 of Galatians, Paul says that if we are led by the Spirit we are not under the Torah. So Christians read that thinking: well, I’ve got the Spirit of God in me, I am being led by the Spirit, I don’t have to obey the Torah. That is not what it means.
Under the Torah does not mean obedience to the Torah. We are all required to obey the Torah. It is God’s law — it is God’s discipleship manual for the redeemed life. From Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) on through the New Testament scriptures, we are commanded to obey the Torah. These are the scriptures we are to follow. We’re to hide them in our heart. We are to not even think for a moment that Messiah came to set aside the Torah. And we’re to be doers of the word, not just hearers — we are to live our lives as if we’re to be judged by the Torah, James tells us. And we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God, Paul tells us. So the Torah is the Bible, and the Bible — the Torah — does not have an expiration date on it.
What we need to understand is what the phrase under the Torah means. When you read Galatians 5 — I think it’s verse 18 —don’t quote me on that— it says: if we’re led by the Spirit, we are not under the Torah. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean obedience to the Torah. It means a relationship to the Torah — a relationship with the Torah that God wants to improve.
You know, when God spoke and began to give the Torah from Mount Sinai, Moses and God were up here on the mountain, and there was fire and smoke and the loud voice, and the people were terrified at the bottom of the mountain. You might say they were under the Torah at that point, geographically speaking. But that wasn’t good enough. God wanted to take his Torah and put it in their hearts. He wanted the Torah internalized — so they’re not under it or beside it, but they were vessels of it, and it was inside of them and dwelt in them and inspired and motivated them. So he wanted his people and his Torah to be one.
In Romans 7, Paul tells us that the Torah is spiritual, holy, and good. We too are to be spiritual. And if the Torah is the essence of who God is — if it is his heart, his mind, his will — it’s a spiritual thing. And if we are his new creations with his Spirit dwelling in us, then his Torah, which is Spirit, and we who have his Spirit should be one.
And in Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about those who walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. And people who walk in the Spirit, he says, fulfill the righteous requirements of the Torah. So under the Torah is a relationship to it that is subpar. God does not want us under the Torah — he wants us to be vessels of the Torah, to where it is inside of us. And that in essence is everything he’s trying to say in this passage.
So let’s read this again with that understanding, and then move on to what Paul means when he uses the term guardian here.
Now before Faith came — in other words, before Yeshua came, and Yeshua’s faithful act of obedience and sacrifice of himself, removing our sins, dying for the sins of the world, and embracing us into a new relationship with God — before that happened, we were held captive under the Torah, imprisoned until the coming Faith would be revealed.
Now this imprisoned means a protective kind of confinement — protective custody. You know, when they have a witness against the mob, they place that witness in protective custody. It’s kind of like prison, but it’s there not to keep the person from hurting society but to keep no-good elements in society from hurting the person. So we were imprisoned until the coming Faith would be revealed.
So then the Torah was our Guardian until Messiah came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
This word for guardian, which is used twice, is the word paidagōgos (παιδαγωγός). It sounds like the word pedagogue, and that is where we get the word pedagogue. A pedagogue is a very strict teacher. We can translate this word as tutor, guardian, custodian, schoolmaster — none of them quite capture what this word is, because a pedagog doesn’t really exist today, as far as I’m aware. This was very much a first-century Greek and Roman custom. Let me explain a little bit about what the pedagog was, and then we’ll decide what English word to use.
Here is a quote from the Thayer Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Thayer says this:
Among the Greeks and Romans, the name paidagōgos was applied to trustworthy slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys belonging to the better class. The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood.
A way to translate this is the child minder. You might call him the teacher-guardian. And here’s the dynamic of what would happen in Roman society when Paul wrote this letter.
Fathers — especially if they had influence and wealth — they would have sons, but they would not take a very hands-on approach to raising those sons. What they did: they would have one of their slaves who was very well educated — educated in mathematics and history and literature, probably in music and art and in the culture of the day, and in the mythologies, in the religion, and all the things that an educated Roman citizen would have to know or should know. This slave would know all of it and would be good at teaching. And so the father would have this slave — I even hate using the word slave, though he technically owned this individual — but the father and this individual had a very mutually respectful relationship. There was mutual respect between them. They recognized what their duties were and they were content to fulfill them.
And so this pedagog would be put in charge of the boy — the infant — and he could discipline the child. He would teach the child. He would attend the child until he was fully grown. Every time he stepped out of the house, he would go with him — protect him, make sure he didn’t go where he shouldn’t go, make sure he got to the places he was supposed to go. He would train him, educate him, test him, and discipline him. His job — given to him by the father — was to make sure that what was in the mind of the tutor, what was the will of the father, was imparted and inscribed in the mind and soul of the boy.
Now — just because you were the son of a wealthy Roman patrician did not mean you became the heir. In fact, it didn’t really even mean you technically became his son. You were his offspring. But Roman men, when their sons would achieve a certain age, would be tested. He would test their character, their education — had they learned from the paidagōgos what they were supposed to learn? And if he was happy with his eldest son, he would adopt him. You heard that right. Even though he was the natural-born offspring of this man, it was only when this child grew up and reached his majority and his maturity that he would then be adopted as the father’s son — and then be considered the heir. And if the boy didn’t measure up, then he’d be set aside and the father would look at the second-born son to see how he would do.
That is the way society was. And Paul takes this concept and this office of the paidagōgos that existed in Roman and Greek culture, and he says: this is kind of like what the Torah was to us.
Here’s a picture that might help. Think of the father — and the father has offspring, he has sons. And until those sons are fully grown, the father would take this paidagōgos — this well-educated guardian — and place the boy under the guardian’s care. He knew that the guardian knew the culture and the music and the literature and the history — all the things the father knew and wanted his son to know. And the guardian’s job was to protect the child, and to take what was in his own mind and put it into the mind of the son.
Do you see the parallels with what Paul’s saying? He’s saying: God the Father — he redeemed us, his children. And he wanted us to know his Torah. He wanted us to know his Torah because the Torah is the Father’s heart. It’s the Father’s will. It’s the very essence of what matters to God our Father. It tells us what he loves, it tells us what he hates. And so the guardian’s job was to take the father’s mind and put it into the child’s mind. The guardian was the Torah.
Now I’m sure that when you were in school — if you’re anything like me — there were some classes, maybe some teachers, that you didn’t really care for. You might say: why do I have to learn this? I’ve talked to people and they talk about how much they hated algebra. Why do I have to learn algebra? And they couldn’t wait till they got done with the class or graduated from high school so they could immediately forget everything they had tried to learn in algebra because it was just annoying to them. I loved algebra and geometry — but there were other classes, like Spanish. Oh, that was agonizing. I had to do two years. I don’t know how I passed it, and I immediately forgot everything as soon as I was done with the classwork.
And you know, we can be kind of that way with the word of God. And when we look at the history of Israel, they were kind of that way with the Torah. God gave them the Torah at Mount Sinai — and what did they do? They complained and whined, they rebelled and disobeyed, and they didn’t take to heart the things that God had spoken to them. Now others did. I look at Joshua and I look at Caleb and I look at Phinehas, and I look at others throughout the Hebrew scriptures. And David — a man after God’s own heart — who loved the Torah. He wrote Psalm 119, 176 verses about the Torah and how wonderful it was, and how he loved the Torah and was devoted to it. We find these individuals — but they’re more rare than one would like.
But the Torah is God’s heart. You know — I’m taking a little rabbi-trail here — but the Shabbat before last was Simchat Torah (שִׂמְחַת תּוֹרָה). It was the day after Sukkot (סֻכּוֹת), the Feast of Tabernacles. And Simchat Torah is when we rejoice with the Torah. And we were at Beth Tikkun, and after the Torah service we all went into the gymnasium — all the tables and chairs moved out of the way — and we had the Torah scroll. And we had all the adults stand in a very large ring that went the whole width of the gymnasium, and we unrolled the Torah scroll all the way out. The adults around the outside holding the Torah scroll — so the beginning, Genesis 1, and then all the way through, and when you get to the very end of Deuteronomy, he was standing right next to the person holding the other end of the scroll. And we put all the children in the middle and we walked them around and pointed out different parts of the Torah — what was going on in these stories — and pointed out some interesting things in the Torah scroll. And it was pretty amazing just to see the entire Torah unrolled at one time.
And this is the point I’m getting to: I then took the kids to the point where the end of Deuteronomy and the beginning of Genesis were there touching. And I pointed out to them that the very last letter of the Torah is the letter lamed (ל), and then the very first letter of Genesis 1:1 is the letter bet (בּ). And the letters lamed and bet spell the word lev (לֵב) — which is the Hebrew word for heart. Because the Torah is God’s lev — it’s God’s heart.
And all of it is profitable for our teaching, for our reproof, our correction, our instruction in righteousness — and every letter — not one jot or tittle will pass away from this Torah scroll till the ultimate fulfillment of all things. — 2 Timothy 3:16–17 · Matthew 5:18
So the Torah is God’s heart, and the Father wants his heart to be in his children’s hearts. And something very special happened when Messiah came that completed that. But until then, most Jewish people were under the Torah. The Torah is here, they’re here — but the Torah had not yet descended into their hearts.
Remember what the essence of the New Covenant is. The New Covenant is defined for us in Jeremiah 31:31, where God says:
In those days I will make a brit chadashah (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) — I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. — Jeremiah 31:31
And then he defines what it is. He says:
I will write my Torah on their hearts — not just in their heads, not just in their mouths, not just on the doorposts, not just on the Torah scrolls in their synagogues — but in their hearts. It’ll be in their hearts. — Jeremiah 31:33
So as we go on, we come to the key. And this sums up, much better and much more succinctly, everything that I’ve tried to say over the last few minutes.
For in the Messiah Yeshua you are all children of God — through faith. For as many of you as were immersed in the Messiah — in other words, you’ve identified with the Messiah, you’ve decided: I want to follow him, I want to be a disciple of God’s Son, my Savior Yeshua the Messiah — for as many as were immersed into Messiah have put on Messiah. — Galatians 3:26–27
Now let’s understand something very important at this point. With the Jews — like with Paul — they start with Torah and then they come to Messiah. Historically the Torah came first, and then Messiah came. And with so many Jews today that I know, they grew up in synagogue learning the Torah, and then something happens — they meet Yeshua. Torah came first; it led them, it was the guardian that brought them to Messiah. But with the Gentiles, that’s not the case. And with the people in Galatia — these ex-pagans — that wasn’t the case. They came to Messiah first. They were immersed in the Messiah first. And because of that, they’re now adopted as God’s children. So what is their job? To embrace the Torah, to learn the Torah. We both come to Messiah, but we come from opposite directions. The Jews have Torah first, then Yeshua. Most of us Gentiles come to Yeshua first, and now we must learn the Torah. That’s what Acts chapter 15 — the Jerusalem Council — was all about.
And then he goes on to say that in Messiah there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female — for you are all one in Messiah.
It’s interesting — when he talks about neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female — I think Paul lifted these right out of the daily prayers. If you have a Jewish prayer book you can read in the Amidah (עֲמִידָה) — before the Amidah there’s a list of blessings. Each one begins— I forget how many there are I think 20 or so—but they begin with— Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe—And you come to a section there where it says: Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe, for not having made me a Gentile. Then: Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe, for not having made me a slave. And then: Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe, for not having made me a woman.
The same three things that Paul talks about here. And I guess I need to explain a little bit here. In Jewish culture, women are put on a pedestal — women are treated as special, they are understood as being more spiritual than men. So why does a man pray thank you, Lord, for not making me a woman? I always pray that when I see the long lines at the women’s restroom — and I’m probably going to hear it from Robin about saying that — but anyways, it is kind of funny—But the reason men pray this is that women have fewer commandments in the Torah than men do. Men have more commandments to follow. And a man is grateful he has more commandments, because each commandment is like a hook that allows him to connect with God in another way. Men are given more responsibility for obedience. I guess men need more to occupy their time — women by nature are more spiritual. But we men, we need to be told more what to do. And commandments are not things to be dreaded and seen as a burden in the Jewish mindset or the Messianic mindset — these are all opportunities to connect with God, to align with God, and to express love to God.
So anyway, I think he lifted those right out of the seder prayers. And then he finishes this section with:
Now if you are the Messiah’s — if you belong to the Messiah — then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to a promise. — Galatians 3:29
He says: we Jews are Abraham’s offspring because we descend from him physically. But if you belong to the Messiah, if you’ve been immersed in the Messiah — you’re drafted in. And since Messiah is a child of Abraham, you too become heirs of Abraham, and the things that belong to us belong to you. That’s what Ephesians chapter 2 is all about — we are no longer strangers to the covenants of Israel.
So this is the key. If anything, these four verses are the key that unlock not just this section but probably the whole book of Galatians.
Well, let’s move on to section three. These will go much more quickly, I promise. In chapter 4:1–7 we have what I call the shared Jewish-Gentile experience.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is subject to legal guardians — and this is a different term from paidagōgos — and stewards — and here’s a third term, which is parallel to paidagōgos — until the date set by the father. In the same way, we — and now he’s referring to we Jews — we also, when we were children, were enslaved under the Elementals of the cosmos. — Galatians 4:1–3
What are the Elementals of the cosmos?
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth a Son, born of woman, born under the Torah, to redeem those who were under the Torah, so that we might receive adoption of sons. And to show that you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father. — Galatians 4:4–6
And I think when he uses the word our here, he’s talking about Jews and Gentiles alike — Paul talking about himself and the other believing Jews and the Galatians, these people who have been immersed in the Messiah. And he sent the Spirit into our hearts, crying Abba (אַבָּא) — Father.
Let me address this Abba — Father — part first, and then we’ll go back to: what in the world are these Elementals that Paul’s talking about?
Picture the kid who has to learn what he has to learn, but isn’t so keen on learning it. He doesn’t really want to learn it. He’s learning it because he has to. He wants to be the heir. He wants to be accepted. He wants to be adopted. He wants to be a man. And: okay, if I’ve got to learn it, I’ve got to learn it. But he doesn’t really want to learn it. His heart isn’t in it. He’s under the pedagog. He’s under the Torah, so to speak.
But what happens — what if there’s some kind of experience this child could have, to where suddenly he realizes how valuable all of this information is? What if he somehow comes to realize how much his father truly loves him? What if somehow the very Spirit of the father — who values all this information that the paidagōgos is trying to impart — what if the very Spirit of the father could be placed in the child, and the child’s eyes open up? He says: Abba — I get it. I see why this is so important. I see how you think and why you think it. I see now why you value what you value and why you hate what you hate. I begin to see things through your eyes. I want to be like you. I want to be just like you.
And now he just soaks up everything the paidagōgos — this guardian — is trying to teach him. Because now his heart has become a fit vessel for everything that is the will of God.
You know, I still know a lot of people who are Jewish, a lot of people who are Messianic believers, and they still are very resistant to aspects of the Torah. It’s like they still want to do what they want to do and don’t want to do what they don’t want to do. And it’s like the Spirit of God hasn’t really filled them yet to embrace everything that God has for them. We ought to be ones who embrace what God loves. And if he has something he wants to give me, I want it, and I don’t want anything to get in the way of receiving that. And I know his Torah is his will for me. It’s his will for the world. And the day is coming when his kingdom will come and his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and everyone in the world will be subject to the Torah and follow it. So I want to be a pioneer in that — I want to be one who embraces that now.
So through Messiah we’ve received the Spirit of God. That same Spirit that spoke from Mount Sinai is now in the heart of those who have embraced the Messiah.
So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Messiah. — Galatians 4:7
We’ve been adopted. Remember that child who has to learn all this stuff so hopefully his father will adopt him? He says: you’ve been adopted. You’re accepted. You’re an heir.
Now we need to address these Elementals. You’ll notice it’s capitalized — that’s how David Bentley Hart uses it, and it’s hinted at and discussed by other commentators and translations. What does this mean? That’s the $64,000 question — commentators are always wrestling with what Paul meant by this. Some translations say elementary principles of the world, but I think Paul meant this word Elementals as it would have been understood in the first century.
In the first century, they were not aware of the table of elements where all matter is made of combinations of elements — there are 120 or so of them. In the early ancient world, there were four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. These were called the four Elementals. And it was believed that every single thing in the world was made up of certain combinations and proportions of these four things in some cosmic way. So whether you’re a shoe or a horse or a bird or a drinking vessel — you’re made up of combinations of these four things. In other words, these four Elementals represent base matter — physicality.
And I think Paul is saying this: he says that though we were under the Torah — and you Gentiles didn’t have the Torah — what you were enslaved to were the Elementals of the cosmos. You were just awash and drowning in physicality. Everything was physical, physical, physical. You’re just drowning in this. Even your mythologies and your so-called gods were very manlike, very human, and fallen human — they were very fleshly and earthly, not really anything to be admired. Everything was just physical. And they were enslaved to that.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. Now notice how he puts this — he says: born of a woman. Why does he say born of a woman? I think what he’s saying here is that God, who is Spirit — his Son, the Word — came into the physicality of this world just like all the rest of us do: through the womb of a human mother, gestated there, grew nine months, then born into the world physically like everyone else. But this Son — his origin was a bit different. And this Son of God came into the world, into the gross physicality of this world, so he could accomplish something very spiritual.
So he came into the world, born of a woman, born under Torah — to redeem those who were under the Torah, so that we Jews might receive adoption of sons. To show that you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into all of our hearts, crying Abba — Father.
So I was under the Torah, you were drowning in physicality. So Yeshua entered this physical world according to the Torah — teaching, living out the Torah, and yet here in a very physical way — so that Jew and Gentile alike could become recipients of God’s Spirit and cry Abba — Father. And his Torah, the essence of his Torah, could be written on our hearts.
To have the Torah written on your head means you have it memorized. But to have it written on your heart means you want it — you love it, you desire to obey it.
And so we come to the last section — the Gentile experience. Now Paul is going to talk using the word you — you Galatians:
Formerly, when you did not know God, you slaved for those that by nature are not gods. Now however, knowing God — or rather, to be known by God — how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless Elementals, which you want to slave for once again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. — Galatians 4:8–11
Apparently there were some of the believers in Galatia who were just — I think — just giving up, throwing up their hands, thinking: I don’t get all this Torah stuff. These people tell me I need to convert to Judaism. I can’t do that. It’s illegal to convert to Judaism anyway. What do I do? I’m just going to go back to my old pagan practices. I think that’s my opinion — I think Paul’s now addressing them. He’s saying: listen, don’t do that. Don’t go back to being enslaved to the worthless Elementals.
You observe days and months and seasons and years — I’m afraid I may have labored over you in vain. — Galatians 4:10–11
And of course so many Christians read that last verse about days and months and seasons and years and say: oh, see — Paul’s teaching against the Torah. He’s teaching against the Sabbath day. He’s teaching against the moadim (מוֹעֲדִים) — the appointed times — saying these are worthless things, and don’t go back to those. That is not at all what Paul’s talking about.
What he’s talking about is this — we’ve spoken in an earlier Galatians discussion: it was illegal in the Roman world to not practice the Roman religion. You were bound by law to practice the Roman religion. The only exception to that was Judaism. Judaism had a sanction from the emperor — they were allowed to practice Judaism. So Jews could practice Judaism and be free of the law that said you had to practice the Roman religion. But there was no other religion that got that exemption.
And the Roman religion was filled with particular days and months and seasons and special years that people were required to observe. And so the Gentiles who were coming to faith in Yeshua — Paul is saying: you don’t have to convert to Judaism. But you have to understand — it took great courage to be a Gentile believer, because you didn’t become Jewish and come under this exception to Roman law. You’re still considered a Roman citizen. You’re no longer practicing the Roman religion. And so there’s this pull to just go back to the Roman ways.
And Paul says: you have to be courageous. It may very well cost you your life. But to believe you have to convert to Judaism to be redeemed and have relationship with God — that’s nonsense. But to go back to your old pagan ways — that’s also nonsense.
So he’s challenging the Galatians to stand strong, live the Torah, do the best you can, and trust in God to take care of you — to guide you. Because you are now children of God. You are the seed of Abraham. You’ve been adopted. And you are now heirs of God’s kingdom. And that’s worth living for.
So he’s saying: don’t drift back. Don’t convert to Judaism. But don’t drift back into the old Roman religion. Stand strong and be a God-fearing Gentile — learn the Torah and follow it and live according to God’s ways.
Well, there’s an awful lot packed into these verses, and I could go on and on. But this is a good place to stop, and I trust that if you have questions or concerns you will email me — because there’s plenty of room for questions to be raised over this brief discussion. So until our next discussion — discussion number five — I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם), and may God bless you.
Tanakh (תַּנַ”ךְ) — The Hebrew Bible; an acronym for Torah (תּוֹרָה), Nevi’im (נְבִיאִים, Prophets), and Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים, Writings). Paul knew the Tanakh from beginning to end — it was the foundation of his Jewish worldview as he wrote to the Galatians. — Strong’s H3789 · Sefaria: Tanakh
Torah (תּוֹרָה) — “Instruction, teaching, law”; the five books of Moses. In this teaching, the Torah is the Father’s heart — the mind and will of God — functioning as the paidagōgos that guarded and guided Israel until Messiah came. Paul insists under the Torah is not about obedience to Torah but about a subpar relationship to it. — Strong’s H8451
Paidagōgos (παιδαγωγός) — “Guardian, pedagogue”; the first-century Greek and Roman trustworthy slave charged with supervising the life and morals of boys from wealthy families, escorting them everywhere, disciplining them, and imparting the father’s mind to the child — until the son reached maturity and was formally adopted as heir. Paul uses this term in Galatians 3:24–25 to describe the Torah’s role for Israel. — Strong’s G3807
Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; the Hebrew name of Jesus the Messiah. The one whose faithful act of obedience and self-sacrifice removed sins and brought believers into the New Covenant relationship with the Father. — Strong’s H3442
Abba (אַבָּא) — “Father”; the Aramaic/Hebrew intimate address for father. Paul quotes the Spirit-led cry of the adopted child of God — Abba, Father — as evidence of full adoption into the family of God (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15). — Strong’s G5
Brit Chadashah (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) — “New Covenant”; the covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31–33, defined by God writing his Torah on the hearts of his people rather than on stone. This is the transformation Paul describes — from being underthe Torah (it is over you, external) to being a vessel of it (it is within you). — Strong’s H1285
Lev (לֵב) — “Heart”; spelled lamed-bet (לב). The final letter of the Torah (lamed, ל — end of Deuteronomy) and the first letter of the Torah (bet, בּ — beginning of Genesis 1:1) together spell lev — heart. The Torah is God’s lev, his heart, meant to be written on the hearts of his children. — Strong’s H3820
Simchat Torah (שִׂמְחַת תּוֹרָה) — “Rejoicing with the Torah”; the Jewish festival immediately following Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) on which the annual Torah reading cycle is completed and restarted. Referenced in this teaching through the illustration of unrolling the Torah scroll and showing the children where lamed and bet meet
Sukkot (סֻכּוֹת) — “Feast of Tabernacles / Booths”; one of the three moadim — appointed feasts of the LORD — observed in Leviticus 23. Referenced in this teaching as the feast immediately preceding Simchat Torah. — Strong’s H5521 · Chabad: Sukkot
Moadim (מוֹעֲדִים) — “Appointed times, appointed feasts”; the moadim of Leviticus 23 — Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot. Paul’s warning in Galatians 4:10 against observing “days and months and seasons and years” is directed at the Roman religious calendar, not at the God-appointed moadim of Israel. — Strong’s H4150
Amidah (עֲמִידָה) — “The Standing Prayer”; the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, recited standing. Preceding the Amidah are blessings including the three referenced by Paul in Galatians 3:28 — not Gentile, not a slave, not a woman — illustrating Paul’s awareness of and engagement with the Jewish liturgical tradition. — My Jewish Learning: The Amidah
Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965
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OUTLINE:
3:23-25 The Jewish experience
3:26-29 The Key
4:1-7 Shared Jewish/Gentile experience
4:8-11 The Gentile experience
1 – The Jewish Experience
Galatians 3:23-25 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Torah, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the Torah was our guardian until Messiah came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
παιδαγωγος (paidagogos) = “tutor, guardian, custodian, schoolmaster”
“Among the Greeks and Romans the name was applied to trustworthy slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys belonging to the better class. The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood.” (Thayer Greek-English Lexicon of the NT)
– 2 – The Key
Galatians 3:26-29 For in Messiah Yeshua you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were immersed into Messiah have put on Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. Now, if you are the Messiah’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to a promise.
3 – The Shared Jewish/Gentile Experience
Galatians 4:1-7 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is subject to legal guardians and estate stewards until the date set by the father. In the same way wealso, when we were children, were enslaved under the Elementals of the cosmos. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under Torah, to redeem those who were under the Torah, so that we might receive adoption as sons. To show that you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!” – Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God [through Messiah].
4 – The Gentile Experience
Galatians 4:8-11 Formerly, when you did not know God, you slaved for those that by nature are not gods. Now, however, knowing God – or rather to be known by God – how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless Elementals which you want to slave for once again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
RESOURCES:
1 Corinthians 8:3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
— Concordant Literal New Testament with Keyword Concordance (Almont, MI: Concordant Publishing Concern, 1983)
— Hart, David Bentley The New Testament, A Translation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Q: What does “under the Law” really mean?
But under NO circumstances does this phrase mean obedience to the Torah!
“Under the Law” ≠ Obedience to Torah
REFERENCES:
Rom. 2:12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;
Rom. 3:19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God;
1 Cor. 9:20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law;
1 Cor. 9:21 …to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.
Gal. 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
Gal. 4:4-5 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Gal. 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.