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In my opinion as one who embraces both Yeshua as Messiah as well as the Torah of Moshe as a practical guidebook for everyday living, I believe historically, the book of Galatians has misled Christian commentators due largely to the technical discussions of biblical topics ranging from circumcision, to the Torah, to freedom in Christ. Sha'ul (a.k.a. Paul or Saul) uses quite a number of technical phrases and words in this letter and these terms, when removed from their original 1st century Judaic context, will have the tendency to form the impetus for many and varied Christian interpretations that end up teaching concepts nearly quite the opposite of their original purpose. I am not so bold as to imagine as one author that I have uncovered total truth on the matter. Rather, what I am attempting to do is challenge us as students of God’s Word to take a very scientific approach, if you will, to understanding how Paul’s original readers would have interacted with this letter, and exactly what course of action the author Paul was expecting them to take as a result of reading and implementing his letter. This means putting aside our preconceived Jewish and Christian biases and letting Galatians—indeed the entire Word of God—speak for itself. We all see through glasses tainted by bias, and I am no different. But how different would the text become if we could borrow the glasses of the Apostle Paul for a few weeks while we poured through his letter concept by concept? By God’s grace, this study is going to attempt to do just that.
This study is going to be a bit different in its approach to the letter of Galatians. I am not going to simply conduct a verse-by-verse exposition of every pasuk (verse) that Paul wrote. Instead, the first twelve lessons will treat the context of the letter of Galatians as a whole topical study, examining concepts found in the letter one by one first—viz, circumcision, works of the law, under the law, etc. Once we have laid the contextual foundation for the social setting of this letter, I believe we will be in a better position to exegete individual passages (tough phrases) one by one, which we will actually do in the second, more lengthy excursus portion of this commentary (see the Table of Contents for more details).
It is my hope that this contextual study along with its limited excursus of selected tough phrasing from the book of Galatians will help to unravel the letter for both Christians and Jews. To be sure, without a proper background to the book we will forever misread Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles. For this particular portion of the contextual study, allow me to start in B'resheet (Genesis) with Avraham and circumcision. If we begin to peel back the mysteries surrounding this simple biblical command we stand a better chance at understanding Sha'ul and his enigmatic instructions.
Topics of Discussion
*Note: The topical sequence of audio episodes for this study follows from an older version of the Galatians study and therefore differs from the current PDF version in some places.
The iTunes podcast episodes cover these topics (click on a topic to jump to that section):
02b. Decrypting Paul: Proselyte Conversion: “Works of Law” (Part One: Understanding the Background)
05-06-07. Works of Law (Part Two); Lesson from Acts 10; Under the Law
09a. Excursus: Additional “Tough Phrasing” (covers 1:6, 7, 13)
09c. Excursus: Additional “Tough Phrasing” (covers 2:15, 16)
09f. Excursus: Additional "Tough Phrasing" (covers 3:2, 3, 5)
09i. Excursus: Additional "Tough Phrasing" (covers 3:10, 11, 12)
09j. Excursus: Additional "Tough Phrasing" (covers 3:13, 14, 17, 18)
10-11. Summary; Conclusions - Torah: Negative, Neutral, or Positive?
CURRENT TOPICS:
SEGMENT ONE: ROMANS 14 UNPLUGGED: FEASTS AND FASTS AND FOOD, OH MY!
SEGMENT TWO: EXPLORING THE SHEMA: DISCUSSIONS ON THE ISSUES OF TRINITY
Additional Details:
Taught via Skype conference call, live from my computer to yours! Skype group link is needed to join this study (see subscribe details below). Don't have the Skype app or a Skype account? No problem. Join the Skype call as a guest from your browser! If you have a Skype account, use your own credentials, or use your Facebook account. Presenter's screen will be shared with participants; headphone or speakers required; some additional browser plugin software might also be required.
Saturday evenings from 7 PM to (approx.) 8 PM, US Central Standard Time.
Each class opens with brief liturgy in Hebrew and Greek!
Exclusive for enrolled members: A 45-minute Q&A chat session will immediately follow each live lesson!
Enrollment is free but donations are welcome (see details in the subscription Welcome Letter).
Each audio session will be recorded and uploaded to my websites and iTunes for later review.
(*Link opens at Ariel's TetzeTorah.com website)
Commentary Links
08. Questions and Answers
*The audio recording of this podcast represents the last class in a semester where we did a Q and A session as well as a review. It does not follow the notes, therefore there is no written material here to follow. Take a break from reading and enjoy the audio recording!
