Its interesting how Galatians is a book that is taken so out of context within Christian communities today. Nevertheless, we also have read about what scripture says about taking Paul's letters out of context. So granted I think Paul is one of the hardest writers to understand, I think it very noteworthy to point out once again what 2 Peter 3:15-17 states "15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. Given Paul's background as a Pharisee, which in the context of what he WAS, equated the Oral Tradition to the Torah, and how the words "works of the law" were very prevalent amongst the culture of his day and even several hundred years prior, as referring to a legalistic approach to following the Torah, I believe it very dangerous whenever anybody tries to make the claim that Paul is not teaching those people to follow the Torah. Let us proceed.
Let us quote from Galatians. It states "Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. 23One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise. 24Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written,‘Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs;for the children of the desolate woman are more numerousthan the children of the one who is married.’ 28Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac. 29But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. 30But what does the scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.’ 31So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
I think this to be an interesting passage and I'm going to show you why! One first has to understand what is being meant here when Paul is making the claim "subject to the law." The terminology utilized here in Greek is Erega nomou, which is the same thing that is utilized to mean "works of the law." When Paul utilizes the article Ha Nomos, he is always referring to the Torah. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, we see this claim after a portion of the Essenes "written" halakah (I did say written, as it appears portions if not all of the Talmud were written prior to when Christians believe they were) " "Now, we have written to you some of the works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial for you and your people, because we have seen [that] you possess insight and knowledge of the Law. Understand all these things and beseech Him to set your counsel straight and keep you away from evil thoughts and the counsel of Belial. Then you shall rejoice at the end time when you find the essence of our words to be true. And it will be reckoned to you as righteousness, in that you have done what is right and good before Him, to your own benefit and to that of Israel."Quoted from: A Sectarian Manifesto 4QMMT:4Q394-399 Thus this is good inference that the terminology that Paul is utilizing is not directed towards the Torah at all, but rather he is telling those who are following based off of a halakah to heed the words of the Torah. When one understands how the Pharisees were distorting the words of the Torah, it is not hard to understand what Paul is ACTUALLY claiming. Looking back at Ishmael, you have to understand his lineage too. Who was from the lineage of Ishmael? Muhammad. Verse 25 states that Hagar means "Mt Sinai in Arabia." NOT in Hebrew. This distinction, especially culturally is important to be made. Jewish names had significant meaning behind them, often denoting a specific purpose that someone would hold to in their lifetime. The present state of Jerusalem, if you go back and study the schools of Shammai, the schools of Hillel, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes were in a total mess during this time period. So yes, they were slaves to sin. But corresponding to what Paul teaches in Romans 7...there is a separation between the Torah and the law of sin. Well, we know how the story turns out. Paul is actually reading prophecy in verse 30. "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for by no means will the son of the slave woman inherit along with the son of the free woman." What is God telling us from the Tanakh? This is incredible! God commands us in this manner of scripture not to follow the Muslim faith. This served some meaning for the community during the time period, but should hold more meaning for the present society because around 7th century A.D., this fellow Muhammad was roaming the Earth and started changing around things in the Bible just as the city of Jerusalem was doing in the 1st century. So its not hard to understand this portion of Biblical scripture after putting everything into context.
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