Paul’s Argument in Galatians: Traditions of the Fathers, and Works of Law

One Way for All Has Been Made by Yeshua; both Jew and Gentile

In Jewish thought, halakhah means “the way to walk” — the way one walks out Torah in daily life. By the first century, halakhah had become a complex system of oral rulings that shaped Jewish identity, community boundaries, and daily practice.

The Apostle Paul lived in a world shaped not only by the written Torah but by centuries of accumulated oral rulings — the “traditions of the fathers” he mentions in Galatians 1:14. These traditions emerged from a deep historical wound. After the Babylonian exile, Jewish leaders were determined that Israel would never again fall into idolatry or covenant unfaithfulness. Out of this determination came the Great Assembly, traditionally associated with Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and the early sages. Pirkei Avot (“Ethics of the Fathers”) was compiled in writing between the 2nd century BCE and 2nd century CE — it preserves sayings attributed to earlier generations. Its famous instruction, “Make a fence around the Torah” (Pirkei Avot 1:1), reflects a mindset that began in the post‑exilic era and matured over centuries. The fence was meant to protect Israel from breaking God’s commandments by creating additional boundaries around them.

By the first century, this fence had developed into a detailed halakhic system governing daily life. These rulings shaped how one washed hands, how one ate, what counted as purity or impurity, and how one interacted with Gentiles. None of these restrictions appear in the written Torah. They were the result of oral rulings designed to prevent assimilation, idolatry, and ritual contamination. Yet by Paul’s day, these traditions had become so authoritative that they functioned as identity markers distinguishing who belonged to Israel and who did not. To convert to Judaism meant not only circumcision but full submission to the entire halakhic system — the “whole Torah” (see Galatians 5:3) as understood by the Pharisees, which included both the written commandments and the oral rulings that interpreted and fenced them. It MUST be understood that when a Gentile allowed himself to be circumcised in a first-century ritual conversion to Pharasaic Judaism, that it meant that they were obligated to obey the “whole Torah” - both written and oral (Galatians 5:3). The same is true today- circumcision or re-pricking (for those already circumcised) is still required for conversion to Judaism. This is why Paul mentions circumcision so much in his letters.

This is the world behind Paul’s letter to the Galatians — a letter often misunderstood by today’s Christians as an attack on the written Torah itself. Misunderstanding the first-century context of Paul’s words, most Christians believe the term that only Paul uses — “works of law” is equivalent to — “actions done in obedience to Torah”. But Paul’s argument is far more precise. The issue was not the written Torah; the issue was the requirement that Gentiles adopt the Pharisaic oral system in order to be accepted by God’s people. When Paul says that Gentiles are not justified by “works of the law,” he is not speaking about moral effort, good deeds, or obedience to the written commands as outlined in the Torah. The Dead Sea Scrolls — especially the Qumran document 4QMMT (Miqsat Ma‘ase ha‑Torah) — use the exact phrase ma‘ase ha‑torah (“works of the law”) to refer to specific halakhic rulings, the community’s interpretation of how Torah should be kept. In other words, “works of law” meant halakhah — the detailed community rules that defined who was in and who was out.

This is precisely how Paul uses the phrase. Every occurrence of “works of the law” appears in contexts dealing with Gentile inclusion and Pharisaic halakhic requirements:

Paul’s Uses of “Works of the Law”

• Galatians 2:16

• Galatians 3:2

• Galatians 3:5

• Galatians 3:10

• Romans 3:20

• Romans 3:28

Every one of these passages deals with halakhic boundary markers, not the written Torah. Paul is not rejecting God’s teachings and instructions (Torah); he is rejecting the idea that Gentiles must submit to Pharisaic halakhah in order to be counted as righteous. Circumcision, in that world, was not merely a physical sign; it was the doorway into the entire oral system. To be circumcised meant taking on the full yoke of Pharisaic tradition, including purity regulations, table‑fellowship boundaries, and the social separation between Jew and Gentile. Paul insists that Gentiles do not need to enter this system to belong to the God of Israel. They are welcomed through Messiah, not through the fence.

Paul had a difficult position of determining how much of the old system of traditions had to be abandoned, how much had to be revised, and how much could be retained unchanged. (1) “Thus Sha’ul was the perfect example of what Yeshua was talking about when he said, “Every Torah-teacher who has been made into a talmid for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storage room both new things and old “ (Mt 13:52)” (1).

Paul states that he was “shown” the way to work out these problems, by Yeshua Himself and not by any man. He was called to the Gentiles. He understood that the coming of the Messiah definitely made changes to the whole Pharisaic system, both for Messianic Jews as well as the new Gentile converts to Messiah.

This becomes unmistakably clear in Paul’s confrontation with Peter in Antioch — the living example of the very issue Galatians addresses. Peter had been freely eating with Gentile believers, something the written Torah never forbids. But the oral Torah did. When the halakhic enforcers arrived, Peter withdrew out of fear, not conviction. Paul recounts the moment:

Galatians 2:11–14 (CJB)

“Furthermore, when Kefa came to Antioch, I opposed him publicly, because he was clearly in the wrong. For prior to the arrival of certain people from [the community headed by] Ya‘akov, he had been eating with the Gentile believers; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of the faction who favored circumcising Gentile believers. And the other Jewish believers became hypocrites along with him, so that even Bar‑Nabba was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, keeping in line with the truth of the Good News, I said to Kefa, right in front of everyone, ‘If you, who are a Jew, live like a Goy and not like a Jew, why are you forcing the Goyim to live like Jews?’”

Peter’s withdrawal was not obedience to Torah — it was submission to oral tradition. The issue here WAS NOT that Peter was eating foods deemed unclean by God (pork, etc), because he would have never done that. The issue was one of kashrut - Oral Torah deemed food prepared by Gentiles as unclean. Entering a Gentile’s house would have made a Jew unclean. This was a case of purity rituals. The written Torah never declares Gentiles unclean. The oral Torah did. Paul’s rebuke exposes the heart of the issue: Peter’s behavior implied that Gentiles were second‑class unless they adopted Jewish halakhah. This contradicted the Good News, which declares that Gentiles enter God’s family through Messiah, not through Pharisaic conversion. Paul’s question — “Why are you forcing the Goyim to live like Jews?” — is a direct challenge to the fence of tradition, not the Torah of God.

As David Stern comments in his “Jewish New Testament Commentary” regarding Acts 22:3:

“The phrase ‘the traditions handed down by my forefathers’ means the Oral Torah as set forth by the P’rushim “ (Pharisees). (1) Please read Acts 22:3.

Yeshua confronted this same issue when He said, “You make void the word of God by your traditions”, (Mark 7:13). He upheld the written Torah but rejected the elevation of human rulings to divine authority. Paul, trained under Gamaliel, understood the power of these traditions. His zeal for the “traditions of the fathers” had once driven him to persecute the early believers. But after encountering Messiah, he saw that the fence, though well‑intentioned, had become a barrier preventing the nations from entering the promises given to Abraham.

Paul’s metaphor of the Torah as a “schoolmaster” or “guardian” (paidagōgos) in Galatians 3 fits this same framework. In Greek culture, a paidagōgos was NOT a teacher but a strict household guardian who enforced boundaries until a child reached maturity. Paul is not saying the written Torah was harsh or temporary. He is describing the role of the halakhic fence — the oral traditions that functioned as a guardian around Israel. These boundaries preserved the Jewish people but now that Messiah had come, the guardian’s role had changed. The nations were being welcomed into the covenant family not through the fence but through faith in the One to whom the Torah pointed.

The dynamic Paul confronted in the first century is not foreign to the modern world. Just as ancient Judaism developed halakhic fences to protect the community, modern Christian denominations develop their own sets of rules, expectations, and identity markers. Each denomination has its own written or unwritten halakhah — standards of behavior, worship styles, doctrinal emphases, and cultural norms that define who is “in” and who is “out.” For example: if I were to join a Catholic Church, I would be expected to adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church. If I were to join a Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Church of God, etc church, I would be expected to adhere to their denominational doctrines; while all claim to be Christian. (As a side note: I was raised in a very strict denomination that placed many “fences” or “boundaries” around living for God. They were placed there by well meaning leaders and their purpose was the same as with the “fence” of Pirkei Avot. It was to keep and protect individuals from going astray. Growing up, these fences gave me a firm foundation of safety within strict, set boundaries).

It is no different here. Paul was a Pharisee. Anyone converting to Judaism, under a Pharisee’s leadership would be accepting their way of walking out and living Scripture. If one converted with a Sadducee or Essene leadership then they would adhere to their sect of rules. The reason we make Paul’s words so difficult and mis-translate them, is because we do not have an understanding of who he was and the world he lived in.

These rules set forth by different groups, including the Jewish sects of the first-century, are not inherently wrong; many arise from sincere attempts to honor God. But they become problematic when they are elevated to the level of divine command, when they become the measure of righteousness, or when they create barriers that God Himself did not establish. In this sense, the halakhah of the first century and the denominational traditions of today share a similar function: they shape community identity, but they can also obscure the simplicity of faith in Messiah.

Paul’s message to the Galatians remains profoundly relevant. The written Torah is holy, righteous, and good, as Paul said many, many, times in his letters. What he opposed was the requirement that Gentiles adopt a humanly constructed system in order to be accepted by God. The dividing wall of halakhic rulings that separated Jew and Gentile has been torn down in Messiah. The nations are welcomed not through the fence but through faith. The family of Abraham is restored not by “works of halakhah” but by the faithfulness of the One who fulfilled (brought to a higher level of understanding so that it could be properly obeyed) the Torah and opened the covenant to the world. And while good works matter, we are not saved by good works alone but by faithful obedience and belief in Yeshua. A person can be moral, generous, and upright all their life, but good deeds alone cannot save. Salvation comes through accepting the blood atonement of Yeshua, which is supposed to bring faithful obedience — trusting in Yeshua and walking in the way He commands.

I hope this has helped someone in understanding the difficult words of the Apostle Paul.

Leisa

Sources:

• Pirkei Avot 1:1 — “Make a fence around the Torah.”

• Mishnah Yadayim 4:6 — Pharisaic purity rulings beyond written Torah.

• 4QMMT (Dead Sea Scrolls) — Use of ma‘ase ha‑torah (“works of the law”) for halakhic rulings.

Reference:

(1) The Jewish New Testament Commentary” by David Stern; pages 523; 525