Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
The Renewed Covenant by Daniel Gregg
"Galatians 3:10 For as many as by customary deeds are having justice done, under a curse are. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not stand by all the things written in the book of the Law to do them" (DLT: torahtimes.org).
customary deeds : εργων νομου. This does not refer to Torah properly practiced from love, but relates to Torah only as if it might be pleaded to obtain an acquittal from God, an improper usage which at best can be classified under a rebellious tradition. The very first definition of νομος in the very best Greek Lexicon is "1. a custom, rule, principle, norm" (BDAG, 3rd edition, 2000). The construction here is the "Hebrew Genitive, Genitive of Quality" (cf. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar—Beyond the Basics, page 86). Also, the definition "law" does not even rate the first definition any more, and the reason why is that scholars have realized that this isn't the primary meaning νομος of in Greek.
having justice done: Paul leaves the main verb out, which must be supplied from the preceding context: δικαιοω (Gal. 3:8). The idea is that they are seeking to acquit themselves of sin instead of accepting the pardon that is available from Messiah Yeshua. The sense, "to do justice to" is the meaning of the Greek word in the standard classical sense (pg. 12, Iustitia Dei, Alister E. McGrath). Justice is done by Yeshua's death in one's place, or the one who does not believe may try to have justice done in God's sight by traditional deeds.
stand by : εμμενει. BDAG, 3rd edition, def. 2. The Greek is ambiguous, and quoted from the LXX. However, the Hebrew clears it up, and shows which meaning of the Greek word to choose: "Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words of this Law to do them" (Deut. 27:26). The key word is "confirmeth", and the idea is not that everyone who stumbles is under a curse, but only those who reject the Torah and set it aside by failing to uphold its authority and validity. The penalty for setting aside the Torah was immediate death. That was what this curse meant. The Hebrew does not include the word "all", which is to say it allows for certain ignorance of the Law as long as one confirms it in principle. The LXX is somewhat deficient in including the word "all". Paul is not deficient however, since the usage he puts it to applies. One seeking an acquittal really does need to do "all". Paul would be the first to state that citation from the LXX does not mean inspiration of all of it. He would be the first to say that the Hebrew text took priority, and indeed did correct the LXX quite a bit. It would be too much to hold him to correction of every word he quoted from the LXX. Scholars all the time quote from translations to make a point, knowing that some other part of their quotation, that does not hurt their point is inaccurate, and not wanting to take the time to change it or defend the change to parties that would be distracted by that need.
comment1: Paul places those who seek an acquittal from sin by doing traditional works under the curse of Deuteronomy. 27:26. His reason for doing this is that the doctrine of acquittal is a serious enough rejection of the teaching of the Torah to place the heretics under the ban. If we may generalize the term εργων νομου to mean "legal actions", i.e. deeds put before the divine court, then we can justly include the teaching of many who argue that (1) God made them inwardly righteous, and that they are acquitted on that basis, which is a general Catholic principle, or (2) They argue that they put the deeds of Christ before the court, and that they are acquitted on the basis of the deeds of Christ. The first point is simply untrue, and anti-Torah Gnosticism, so it comes under the ban. The second point is the other side of the mystery of iniquity. Messiah did not die to acquit the faithful using his righteousness. Messiah died to pay the penalty for the faithful who plead guilty and do not seek acquittal, but seek pardon, which God grants since Messiah paid the penalty. Millions of Christians suffer under these twin errors thinking they know the pardon in Yeshua, yet they are clouded by the mystery of iniquity which encourages them to think they are getting an acquittal. (DLC: torahtimes.org)
Composed: 4/22/2009
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/gal0310.html)
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