Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Mark Smith) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: please post in soc.religion.christion Message-ID: Date: 8 May 91 07:41:32 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Cal State Long Beach Lines: 23 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I don't remember the exact reference (but I suspect that someone will be right behind me with it) but it seems to me that Paul discusses this very issue at some detail. Paul makes the point that to go back to living by the law is to nullify Christ's death. I also remember discussion with some of my more scholarly friends (they do the discussing, I just listen in and sit there trying to look intelligent). It seems that the Jewish leaders of that time (that is the time shortly after Christ death) tried to maintain their influence over those Jewish people who had 'converted' to Christianity by telling them that though they were Christians they were still Jews and had to keep the Law. Those of my friends who were actively involved in this discussion seemed to think that the idea of keeping the Law was pretty bogus and without merit. smittie [It's hard to be sure what passage you are thinking of. Perhaps Gal 2:21: "...if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose." The people Paul was arguing with are not normally thought to be Jewish officials, but "Judaizers", Christians who advocated keeping the Law as a requirement for Christians, and thus wanted Gentile Christians to become Jewish. Jewish leaders certainly became concerned at some point that Jews who became Christians were abandoning Judaism as they knew it. But this isn't generally thought to be the primary issue Paul was dealing with. --clh]