In my last post, asking the question,“What is Judaism?” from Galatians Chapter One, I thought it would be good to continue through the letter to the Galatians. The goal will be to maintain the context that Paul set in Galatians One. I think that we need to use Paul’s context, instead of setting, and resetting the context, according to our own preconceived notions.

When we looked at Galatians One we were able to determine that Paul’s letter concerns Judaism. Paul begins by talking about another gospel than the true gospel. Then he defines what that other gospel is as Judaism. The Judaism that he once practiced and in which he tried to destroy the church.

We saw that Judaism was not committed to the Word of Yahweh, made up of men who kept to a strict obedience to the Law/Torah of Yahweh. We saw, by Yeshua’s testimony fromMatthew Chapter Fifteen, that they were committed to the traditions of the elders. Yeshua said that they made the commandments of Yahweh of no effect by their traditions. In fact, as we read in John 5:37-47, Yeshua told them that they didn’t believe Moses! He said that if they believed Moses they would believe Him. Clearly we see that Judaism, the religion of the rulers, the Pharisees and the Scribes, was not made up of those who kept to the letter of God’s Law. They were in fact lawless. They transgressed the Torah by their additions and subtractions.

Throughout Paul’s epistles we see the subject of circumcision often. It is an issue that he addresses, as it weaves in and out of his letters. It is such an oft recurring issue that it appears to be the focus of his letters. It is what he is warning believers to beware of. How does this hold up as we read the second chapter of Galatians?

Galatians 2:1-3 – “Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.”

Well that didn’t take long. Paul goes to Jerusalem and he tells those in Jerusalem about the gospel that he was preaching among the gentiles. He says that he did it in private for fear. Fear of what? We aren’t left to conjecture. Titus, who was a Greek. Being of another nation than Israel Titus was known as a gentile. Gentiles, not being of Israel, were not acceptable to the Jews unless they were circumcised, thereby becoming a part of Israel. Yeshua dealt with this in Matthew 23:15. He told the Scribes and Pharisees that they crossed land and sea to make one proselyte (convert to Judaism) but in the end they simply made those converts “twice the sons of hell” that they themselves were. The main ritual of the proselyte was becoming circumcised. Biblical context mandates we read consistently. Paul argument against circumcision would have to be consistent with Yeshua’s argument against circumcision. Being circumcised to become a part of Judaism, being joined to Israel, was not the way of access into the kingdom of Yahweh. Becoming a part of Israel, through circumcision, meant submitting to the traditions of the elders. And we have Yeshua’s testimony about the danger of following the traditions of the elders. Those who do make the commandments of Torah of no effect.

So Paul’s fear was that those in Jerusalem would try to force Titus, a gentile convert to Messiah, to be circumcised and become a convert to Judaism. He would have become a part of Messianic Judaism. This is a Scriptural oxymoron. The two are not synonymous, and are not in any way homogenous. In plain language, Judaism and a Biblical belief in the Messiah of the Bible are not the same. Judaism did not believe and follow the written Torah, and they rejected, as a whole, the Living Torah. To say you can mix a true belief in Messiah Yeshua with Judaism is like saying you can mix oil with water. It can’t be done. It is tantamount to putting new wine in old wine skins. It doesn’t work, according to Yeshua, in Mark 2:22.