A study of the Apostle Paul's approach to the law in Galatians chapters 2 and 3.

The need for this research grew out of the challenges faced by the writer in his involvement with Christian and Jewish perceptions of Paul and the impassioned response his writing on the law seemed to evoke. This paper investigates Galatians chapters 2 and 3 in an attempt to derive a slightly different reading of Paul‟s treatment of the law to that which permeates traditional Christian and Jewish theology. It briefly assesses historical sensitivities that may well have provoked the defense of Jewish identity discernable in covenantal nomism, the very issues Paul was attempting to address for Gentile covenant membership in light of Christ. Confined to this challenge, he commits to expositing the law‟s purpose, drawing conclusions on works-righteousness, faith and the inevitable outcome for Christian Gentile conformity to Jewish covenantal obligations. The paper assesses claims that Qumran had a works-righteousness policy representative of a universal Jewish system of works-righteousness, the significance of faith through the lens of Habakkuk 2:4, and Paul‟s attempt at expounding the law as the means of a „schoolmaster‟ until the advent of Christ. The discussion confines the Galatian argument to that which was originally contended, the insistence on Gentile conformity to Jewish covenantal nomism and not the commonly held Pauline affront to Jewish law in an attempt to correct universal Jewish apostasy. This assists in helping to relieve Paul of the persona of him rejecting every element of his national heritage visible in his „alleged‟ polemic against the law