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POSTED 14 JULY, 2008
Galatians
3:24-25:
Are Messianic Youth Properly Trained in the
Torah and All the Scriptures?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
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GALATIANS 3:24-25 ―
ENGLISH |
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Therefore the Law has become our tutor
to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now
that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (NASU).
so that the law became our child-conductor – to Christ,
that by faith we may be declared righteous, and the
faith having come, no more under a child-conductor are
we (YLT).
So then, the Law/Torah pedagogue our became to/toward Messiah, in
order that out of faith we might be justified. Came but
the faith no longer under pedagogue we are (author’s
literal translation)
So then, the Torah became our pedagogue [to lead us]
toward Messiah, in order that we might be justified out
of faith. But [with] the faith having come, we are no
longer under a pedagogue
(author’s translation).
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GALATIANS 3:24-25 ―
GREEK |
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hōste ho nomos paidagōgos hēmōn gegonen eis Christon,
hina ek pisteōs dikaiōthōmen elthousēs de tēs pisteōs
ouketi hupo paidagōgon esmen.
wste o nomoß paidagwgoß hmwn gegonen eiß Criston ina ek
pistewß dikaiwqwmen elqoushß de thß pistewß ouketi upo
paidagwgon esmen
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Galatians 3:24-25 are some difficult verses for
today’s Messianic Believers to contemplate.[1]
Many interpreters are in rightful agreement that
“tutor” is not the best rendering of the Greek
word paidagōgos (paidagwgoß),
as there is something specifically to be
understood from this term in antiquity. In
Galatians 3:24, we actually see Paul using a
classical Greek term to express a Jewish
concept.[2]
BDAG indicates, “Orig. ‘boy-leader’, the
man, usu.[ally] a slave…whose duty it was to
conduct a boy or youth…to and from school and to
superintend his conduct gener.; he was not a
‘teacher’…When the young man became of age, the
p[aidagwgoß]
was no longer needed.”[3]
In a classical sense, the paidagōgos was
a protector who was to guard young boys on their
way to school until they reached a certain age.
This “disciplinarian” (NRSV) or “guardian” (ESV)
would try to instill in them a basic sense of
who a responsible citizen was until they were
old enough to take care of themselves. As Plato
would describe it, “Our sharp-eyed and efficient
supervisor of the education of the young must
redirect their natural development along the
right lines, by always setting them on the paths
of goodness as embodied in the legal code” (Laws
7.809).[4]
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
It will have been useful for you to
have already consulted the more
detailed FAQ entry on “Galatians
3:24-25” on the
TNN website, as this article is more
focused on application than
exegetical analysis.
[2]
The term “pedagogue”
does appear as a borrowed term in
some Jewish literature (Richard N.
Longenecker, Word Biblical
Commentary: Galatians, Vol. 41
[Nashville: Nelson Reference &
Electronic, 1990], pp 146-148).
[3]
Frederick William
Danker, ed., et. al.,
A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and
Other Early Christian Literature,
third edition (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2000), 748.
[4]
Plato:
The Laws,
trans. Trevor J. Saunders (London:
Penguin Books, 1970), 253.
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