The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

160 "even we have believed (human act of believing) in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by participating in the faithful life and death of Christ (the object of faith)." In this understand– ing Paul's antithesis of "works" and "faith" takes on a new meaning. According to Hays, "Paul's primary intention is not at all to juxtapose one type of human activity ('works') to another ('believing-hearing') but rather to juxtapose human activity to God's activity , as revealed in the 'proclamation"' of the gospel. 53 Hays' work represents an advancement over the work of Howard because his work is more specific, but more importantly because he provides the necessary exegetical support for his thesis. 54 The weakness of both of these works , however , is their handling of the antithetical phrase "works of law." Although Howard is surely correct to emphasize the divisive nature of the law, his equation of the "curse" of the law with the "divisive nature" of the law pushes this meaning too far . 55 Although in fairness to Hays (his subject did concern the other side of the antithesis, faith), he simply assumes that "works of the law" refers to "human activity" with little support for his conclusion. 56 An Evaluation Although the traditional "Lutheran approach " to Galatians ha been rightly criticized by recent scholars, and although enlightening historical and exegetical in ight ha e 53 lbid . , 147 . 54 When Lloyd Ga ton , who i no tranger to di cu ion of Paul and th La , rit "The correctne of the tran lation of pistis le ou 'hri tou a 'th faith or faithfuln of J hn t' ha by now been too well e tabli hed t need any further upp rt ," h r f r n wor of Hay a hi primary upport, Ll yd ton , Paul and Torah ( ni r it of Briti h lumbia Pre , 1 87) , 12. A J . M. Wedderburn , ' Re i w Arti l of P ul : tud m rl hri tian Theol y," otti h Journal of Theolog 1 0) : 6 H , 7z e aith of Je us 'hri t , 1 7.