"The 9 Questions" part 1

Helen Willis (hhiwater@BRIGHT.NET)
Fri, 04 Jul 1997 10:10:58 -0700

I was at the Public library yesterday and stumbled on a book that has an
excellent essay in it that covers well and briefly, a topic we've gone over
on this list extensively. The book is called, "The Nine Questions People Ask
About Judaism" and it's by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin. (published as
a Touchstone edition by Simon & Schuster 1981, The price on the paperback
edition from the library is $7.95.) The book has a quote on the cover from
the foreword by Herman Wouk calling the book "The Intellectual Skeptic's
Guide to Judaism". It seems to be written from an Orthodox Jewish
prospective. Question 4 is "How Does Judaism Differ from Christianity,
Marxism and Communism, and Humanism?" There is a little 12 page essay on the
differences between Christianity and Judaism that is good, clear, and well
reference. I think much of what it covers, we have already dealt with on this
list, but I'm going to post some stuff from it, that I'm not sure we have
seen befor on this list.
These guys say, "...The major difference between Judaism and Christianity
lies in the importance each religion attaches to faith and action. In
Judaism, God considers people's actions to be more important than their
faith; acting in accordance with biblical and rabbinical law is the Jews'
central obligation." They then go on to explore this idea and state, "Though
faith became the essence of Christianity, Christian history reveals that the
emphasis on faith over works was held by neither Jesus nor his immediate
followers." These guys think that the ideology of faith was formulated by
Paul after the 70 ad destruction of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. They
state an abbreviation of Pauline doctrine many using quotes from Galatians
and Romans. Then they go on to say: "......The Pauline idea that a person is
cursed by God for breaking any law (see Galatians 3:10-3) was a new one, not
to be found anywhere in the Bible or nominal Judaism." Are there any
Christian replies to this claim by Prager and Telushkin?

These guys then say this, on Paul's claim:

"...It appears from Galatians 3:10 that he derived it from a mistaken
reading of ....Deuteronomy 27:26. The eleven verses before it...list eleven
basic ethical obligations....and declare the transgressor of any of them
cursed by the Jews and Moses (not by God). At the conclusion of these
verses the Bible says, "Cursed be he who does not maintain all the words of
this Torah to do them.."-"this Torah (Teaching)" referring to the eleven
laws just listed. However Paul understood this verse to mean, "Cursed be
everyone who does not perserve in observing everything prescribed in the
book of the Law" (as it is translated in Galatians 3:10). Paul
misunderstood (or intentionally changed) the verse to mean that anyone who
violates any law in the entire Torah.....is eternally cursed, a
mistranlation which remains in the New Testament".

I think Till has made this argument before, but it hit me when reading this
that if Paul did mistranslate Deuteronomy 27:26, then all of Christianity is
proven false. Are there any Christian replies to these claims?
I will post more from this essay in future post,
Helen Willis
hhiwater@bright.net