Casting Shadows, Part 7: St. Paul to the Galatians, continued

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them." Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for "He who through faith is righteous shall live"; but the law does not rest on faith, for "He who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree" - that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:10-14)

This short block of text shows us a technique that is uniquely Pauline: the jackhammer-like use of Old Testament quotes, in rapid-fire succession. In the space of four short verses, St. Paul manages to quote four Old Testament passages, strongly imply a fifth Old Testament passage, and evoke the memory of an entire era in Israel's redemptive history.

The four explicitly quoted passages are as follows:

1) "'Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'" (Dt. 27:26)
2) "Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith." (Hab. 2:4)
3) "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live: I am the LORD." (Lev. 18:5)
4) "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance." (Dt. 21:22-23)

Of course, merely showing these four passages does little to help us understand the logic of St. Paul's argument, or why he chose to quote these four passages (and these four specifically) in this specific order. Once more, we must explore the historical context in which these verses were originally written if we are to understand St. Paul's point.

At first glance, we notice one particular fact immediately: this four-link chain of verses begins and ends with the book of Deuteronomy. The significance of this fact will become clearer as we press forward.

First, however, we must look more closely at the passage that is not explicitly quoted by St. Paul, but is strongly implied - and is actually the key to unlocking these four other textual doors.

When St. Paul quotes the Old Testament text that says, "He who does them shall live by them," it is most immediately apparent that he seems to be referring to Lev. 18:5. However, this phrase from Lev. 18:5 appears elsewhere in the prophets as a kind of refrain:

And thou didst warn them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey thy commandments, but sinned against thy ordinances, by the observance of which a man shall live, and turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. (Neh. 9:29)

This refrain appears, most significantly it would seem, no less than three times (in a very short span of verses) in one prophetic book in particular: the book of Ezekiel.

I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live. (Ezek. 20:11)

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not walk in my statutes but rejected my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live. (Ezek. 20:13)

But the children rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and were not careful to observe my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live. (Ezek. 20:21)

Three times in Ezekiel 20 the phrase "by whose observances man shall live" is used - a dense, triple-repetition of the phrase found nowhere else in the Old Testament. For this reason, some scholars argue (rightly, I think) that St. Paul is not quoting Lev. 18:5, but rather, he is quoting Ezekiel 20, who is in turn quoting Lev. 18:5. That is, St. Paul is quoting Lev. 18:5, but in the same manner and with the same meaning given to it by Ezekiel 20.

Thus, Ezekiel 20 is the chapter in the Old Testament in which we will find the necessary context for understanding Gal. 3:10-14 and St. Paul's use of this quote.

Before we delve any deeper in Ezekiel, however, I want to raise one last issue: the structure of Gal. 3, and the apparent discontinuity of St. Paul's argument in vss. 10-14.

In Gal. 3:1-5, St. Paul sets up the dichotomy between "works of the law" and "faith," and between "the Spirit" and "the flesh."

In vss. 6-9, he begins to argue for his position from the story of Abraham, and the Genesis narratives:

Thus Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." [Gen. 15:6] So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you [Gen. 12:3] shall all the nations be blessed [Gen. 22:18]." So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.

I will quickly note that St. Paul does splice together two quotes from Genesis in the above text: he conflates Gen. 12:3 and Gen. 22:18. In Gen. 12:3 Abram is told "by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." But in Gen. 22:18, Abraham is told, "in your seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves." The Greek in the Septuagint of Gen. 12:3 is pasai ai fulai ("all tribes/families"); the Greek in the Septuagint of Gen. 22:18 is panta ta ethne ("all nations"), which matches the Greek of Gal. 3:8 word-for-word. In brief, St. Paul chooses to include the Gen. 22 version of the blessing because Gen. 12:3 relates the promise of a world-wide blessing, while Gen. 22 relates the occasion when God elevated that promise to the status of a covenant oath: "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you ... and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves." (Gen. 22:16-18)

In Gal. 3:10-14, as we have seen, St. Paul begins to argue - using four Old Testament texts - that faith is opposed to the works of the law.

But in vss. 16-18, he returns to Abraham and the Genesis narratives, finally concluding in the last verse of Gal. 3, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."

It does appear, at first glance, that vss. 10-14 mark a momentary departure from St. Paul's overall argument; he argues from Abraham's story consistently throughout chapter 3, but seemingly leaves that argument behind for a few verses while he contrasts faith and works of the law.

This departure is an illusion, however, and the illusion fades away upon close inspection of St. Paul's logic and the main point of his argument in vss. 10-14. To that question, then, we now return.

In order to understand the full meaning behind vss. 10-14, we have to examine Ezekiel 20. The section of verses spanning from 5-26 is what interests us, because this section of Ezekiel 20 recounts the tainted history of Israel. It may be divided up into three sections, as is shown below. Following Dr. Scott Hahn's excellent analysis of this text, we note the repeating themes in these verses: A divine oath; the saying, "I am the Lord"; Israel's rebellion; the threat of judgment; divine restraint. These parallels are underlined in the text:

Section 1: Israel in Egypt

On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the seed of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God. On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not every man cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they dwelt, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. (Ezek. 20:5-9)

Section 2: The First Generation (Sinai)

So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live. Moreover I gave them my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I the LORD sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not walk in my statutes but rejected my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, because they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness. (Ezek. 20:10-17)

Section 3: The Second Generation (Deuteronomy)

And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I the LORD am your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to observe my ordinances, and hallow my sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I the LORD am your God. But the children rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and were not careful to observe my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live; they profaned my sabbaths. Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withheld my hand, and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols. Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD. (Ezek. 20:18-26)

If we read these three sections carefully, we can pick out unique elements that show us the historical sequence being recounted by God through Ezekiel:

1) "I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness." (v. 10)

2) "I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live." (vs. 11, referring to Sinai)

3) "But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness ... rejected my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live." (vs. 13, referring to the Golden Calf)

4) "Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them." (v. 13, referring to Ex. 32, when Moses interceded for Israel)

5) "I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them." (v. 15, referring to the bad report given by the 10 spies in Numbers 13 and 14, when God condemned the first generation to die in the wilderness)

6) "I said to their children in the wilderness..." (vs. 18, now speaking of the second generation)

7) "But the children rebelled against me ... and were not careful to observe my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live." (vs. 21, referring to the worship of idols at Baal-Peor in Num. 25)

8) "I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness." (vs. 21, see Num. 25, where God sends a plague to destroy Israel, and only by the zealous act of Phineas is the plague lifted)

9) "I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries." (vs. 23, referring to the covenant sworn with Israel in Deut. 27-32, where their exile is assured)

The triple-repitition of the phrase "my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live," is countered in verse 25 by the phrase, "Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life." We will come back to the meaning of this verse in a moment.

The three uses of the phrase "I swore" in Ezek. 20 actually correspond to the usage of the same phrase in those three stages of Israel's history, thus strongly supporting this "chronological" interpretation of Ezekiel 20.

Ezekiel 20	Israel's History
Out of Egypt
I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt (vs. 6)	I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. (Ex. 6:8)
First Generation
I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them (vs. 15)	As I live [oath formula], says the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you ... not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. (Num. 14:28, 30)
Second Generation
I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations (vs. 23)	I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation ... I will heap evils upon them; I will spend my arrows upon them ... the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly ... For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear. (Dt. 32:21, 23, 35, 40)

Now we return to the question: what does God mean when He says, through Ezekiel, "I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life?" The answer is as simple as pointing out where in the chronology of Israel's history this verse falls. It is verse 25, which is at the end of Ezekiel's third stage of Israel's history, the Deuteronomic renewal of the Mosaic Covenant.

The following verse (v. 26) bears this out: "I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them." The meaning of this verse is disputed, and most of the commentaries that I have read interpret this verse to mean Israel's offering their children in sacrifice to the god Molech. That interpretation is not convincing, however, for a few reasons: 1) God says that He is the one who "made them offer" the "first-born," and God would certainly not sanction child sacrifice to a false god; 2) the text only says "first-born," it says nothing about human children; 3) the god Molech was not particular about receiving only first-born sacrifices, thus making the "first-born" stipulation in this verse superfluous if it is referring to Molech.

If what we have been saying about Ezekiel's chronology is true, and if this third stage of Israel's history is in view (the Deuteronomic stage), then we should expect to find something about first-born sacrifices in the Deuteronomic Law - and we do.

In the original Levitical Law, God said that "firstling of animals ... as a firstling belongs to the LORD." (Lev. 27:26) There was something intrinsically special about a first-born, even a first-born among the animals, such that it was considered the possession of the Lord. Such an animal could not be exchanged or substituted: "If it is an animal such as men offer as an offering to the LORD ... He shall not substitute anything for it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good ... no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD ... shall be sold or redeemed." (Lev. 27:9-10, 28)

In the Deuteronomic Law, however, this requirement was lifted:

And before the LORD your God, in the place which he will choose [i.e., The Jerusalem Temple] ... you shall eat the tithe of your grain ... and the firstlings of your herd and flock ... if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to bring the tithe ... then you shall turn it [the tithe] into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses, and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household. (Dt. 14:23-26)

This is a rather drastic change! The first-born animals, which Leviticus says belong to the Lord precisely because they are first-born, can now be exchanged for some other offering - that is, the Israelite could redeem his first-born animal with money, choosing instead to purchase some other kind of offering at the Temple ("oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink").

This is an example of a law given in Deuteronomy that God says was "not good."

One brief word about the text as I have quoted it from the RSV: though the RSV has the words "making them offer by fire all their first-born," the oldest manuscripts do not appear to have these words. St. Jerome's Vulgate, using Hebrew manuscripts dating back to at least the 5th century, simply has pollui eos in muneribus suis cum offerrent omne quod aperit vulvam propter delicta sua et scient quia ego Dominus, that is, "I polluted them in their own gifts, when they offered all that opened the womb, for their offences: and they shall know that I am the Lord."

The pollution of the gifts appears here as simply a pollution pertaining to the offering of "all that opened the womb," without any reference to an offering made by fire.

To tie all of this back to Gal. 3:10-14, we can say something like this: the phrase "my ordinances, by whose observance man shall live," which is quoted by St. Paul in Gal. 3 and quoted three times by Ezekiel 20, is meant to evoke that triple-repitition of the phrase in Ezekiel as well as the counter-statement in Ezekiel 20, "I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life" - a statement that refers directly and specifically to the Deuteronomic Renewal of the Mosaic Covenant.

Thus, with Deuteronomy firmly fixed as the focal point of Gal. 3:10-14, we begin to see why St. Paul began and ended his series of quotations in 10-14 with explicit quotes from Deuteronomy. He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy at the beginning and at the end, forming a set of textual bookends that frame his implicit quote from Ezekiel 20, in order to already get the reader thinking in terms of the Deuteronomic Law - and to prepare the reader to recall Ezekiel 20 and its detailed references to those laws which were "not good."

The first quote, from Dt. 27:26, is a summary verse which represents all of Deuteronomy 27 - and all of the chilling words contained therein.

The chapter in question contains instructions for a covenant swearing ceremony to be performed by the Israelites after they cross the Jordan. Six tribes were to stand on Mount Ebal and six were to stand on Mount Gerizim (27:12-13), while the Levites called out a series of twelve curses - that is, covenant oaths.

And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel with a loud voice: 'Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'

'Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.' (Dt. 27:14-16)

And on it goes, until we reach the summary verse, quoted by St. Paul: "'Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'"

But this is not the end. The following chapters, 27-32, demonstrate that these twelve curses were not "maybe" curses, but were in fact certain and sure predictions.

Deuteronomy 28 begins, "all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God," and then goes on from vss. 3-14 enumerating the blessings for obedience. Verse 15 begins "if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God ... then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you." It then goes on from vss. 16-68 enumerating all of the covenant curses. Recognize the lack of balance: eleven verses of blessing; fifty-two verses of curses, ending with words that promise a future exile: "the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and a languishing soul." (vss. 64-65)

Chapter 30 begins with words that presume Israel's future failure: "And when [note: not "if"] all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children ... then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes, and have compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you." (Dt. 30:1-3)

Exile is a given at this point. It is inevitable. Israel will fall, and they will be scattered to the nations, because in His mercy (!) God gave them laws by which they could not live, and laws which were not good. In essence, He gave them the laws they thought they wanted, which would eventually drive them to utter collapse - and eventually, when they had received their fill of everything they thought they wanted, they would wake up in exile and finally "return to the LORD your God."

It is this promise of inevitable curse and exile, curses which were part and parcel of the very Deuteronomic Laws given to Israel - I say it is all of this that St. Paul is calling to mind when he quotes the summary verse of Deut. 27, the verse which says in essence, "you will be thoroughly cursed."

St. Paul then goes on to say, after reminding his opponents of the built-in failure of the Deuteronomic Law, "Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for 'He who through faith is righteous shall live.'" (Gal. 3:11) This quote comes from the prophet Habbakuk.

Habbakuk's prophecy begins with God saying, "lo, I am rousing the Chaldeans [i.e., Babylon], that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not their own [i.e., Jerusalem]." (Hab. 1:6)

The prophet complains to God, "why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked [i.e, Babylon] swallows up the man more righteous than he [i.e., Jerusalem]?" (vs. 13) In other words, how is it just and right for God to use Babylon as His chastening rod, when Babylon Herself is in need of serious chastening?

God answers in chapter 2 that Babylon will be punished for Her wickedness, but not before She first enslaves Israel; justice will be done, but it will seem for a period of time that injustice reigns. In that interim period, the righteous man will have to live by faith and not by sight, for what he sees will seem contrary to what he knows: "For still the vision awaits its time ... wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith." (2:3-4)

Why does St. Paul contrast this to his capsule summary of the Deuteronomic Law? Because the situation described in Habbakuk - the exile of Israel, all of the curses of the covenant, etc. - is still the situation when St. Paul is writing to the Galatians. Israel/Jerusalem is still enslaved to a Gentile nation, only now it's not Babylon, but Rome. Babylon was only the beginning of the exile period; it was the prophet Daniel who foresaw the true duration of the exile:

I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes ...

"As it is written in the law of Moses [i.e., Deuteronomy], all this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and giving heed to thy truth. ... O LORD, forgive; O LORD, give heed and act; delay not, for thy own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name."

While I was speaking and praying ... the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight ... and he said to me, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding ... Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity ... (Dan. 9)

Seventy weeks of years, or 70 x 7 years, translates to 490 years of exile - bringing Israel right up to the time of Christ, and to the period in which St. Paul was writing.

Thus, the message to Habbakuk is the same message to the Jews of St. Paul's day: the righteous man will live by faith during the years that the covenant curses are being enforced, and, as St. Paul says, this life of faith is in contrast to living by the "works of the law" of the cursed Deuteronomic/Mosaic Covenant.

Taking all of this background context into account, we may paraphrase St. Paul in vss. 10-11 this way: "For all who rely on the works of the Deuteronomic/Mosaic Covenant are under the curses of that covenant; for it is written in Deuteronomy that we Jews would inevitably fall under God's curse and go into exile. Now it is evident, even now as you look around you at your Roman exile, that no man is justified before God by that cursed covenant; for just as the Jews in Habbakuk's time went into exile and had to live by faith, and could no longer follow the Mosaic Law, so also we today are still in exile and must live by faith - and not under that cursed covenant."

From this he moves effortlessly into his target text of Ezekiel 20 - again, we could paraphrase this way: "but the Deuteronomic Law does not rest on faith, for as Ezekiel said, we were given laws in Deuteronomy by which we could not live, and whose purpose was to ultimately send us into exile until we begged for mercy - which exile we are still living under today."

So what is the solution to this situation? Everything we have said so far sets us up perfectly to understand St. Paul's next words: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree.'" (Gal. 3:13)

That quotation comes from no other book than Deuteronomy. The text is as follows: "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance." (Dt. 21:22-23)

But wait a minute, St. Paul! The man who hangs on a tree is accursed by God. Jesus was God, so are we saying here that God was cursed by God? Exactly. And this is precisely why Gal. 3:10-14 is in no way disassociated with St. Paul's main argument in the rest of Gal. 3, the argument from Abraham's story.

It was to Abraham that God swore - by His own Holy Name - to bless all the nations through Abraham's seed. A covenant is a two-sided thing, you see; it comes with a curse attached to it, a curse that goes into effect if the party who swore fails to hold up his end of the covenant. God, in effect, said to Abraham, "I swear by my own Name that I will bless you and your seed, and all the nations along with you - even if it means bearing the curse when your seed, Israel, violates my covenant."

And so, after recounting in vss. 10-14 how Israel failed miserably and fell under the covenant curse, it is only logical for St. Paul to exclaim, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law" - the Deuteronomic curses - "having become a curse for us!" He bore the very curse detailed in Deuteronomy by hanging on a tree, thus lifting the curse from Abraham's seed and opening the way for all of the blessings - justification itself - that was promised to Abraham, to his seed, and to the nations.

There is, even in this statement, a bit of Old Testament typology at work. In Joshua 9, Joshua is tricked by the Gibeonites into swearing a covenant of peace with them:

And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them ... But the people of Israel did not kill them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. But all the leaders said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore to them." (Josh. 9:15-20)

Later in Israel's history, this covenant with the Gibeonites was violated. King Saul, in his zeal, slaughtered the Gibeonites, and thus brought a curse upon Israel.

Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, "There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death." So the king called the Gibeonites. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. (2 Sam. 21:1-2)

So how do the Israelites atone for their violation of the covenant and thus lift the curse?

And David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And how shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the LORD?" The Gibeonites said to him, "It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." And he said, "What do you say that I shall do for you?" They said to the king, "The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the LORD at Gibeon on the mountain of the LORD." And the king said, "I will give them." ... and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the LORD, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. (2 Sam. 21:3-9)

The curse of the violated covenant was lifted - redeemed - by the putting to death of the sons of the man who violated the covenant. When viewed in this way, the typology stands out clearly: God lifts the curse of the violated Israelite/Deuteronomic covenant by putting to death His own Son, but first He makes His Son to become a Son of Israel, born of Jewish blood. Thus, just as the hanging of Saul's sons atoned for the violated covenant, so also the hanging on a tree of Israel's Son atones for the covenant violation which Israel committed.

This is why St. Paul can continue with his Abrahamic argument, after quoting Deuteronomy 21: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us ... that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles." (Gal. 3:13-14)

To summarize, then, St. Paul has leveled an irrefutable argument against his Judaizer opponents. They desired to impose circumcision and the Mosaic Law upon the New Covenant Christians, saying, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1) St. Paul reminds them, through careful and strategic use of four - or rather, five - Old Testament texts, that the Mosaic Covenant is under a curse, and that to place yourself under that Law is to place yourself back under the Deuteronomic curses.

The Levites who shouted the covenant curses on the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy 27, then, become an institutional reminder of the curse. Even in St. Paul's day, the priests of the temple had to have been a reminder to the Jews of this Deuteronomic curse - but apparently they had forgotten this, and thus St. Paul has to remind them by quoting from Deuteronomy 27 itself.

His argument is irrefutable because the curses of the Deuteronomic covenant were still visible at the time St. Paul was writing: the Roman enslavement of Jerusalem was only a continuation of the Babylonian enslavement that had begun in Habbakuk's time. If Christ had redeemed them from that awful curse, by bearing the Deuteronomic curse of hanging on a tree, why - asks St. Paul, in effect - would they ever desire to leave the New Covenant of grace and freedom and place themselves back under covenant of curse and slavery? This freedom/slavery dichotomy is a seedling argument that St. Paul initially plants here in chapter 3, and returns to develop it more fully in chapter 4 by way of the Hagar/Sarah allegory.