Dwight Pryor on Sinful Nature

nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Galatians 2:16 NASB

In – What a difference it makes to change even a single preposition! Galatians 2:16 uses the Greek genitive case for the nouns Iesous and Christos. This means the words should be translated “of” not “in.” It is the faith of Yeshua that produces justification, not our belief in Yeshua. Catholic scholar Felix Just makes some significant remarks about this mistranslation, noting that ideas like faith, salvation and justification are not states of being but rather relational processes (see THIS, although I disagree with his conclusions about Torah).

In his excellent lecture series on Paul, Dwight Pryor clearly demonstrated that changes like this resulted from the Church adopting a Platonic-Augustinian view of human nature not warranted by the Scriptures. Here are summary remarks from Pryor’s lectures:

 

  1. According to Christian doctrine, Adam and Eve were created perfect and their souls were immortal. But the Torah teaches that they were created innocent, not perfect, with the potential for immortality. The separation of body and soul is an imported idea not found in the Genesis text.

 

  1. In the Christian view, God created death as punishment for sin. But if Genesis 3 is descriptive, not prescriptive, then it describes the inevitable consequence of disobedience, namely, mortality. It is not about God punishing human beings with death but rather about what it means to be separated from the God of life.

 

  1. In his influential work, The City of God, Augustine adopted a Platonic view of Man and defined our true destiny as residents in heaven as immortal souls. Augustine’s view followed Plato by considering the material (body) essentially corrupt and therefore not capable of immortality. This created the dualism that still infects Christian thought, a dualism not found in the Hebraic world.

 

  1. By the 4th Century, Christianity organized itself around the Apostle’s Creed and the sacraments. Righteousness became an imputed action – a “legal” fiction – as conceived by Luther. The focus turned toward the individual, not humanity. Faith, as a state of being, was now personal and the objective of salvation was to get to heaven.   The Reformers added a penal theory of atonement, not found among the Apostles or the early Church fathers. The Apostles provided no theory of atonement. They just used imagery from Jewish thought, such as victory, ransom, reconciliation, sacrifice, suffering, and adoption. There are many different views in the parables but the Western mind wants the answer. Once again we see that Hebraic teaching is directed toward practical and relational actions where Christian theology is directed toward fixed states of being.

 

  1. Categories of Roman law became the central idea of justification but justification is only mentioned two times by Paul. Many other Jewish ideas are more dominant. Consequently, Christians tend to read the Jewish texts as if it were Roman law, that is, as if they were about punishment and reward, not guidance for a community. The texts become descriptions of God as the great Policeman in the Sky rather than relational instructions about how to walk in the world for individual and unique communities. Paul’s rabbinic approach is ignored.

 

  1. The Geneva Bible of 1599 completely misunderstood Romans 5:12 (“even so death went over all men in whom all men have sinned”).   This is a mistranslation of the Greek into Latin. In Latin the phrase is “en quo” – in whom – but in Greek it is “because.” Luther, Calvin, Piper and Sproul all follow Augustine in this. This mistaken translation fuels the idea that all men were represented in Adam and that all men deserve death due to Adam’s sin. The doctrine of original sin is generated from this translation. The foundation of original sin is that we inherit guilt from Adam and therefore we die, but the texts suggest that we inherit death, not guilt, because each one of us sins. The issue for Paul is mortality, not legal status.

 

  1. In Jewish law the idea of original sin is blasphemy against God. After all, God’s image is in Man. If Man is essentially sinful, what does that imply about God’s image? According the Jewish thinking, “choice” is the crucial term. If Augustine is correct, then God is cruel and capricious, consigning men to eternal death as a result of being born.

 

  1. There is an important distinction between propitiation and expiation. Propitiation is always about the person while expiation is always about the object. To expiate death is to deflect death so the consequence no longer applies. It is to be set free to the domain of the Messiah. Expiation is about the problem of the consequence of sin.

 

I highly recommend these lectures. They are clear and concise.

Topical Index: Dwight Pryor, sinful nature, death, atonement, Augustine, Galatians 2:16

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laurita hayes

Thank you, Skip. This whole summary was so wonderful for me I want it up on my wall! Every point wonderful! I am going to have to study those lectures.

What does it mean, “the faith OF Yeshua”? Faith is holding a place open (visualization) for the future to materialize. Yeshua pointed out that Herod the Great was using faith to level the mountain he leveled when he built Tiberias. He came, he visualized, he built. All it takes is just a little faith; one small picture in the mind and in the heart, of the future, to precipitate the action that materializes that future. One step at a time, I lift my feet, fully expecting the ground to be there in front of me when I put them back down.

I think it was the tightrope walker Nik Wallenda, who completed the first walk across Niagara in a hundred years (2012), who pointed out that he would not be able to take a single step on his rope without faith, but what I want to point out is that we all live by Somebody’s faith. The question is, Who is holding the place open for our future? Every time and in every way I sin, I am slamming the door shut on my future. Over and over, Someone is overriding; not my choices, but the results of my choices, “lest (I) be instantly consumed”. Somebody has faith in me! It is not my faith in Yeshua that keeps me alive when I sin; no, instead it is He that has faith in me. It is up to me, though, to utilize His faith, and to act in response to His faith. His faith in my future, like grace, re-opens my door, but it is still up to me to walk through it; still my feet on that wire, one step at a time, above my destruction – above the deserved results of my sin. What does that walk look like? Well, the bullet point list at the head of that trail has Ten Points….

a_seed

That’s the issue of “faith of Christ” vs. “faith in Christ”, it’s the Greek expression of two genitive nouns, meaning can be understood both ways. Our translations traditionally always understood it as “faith in Christ”, but there are places it should be understood as “faith of Christ” to make more sense in line with context. For example Rom 3:22, if understood as “faith of Christ”, then the whole sentence would mean “God’s righteousness applies to all who believe, because of the faithfulness of Christ”.

Gayle Johnson

Not sure if these are the referenced lectures, but several are located here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUxitf2yEu5TJnM61_dQaQXNSWtKocBgn

Derek S

@Gayle thanks for the share. @Skip – do you mind linking the specific lectures you had in mind?

Thanks

Derek S.

Thank you

David F

Thank you Skip. Very timely for teaching we are doing here.

And I second Derek S request!

Carl Roberts

From Slaves to Sons

~ What do the scriptures say? “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” My proof text? The word of God. The Scriptures. The Holy Bible. Read it. Read it and weep. “I had not known sin except by the Law.” What does the Law say? Do this and don’t do that. (yes, that was a period at the end of the preceding sentence. Even a period has a purpose! The ten commandments are NOT the ten suggestions!

God who fashioned Adam from the dust of the ground, spoke unto him and said,.. ( the word of the Living God was spoken, the instruction was given) “Of every tree in the Garden you may freely eat, – — but don’t eat the fruit of that tree.” Leave that fruit alone for “in the day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.” May I? Selah. Stop. And think about this.

Adam and his dearly Beloved certainly, truly, indeed had a choice to make. And so do we. We willingly, knowingly choose to obey, or – not to obey. We, the created ones, Adam being our Representative, have ALL (yes, that is what the Scriptures say)- “ALL” have sinned, and have fallen short. (Romans 3.23) We (hello) “we sinners”- are in this thing together.

One more time around the mountain? One more night with the frogs? We have covered this ground before! Do these footprints look familiar? Yes, we were each and every one of us made in the image of God- and God don’t make no junk!! But then, one day – something happens. Something terrible and tragic. “Children, obey your parents in the LORD, for this is right.” Even our (own) formerly innocent children disobey the explicitly clear and loving instructions of mom and dad,- just like we (ALL) did. Friend, (again, what do the scriptures say?) – “There is NONE righteous (Jew, Gentile, preacher, pagan, politician, plumber, Sadducee or senator) — NO, NOT one.” (Romans 3.10)

Every single choice (hello) is followed by? – a consequence. (you gonna eat that jelly donut?). The wages of sin, the consequences of sin – (party now- pay later) – the results of sin is “death.” And death, simply put, is “separation.” A rift in relationship. To be “righteous” is to be rightly-related. Man with man, (how are things at home, at work, etc..?) and man with God. And God by the way, is thrice-holy.

~ Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters wickedness..~ (Isaiah 59.2)

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

What we Sinners need is a Savior!! And God, in His infinite wisdom, mercy and Providence, has provided just what we need.

~ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, having been born of a woman, having been born under the Law, that He might redeem those under the Law, so that we might receive the divine adoption as sons. And because you are [now] sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God ~ (Galatians 4.4-7)

~For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor-Mighty God-Everlasting Father-Prince of Peace ~
Redeemed!! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And my dear friends, we gain far more *in Christ that we ever lost *in Adam! And..? And yet?

The best is yet to come!!

a_seed

Hi Dr. Moen, thank you for sharing this! May I translate this summary into Chinese and share it with Chinese churches?

Ester

Could you email the translation to me, please, Skip?
Toda raba! Shalom!

Ester

Wow, that would be wonderful, a_seed, please do. I know folks who would appreciate that. Please email it to Skip, and I will have it too. Thank you so much! Shalom!

Jeremy

Skip–very intriguing stuff! I have been (lightly) studying the doctrine of sin–original or otherwise–and am trying to formulate my own view of this (or, more appropriately, to formulate what God’s view is). I have done so because I was originally curious about a historical Adam and Eve–or lack thereof–as the head of the human race.

I have seen before that many “original sin” proponents have cited a mis-translation of Romans 5:12. And in fact, it certainly seems to be the case that this is a mis-translation, according to any accounts that I have seen.

In the interest of asking a probing question just to “shake out” any possible views on this: if I were to hold to a doctrine of original sin, could I not cite the verses immediately before and after verse 12 in Romans 5? Specifically verses 15 through 17? Could I also not cite 1 Corinthians 15: 21-22? Again I am in no way making an endorsement of this perspective, but to a layman these passages at least compel me to consider. What responses would one give to these observations?