The Law of Freedom

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.  Galatians 5:1  NASB

For freedom – Paul is not a Stoic.  That won’t mean much to you unless you know something about the Greek concept of freedom.  To put it as simply as possible, classical Greek philosophy evolved until it found its final expression in the Stoics.  For the Stoics, freedom was independent self-determination in concert with the divine law of the universe.  True freedom meant living without human laws.

“The Stoics emphasized the sharp distinction between unwritten divine law and written positive laws (human laws).  Laws that are written are by definition human in the Stoic view because the divine law is not a code of written directives; it is reason itself, the unchanging rational order of the cosmos that transcends the particulars of human existence and is therefore universal.”[1]

Does this help us understand why we find the unexpectedly odd construction in Paul’s statement?  The translators have added “It was” but Paul uses the dative of eleuthería (for freedom) when we might have expected something else.  After all, what does it mean to say that “freedom” is the beneficiary of the Messiah’s action?  You see, the dative in Greek is a grammatical case used to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action.  But we are the beneficiaries, not the idea of freedom itself.  So, why doesn’t Paul write, “Christ set us free; therefore . . .”  Why use the odd dative case introduction?

Ah, and now we discover the problem with chapters and verses.  This odd construction doesn’t actually belong with the rest of the verse.  It is the conclusion of the prior verse.  As the Expositor’s Greek Testament commentary states:

In the original text, which I have adopted in accordance with the best MS. authority, the first clause of this verse is clearly detached from the second στήκετε οὖν , and attached to the preceding ἀλλὰ τῆς ἐλευθέρας without any connecting particle. But this primary connection with the preceding verse was apparently obscured at an early period of Church history, owing probably to the frequent use of the important section Galatians 5:1 ff. as a Church lesson by itself apart from the preceding allegory.[2]

Paul wrote a letter, not a book with chapters and verses.  We need to read it as one continuous letter, and not break our thinking according to the arbitrary assignment of chapters and verses.  Of course, this is true for the entire Bible.  Think of flow, not breaks, and you will come much closer to the author’s intent.  Paul is making an argument that we are not enslaved because the actions of the Messiah have repositioned our status in the divine economy.  What the Messiah had in mind was our freedom, and it was freedom that was his goal.  This is the conclusion of an argument that begins in 4:21.  The chapter division chops off the end of Paul’s explanation.

Paul was not a Stoic.  He did not think that freedom came from alignment with the divine rational structure of the cosmos.  Freedom comes from obedience to the Messiah.  No Stoic would have ever accepted such an idea.  The Messiah followed the “Law,” that is, the human rules and regulations given by God to men.  Paul argues that we are free, but not free to simply follow our highest ethical thinking.  We are free to adopt Torah as our guide and Yeshua as our rabbi.  And for that freedom, Yeshua did what was necessary.

Topical Index:  Law, freedom, Stoics, chapter, verse, Galatians 5:1

[1] Christine Hayes, What’s Divine About Divine Law?: Early Perspectives (Princeton University Press, 2015), p. 56.

[2] https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/egt/galatians-5.html