Paul and the Law

Despite the fact that Paul’s view on law does not constitute the core of his theology, the subject is nonetheless one of the most controversial and frequent issues of his theology. Many theologians hold that he denied the law, and in particular the mosaic law, and in other words, he didn’t regard it as an important factor in attaining salvation. Others consider Paul as distorting Jesus’ teachings. However, it should be considered that his views on law are indeed a natural result of his Christology and without having this point in mind, our understanding of his views is faulty and incomplete. From another point of view, as Underhill puts it, Paul is to be considered a mystic rather than a rationalistic theologian, and so he considered the concept of law from the point of view of a mystic, not a theologian. On the other hand, by redefining the Jewish religious concepts, and especially its law, he was trying to bring closer the Jews to gentiles. This paper is going to make the point that the negation of the law by Paul was relative not absolute, and in his view the degree of people’s observance of the law depends on ethnic, religious and personal factors.