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Benei Avraham
The Narrow Path · Lesson 3 · Study questions & answers

Deeds of Abraham

Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) · Discussed Sunday, October 25, 2026

Israel rightly trusts in Hashem’s covenant with Avraham (Abraham), but some in Yochanan’s day leaned on Avraham’s merit and produced none of their own. This lesson looks at what Paul meant by “works of the law,” “under the law,” justification and grace, how the Reformers read those words differently, and why Yeshua told his hearers to do the deeds of Avraham. Yaakov the Righteous (James) sums it up: faith is made complete by deeds.

All lesson answersNext: Lesson 4 (coming soon)

These are our answers to the Lesson 3 study questions for The Narrow Path, our teen and family Torah study: 21 study questions, 3 “Thinking About It” prompts, a “Go Deeper” question, two further-study notes and a prayer. The questions are summarized in our own words. Each answer gives the main point first, then supporting sources from the Tanakh, the Brit Hadashah and Jewish tradition.

Focus Section 1

Works of the Law

Study question 1

How did the Reformers’ fight with the medieval Catholic Church shape the way they read Paul?

Answer: They read their own battle back into Paul’s letters. They were fighting a church system of earning merit through indulgences, penances and sacraments, so they assumed Paul had been fighting the same thing in Judaism. They pictured Judaism as a religion of trying to earn salvation by keeping the Torah, and read Paul’s “works of the law” as a rejection of that whole system. But that is not what first-century Judaism taught, and it is not what Paul meant.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 9:5: “Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land … that He may perform the word which Hashem sware unto thy fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.” The Torah itself teaches that Israel’s standing rests on Hashem’s promise, not on earning it.
  • Daniel 9:18: “We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 3:31: “Do we then make void the Torah through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Torah.”

Jewish tradition

  • Avinu Malkeinu: the High Holy Day prayer ends, “Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, for we have no deeds; deal with us in righteousness and kindness, and save us.” Jewish prayer does not boast of earning salvation.

Church history

  • Martin Luther: posted his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 against the sale of indulgences. That conflict became the lens for his reading of Romans and Galatians.
  • E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977): showed from Jewish sources that Second Temple Judaism was not a religion of earning salvation, which opened the door to rereading Paul in his Jewish setting.
Study question 2

In the Jewish community, how does a Gentile come to be counted a son or daughter of Avraham?

Answer: Through conversion before a rabbinic court: circumcision for a man and immersion in a mikveh for men and women, after accepting the commandments. The convert is then called ben Avraham or bat Avraham (son or daughter of Avraham), comes up from the water “like a newborn,” and is expected to keep the Torah like every other Jew.

Our own community’s name, Benei Avraham, means “children of Avraham.” Conversion is not required for salvation, but we welcome and encourage sincere converts who choose to take on the whole Torah. See our conversion page.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 17:12–13: “He that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed … must needs be circumcised: and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”
  • Isaiah 56:6: “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to Hashem, to serve Him … and taketh hold of My covenant”

Brit Hadashah

  • Acts 6:5: “Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch”. Converts were part of the first community of Yeshua’s disciples.

Jewish tradition

  • b. Yevamot 46a–47b: describes conversion by circumcision, immersion and acceptance of the commandments before three judges.
  • Rambam, Hilchot Bikkurim 4:3: a convert may pray “God of our fathers,” because Avraham is the father of all who come under the wings of the Shechinah, as it says, “a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:5).
Study question 3

Put Paul’s terms into your own words: circumcision, works of the law, under the law, justification and grace.

Answer: Circumcision: becoming Jewish through conversion. Works of the law: the observances that mark a person as Jewish, such as the Sabbath and holy days, the food laws and circumcision. Under the law: being Jewish, and so bound to keep the whole Torah. Justification: a verdict of “righteous” in the judgment. Grace: favor, the favor Hashem shows us through the Messiah.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 25:1: “They shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.” “Justify” is courtroom language: a verdict.
  • Genesis 6:8: “But Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem.” The Hebrew chen means favor.

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 2:13: “For not the hearers of the Torah are just before God, but the doers of the Torah shall be justified.”
  • Galatians 2:16: “A man is not justified by the works of the Torah, but by the faith of Yeshua the Messiah”

Jewish tradition

  • 4QMMT (Dead Sea Scrolls): a letter from the Qumran community lists “some of the works of the Torah” (miktzat ma’asei haTorah), specific disputed practices, and says keeping them “will be reckoned to you as righteousness.” The phrase was a real Jewish term for particular observances, not for good deeds in general.
Think about it

Gentiles who converted thought a few rituals would make them righteous. Do Yeshua’s followers ever do something similar today?

Answer: Yes. People can lean on a ritual or a label in place of a changed life: being baptized, saying a prayer once, church membership, or knowing the right doctrines. Messianic believers can do the same with outward signs such as tzitzit, a kippah, Hebrew names or Sabbath keeping, while neglecting mercy, honesty and humility. Signs of identity are good, but they cannot stand in for a heart and life turned to Hashem.

Tanakh

  • Isaiah 29:13: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me”

Brit Hadashah

  • Matthew 7:22–23: “Many will say to me in that day, Master, Master, have we not prophesied in thy name? … And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Sotah 22b: the sages themselves mocked showy piety, listing kinds of “Pharisees” such as the one who carries his good deeds on his shoulder for all to see.
Focus Section 2

Under the Law

Study question 1

According to Paul, who has to keep the whole Torah?

Answer: Everyone who is Jewish, including every convert who is circumcised. Becoming Jewish brings the obligation to keep all the Torah’s commandments, not just a few signs of identity. That does not mean a Jew must be sinless; it means a Jew cannot pick and choose.

Tanakh

  • Exodus 12:49: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 5:3: “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Torah.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Bekhorot 30b: a would-be convert who accepts all the words of the Torah except one is not accepted.
Study question 2

What is “the curse of the law”?

Answer: It is the covenant curses the Torah pronounces on disobedience, spelled out in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27–28. The Torah itself is not a curse. It sets blessing and curse before Israel, and those who take it on are accountable to it.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 27:26: “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Torah to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.”
  • Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 3:10: “As many as are of the works of the Torah are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Torah to do them.”
  • Galatians 3:13: “Messiah hath redeemed us from the curse of the Torah, being made a curse for us”

Jewish tradition

  • Ramban on Deuteronomy 27:26: explains the verse as a curse on one who does not uphold the commandments, refusing to accept them as true and binding.
Study question 3

Why did Paul criticize Gentiles who converted?

Answer: Because many of them took on circumcision without keeping the Torah, treated conversion as a shortcut to a righteous verdict, and boasted in the flesh. They became Jewish outwardly but not inwardly, in the heart.

Where Benei Avraham stands: we agree with Paul that conversion is not necessary for salvation; there are righteous Gentiles, and they have a place in the World to Come. But where Paul discouraged Gentiles from converting, we take a different view. We do not discourage conversion, and we welcome sincere converts who choose to take on the whole Torah, as our Statement of Faith says. What Paul and we both reject is conversion used as a shortcut to salvation without keeping the Torah. (Paul himself circumcised Timothy, whose mother was Jewish, Acts 16:1–3.)

Tanakh

  • Jeremiah 9:25–26: “I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised … and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 6:13: “For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Torah; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.”
  • Romans 2:29: “He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Yevamot 47a: a would-be convert is first asked why he wants to convert and is told of the hardships of Jewish life, so that only sincere converts go forward.
  • b. Yevamot 24b: converts who came for marriage, position or fear were not accepted in the days of David and Solomon, because their motive was gain, not Hashem.
Go deeper

Did Paul see himself as “under the law”? (1 Corinthians 9:21; Philippians 3:4–6; Acts 21:24; 23:6; 25:8)

Answer: Yes. Paul was a Jew and kept the Torah all his life. He called himself a Pharisee, lived “orderly” keeping the Torah, and told the court he had not broken the Torah of the Jews. In 1 Corinthians 9 he describes how he related to different audiences, but even there he insists he is “not without law to God.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Acts 21:24: “All may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the Torah.”
  • Acts 23:6: “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee”
  • Acts 25:8: “Neither against the Torah of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.”
  • Philippians 3:5: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Torah, a Pharisee”
  • 1 Corinthians 9:21: “Being not without law to God, but under the law to Messiah”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Sotah 9:15: when Rabban Gamliel the Elder, Paul’s teacher (Acts 22:3), died, “the glory of the Torah ceased.” Paul was trained by one of the most honored Torah sages of his day.
Focus Section 3

Reckoned as Righteousness

Study question 1

Romans 10:5–6 contrasts two kinds of righteousness. What are they?

Answer: “The righteousness which is of the Torah” (quoting Leviticus 18:5, the righteousness of living as a Jew under the Torah) and “the righteousness which is of faith” (drawing on Deuteronomy 30:12–14, the righteousness that comes through trusting the Messiah). Paul is not setting the Torah against faith; he is saying Gentiles receive righteousness by faith without becoming Jewish.

Tanakh

  • Leviticus 18:5: “Ye shall therefore keep My statutes, and My judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them”
  • Deuteronomy 30:14: “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 10:5–6: “For Moshe describeth the righteousness which is of the Torah, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Makkot 24a: in Rabbi Simlai’s famous teaching on the 613 commandments, the prophets sum them up in fewer and fewer principles, until Habakkuk sums them all up in one: “the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
Study question 2

What Scripture does Paul use to show that being counted righteous does not depend on being Jewish?

Answer: Genesis 15:6: “He believed in Hashem; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Avraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised (Genesis 17), so righteousness by faith is open to Gentiles too.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 15:6: “And he believed in Hashem; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”
  • Psalm 106:31: “And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.” The same phrase is used of Pinchas’s deed, a reminder that faith and faithful action belong together.

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 4:10–11: “Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised”

Jewish tradition

  • Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Beshallach (on Exodus 14:31): teaches that Avraham inherited this world and the World to Come through the merit of his faith, citing Genesis 15:6.
Study question 3

Who are the sons and daughters of Avraham by faith?

Answer: Gentile disciples who trust in the Messiah and walk in the steps of Avraham’s faith, without converting. Together with Jews who share that faith, they are Avraham’s family and heirs of the promise that he would be a father of many nations.

Where Benei Avraham stands: Yeshua did not come to found a separate religion. We believe Gentile followers of Yeshua, including Christians, should live as Noahides, or as a ger toshav who lives alongside Israel and keeps the commandments the Torah gives the stranger. Conversion is not required for salvation, but it remains open to anyone who sincerely chooses to join Israel.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 17:5: “For a father of many nations have I made thee.”
  • Genesis 18:18: “All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 3:7: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Avraham.”
  • Galatians 3:29: “And if ye be Messiah’s, then are ye Avraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
  • Romans 4:16: “Not to that only which is of the Torah, but to that also which is of the faith of Avraham; who is the father of us all”

Jewish tradition

  • Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2: Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that the righteous of the nations have a share in the World to Come.
  • Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 8:11: a Gentile who accepts the seven Noahide commandments, keeping them because Hashem commanded them in the Torah through Moshe, is one of the righteous of the nations and has a share in the World to Come.
  • b. Avodah Zarah 64b: defines a ger toshav (resident stranger) as a Gentile who takes on the seven Noahide commandments and lives alongside Israel without converting.
Further information

Further reading on Galatians

The lesson suggests going deeper into Galatians and Paul’s teaching to Gentile believers from a Messianic Jewish point of view.

Comment: A good way to start is to read Galatians straight through in one sitting, then read Acts 15 and Acts 21:17–26. Acts 15 records the apostles’ decision about Gentile disciples, and Acts 21 shows Paul’s own Torah observance. Reading them together keeps Paul’s words in their setting. The four requirements in Acts 15 echo laws the Torah gives the stranger living among Israel (Leviticus 17–18), the same pattern the sages call the ger toshav: Gentiles who belong to Hashem’s people without becoming Jewish.

Sources

  • Acts 15:19–20: “We trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”
  • 1 Corinthians 7:19: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.”
Focus Section 4

Grace

Study question 1

In biblical Hebrew, what does it mean to “find favor” (chen)?

Answer: It means winning someone’s goodwill because of something in you that they value. Favor is not random; it responds to a quality or merit. So when Hashem favors someone, it is because He has found something in that person worthy of His favor.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 6:8–9: “But Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem. These are the generations of Noach: Noach was a just man and perfect in his generations”
  • Genesis 39:4: “And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him”
  • Esther 2:17: “She obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins”

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 1:30: “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.”
  • Luke 2:52: “And Yeshua increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 3:10: Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa taught that one who is pleasing to people is pleasing to the All-Present.
Study question 2

According to the apostles, how did the Messiah gain Hashem’s favor?

Answer: As Hashem’s beloved Son, and through his obedient, righteous life and his undeserved suffering. Hashem raising him from the dead is the proof of that favor, and the Messiah shares it with those who cling to him in faith.

Tanakh

  • Isaiah 42:1: “Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth”
  • Isaiah 53:11: “By his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Matthew 3:17: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
  • Philippians 2:8–9: “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death … Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him”
  • Hebrews 5:8: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Berakhot 17b: a heavenly voice says the whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina ben Dosa: the merit of one righteous person benefits many.
  • Pesikta Rabbati 36: pictures “Ephraim, My righteous Messiah” accepting suffering for Israel’s redemption.
Study question 3

Why is Hashem’s favor a gift that no one can boast about?

Answer: Because the favor belongs to the Messiah and is shared with us; we did not earn it, and it cannot be gained by converting or by Jewish identity. No one can claim it as an achievement. And the same passage says this gift creates us for good works.

Tanakh

  • Jeremiah 9:24: “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am Hashem which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth”

Brit Hadashah

  • Ephesians 2:8–10: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua unto good works”

Jewish tradition

  • Daily prayers (Ribbon kol ha’olamim): the morning service says, “Not because of our righteousness do we lay our supplications before You, but because of Your great mercies,” echoing Daniel 9:18.
Further study

Read Exodus 33:12–19

The lesson invites you to see how one of Hashem’s favorites, Moshe, put that favor to work to save sinners.

Comment: After the golden calf, Moshe pleads for Israel on the strength of the favor he has found with Hashem, and Hashem agrees because “thou hast found grace in My sight.” Moshe uses his favor not for himself but to win mercy for a guilty people. That is a picture of what the Messiah does: the favored one shares his favor with others.

Sources

  • Exodus 33:17: “I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name.”
  • Exodus 32:13: “Remember Avraham, Yitzchak, and Israel, Thy servants”
  • Hebrews 3:5–6: “And Moshe verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant … But Messiah as a son over his own house”
  • b. Berakhot 32a: the sages describe Moshe’s prayer after the golden calf, pleading with Hashem to remember the forefathers.
Focus Section 5

Grace Alone, Faith Alone

Study question 1

How did Luther and the Reformers define grace?

Answer: As God’s unmerited favor toward sinners. The key point was that grace is undeserved by definition, so any attempt to earn it or qualify for it was thought to work against it.

Tanakh

  • Exodus 33:19: “And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Paul quotes this in Romans 9:15.

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 11:6: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.” A favorite proof text of the Reformers.

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 3:15: Rabbi Akiva taught that the world is judged with goodness, yet everything is according to the amount of deeds: Jewish teaching holds Hashem’s goodness and our deeds together.

Church history

  • Martin Luther: made “grace alone” (sola gratia) and “faith alone” (sola fide) the watchwords of the Reformation.
Study question 2

What did they think Paul meant by “works” and “works of the law”?

Answer: Anything done to earn standing with God: Jewish observances like circumcision, Catholic practices like sacraments, penances and pilgrimages, and even ordinary moral good deeds. In their reading, no work of any kind carried merit.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 6:25: “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before Hashem our God”

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 3:28: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Torah.”

Jewish tradition

  • 4QMMT (Dead Sea Scrolls): uses “works of the Torah” for a short list of specific practices, evidence that the phrase had a narrower meaning in Paul’s day.

Church history

  • Luther’s German New Testament (1522): added the word “alone” (allein) to Romans 3:28: “justified by faith alone.” In the same year he called the letter of James “an epistle of straw.”
Study question 3

According to the Reformers, what does it mean to be “under the law”?

Answer: To be under condemnation: trying and failing to earn righteousness by human effort, and so standing condemned by the law’s demands.

Tanakh

  • Psalm 19:7: “The Torah of Hashem is perfect, converting the soul”. The Tanakh never describes the Torah as a sentence of condemnation.

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 6:14: “For ye are not under the Torah, but under grace.” The Reformers read this as “not under condemnation.”
  • Galatians 4:4: “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Torah”. Yeshua was “under the Torah,” but never under condemnation, which shows the phrase means being Jewish.

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 6:2: reads the “engraved” (charut) letters of the tablets as “freedom” (cherut): no one is truly free except one who is occupied with Torah.
Thinking about it

Compare the lesson’s two lists of definitions, Paul’s terms and the Protestant terms. Which differences matter?

Comment: Some differences are small. Reading “circumcision” as ritual in general rather than conversion in particular changes little. Others matter a great deal. Works of the law: if it means all good deeds, obedience seems irrelevant; if it means Jewish identity markers, Yeshua’s call to obey stands. Under the law: if it means condemnation, the Torah looks like an enemy and Jewish life looks like a curse; if it means being Jewish, the Torah stays holy. Justification: a one-time legal declaration can make the final judgment by deeds disappear, while a verdict on the day of judgment keeps it in view. Grace: favor shared through the Messiah still calls for faithfulness.

Sources

  • Romans 2:6–7: “Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life”
  • 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Messiah; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
  • Ecclesiastes 12:13: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
Focus Section 6

Deeds of Abraham

Study question 1

According to Yeshua, who are truly his disciples? (John 8:31)

Answer: Those who continue in his word: who keep hearing and doing what he teaches, not only those who believe for a moment.

Tanakh

  • Psalm 1:2: “But his delight is in the Torah of Hashem; and in His Torah doth he meditate day and night.”

Brit Hadashah

  • John 8:31–32: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 1:4: Yose ben Yoezer taught: let your house be a meeting place for the sages, sit in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst.
Study question 2

What did Yeshua say should mark someone as Avraham’s child?

Answer: Doing the deeds of Avraham. Descent from Avraham means little without living like him.

Tanakh

  • Isaiah 51:1–2: “Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness … Look unto Avraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you”

Brit Hadashah

  • John 8:39–40: “If ye were Avraham’s children, ye would do the works of Avraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth … this did not Avraham.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 5:19: the disciples of Avraham are known by a good eye, a humble spirit and a modest soul.
  • b. Beitzah 32b: whoever has compassion on people is surely of the seed of Avraham.
Study question 3

What deeds did Hashem praise Avraham for? (Genesis 18:19; 26:5)

Answer: For obeying Hashem’s voice and keeping His charge, commandments, statutes and laws, and for teaching his children and household to keep the way of Hashem by doing righteousness and justice. The Torah also shows his hospitality to strangers, his intercession for Sodom, and his willingness to give up Yitzchak.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 26:5: “Because that Avraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
  • Genesis 18:19: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Hashem, to do justice and judgment”
  • Genesis 22:12: “For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Hebrews 11:8: “By faith Avraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Kiddushin 4:14: Avraham kept the whole Torah before it was given, citing Genesis 26:5.
  • m. Avot 5:3: Avraham was tested with ten trials and stood firm in all of them, showing how great his love for Hashem was.
Prayer

Our Father, give us hearts like the heart of Avraham Your servant, so that we walk in the steps of his faith, show that faith in what we do, and are counted among his sons and daughters.

Comment: This is the lesson’s prayer in our own words. “The steps of his faith” comes from Paul (Romans 4:12), and asking for Avraham’s heart echoes the sages’ description of his disciples. Faith and deeds belong together in it, which is the point of the whole lesson.

Sources

  • Romans 4:12: “Who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Avraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.”
  • Isaiah 41:8: “But thou, Israel, art My servant, Yaakov whom I have chosen, the seed of Avraham My friend.”
  • m. Avot 5:19: a good eye, a humble spirit and a modest soul: the marks of Avraham’s disciples.
Focus Section 7

Not by Faith Alone

Study question 1

What is “Yaakov HaTzadik” in everyday English?

Answer: James the Righteous, also called James the Just. He was Yeshua’s brother and the leader of the believers in Jerusalem.

Tanakh

  • Proverbs 10:25: “The righteous is an everlasting foundation.” Tzadik is the Hebrew word for “righteous.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 1:19: “But other of the apostles saw I none, save Yaakov the Master’s brother.”
  • Acts 15:13–19 and 21:18: Yaakov speaks with authority at the Jerusalem council and receives Paul with the elders.

Jewish tradition

  • Josephus, Antiquities 20.200: the Jewish historian records that in 62 CE the high priest Ananus had “the brother of Yeshua, who was called Messiah, whose name was Yaakov” put to death, an act that troubled the most Torah-observant men of Jerusalem.

Church history

  • Hegesippus (in Eusebius, Church History 2.23): says Yaakov was called “the Just” by everyone because of his great righteousness.
Study question 2

What misunderstanding was Yaakov’s letter correcting?

Answer: The idea that faith alone, without deeds, wins a righteous verdict: a twisting of Paul’s words that was already going around in the first century. Some even claimed Paul taught, “Let us do evil, that good may come.” Yaakov answers that faith without works is dead.

Tanakh

  • Micah 6:8: “What doth Hashem require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 2:14: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”
  • James 2:24: “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”
  • 2 Peter 3:16: “In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest”. Peter warns about people twisting Paul’s letters. See also Romans 3:8.

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 3:17: Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah taught that one whose wisdom is greater than his deeds is like a tree with many branches and few roots, which the wind uproots; one whose deeds are greater is like a tree with deep roots that no wind can move.
Study question 3

Where did Yaakov get his practical examples of the deeds that go with true faith?

Answer: From the teachings of his brother Yeshua, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and from the Torah, especially Leviticus 19. His letter echoes Yeshua again and again: be doers and not only hearers, let your yes be yes, the poor are rich in faith, the humble will be lifted up, treasures on earth rot.

Tanakh

  • Leviticus 19:18: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am Hashem.” Yaakov calls this “the royal law” (James 2:8).
  • Leviticus 19:13: “The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” Compare James 5:4.

Brit Hadashah

  • James 5:12: “Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay” compare Matthew 5:37, “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay.”
  • James 1:22: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Compare Matthew 7:24.

Jewish tradition

  • b. Shabbat 31a: Hillel summed up the Torah for a would-be convert: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.” Like Yaakov, the sages taught that love of neighbor is lived out in concrete deeds.
Thinking about it

Did Paul and Yaakov really disagree about the role of works in a believer’s life?

Answer: No. They answered two different errors and used “works” in two different senses. Paul said the works of the law, becoming Jewish, cannot earn a righteous verdict for a Gentile. Yaakov said the deeds of faith, the kind of obedience Avraham showed, are necessary. Both quote Genesis 15:6. Paul also says the doers of the Torah will be justified, that faith works through love, and that we are created for good works, and the two men worked side by side in Jerusalem.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 15:6: “And he believed in Hashem; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Galatians 5:6: “Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
  • James 2:22: “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”
  • Acts 21:18–26: Paul visits Yaakov and the elders and, at their request, shows publicly that he keeps the Torah.

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 3:15: the world is judged with goodness, and everything is according to the amount of deeds: grace and deeds are not rivals.

Scripture quotations follow the King James Version, with Hashem for the Divine Name (LORD), Torah for “the law,” Hebrew names (Moshe, Yochanan, Avraham), Messiah for “Christ,” and Master for “Lord” when it refers to Yeshua. Abbreviations: m. = Mishnah, b. = Babylonian Talmud, Rambam = Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. Rabbinic sources are given in short translation or paraphrase.

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