Texts in Conversation
The Dead Sea Scroll 4Q174 describes a future temple where offerings will be presented as the “works of the Torah,” to describe obedience. In Romans, Paul uses similar language, the “works of the Torah,” showing a connection to Jewish traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q174 1-2 i 6
4QFlorilegium
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Interpretation
3 [Moses, “The sanctuary, O Lord, that] your hands established. The LORD will reign forever and ever.” This is the house into which shall not enter 4 […] forever, nor an Ammonite, nor a Moabite, nor a bastard, nor a foreigner, nor a sojourner, forever, for my holy ones are there. 5 … […] forever; continually it will be seen over it. And strangers shall not make it desolate again, as they formerly made desolate 6 the sanctuary of Israel because of their sin. And he said to build for him a sanctuary of man, for there to be in it those who send up in smoke to him, 7 before him, works of the Torah. And as for what he said to David, “I [will give] you [rest] from all your enemies”: that he will give them rest from all 8 the sons of Belial who make them stumble, to destroy them … as they came with a plan of Belial to make the sons of 9 light stumble, and to plot wicked plots against them, to … his soul for Belial in their … error.
Date: 160–60 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Romans 3:20
New Testament
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (although it is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed— 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. 26 This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Given Paul's Jewish background, and especially his own affirmations about his pre-Christian past as a Pharisee, one might expect that the phrase frequently used by him, 'the deeds of the law' (Galatians 2:16; 3:2, 5; Romans 2:15; 3:20, 28), or in its abbreviated form (Romans 3:27: 4:2, 6: 9:11, 32: 1:6) would have come from Pharisaism. It is a phrase that sounds like a slogan derived from his Jewish theological background, summing up the deeds prescribed or proscribed in the Mosaic Law, its 'precepts.' Yet when one looks for the Jewish background of such a slogan, one finds it neither in the Old Testament itself nor in the writings of the Pharisaic-rabbinic tradition ... the Hebrew equivalent has turned up in Qumran literature from Palestine itself (4QFlorilegium) ..."
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, According to Paul: Studies in the Theology of the Apostle (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1993), 19–21.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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