Saint Paul and the Biblical Figure of Moses
Moses appears only eight times in Paul’s letters, four times in Romans (5:14; 9:15; 10:5, 19) and twice in each of the Corinthian letters (1 Cor 9:9; 10:2; 2 Cor 3:13, 15). The paucity of references, however, belies the importance of the lawgiver and of the Law attributed to him in Paul’s theology. Paul refers to Moses in two ways. In Romans, “Moses” stands for the “Law of Moses” (the Torah, the first five books of the Bible). In fact, nearly every time Paul mentions “the Law” in this letter (and in Galatians as well) he means the “Law of Moses.” In the Corinthian letters, incidents in the life of Moses serve as examples in support of his arguments.
Moses and the Law in Romans and Galatians
The Law of Moses looms large in Romans and Galatians, for in these letters Paul is primarily concerned with explaining why and how, in light of the death and resurrection of Christ, Gentiles can (must!) be included in the church, the renewed People of God, the community of those who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. In this ecclesial context the Law can no longer serve to separate Jew and Gentile. To appreciate how Paul comes to this view it is necessary to sketch how he understood the role of the Law in the overarching biblical story of salvation as reconfigured in Christ. For Paul, Christ stands at the center of the story. It will be helpful, then, to briefly outline this story, first from the beginning to its promised end, then turning to its center in Christ.
The Story from the Beginning
According to the Scriptures, after God created the world, the transgression of Adam and Eve introduced sin and death into it. As a result, not only is human existence burdened with sinfulness and brokenness, it is also haunted by death: there is no future. As the story progresses, God first intends to rectify the situation by providing a new beginning with Noah. But sin has insinuated itself into the hearts of human beings, as demonstrated in the story of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 12, God takes a new initiative by calling Abraham, promising that through his descendants all nations will be blessed: sin and death that bedevil the human situation will one day be overcome.
Assuring that this future will one day come to pass, of course, requires ensuring the ongoing existence of Israel, called as it is to be carrier of God’s promise of blessing to all humankind. The drama of the subsequent story of salvation revolves around how Israel will maintain its existence until that promise is fulfilled. A series of episodes ensues in which the future existence of Israel is repeatedly jeopardized: Abraham has no son; he allows his wife Sarah to be taken into the pharaoh’s harem; he is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, son of the promise; Israel, the progeny of Abraham, end up as slaves in Egypt for 430 years; Moses leads the people out of Egypt, but the Reed Sea blocks their escape; various incidents threaten Israel during its forty years of wandering in the desert; the Babylonian exile seems to portend the end of the people’s existence. Again and again it is only through God’s various interventions that the Chosen People survive.
It is in this overarching story that the Law of Moses plays a key role. The Law serves a dual purpose. First, it marks Israel as the Chosen People, set apart from the other nations. By observing the commandments and the Law’s many prescriptions (e.g., male circumcision, kosher food laws, honoring the Sabbath), Israel maintains its unique identity as carrier of God’s promise. Second, since “through the law comes consciousness of sin” (Rom 3:20), the Law reminds Israel that it is nonetheless still part of the human condition, that is, still “in Adam” and therefore, like the people of the other nations, under the thrall of sin and death.
The Promised End of the Story
From the moment of Adam and Eve’s transgression, the story of salvation looks ahead to the promised future when God will rectify the plight of human existence under the powers of sin and death: one day all things will be restored, healed, made whole. This future hope is evoked in countless Moses and the Law play a key role in Paul’s vision of the history of salvation. ways in the Scriptures, not least in the prophets. Of particular note are passages in the later chapters of Isaiah. Here the author evokes images of the joyful return from the Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem as intimations of the promised end-time fulfillment. Several centuries later, nearer to the time of the New Testament, Daniel expresses God’s final rectifying of all things through the image of resurrection of the dead (Dan 12:1-3). Indeed, resurrection becomes the manifestation par excellence of God’s end-time victory over the powers of sin and death.
The Story Reconfigured in Christ
For Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus significantly reconfigure this story, including, necessarily, his understanding of the role of the Mosaic Law. Paul’s logic is as follows: if, according to Daniel, resurrection is God’s end-time victory over the powers of sin and death, then, since Jesus is raised from the dead, this end-time victory is already irrupting in time, before the end of time. In Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, the power of sin is broken; in his resurrection, the power of death is overcome. The risen Christ, therefore, is a new Adam, the originator of a redeemed humanity and of a new creation. Those who through faith are united to Christ in baptism constitute the beginning of this new humanity as a sign that the promise of blessing to all people—the promise made to Abraham and to be fulfilled through one of his descendants—is already coming to pass even now, fully to be manifested at the end of time. For those “in Christ,” then, the Law of Moses, which helped Israel to maintain its identity as a separate people and reminded its members that they were still part of the human situation, still “in Adam,” is no longer needed. Both Jews and Gentiles are united in a renewed humanity, embodied in the church, where sin and death no longer reign. The church, uniting Jews and Gentiles, stands in the world as the sign that God’s promise to Abraham is being fulfilled. Any behavior in the church that would again either erect the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9–11; Gal 2:15-19) or make one fall back into being “in Adam” (Rom 5–8) would be counter-witnessing to God’s saving action in Christ. The Law, then, was intended to be temporary (Gal 3–4): once the promise to Abraham had been fulfilled, the Law’s role came to an end, for what the Law was pointing to, and was promulgated to help realize, is now fulfilled in Christ.
Moses in 1 Corinthians
Moses is mentioned only twice in this letter. Unlike in Romans and Galatians, here Paul’s allusions to Moses provide a basis for exhortation. In 1 Corinthians 9:9, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 (“You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain”) as a warrant for the right of apostles not to have to work for their sustenance, but rather to be supported by the communities they evangelize. Of course, Paul insists that, while this might be the case for others, he will not avail himself of this right so as not to place any obstacle whatsoever to his preaching of the Gospel. Paul’s reference to Moses in 1 Corinthians 10:2 is more involved: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers [and sisters], that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. . . . Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.” To grasp Paul’s intent it is best to examine the broader context of the argument. In chapter 8, Paul chides the so-called “strong” members of the community for being stumbling blocks to those who are “weak.” The issue is whether or not Christians should partake in ritual meals in which one of the key features is eating meat sacrificed to idols. The “strong” members of the community correctly maintain that, since idols are nothing real, sharing in such ritual meals poses no problem. But some in the community, probably people newly initiated for whom idols are still only too real, have not yet arrived at such knowledge. Paul addresses the so-called “strong” by pointing out that if one of these “weaker” persons in the community “sees you . . . reclining at table in the temple of an idol” he or she might be encouraged, against conscience, to eat idol meat as well. “Thus,” writes Paul, “through your knowledge, the weak person is brought to destruction, the brother [or sister] for whom Christ died” (1 Cor 8:10-11).
In chapter 9, Paul urges the “strong” to imitate him in foregoing their rights for the sake of the Gospel (and for the sake of the “weak”). He then warns them in chapter 10 not to presume that, because they are “strong,” they would never fall prey to temptation. As an example, in 10:1-13 he refers to incidents during the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the desert when many fell into idolatry, each instance leading to eating meat offered in sacrifice to idols! They succumbed despite having experienced God’s wonders on their behalf: they had crossed the Reed Sea in a sort of
“baptism” and had been sustained by manna and water, a kind of “spiritual food and drink.” Similarly, warns Paul, although the so-called “strong” in Corinth have crossed from death to life in baptism and are sustained with eucharistic bread and wine, their participating in meals featuring meat sacrificed to idols might very well cause them to fall away from Christ. Better, then, to shun idols altogether, advises Paul (1 Cor 10:14-22).
Moses in 2 Corinthians
The last mentions of Moses appear in 2 Corinthians 3:13 and 15. While here the reference is intertwined with allusions to other scriptural passages on the promised new covenant (Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31), Paul’s overall meaning can be summarized as follows: Some members of the Corinthian church have challenged the legitimacy of Paul’s prior ministry among them. In response, Paul points to the effect his preaching has had on the Corinthians themselves as proof that his work there was genuine. He does so by comparing and contrasting the new covenant in the Spirit with the old covenant under Moses. The old covenant was written in letters etched on stone tablets; the new covenant in the Spirit is written on the heart. Although the old covenant came with glory, it was destined to pass away; the new covenant comes with surpassing glory, and it is permanent. Moses had to veil his face so that the people would not see the end of the fading glory of the old covenant; indeed, whenever the people of Israel read Moses, “a veil lies over their minds” (3:15). Those who are in Christ, however, can read Moses with minds unveiled; moreover, the glory of the new covenant appears on every face: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit” (3:18). By the effect of the Spirit of Christ on them, therefore, the Corinthians themselves authenticate Paul’s ministry.
Conclusion
Because of their importance in the Scriptures and the story of Israel, Moses and the Law attributed to him could not but assume a prominent place in Paul’s reconfiguring of the story of salvation in light of Christ’s paschal mystery. For Paul, Jesus the Jewish Messiah is in every sense the telos—the end and fulfillment—of the Law (Rom 10:4).
By Normand Bonneau, OMI
Published in The Bible Today (Sept-Oct 2017) pp. 341-347. We have obtained written permission from the publisher to share this article on the OMI Lacombe Canada website.
