" To Paul the law was an obstacle to the spread of religious
truth and a fetter to the spiritual life of the individual.
It is possible that an extremist section of the Jews pressed the
letter of the law to excess, so as to lose its spirit, but the
opposite excess, into which Paul plunged the new faith, was as narrow.
It involved a glorification of belief, which did not imply any
relation to conduct. Philo had pleaded no less earnestly than the
Apostle for the reliance upon grace and the saving virtue of faith,
but he did not therefore absolve men from the law which made for
righteousness.[359] And lest it be thought that the stress laid upon
faith was peculiar to Hellenizing Judaism, we have only to note such
passages as Dr. Schechter has adduced from the early Midrash on the
rabbinic conception.[360] "Great was the merit of faith which Israel
put in God; for it was by the merit of this faith that the Holy Spirit
came over them, and they said the [Hebrew: shira], (_i.e._, the Song of
Moses) to God, as it is said, 'And they believed in the Lord and His
servant Moses. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song
unto the Lord.'" Or again[361]--and the passage reminds us still more
strongly of both Philo and Christian Gospel--"Our Father Abraham came
into the possession of this world and the world hereafter only by the
merit of his faith.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259