Are Doers Cursed?

Paul cites Deuteronomy 27:26 in Galatians 3. The passage in Deuteronomy says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.” Paul applies this to “those who are of the works of the law” (hosoi ex ergon nomou eisin, Galatians 3:10).

Commentators are puzzled. Deuteronomy pronounces a curse on those who don’t do the law; Paul, in the reading of many, says that the curse comes on those who do the works of the law. Not only does Paul invert the meaning of Deuteronomy, but he seems to attribute a blatant injustice to God: God says, “Do this and live”; people do this; but then they’re cursed. Hardly seems fair.

As Caneday points out, the dilemma only arises if one takes the phrase “those who are of the works of the law” to mean “those who do the works of the law.” Caneday suggests that the phrase actually refers to “nomists,” that is, those who “identify with the old covenant” (194).

That might work. It is certainly preferable to the contradictions and tangles introduced by saying that doers of the law are cursed. But perhaps we can stress the force of ek, as Caneday does elsewhere, and say this: “Those who have their origin in what the law does are cursed.” Or even, considering the surrounding concerns with sonship, lineage, and birth (cf. 4:21-31), this: “those who come from the labors of the law are cursed.”

(Caneday, “‘Redeemed from the Curse of the Law’: The Use of Deut 21:22-23 in Gal 3:13,” Trinity Journal 10 (1989) 185-209.)