justification by faith only

Is your tradition important enough to you that you are willing to throw Jesus under the bus, so to speak, in the way you interpret and argue scripture? If so, you need to consider the following. The Bible does not contradict itself. This is because it is from God, and it is truth. Christians are expected to treat the word of God in a manner that shows they understand this. Unfortunately, human tradition too often wins out when a disciple of Christ is presented with the choice of receiving truth and giving up tradition or simply closing their mind to truth and saying whatever helps to defend that which has become their standard. Jesus set forth the Jews, who rejected him, as an example of being lost because of love of tradition.

With attention to selected terms: grace, obedience, works, dead, alive, raised, circumcision of Christ, faith, baptism, baptized, forgiven, sins, saved, new life, crucified with Christ. Nowhere does Paul, the “works” theologian, even hint that baptism is a work of personal merit that cannot save, even in writing Galatian Christians who are condemned for turning aside to a different gospel. This alone is evidence that for Paul, the grace of Christ includes baptism in water.

La giustificazione “solo per grazia”, tradizionalmente attribuita a san Paolo, si può rinvenire dal II-I secolo a.C. a Qumran. L’ipotesi iniziale è verificata a partire da un’analisi ermeneutica dei derivati dalle radici ק ד צ e ט פ ש, prima di tutto nella Bibbia Ebraica, quindi nei contesti di 1QS X,9-XI, dove la concezione risulta implicita, e 1QHa XIII,16-17 (V,22-23), dove può dirsi esplicita. I passi studiati, inoltre, ricorrono in un contesto di preghiera e sembrano alludere a una certa visione universalistica.

The justification “only by grace”, traditionally ascribed to saint Paul, can be found since the II-I century b.C. in Qumran. The initial hypothesis is verified starting from an hermeneutical analysis of the terms of the roots ק ד צ e ט פ ש, first in the Hebrew Bible, then in the contexts of 1QS X,9-XI, where the conception results implicit, and in 1QHa XIII,16-17 (V,22-23), where can be said explicit. The passages considered, moreover, occur in a context of prayer and seem to allude to some universalistic view.