Doing and living: Leviticus in Galatians

Traditions: Jewish Torah; Christian letter to the Galatians Motif: Life connected to the practice of commandments Connection verdict: Explicit quotation within a disputed argument about law Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29

Summary

Leviticus 18:5 says people who do the statutes shall live by them. Galatians 3:12 quotes the wording while contrasting law and faith.

Read the two scenes

Leviticus introduces a set of practices meant to distinguish Israel’s conduct from surrounding customs. Its statement about doing and living is affirmative within that instruction. Galatians quotes the line as Paul reasons through the relationship between law, faith, blessing, and the promise to Abraham. The two texts therefore share a sentence but not the same argumentative job. A careful reading should resist making Leviticus say that obedience was hopeless simply because Paul uses the verse inside a later dispute.

What connects—and what does not

Leviticus grounds instructions for Israel’s life; Paul deploys the line in an argument about promise, curse, and belonging in Christ.

The shared words establish reuse, but the claim that law and faith stand in tension is Paul’s argument, not a neutral summary of Leviticus.

Why read them side by side?

The pair shows how a positive instruction can become a key premise in a later, contested theological debate.

Sources and reading notes

• Leviticus 18:1-5 — Named passage in the NRSVUE; compare its surrounding literary context and other translations.
• Galatians 3:10-14 — Named passage in the NRSVUE; compare its surrounding literary context and other translations.

Research limit

A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.