Dead Sea Scrolls 4QMMT

& Paul's "Works of the Law" (Galatians 2:16)

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The Importance of 4QMMT and Paul’s Phrase “Works of the Law”

For years, scholars puzzled over Paul’s Greek phrase, translated as “works of the law” in Galatians and Romans. The expression was unique in Greek literature, and it was clear that Paul was pushing back against a certain Jewish attitude in the first century: that specific commandments—usually purity laws—could justify someone before God.

Each sect in Judaism believed that its interpretation of the Torah made it the “true Israel” and would secure God’s favor when the end came. Paul firmly rejected this, but until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars had little direct evidence of what lay behind his language.

The Discovery of 4QMMT

That changed with the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly the document known as
4QMMT. The title comes from the Hebrew phrase Miqsat Ma’asei Ha-Torah—translated “a selection of the works of the law.” At last, scholars had a text from the Second Temple period using almost the exact phrase Paul employed.
​
4QMMT is a letter-like document, likely from the Qumran sect, and it consists of three main
sections:

1. Calendar - laying out their distinctive view of the sacred calendar. 
2. Halakhot - a list of rulings on laws of purity and observance. 
3. Separation - an exhortation to remain distinct from those who reject these laws.

These rulings (halakhot, “ways of walking”) were non-negotiable for this sect. Disagreement about
them created division, making shared fellowship impossible. The writer of MMT accuses the
Jerusalem priesthood of failing to keep proper ritual purity and insists that righteousness at the
“end of time” depends on following these particular rulings.

One line reads:​

“And it shall be reckoned to you as in justice [justification] when you do what is upright
and good before him”

In other words, for this sect, being declared righteous hinged on observance of these specific "works of the law."

​Paul’s Response: Faith, Not Legalism

This is exactly the mindset Paul confronted. He insisted that righteousness is not reckoned through sectarian halakhic observances but through faithfulness—trust in God and in the Messiah Jesus.

Paul’s critique was not aimed at obedience to the Torah, requirements for charity, or good works in
general. Rather, he opposed the elevation of purity rulings and sectarian identity markers as if they
alone secured justification before God.

Since the Reformation, Protestant traditions often interpret Paul’s phrase as a rejection of all works and any suggestion that Christians are required to obey commandments in the Torah, leading to the doctrine of “faith alone.”

But this reading creates tensions, especially when trying to harmonize Paul with James or with
Paul’s own insistence that God “will repay each one according to what they have done” (Rom. 2:6). The discovery of 4QMMT helps resolve this: Paul was not rejecting works of love or obedience to God’s will, but the legalistic use of halakhic boundary markers as the basis of justification.

​Historical Background: Identity and Separation

During the Maccabean crisis, it appeared that the spread of Hellenism might completely erase
Judaism. Jews were persecuted for circumcising their children or refusing unclean foods (1 Macc.
1:60–63). In that setting, identity markers such as circumcision, dietary laws, and Sabbath
observance became vital for the survival of Judaism itself—a sign of God’s faithfulness in
preserving His people and their covenant identity.

Over time, however, these same markers began to harden. By Paul’s day, they had shifted from
being symbols of God’s sustaining faithfulness to rigid boundary lines, dividing sects against one
another, each claiming to be the true Israel.

Jewish literature of the Second Temple period shows the same impulse to draw sharp boundaries.
Jubilees 22:16 warns against eating with Gentiles or imitating their ways. Philo wrote that Israel
must never abandon its ancestral practices (Life of Moses 1.278)

These concerns were rooted in real historical trauma: during the Maccabean revolt, faithfulness to
these markers cost many their lives. As Dunn observed, “these demands of the law had become a
principal target of Syrian persecution,” and so they naturally became central to Jewish self-identity.
But by Paul’s time, that survival instinct had calcified into sectarianism.

This dynamic has a familiar ring: just as halakhic rulings fractured Jewish sects in the first century,
so doctrinal disputes have divided Christian denominations. Each group elevates certain practices or doctrines as the defining marks of God’s true people, often with suspicion toward outsiders.

Faith and Works Together

Paul’s message remains vital: justification is grounded in faithfulness to God through Christ, not in human-defined markers of righteousness. Yet faith and works are not opposed. Good works flow out of faith—they are the fruit of a covenant relationship and the manifestation of God’s kingdom in the world.

The Dead Sea Scrolls document 4QMMT gives us a window into the very debates Paul was
addressing. It shows that “works of the law” were not obedience to the Torah or general good
deeds, but halakhic identity markers used to define “who is in” and “who is out.” Against this,
Paul insists that the covenant family of God is marked by faith in Christ, a faith that naturally
expresses itself in love and good works.

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Footnotes:

David H. Stern (1992), Jewish New Testament Commentary, Jewish New Testament Publications, pp. 536- 537.

James G. Dunn, 4QMMT and Galatians, New Testament Studies, Vol. 43, 1997, pp. 147-153.

Albert Baumgarten (2020), Ancient Jewish Sectarianism in The Jewish Annotated Apocrypha, pp. 551-557.

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