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The Role of Torah
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Articles from Hebrew for Christians
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When was the last time you sacrificed a lamb for your Passover seder? Or went to a religious service to offer a bullock for the guilt of your sin? Have you been careful to make pilgrimage three times a year to the Holy Temple to appear before the Lord as the Torah demands? Questions like these seem strange in light of the revelation we have in Yeshua our Messiah concerning the meaning of salvation. In this article (and audio podcast) I sort through some of the tensions we might experience when we consider whether Christians are required to follow the law of Moses or whether there is another way in light of the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah. I hope you will find it helpful.
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A source of potential confusion for translators of the Greek New Testament concerns how the word "nomos" (νόμος), which is often simply translated as "law," is to be understood. Does "nomos" always refer to the law code of Moses or does it perhaps more generally refer to the "Old Testament"? Does it go beyond the idea of a imperative to include general principles, such as the "law of sin and death"? Of particular importance is how are we to distinguish between the use of nomos as "law" as opposed to various other words used in the Hebrew text to indicate obligation. Perhaps most generally, is it right to substitute the idea of "Torah" for the word "nomos" (and vice-versa) when we translate and read the New Testament?
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The Hebrew word mitzvah means "divine commandment" (mitzvot is the plural form). Although the word is sometimes used broadly to refer to Rabbinic (Talmudic) law, in its strictest sense the term refers to an explicit commandment given by the LORD in the Torah. In this article, I provide Rambam's list of 613 commandments, and offer New Testament correlations, when applicable.
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Read more >
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One of the earliest challenges to the integrity of the gospel message came from certain "false brethren" who went about teaching Gentile followers of Yeshua to "keep the law" of Moses. Apparently Paul had to deal with this challenge repeatedly during his years of ministry, but when the apostle Peter himself seemed to concede to this idea by disassociating with Gentile believers in Atioch, Paul publicly rebuked him for turning away from the essential truth of salvation. Paul's correction of Peter provided him with an opportunity to clarify the meaning of the gospel and to settle the question of whether believers in Yeshua were in fact required to keep the law of Moses. Paul's answer constitutes the substance of the Book of Galatians.
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It is relatively easy for human reason to concede awareness of a transcendental power that created the universe and who is the Source of Moral reality, but it cannot fathom how such Supreme Power could be made manifest in a state of weakness, identifying with what is most broken, most perverse, and most sick in the human soul and condition. The cross of Messiah is a scandal because human pride wants to deny the reality that humanity is incurably wounded, sick and without hope apart from divine intervention....
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Commentators of the Book of Galatians often fail to make certain critical distinctions that often lead to exegetical errors and theological confusion. Perhaps the most serious of these errors is the failure to carefully distinguish between the idea of "law" and the idea of "covenant." It is a source of confusion to say, for instance, that we have "died to the law" (νόμῳ ἀπέθανον) without qualifying the idea of "law" to explicitly and exclusively refer to the legal subset of the terms of the covenant given at Sinai... Read more >
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Since parashat Ki Teitzei contains more legal commandments than any other Torah portion, it is natural that we should revisit the question of whether we are obligated to follow the lawcode of Moses or not... In light of the salvation given in Yeshua, what is our relationship to the law? What is the goal or "end" of the Law that the Apostle Paul discussed in his letters?
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Did Jesus want us to become followers of Moses? Is the gospel message really a sort of "reformation" of Temple Judaism? Did Jesus come to renew the covenant made with Israel at Sinai or did he come to give us a new covenant that would somehow supersede it? In this brief article, I look at some statements that indicate both continuity and discontinuity of the Law in the teaching of Jesus.
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Many rabbis think the word "Torah" refers to the subset of the writings of Moses called Sefer Ha-Brit (סֵפֶר הַבְּרִית) that defined the various ethical, social, and ritual obligations given in the Sinai Covenant (Exod. 24:7-8). However, claiming that the whole Torah may be reduced to the terms of the Sinai Covenant is an example of the logical "fallacy of composition," that is, inferring that something must be true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole....
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This exploratory article raises some questions regarding whether the Torah of Moses is immutable (as is held by traditional Orthodox Judaism) or whether it is (itself) subject to overmastering purposes and plans of the Lord. In other words, is the word "Torah" to be linked to the covenant made with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, or is it perhaps grounded in a deeper covenantal purpose of God that is intended to embrace all of humanity?
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Rituals are inescapably a part of life. We celebrate birthdays, set our daily schedules, and organize our lives around a patterned series of events. Since they are inherently a part of human nature, the question then is not whether we will engage in them, but rather which ones we will observe...
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There are many false teachers at work today, including many who teach error in the name of the "Messianic movement." These teachers invariably claim that something more is needed than simple faith in the truth of the gospel message. This brief article is meant to appeal to those who are confused about the nature of salvation and to refute those who falsely claim that Christians are "under the law" of Moses rather than the law of the Messiah....
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Since Jesus lived as an observant Jew, and since we're called to follow Him, shouldn't we live as observant Jews as well? This question is deceptively simple yet enormously complex, as most of you know. If it resolves to the question as to whether we should study and obey the Torah as Jesus did, then the answer is yes, though of course we must be clear exactly what this means, especially in light of the collective teaching of the New Testament.
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Many traditional Christian commentators have used the allegory of Hagar and Sarah (Gal. 4:21-31) as a means of rejecting the importance of Torah study for the Christian. It is clear, however, that Paul uses a common midrashic technique to argue that the idea of salvation by the grace of God is in perfect harmony with the writings of Moses.
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During Shavuot we revisit the miracle of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, but you might be surprised to know that Rabbinical Judaism believes that two Torahs were given to Moses at that time -- the written Torah and the oral Torah (in Kabbalistic traditions there is even a third or "hidden" Torah as revealed in the Zohar). This brief essay considers some aspects of the oral Torah and its significance to us as followers of Jesus.
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Since I recently wrote about the role of oral Torah in Jewish thinking, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at Pirke Avot ("The Chapters of the Fathers"), a popular collection of ethical maxims found in the Mishnah (i.e., the core text of the Talmud). Though it is found in part of Seder Nezikin (a section of the Mishnah concerned with legal liabilities), some scholars believe Pirke Avot originally was intended to be a summary of the entire Mishnah itself.
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Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in the Proto-Canaanite cuneiform that is surmised to predate and underlie ancient Hebrew. Is there any value in studying these ancient Proto-Canaanite symbols? Can we find "deep" or "esoteric" meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures by studying the Hebrew pictographs? In this brief article, I survey some of the linguistic and exegetical issues....
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Some people tend to find nuanced distinctions abhorrent and seek "either/or" answers to complex questions. Unfortunately, it's just not that simple when it comes to understanding the role of Torah in our lives as Messianic Jews and Christians...
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Within the Messianic Community at large, there is a lot of discussion as to whether a follower of the LORD Jesus should be "Torah Observant" -- that is, obligated to follow the various mitzvot stipulated in the Sinai Covenant. In this brief essay, I look at the meaning of the word "Torah" and try to show that it is a function of (or response to) something more basic, namely, the covenantal acts of the LORD God of Israel.
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Often Christians think that the "Old Testament" is virtually irrelevant today, since the doctrines of the Church are made explicit in the New Testament writings. However, this is a serious mistake, as the following short article will demonstrate.
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All-to-human idealizations, whether they take the religious or humanistic form, are nothing but trash talk when it comes to understanding a divine love that reaches down in compassion to heal and save those who are shattered by life in its concreteness.
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Recently someone asked me about Dr. David Stern's Jewish New Testament translation (which was later appended to the older JPS translation of the Tanakh (1917) to form the "Complete Jewish Bible"). Is it a good translation? Do I recommend it?
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Shiv'im Panim laTorah: "The Torah has 70 faces." This phrase is used to indicate different "levels" of interpretation for each pasuk (verse) of the Torah. This brief article explains the meaning behind the dictum and an overview of basic Jewish exegesis.
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An article written by Dean VanDruff concerning the popular drift among some Christians to embrace legalistic "Torah Observance" as a supposed step of spiritual maturity. Worth your consideration, especially if you are a Messianic.
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Traditional Judaism regards circumcision as a "rite of passage" into covenant relationship with the LORD, a type of "giving birth" to a member of Israel, the very family of God. Indeed, according to some of the Jewish sages, being born and circumcised a Jew is sufficient to warrant a place in the world to come. But should a follower of Jesus the Messiah undergo ritual circumcision?
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If you're a follower of the Messiah Yeshua struggling with the question of whether to become "Torah observant," it is essential for you to seriously consider some of the contrasts between the "old" and "new" covenants as described in the New Testament. By doing so, you will better appreciate the life-transforming differences between the Torah of the New Covenant (given at Zion) with the Torah of the older Covenant (given at Sinai).
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