Law of Moses - Time to Go Deeper Than Just the Ten Commandments
Law of Moses Definitions: At the outset of our consideration of the Law of Moses, we have to define three terms: Law of Moses, the Law, and Torah.
"Law of Moses": This phrase in Scripture refers to two things: the stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant and the entire Pentateuch (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).
Of course, the Mosaic covenant is contained within the Pentateuch, specifically, from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy 33.
"The Law": This phrase has the same flexibility of the "Law of Moses": sometimes it refers to the Mosaic Covenant, and sometimes to the entire Pentateuch.
In the New Testament, the Greek word translated "law" (nomos) can also mean principle, as in "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ," or "the perfect law of liberty" (Romans 8:2 and James 1:25), or simply "law" (Romans 7:21).
You have to determine from the context which meaning "law" has.
"Torah": This is the Hebrew word translated "law," but is actually means "instruction.
" Its meaning varies according to the context.
Point of controversy: When we discuss the Mosaic Covenant, disagreement immediately arises concerning the origin of the Pentateuch, the written record of the Law.
Some hold to what we could call a naive viewpoint, that we should take the books of the Pentateuch at face value as having been produced by Moses during the period of the wilderness wanderings after the Exodus from Egypt.
Others believe that these books were not composed until hundreds of years later, as late as the Persian period (536 to 333 BCE).
A more likely view is one that lies between these two alternatives: the five Books of Moses do go back to the prophet whose name they bear, though they have undergone minor editing in later generations.
This, I believe, is the most likely explanation, addressing both the objections to the naive view and the observations regarding stylistic differences within the documents.
This view also takes seriously the weighty evidence of the validation of the authorship of Moses by both Jesus and Paul.
Characteristics of the Law of Moses:
"Law of Moses": This phrase in Scripture refers to two things: the stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant and the entire Pentateuch (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).
Of course, the Mosaic covenant is contained within the Pentateuch, specifically, from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy 33.
"The Law": This phrase has the same flexibility of the "Law of Moses": sometimes it refers to the Mosaic Covenant, and sometimes to the entire Pentateuch.
In the New Testament, the Greek word translated "law" (nomos) can also mean principle, as in "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ," or "the perfect law of liberty" (Romans 8:2 and James 1:25), or simply "law" (Romans 7:21).
You have to determine from the context which meaning "law" has.
"Torah": This is the Hebrew word translated "law," but is actually means "instruction.
" Its meaning varies according to the context.
Point of controversy: When we discuss the Mosaic Covenant, disagreement immediately arises concerning the origin of the Pentateuch, the written record of the Law.
Some hold to what we could call a naive viewpoint, that we should take the books of the Pentateuch at face value as having been produced by Moses during the period of the wilderness wanderings after the Exodus from Egypt.
Others believe that these books were not composed until hundreds of years later, as late as the Persian period (536 to 333 BCE).
A more likely view is one that lies between these two alternatives: the five Books of Moses do go back to the prophet whose name they bear, though they have undergone minor editing in later generations.
This, I believe, is the most likely explanation, addressing both the objections to the naive view and the observations regarding stylistic differences within the documents.
This view also takes seriously the weighty evidence of the validation of the authorship of Moses by both Jesus and Paul.
Characteristics of the Law of Moses:
- The stipulations of the Law (according to Maimonides, there are 613 of them) are bound up in the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt.
- Beginning with the Ten Commandments themselves (see Exodus 20), the laws and ordinances of Torah are interspersed with the historical narrative of the events of the Israelites' departure from Egypt and their wanderings in the desert of Sinai before entering Canaan to conquer and take possession of it.
This means that the laws are not recorded in any kind of systematic order though sometimes similar laws appear together. - The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is foundational to the rest of the Law.
- The Ten Commandments cover in a general way the relationship the people of the covenant have with their God, with other members of their own families, and with the other members of the covenant community and the world at large.
God gave these Ten Commandments to Israel near the beginning of the 40 years of wandering.
Also at its end, Moses reminded the people of these same Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5).
They were written on tablets of stone and placed within the ark of the covenant as a reminder of the covenant the people had with their God (Deuteronomy 31:26). - Many of the ordinances are casuistic.
- That is, they seem to be the results of judgments involving particular cases.
For example, immediately after God struck dead Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's two sons, for disobeying His commands regarding the kind of fire proper for sacrifices (Numbers 10:1-7), God delivers a command prohibiting on-duty priests from getting drunk (Numbers 10:8-11).
A lengthy cluster of such laws occurs at Exodus 21:18 through 22:17, each paragraph having the form of "If x happens, then do y.
" - It is difficult if not impossible to separate the ethical portion from the ritual parts of the Law.
- The Bible in neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament makes a distinction between the ethical or moral parts of the Law (e.
g.
, Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't give false testimony, etc.
) and the ritual parts of the Law (e.
g.
, the priest should wear this garment, manufacture incense with this formula, offer this kind of sacrifice for that kind of offense, etc.
).
To make such a distinction is not only arbitrary and unjustified, but subjective. - The essence of the Law of Moses is described by Jesus - According to Jesus, the entire Law of Moses can be summed up in two of the commands, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18, which he calls the greatest and second greatest commands, to love God with everything you are and to love others as you love yourself.
Another key verse is Leviticus 19:2: in which God says, "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
" In other words, God told his people that in order for them to have a relationship with Him, they had to have a lifestyle in keeping with His character.
The sacrificial system helped them to maintain the holiness so important to the human-divine relationship.
Under the New Covenant, God arranged for the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus' willing death of the cross, the take away sins once and for all (Hebrews 10:1-10).
