Mosaic law

Why do we need the law? What is its purpose?

Some Christians believe that we are still under the law including its moral and ceremonial aspects. We see this often with Seventh Day Adventist and Messianic congregations that practice festivals, customs, food restrictions, and Sabbath days. Some believe that we are no longer under the curse of the law but under its blessings, as seen in the prosperity gospel camps. They take the blessings in the law of health and wealth and declare these are the rights of believers. Some believe we are only under the moral law—referring primarily to the Ten Commandments. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial and civil aspects of the law, but we are still under the moral aspects. This is common in reformed congregations. However, others believe we are not under the Mosaic law at all, as seen in those from a dispensational background. They believe that we are no longer under the Old Testament dispensation, but under the New Testament dispensation and there is a lack of continuity between the two. The Mosaic law is one of the most controversial subjects in Christian doctrine.

The Mosaic law was also a major controversy in the early church. Soon after the founding of the church of Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas ministered, Judaizers came into the congregation teaching the need for Gentiles to practice the Mosaic law in order to be saved. However, the apostles and elders from the church of Jerusalem gave a ruling denying the need for Gentiles to practice the law (Acts 15).

The false teachers in the church of Ephesus were also abusing the law. Because of this, Paul had already removed two leaders in the church, Hymenaeus and Alexander, (1:20) and was calling Timothy to complete the work of silencing these false teachers (1:3).

As Paul finishes his exhortation to Timothy and the church of Ephesus about silencing these false teachers, he digresses to talk about the true purpose of the law. He says, “But we know that the law is good if someone uses it legitimately” (v. 8). The NIV translates this, “if one uses it properly.” In this lesson, we will consider proper and improper uses of the law. This is important because the law has been a hotbed for controversy and false teaching from the early church till today. By understanding the proper use of the law, it will not only allow us to use it properly but help keep us from being led astray or leading others astray through the improper use of it.

If one wants to summarize in one brief sentence three centuries of Egyptian radiation throughout the Middle East and Northeastern Africa, the following is quite sufficient:

A permanent strife between two priesthoods for prevalence and authenticity.

The two opposite priesthoods permeated the temples' personnel, the court, the administration, the army and the society. They viewed their rightful rejection of one another in terms of human authenticity and orientation. Their views were diametrically opposed, and each of them considered their perception of the world as the only reflecting the purpose of the Creation, and of the existence of the Mankind.

This spiritual – religious – intellectual – ideological clash did characterize other countries as well; Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Canaan and other parts of the Middle East and the world have become the theater of similar debates and strives. In Egypt and Kush / Ethiopia, we identify the beginning of the opposition in the 4th millennium BCE.

It all reflects an opposition between a monotheistic approach to the perception and description of the Divine and a polytheistic system that highly personalizes the aspects of the Divine, and favours the use of pictorial representation of the Divine. The monotheists are virtually aniconic, which means they reject / oppose the use of icons, idols, statues and bas-reliefs. Polytheism and idolatry are identical.
First published on 19th March 2010 in AfroArticles, Buzzle and American Chronicle
Republished in the portal of Oromo parliamentarians:
https://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/Facts%20about%20Oromo/Oromo%20Kushatic%20nation-Egypt.htm

Mosaic Law is not binding for gospel followers, we are told. Is this assertion correct or based on other motives? The article expounds relevant New Testament portions and concludes that Messiah's followers should walk as He did, i.e. keep God's Law.

The centrality of God's sovereignty over what human beings may or may not eat is emphasized after creation, in the dietary laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. According to those laws, there are certain animals that we should consider “clean” for consumption, and others “unclean”. During centuries the Israelites kept these laws and for some orthodox Jews and Christian denominations they continue to be obligatory until this day. The question of its validity has not been raised in such a serious manner in Christian context to deserve much attention, however, in recent years a handful of scholars have noticed the necessity of a more detailed study of the matter. In this paper, the general questions to be taken under scrutiny are (1) how are we to “choose” which Old Testament laws are valid for the whole Christian church and (2) do the dietary laws fit into that category; more specifically the issues will be (3) is there arbitrariness in the validity of dietary laws and (4) does the New Testament abrogate the obedience of these laws.

The purpose of Mosaic law in the life and faith of the Jewish people was to shape them into a “Kingdom of Priests,” a people who reflected the nature of God to the surrounding nations so they could fulfill their mission of being a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Torah—God’s instructions to God’s people—was and is the center of Jewish culture and practice, just as the physical Torah scrolls remain the center of the Shabbat service. There is no aspect of life or faith that Torah does not touch. The different types of laws affect various aspects of Jewish life. Throughout time, Torah has been applied in the many contexts of the Jewish people to uniquely shape their expression as God’s representatives to the world.

Der Beitrag erwägt aus bibelhermeneutischer Perspektive, wie es zu unterschiedlichen Idealisierungen des alttestamentlichen Gemeinwesens im politischen Denken der Frühen Neuzeit kam. Dabei werden zunächst allgemeine Faktoren berücksichtigt, die eine biblische Orientierung im politischen Denken ausgehend von der Reformationszeit im 16. Jahrhundert erklärbar machen. Ein Überblick über betreffende Quellentitel des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts zeigt, dass hierbei in allen größeren Konfessionen, wenn auch in unterschiedlicher Dichte, das Ideal des alttestamentlich-jüdischen Gemeinwesens eine Rolle spielte. Entlang zweier Fallbeispiele (François Ragueau, Petrus Cunaeus) werden dann konfessionelle und transkonfessionelle Aspekte unterschieden, um neue Perspektiven auf das Konfessionalisierungsparadigma und andere Modernisierungstheorien zu eröffnen.

This article presents the Greek influence on the genre of Matthew’s text. Greek and Roman tragedy is examined, from which the five basic elements of tragedy are identified. A brief examination of the characters in the Matthean text is done to identify Greek cultural influences on the structuring of the Gospel. This study offers evidence that Matthew may have intentionally orchestrated a drama with the intent of having an understandable, attractive way to present Jesus to Jew and gentile alike.

This article rejects the view that Paul’s reference to “the keeping of the commandments of God” in 1 Corinthians 7:19b alludes to the requirement to observe the full Torah for believers from the Ἰουδαῖοι. At the same time it critiques the interpretation that reduces the phrase to something less than full Torah observance. In the prevalent understandings of 1 Corinthians 7:19 Paul’s reference to the keeping of God’s commandments is either diminished to a set of requirements for Christ-believers, or interpreted as a reference to the Torah with a different set of requirements for believers from the Ἰουδαῖοι (full Torah observance) and Gentiles (limited Torah observance) respectively. From the context of the Corinthian correspondence this article concludes that enough of the freedom from the Torah for all believers can be established to render the prevalent interpretations implausible. In comparison with Galatians 5:1–6 (esp. 5:3) and Romans 2:12–29 (esp. 2:25), it interprets 1 Corinthians 7:19 as a pejorative, shorthand reference to the requirement to do the whole Torah, a requirement that would be a logical consequence of an “old age” attitude that reverts back to outward and external identity markers. Hence, this article argues that Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:19 is suggesting the following: “It is all or nothing; if practising circumcision were essential for those called by God, so would be the keeping of the whole Torah.”

This Article analyzes the recent covenant marriage movement in America, and its deep roots in biblical teachings. It shows that the Hebrew Prophets, especially Malachi, described the covenant between God and his chosen people of Israel as a model for human marriages, featuring courtship and public celebration of the marriage, mutual love and faithful monogamy, procreation and nurture of children, and limited divorce and an openness to reconciliation. This idea of marriage as a covenant of the whole community is much more prominent in the Bible than the idea of marriage as a sacrament of the church, and it provides a better bridge concept between theology and law, traditional and modern accounts of the institution of marriage. Recent Catholic and Protestant statements alike now use the covenant idea of marriage, which has resonance in Jewish and Islamic contexts as well.

In this contribution, the five main views in understanding the fulfilment of the law in Matthew 5:17 are critiqued in terms of their inconsistency with the co-text of the Gospel. The whole of 5:17-48 is assessed in terms of the challenging relationship between the statements about fulfilment or completion of the law and the Prophets in 5:17-18 and the way in which Jesus seems to intensify obedience to law per se in 5:19-48. The interpretation of 5:19-48 is sought by considering all of Jesus’ words in the entire Gospel in terms of entry into the kingdom (5:19-20), doing the perfect will of the Father (5:48), and the way in which the law and the Prophets are fulfilled and accomplished in Christ (5:17-18). A dialectical approach is followed wherein statements concerning the retention of strict obedience to law are considered to be part of the thesis; statements that are opposed to strict obedience to law are considered to form the antithesis, and the way in which these opposites are related is considered as the new synthesis. This thesis, antithesis and synthesis form the solution to understanding fulfilment in Matthew 5:17.

Israel tells its history. But who is the Israel that tells? And what history does it tell? Who wrote the history of Israel is a group of Jews deported to Babylon and returned to Judea after a few decades spent in exile. They have conceived of a vast historiographical project that starts from the creation of the world until their return from the exile into the land of their fathers. To this end they have collected myths, stories, laws, rituals, customs, religious conceptions of the past, giving this enormous material a new form that responds to their religious views. Their purpose was not to accurately remember the past of their people, but to affirm and base their religious ideas, their hopes and ultimately their ethnic-religious identity. This volume aims at presenting the results of this work. Its novelty consists in the fact that the most recent historical books are introduced immediately at the beginning, in order to reconstruct the cultural background on which the Pentateuch and the Historical Books saw the light. The volume is accompanied by a glossary concerning the Jewish world, chronological tables, maps, bibliography a thematic and a liturgical index.

Israele racconta la sua storia. Ma chi è l’Israele che racconta? E quale storia racconta? Chi ha scritto la storia di Israele è un gruppo di giudei deportati in Babilonia e rientrati in Giudea dopo alcuni decenni trascorsi in esilio. Essi hanno concepito un vasto progetto storiografico che parte dalla creazione del mondo fino al loro ritorno dall'esilio nella terra dei padri. A tal fine essi hanno raccolto miti, racconti, leggi, riti, costumi, concezioni religiose del passato, dando a questo enorme materiale una nuova forma nuova che rispondesse alla loro visione religiosa. Il loro scopo era quello non di ricordare con precisione il passato del loro popolo, ma di affermare e fondare le loro idee religiose, le loro speranze e in ultima analisi la loro identità etnico-religiosa. Questo volume ha lo scopo di presentare il risultato di questo lavoro. La sua novità consiste nel fatto che si presentano subito all'inizio i libri storici più recenti, in modo da ricostruire lo sfondo culturale su cui hanno visto la luce il Pentateuco e i libri storici. Il volume è corredato di un glossario riguardante il mondo giudaico, di tavole cronologiche, cartine, bibliografia e di un indice tematico e liturgico.

Samuel Bolton sets out a three-fold method for arriving at his conclusions by examining the nature, quality, and parts of Christian Freedom. It is not until Bolton describes the parts of Christian Freedom that the nuances held among reformed theologians emerge. The majority of Bolton's treatise focuses on this aspect. For these reasons, this evaluation will focus on two primary areas of the parts or branches of Christian freedom expressed in this book.

The English puritan, Francis Roberts (1609–1675) wrote the puritan magnum opus on Covenant Theology.  This section from that work gives a window into the majority puritan view that the Moral Law in Moses (the Ten Commandments) continues to oblige in all ages, while the Judicial Law expired with the state of Israel (only the general equity therein continuing to oblige).  Roberts enumerates five very helpful distinctions that demonstrate the Biblical priority of the Moral Law over the Judicial Law in this respect.

Having struggled deeply with how in the New Covenant we should  treat the fourth Commandment, in this paper I lay out an argument which has proven incredibly liberating for me as a Reformed, Calvinistic husband and father, especially regarding how I should or should not enforce a Mosaic-style Sabbath in our family's home life.

Theories and interpretations abound regarding the Mosaic Law and its function in the life of the Christian. Primarily, these fall into two camps - the law enjoys permanent and binding status with Christians or the law has been abrogated with its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

How do the Judicial Laws of Moses apply today?  Rutherford, a Scottish covenanter and one of the Westminster divines, expounds the majority, historic and confessionally Reformed view of General Equity in contrast to Christian pluralism and Theonomy.  Let Rutherford take you to school in this anthology of excerpts from his writings on each aspect of the subject and you will be thankful for the lesson.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the teaching of the conciliar Constitution Dei Verbum and of the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission entitled The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures, the present part of the study offers a “canonical” reading of passages from Old and the New Testaments of the twin commandment of love, highlighting the repercussions of progressive revelation of the commandment for the very conception of the biblical God. There remains, then, for further investigation the singular fulfilment of revelation by Christ with respect to the question of the inspiration of the Bible and its historical conditioning.


SOMMARIO

In conformità all’insegnamento della costituzione conciliare Dei Verbum e del documento della Pontificia Commissione Biblica, Il popolo ebraico e le sue sacre Scritture, il presente studio offre, nella sua prima parte, una lettura canonica dei passi dell’uno e dell’altro Testamento sul duplice comandamento dell’amore per Dio e per il prossimo. Sono emerse così le ripercussioni della progressiva rivelazione del comandamento sulla stessa concezione del Dio biblico. Resta da approfondire, a questo riguardo, il singolare compimento della rivelazione portato a termine da Cristo in rapporto alla questione dell’ispirazione della Bibbia e dei suoi condizionamenti storici.

In this contribution, the notion that the concept of ‘law’ in the Letter to the Hebrews only pertains to the cultic domain is challenged against the discourse on law in the whole letter. Apart from instances in which the law includes moral aspects of the law, the broader theological context in which the concept of ‘law’ is set in Hebrews suggests that the whole Mosaic system is in view throughout the letter. Such a conclusion is drawn on the basis of pertinent contrasts in the letter between the old and new covenants, between the different sources of revelation, between Moses and Jesus, between the ways in which priesthood and sacrifices function in relation to sin, between the outward or physical and the inward or spiritual, and between the earthly and heavenly domains of the respective covenantal systems.

Discovered back in the 1800s, yet deemed a forgery, the text of the blessings and curses of Moses from Deut is actually  one of the first Essene Dead Sea scrolls recovered.

Potentially a larger book of other teachings and anecdotes of Moses.

This Article analyzes the recent covenant marriage movement in America, and its deep roots in biblical teachings. It shows that the Hebrew Prophets, especially Malachi, described the covenant between God and his chosen people of Israel as a model for human marriages, featuring courtship and public celebration of the marriage, mutual love and faithful monogamy, procreation and nurture of children, and limited divorce and an openness to reconciliation. This idea of marriage as a covenant of the whole community is much more prominent in the Bible than the idea of marriage as a sacrament of the church, and it provides a better bridge concept between theology and law, traditional and modern accounts of the institution of marriage. Recent Catholic and Protestant statements alike now use the covenant idea of marriage, which has resonance in Jewish and Islamic contexts as well.

Agitators in Galatia insisted that law observance for Gentiles was essential, because the eschatological blessing promised to the heirs of Abraham is only to be found within Israel.  But in three key passages (3:13-14; 3:25-26; 4:4-7), which are frequently misunderstood because pronominal shifts are set aside, Paul makes the blessing of Jews and Gentiles in Christ mutually interdependent, in a theological sense.  Gentiles are blessed with the blessing of Abraham because Jews are set free by Christ from the curse of the law. Because the Gentiles are blessed, and have become sons of God, Jewish believers receive the Spirit.  Thus Gentile inclusion in Christ is not subsidiary to Israel’s eschatological status, and does not require law observance.

This paper discusses the problem of the Judaic law regarding its form of promulgation. Starting from the Hegelian critique of the Judaic law in Hegel’s Early Writings, the paper tries to show the relationship between promulgation and writing of the law. In order to do that, it analyses several verses, on the one hand, quoted from the Book of Exodus (in particular chapter XX) and on the other from the Talmudic tradition. The aim of this exegetical analysis is to highlight a deep tension into the notion of the promulgation of Judaic law, which is at the same time a law given by God to Moses on the Sinai and a law written by Moses. The second part of the paper focuses on this double essence of the law, in order to show its own dispositive of «writing-promulgation».

The interaction of law and Christianity has been a perennial topic of study over the past two millennia. In recent years, however, this topic has taken on new importance in legal education as scholars have wrestled with the contributions that Christian ideas, institutions, methods, and practices can make to state law. Both biblical and traditional Christian teachings, these scholars have shown, still have salience for law in a post-Christian culture, dedicated to religious freedom for all and religious establishment for none. This essay analyzes a few of the main contributions Christianity has made and can make to modern legal systems.

The curious reference to Moses in 2 Corinthians 3 has resulted in a variety of readings, many of which consider Paul’s argument to be apologetic and opposed to the Mosaic covenant. In this book, however, Duff’s view that internal opponents were the cause of Paul’s apology and that Moses is used as a positive example for the audience, challenge the status quo of the debate.

... Does the story of Cornelius teach that Peter first abandoned his observance of the Law, which enabled him to reach out to Gentiles, or did the Jewish (Torah-observant) Peter simply carry the gospel to Gentiles? This question goes to the heart of the meaning of Peter's vision. ...

When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel....

It seems obvious that the newer generation either had more exposure to the visuals of Baalism than to those of the Mosaic religion or found Baalism more aesthetically appealing than the faith of their fathers. Evidently, Baalism was suffused with images, idols, symbols, and shrines. The visual imagery had a grappling effect on the minds and imaginations of the adherents. Additionally, polytheism has a particularly pluralistic and diversifyingly liberating influence. The Canaanite religion was polytheistic with multiple Baals and gods and, unlike the Mosaic religion, it offered a “religiously-oriented” person a broader catalogue of visually satisfying divinities to choose from.