Torah

Torah, (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning "teaching", "instruction", or especially "law". It primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh–the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five Books of Moses, but can also be used in the general sense to also include both the Written and Oral Law.

Christian view of the Torah

Traditional Christianity also affirms that the Torah is the word of God in which the Torah's quotes from God are understood literally as quotes from God Himself and the rest of the text, while not a direct quote from God, represents human words written by a prophet (traditionally Moses) under divine inspiration. Thus the entire Torah is held in traditional Christian thought to be a holy revelation. Liberal Christianity, in contrast, tends to accept the documentary hypothesis or similar reconstructions that deny any role to Moses in the construction of the Pentateuch and takes a less definite view of its divine inspiration.

Related Topics:
Christianity - Liberal Christianity - Documentary hypothesis

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Christians hold that not all of the laws of the Torah apply directly to themselves as Christians. The New Testament indicates that Jesus Christ established a new covenent relationship between God and his people (Hebrews 8; Jeremiah 31:31-34) and this makes the Mosaic covenant in some senses obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). A change of covenant can imply a change of law. Mark deduced from Jesus' teaching that the pentateuchal food laws no longer apply to Christians ("thus he declared all foods clean" -- Mark 7:19). The writer of Hebrews indicates that the sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood foreshadowed Jesus Christ's offering of himself as the sacrifice for sin on the Cross and that once the reality of Christ has come, the shadows of the ritual laws cease to be obligatory (Heb 8:5; 9:23-26; 10:1). On the other hand, the New Testament repeats and applies to Christians a number of Old Testament laws, including "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18; compare the Golden Rule), "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and strength" (Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema) as well as every commandment of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1-17) except the Sabbath commandment.

Related Topics:
Golden Rule - Shema - Ten Commandments - Sabbath

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This has led to a variety of theological systems to explain which laws do and which do not apply to Christians. While some Christians from time to time have deduced from statements about the law in the writings of the apostle Paul that Christians are under grace to the exclusion of all law (see antinomianism), this is not the usual viewpoint of Christians. One common approach is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) which divides the Mosaic laws into three categories: moral, civil, and ceremonial. In the view of the Westminster divines, only the moral law such as most of the Ten Commandments directly applies to Christians today. Others limit the application of the Mosaic laws to those commands repeated in the New Testament. In the 1970s and 1980s a movement known as Christian Reconstructionism (Theonomy) argued that the civil laws as well as the moral laws should be applied in today's society as part of establishing a modern, theocratic state. Others are content to grant that none of the Mosaic laws apply as such and that the penalties attached to the laws were limited to the particular historical and theological setting of the Old Testament, and yet still seek to find moral and religious principles applicable for today in all parts of the law. The topic of Paul and the law is still frequently debated among New Testament scholars.

Related Topics:
Apostle - Paul - Antinomianism - Westminster Confession of Faith - Christian Reconstructionism - Theonomy

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