HHMI Newsgroup Archives
From: Rabbi Moshe Joseph Koniuchowsky
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: THE TORAH IS NOT THE SAME AS LAW (Part 1 of 2)
THE
TORAH IS NOT LAW
by
Mark
R. Ensign, JD, CPA
Teaching
Elder of Adot Adonai
Attorney
and Counselor at Law
(Part
1 of 2)
Introduction
The objective of this study is to help the reader to better
understand both the L-rd our G-d, YHVH, our Creator and King
of the Universe, who is also Abba, our Father, and the
loving instructions he carefully revealed to his beloved
children as recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
As you begin, I respectfully ask you to put aside, at least
temporarily, the concepts and opinions you have formed or
been taught throughout your life about the word of G-d, the
Torah, that is commonly called "the Law." I ask you to
start afresh and join me in building a new paradigm, a new
way of thinking about the Torah. Of course, I want you to
carefully consider what I offer to you in light of the
totality of the Scriptures as you are led into the truth by
the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit. Please do not accept
what I say merely because I say it, but because the Ruach
HaKodesh confirms it in your spirit as truth from YHVH.
If the Ruach HaKodesh confirms this new paradigm to you as
truth, I believe that you will experience a heightened level
of liberation, expanded dimensions of freedom to be what
Abba has created you to be, one of his beloved children. He
said, "I am YHVH your G-d, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke
the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. (Leviticus
26:13) Because G-d delivered his people from slavery, he
gave them a Torah of deliverance, instructions about living
in the new liberty.
Likewise, we have been enslaved to the kingdom of sin and
death but YHVH has delivered us and liberated us into his
kingdom of life. As Rav Sha'ul (Apostle Paul) wrote to the
Romans "The Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in
union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the Torah of
sin and death." (8:2 JNT)
Similarly, we have been enslaved by the old paradigm that
the Torah is the Law and in the Law we find sin and death.
Now, in these last days, YHVH wants us to be delivered, to
be liberated, to fully understand and embrace what has been
hidden from us for centuries and generations so we may be
truly free in him and in his Torah that brings us to life in
him.
The title of this study is the central conclusion to which
the Ruach HaKodesh has led me over the past several years.
The Torah is not the Law! The subtitle might be an expanded
conclusion: The Torah is the set of instructions graciously
offered by our loving heavenly Father for our own good about
how we are to walk humbly before him and with our fellow
men.
As you are probably aware, the subject of "the Law" is
probably one of the most misunderstood concepts in all of
Christendom. For most Christians, the term, "the Law"
produces negative mental and spiritual images. Those
negative images are both of YHVH, our Creator and King of
the Universe, and also of his word, the truth he has
revealed to his people. In the context of "the Law," YHVH
is imagined as the stern lawgiver and harsh judge who sits
behind a high bench in the courtroom. A gavel in hand, he
is carefully watching every move that we make, every step
that we take, ever word that we say. He eagerly awaits our
failure to keep the least of these "Laws" so that he may
slam his gavel down and condemn us to hell. "The Law" is
seen as a bookshelf full of statutes, ordinances,
regulations, rules, and judgments against others for their
failures. We imagine these "laws" are just waiting to trip
us up because we cannot possibly know or comprehend or
implement them all in our lives. Such negative images do a
grave injustice to YHVH's revelation of himself to his
children. They also confine us and restrict our behavior
rather than encouraging us to experience the freedom of
being a child of the King of the Universe.
These negative images were first imagined centuries ago,
about the time of Y'shua but not by him or his disciples.
Through time the images were developed, refined, taught and
perpetuated from generation to generation by well-meaning
but misinformed teachers who failed to understand the true
nature of YHVH in relationship to his children. Thus they
have viewed and taught "the Law" as something harsh, bad,
transient, and superseded by something better, namely,
grace. They refer to passages such as Yochanan (John) 1:16-17 to prove this for it says, "And of his fulness have all
we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
The purpose of this study is to dispel these erroneous
negative images from the minds and spirits of believers and
replace them with the truth. YHVH, our G-d, Creator, and
King of the Universe, is also Abba, our loving heavenly
Father. As all fathers do, Abba desires only the best for
his beloved children. In order to achieve that objective,
Abba has lovingly given instructions which he asks his
children to follow for their own good.
These instructions are a unity just as YHVH is a unity as we
proclaim regularly in the Shema from Devarim (Deut.) 6:4.
"Shema Yisrael. Adonai Eloheinu. Adonai Echad. Hear O
Yisrael. The L-rd is our G-d. The L-rd is one." The unity
of YHVH has many diverse aspects as revealed in his many,
varied manifestations described by approximately 50 names
for YHVH in his scriptures. Likewise the unity of his
instructions, the Torah, is revealed in diverse aspects
described by a number of Hebrew words.
To enable you to grasp the wonderful truth that the Torah is
not the Law, I will present evidence to support my
conclusion. I will offer a reasonable explanation of how we
arrived at our erroneous understanding of the Torah as "the
Law." I will describe this Law Model from an attorney's
perspective. We will also examine the understanding that
Y'shua and Rav Sha'ul had of the Torah. Based on that
understanding, I will propose the Education Model of Torah
which better describes the Torah from the perspective of
Abba. Finally, we will consider what our responses should
be to this new paradigm, the Education Model of Torah.
This study is a work in progress. By no means is it
intended to be the final word on this topic. Rather, I pray
that it will be used by the Ruach HaKodesh to encourage the
readers to carefully contemplate and prayerfully study the
word of Abba for themselves being led into the truth by the
Ruach HaKodesh. Constructive criticism, comments and
suggestions based on such study will be gratefully received
and considered. May the end result be a fuller
understanding of YHVH our Abba and his wonderful word in
which he reveals himself to those who love him and
diligently seek him.
Foundational Truths
To begin, we must agree on a foundation of truths about YHVH
our Abba, our Father.
Abba is love. Abba is full of grace. Abba is full of
mercy. Abba is unchanging. Abba is eternal. Abba has
created mankind. Those men and women who submit themselves
to him are his children. In various ways, places and times,
Abba, through the leaders of his people such as Moshe and
the prophets who spoke for him, like Yesha'yahu (Isaiah),
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), Yechezk'el (Ezekiel), and Y'shua
(Jesus) gave his children instructions, guidance, directions
for living. With these statements I believe we all agree.
The original Hebrew words of the Tanakh, the "Old
Testament," portray Abba and his word in these ways. Thus
Moshe and all Bnei Yisrael (the Children of Yisrael, the
descendants of Ya'akov (Jacob)) understood Abba to have
these characteristics and to have spoken to them his
instructions for living uprightly before Abba and with
mankind whom Abba created.
The system of instructions Abba gave to his children,
described above, is called the Torah. Initially Torah
encompassed the first five books, B'reshit (Genesis) through
Devarim (Deuteronomy) the books written by Moshe. Today,
Judaism has an expanded definition of Torah which includes
these books plus the "Oral Torah" (commonly referred to as
the Mishnah) plus the rabbinical commentary including the
Talmud and other writings of the Sages. Messianic believers
have expanded the definition of Torah to encompass the
Tanakh (consisting of the Torah, the Nevi'im (Prophets) and
the Ketuvim (Writings), what Christendom calls the "Old
Testament") and all of the B'rit Chadashah (what Christendom
calls the "New Testament") - the entire scriptures from
B'reshit through the Revelation - for we believe that all
instructions of Abba that have been transmitted to us in
these writings are applicable and appropriately called
Torah.
How Did We Get Here?
Little mistakes made at the beginning of a project can lead
to big problems at the end. This is a good case of that
maxim being true. To translate Torah as "law" may be
considered a small mistake but it has led to a massive
perversion of the truth, to a distorted image of Abba and
his words of life that has caused many to reject Abba and
his loving instructions. We need to examine the history of
the development of man's understanding of Torah as the Law.
The Torah was first identified as the books written by
Moshe. These would have been completed approximately 1500
years before the birth of Y'shua. The remaining books of
the Tanakh, the Prophets and the Writings, were generally
written prior to the Babylonian captivity or shortly after
the return of the Jewish people from that captivity and the
reconstruction of the Temple and the restoration of Temple
worship. All of these writings in Hebrew were on scrolls
accessible to the people in their places of study and
worship. Because of their wonderful gift of memory they
would probably have memorized at least the Psalms and the
books of Moshe, if not the whole Tanakh.
Approximately 300 years before Y'shua's birth, the influence
of the Greeks had pervaded the land of Yisrael. First the
Greek Empire of Alexander the Great and later the Greek-influenced Ptolemaic Empire ruled over the land of Yisrael
as well as the southern Mediterranean including Egypt.
During the reign of Ptolemy II, the books of Moshe were
translated by Jewish scholars in Egypt into Greek and this
translation was called the Septuagint.
Under the influence of the Greek Alexandrian and Ptolemaic
Empires, these Jewish scholars became "hellinized" in their
thinking, that is they fell under the influence of the
western Greek way of thinking and shifted their thinking
from the eastern Hebraic mode of thought. Thus, they began
to see the Torah through Greek eyes having been assimilated
into the Greek world around them. The Greeks had many laws
governing their Empire. This system of laws affected the
Jewish Sages until they perceived the Torah as a legal
system like the Greek system which might be described as "If
you don't do what the Law says, you will be exiled from the
Empire." So these Jewish scholars developed halachah, a
series of interpretations of the Torah intended to guide the
walk of the observant Jews by placing a fence around the
Torah to prevent inadvertent violations.
This fence around the Torah was patterned after the
westernized, Greek system of law. It became a tradition of
the elders which they added to the Oral Torah that was
spoken by Abba to Moshe while he was on Har Sinai. This
halachic fence included many "laws" like limitation on the
Shabbat day's walk, and the tithing of herbs, which became
burdensome to the people. You will recall that Y'shua
condemned the Pharisees for their hypocritical imposition of
these man-made traditions as burdens upon the people which
they themselves ignored. Furthermore, they effectively
added these laws to Abba's Torah by telling the people that
if they broke these additional traditions they were
dangerously close to breaking G-d's Torah and if they broke
the Torah they would be exiled from their holy city.
The most significant result of these developments on the
"Law" of the Torah was the Septuagint translation of the
Hebrew word Torah into Greek as nomos meaning law and not
didaskalia. Didaskalia means teaching, instruction,
education, doctrine, what is taught. It means precisely
what the Hebrew word Torah really means, as we will discuss
below. This mistranslation of Torah into Greek as nomos set
the stage for the church fathers' full-fledged proclamation
of the Torah as "the Law."
At and after the time of Y'shua, the Sages of Judaism
contributed to this process of making Torah into "law."
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the
rabbis formally compiled their oral traditions and halachic
interpretations of Torah, wrote them as the Mishnah in about
200 C.E., adopted them as their "Law" and required obedience
of all Jewish people to this combination of the Torah and
Mishnah. Subsequently their Sages commented further on the
Mishnah thus adding more "law" and compiled those comments
or Gemara as the Talmud. The Palestinian (or Jerusalem)
Talmud was issued first in Yerushalayim in about 400 C.E.
followed about 100 years later by the Babylonian Talmud. It
is estimated to contain about two and a half million words
and is about three times as long as the Palestinian Talmud.
The Talmud has been accepted as a code book for the
regulation of Jewish life. Because it does not have the
outward form of a code book, logically ordered books of law
code of Talmudic and later decisions were composed
subsequently through the centuries. Thus, in the Jewish
mind, the Torah became the Law and the rabbis became
excellent "lawyers." Today the rabbis say they are studying
the Torah when they are really studying all of these works
of men in addition to the words of G-d through Moshe which
they spend precious little time studying..
After the formation of the "church" -- not at Shavuot
(Pentecost) but years later -- it was organized under the
churchmen (the church fathers, scholars, teachers, and
leaders) who, over the first few centuries after the life of
Y'shua, rejected the Hebraic heritage of their faith. Some
became quite anti-semitic. The churchmen demanded orthodoxy
from all who would follow in their footsteps as churchmen.
Orthodoxy meant what these churchmen said was right and not
necessarily what was the truth. Orthodoxy was thus
perpetuated in the teaching cycle, from scholar/teachers to
students who grew up to become scholar/teachers who taught
the next generation their orthodoxy rather than the truth.
(I do not use the term "churchmen" to mean the pastors,
leaders, and believers in local churches today who are being
as faithful to the word of G-d as they know how based upon
the orthodoxy that has been transmitted to them.)
Soon after the death of Y'shua and the organization of the
church, churchmen adopted the terminology of the rabbis and
started calling the Torah "the Law." They adopted the
Septuagint's translator's view of Torah as nomos, the Greek
law which resulted in exile if broken. In the process, the
churchmen changed the truths about the character of Abba and
his word that we agreed upon above. They portrayed YHVH, as
revealed in the "Old Testament," as the awesome, stern
lawgiver who imposed the Law on mankind in the form of
commands, statutes, ordinances, regulations, judgments and
rules. He demanded all people follow these or he would
punish them both on earth and in hell for eternity. They
saw him as the judge of all the earth constantly monitoring
all actions and issuing judgment to inflict punishment for
failing to keep every Law in his Torah. Those images of
YHVH were passed from generation to generation even until
today.
Is that your idea of Abba, G-d of love, grace and mercy? It
certainly is not mine! But churchmen's portrayal of G-d in
this manner and their transforming of Torah into "the Law"
enhanced their ability to enforce their orthodoxy on their
church members. Over the centuries they used this model of
Torah as law to create their own church law which they
sometimes ruthlessly imposed on their church members, as
during the Inquisition. This contributed to the Protestant
movement and the splintering into denominations, each of
which had its own version of church law imposed on its
members. Is it any wonder that in the last few decades
people have run away from the church or at least avoided the
Old Testament if they stayed in church.
As languages developed besides Hebrew and Greek, in order
for the Scriptures to be disseminated translations had to be
made so that the people would be able to understand them.
The translators were scholars who had been raised in the
traditional portrayal of YHVH and his word as "the Law."
Controlled by the churchmen who funded their translations,
they incorporated into their translations the churchmen's
bias against the Torah of G-d. They rewarded their
paymasters by using words that perpetuated the traditional
portrayal of YHVH, the G-d of the Old Testament.
To counter this portrayal, the churchmen and their
translators proclaimed that the G-d of the New Testament
changed into a G-d of love, grace and mercy sometime
immediately before, during or after the life of Y'shua.
Furthermore, his Torah was nullified by Y'shua and replaced
with two commandments: to love G-d and love your neighbor.
That, of course, is the current position of most churchmen
today -- G-d of the Old Testament changed into the loving G-
d of the New Testament. In fact, some have gone so far with
this theology that they effectively portray G-d as their
bellboy who immediately responds to their every call and who
must and will do everything that they desire including
providing them with earthly riches if they will just ask in
the right away. Some even see Y'shua as their big brother
or pal rather than as their Redeemer, L-rd, Creator and King
of the Universe.
The Scriptures proclaim that G-d is eternal and he does not
change. Thus he must have been the same all along, both
before and after Y'shua. So the churchmen can't logically
have a G-d revealed in the Old Testament (stern lawgiver and
harsh judge) who is different in the New Testament (loving,
merciful and gracious). But that is precisely what they try
to tell us. They use their translations to impart this
message to their people, most of whom are not trained in the
original languages. Even if they have such language
training, they have been taught that the English meanings of
the original words are what the churchmen erroneously say
they are. Even the Biblical dictionaries and lexicons have
been compiled by the translators based upon their
understanding rather than upon the original meaning of
words.
Christianity's view of "the Law" has been influenced by the
struggle to define its own identity apart from its Hebraic
roots. That struggle was fought with powerful figures like
Marcion (A.D. 130), who denied the validity of the Hebrew
Bible for Christian faith and practice. He loved Rav
Sha'ul, according to special interpretation of him, but
Marcion hated the Bible. Even though the Church called
Marcion a heretic, his view of "the Law" was largely
accepted without consideration of the Jewish understanding
of the Torah. In contrast to Marcion, both Y'shua and Rav
Sha'ul highly valued the Torah as we shall see.
Martin Luther also had a negative impact on Christian
theologies by misunderstanding Rav Sha'ul and developing the
theology of justification by faith. According to Luther,
faith negated Torah. Torah was bad, imperfect, and
transient. Judaism, as a religious system, was bad and all
Jews would burn in hell unless they accepted Y'shua as their
personal savior. Luther was as rabid an anti-Semite as was
Marcion and his anti-Semitism is clearly reflected in his
theology.
Unfortunately, the influence of Marcion, Luther, and others
of their ilk and kind remain with us until today. As a
result many unwary believers have been, and continue to be,
taught erroneously.
Based upon this history we can understand why we are taught
today that the Torah is "the Law" of G-d. This is why
churchmen taught that all the commandments of "the Law" must
be fulfilled in every respect in order for one to have
salvation. This is why churchmen taught that if one
attempted to keep any of the "laws" one had to keep them
all. This is why churchmen taught that YHVH had to come up
with a better plan of salvation. This is why churchmen
substituted the two commandments of Y'shua to love G-d and
to love your neighbor for the whole of the Torah.
Somehow churchmen did not realize that these two
commandments are actually contained within the Torah!
(Devarim (Deut) 6:5, "You shall love YHVH your G-d with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
Vayikra (Lev.) 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself; I am YHVH.") So, according to churchmen's own
theology, if they attempt to keep these two commandments of
Y'shua, they must keep all the commandments in order to be
saved.
The Law Model and its Terminology
Historically churchmen and their translators have used words
taken from the legal profession to translate the Hebrew
words Abba chose to describe the various aspects of his
Torah. Hebrew words such as Torah, chuqqah, choq, and
mishpatim are translated with various legal terms including
law, statute, ordinance, regulation, rule and judgment. Of
course, all of these are attributed to YHVH thus painting
the traditional portrayal of G-d as lawgiver and judge.
As an attorney familiar with legal terminology, I have
become increasingly troubled with the use of these legal
words to describe the system of loving instructions Abba
gave his people in the Tanakh (Old Testament). The
churchmen's chosen legal words do not seem to fit the G-d of
the Bible and his Torah that I see revealed in the Hebrew
Scriptures.
Here are some legal terms that churchmen and their
translators have used to translate the various Hebrew words
that are listed. The definitions are abridged from the
Black's Law Dictionary, the standard dictionary used by all
attorneys in the United States.
LAW -- The Hebrew word Torah (pl. Torot) is usually
translated as Law. Law is defined as that which is laid
down, ordained, or established. Law, in its generic sense,
is a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by
controlling authority, and having binding legal force. That
which must be obeyed and followed by citizens subject to
sanctions or legal consequences is a law. Law is a solemn
expression of the will of the supreme power of the State.
STATUTE -- The Hebrew words Chukah and Chok are usually
translated as statute. A statute is a formal written
enactment of a legislative body declaring, commanding, or
prohibiting something.
ORDINANCE -- The Hebrew word Chukah is also translated as
ordinance. An ordinance is a local law of a municipality
prescribing general, uniform, and permanent rules of conduct
and governing matters such as zoning, building, health,
traffic and safety, etc.
REGULATION -- The Hebrew words Torah, Mishpat, Chok and
Chukah are sometimes translated as regulation. Regulations
are issued by various governmental departments to carry out
the intent of the law. Agencies issue regulations to guide
the activity of those regulated by the agency and of their
own employees and to ensure uniform application of the law.
RULE, STANDARD -- The Hebrew words Mishpat and Chukah are
also translated as rule or standard. Rules are established
standards, guides, or regulations for conduct or action.
Principles or regulations set up by authority, prescribing
or directing action or forbearance.
JUDGMENT -- The Hebrew word Mishpat is also translated as
judgment. A judgment is the official and authentic decision
of a court of justice upon the respective rights and claims
of the parties and submitted to its determination.
Does reading these legal words in your Bible in connection
with our loving Abba trouble you as they do me? Perhaps,
because of teaching by your pastors and teachers, you
believe the G-d of the Tanakh is a G-d of law. Perhaps you
believe his word is the Law rather than Abba's loving
instructions. Perhaps in this study you will find a better
understanding of the words Abba chose to describe his loving
instructions to his children.
Yarah and Torah
In Hebrew words are derived from root words and nouns from
verbs. The root word for the noun Torah is the verb yarah.
Yarah means to "throw, cast, shoot, point out, show, direct,
teach, instruct." It connotes shooting or throwing
something at a target, like guiding an arrow to a bull's-eye
or guiding sheep toward the sheepfold. The meaning of yarah
is clear and does not in any way embrace or imply any of the
aspects of the law terms we have defined above.
Thus Torah, derived from yarah, is a noun which means
teaching or instruction that is true and straight, as if the
words of Torah are shot in a direct path like an arrow, with
power and force for the best in life. Torah is the divine
theme for all people who love G-d. Torah means G-d's will
including but going over and beyond the ink dried upon the
scrolls of holy writ. So Torah cannot mean or connote "law"
in any way, shape or form unless it is distorted by those
with a bias in favor of the law model.
Until the time of Y'shua and in the century following his
life, Torah had this meaning. In the light of this, Y'shua
condemned the rabbinical leaders of his day and their
predecessors who had imposed their human traditions as laws
on the people rather than teaching them to obey the
instructions of their loving heavenly Father. They had
perverted the Torah instructions that were delivered to
Moshe by HaShem into a strict moral code full of
requirements created by man in order to maintain control
over the people. Torah has become a broad, all-encompassing
term including the traditions of men rather than the loving
instructions of our Father originally given to us in the
books of Moshe, B'reshit (Genesis) through Devarim
(Deuteronomy). So the rabbis no longer were educators in
the Instructions of the Father but "lawyers" who argued
about the Law that they created.
Equally unfortunate, this has been the case in some
Messianic circles. Some teachers have adopted the
rabbinical concept of the Torah as the "Law of Moshe" and
have proclaimed it as such. They then apply the legalism
that must naturally accompany such "law." So they proclaim
that believers have to keep the law to be saved or to
receive the blessings of the L-rd. Then they go a step
further by observing and judging the performance of others
in keeping their law in their way. If they determine the
performance is not up to their specifications and standards,
they reject these poor, underperforming or nonperforming
believers or place greater burdens on them, just like some
of the Pharisees in the time of Y'shua whom he chastised for
their own hypocrisy and lack of performance even to their
own standards. This is a problem about which informed
believers need to be fully aware.
I am keenly aware of the need to use accurate, precise
language in our communications. Lawsuits are sometimes won
or lost on the basis of terms and definitions and the
precision of the words used in presenting and advocating a
position.
Imagine with me a courtroom setting as portrayed in reality
on Court TV and not the People's Court. Imagine me standing
before the judge as an attorney hired to vigorously
represent my client in a lawsuit arising from a contract my
client signed. The dispute is about the meaning of the
terms and definitions found in that contract. At the time
my client signed the contract and to this present day, my
client has a clear and correct understanding of the meaning
of the terms used in the contract. On the other side, the
other party to the contract has perverted over time the
meaning of the original terms in such a way to benefit
itself at the expense of my client.
Think with me about my strategy as the attorney representing
the clear and correct meaning of the terms. I have two
choices about what words to use in my trial preparation. I
can use the words with the clear and correct understanding
of my client or I can use the erroneous terms and
definitions as perverted by the other party. What will
happen if I adopt, embrace and constantly use the erroneous
terms and definitions throughout my trial presentation?
What if I use the terms incorrectly whenever I examine a
witness, whenever I confer with the judge, and whenever I
present my case to the jury? Do I have a chance of winning
this case? Of course not. In order to win the case I must
consistently use, proclaim and advocate the correct meaning.
I must not compromise by using my opponent's meanings at anytime or I will concede my case.
(End
Part 1 of 2)
******************************************************
Return to
Newsgroup Archives Main Page
Return to our Main Webpage
©2011
Hebraic Heritage Ministries International. Designed by
Web Design by JB.