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Torah Questions Recently
some questions arose concerning the Torah. To paraphrase, the questions
concerned why we don’t study the Torah of the Jews? This implied that we are
leaving something out of our studies and the Torah of today is not the same as
the Torah of earlier years. We need to understand what is meant by the
“Torah,” see if it pertains to us, and if it indeed has been changed. God
gave man the Bible. It was recorded by prophets as they were inspired. “All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” (2 Tim Our
Bibles are divided into Old Testament and New Testament. The Hebrew Bible is
called the Tanakh. The Torah is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, also
called the Pentateuch (Penta – means five; teuch – means book.) This is
generally what is meant by the term “Torah.” In this sense we do have the
Torah, and we do study those five books of law. However,
to some the term “Torah” refers to those five books plus the oral law of the
Jews and some later commentaries. Today we have articles and commentaries
written to try and explain to us what the Bible means. Those words are not
inspired and may or may not be accurate. The same goes for the Jews. It is one
thing to read the law and another to apply it to everyday situations. Therefore,
the Jews developed their oral law. Different
Rabbis would teach their followers what God meant. The first 5 books were
rearranged topically and the oral law was added. If one wanted to study all the
Law said regarding the Sabbath one had to look up passages in Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In the Torah all of those passages are in one place. Later
on many of the teachings of the Rabbis were recorded in the Talmud. The Talmud
is not just one book, but a series of books. The format of the Talmud is a law
is given from the Mishna which is then followed by various interpretations. One
may recall that Jesus was asked a question pertaining to marriage and divorce in
Matthew 19. The question was “It is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for
just any reason” (verse 3). When one goes back to the Law of Moses, they will
see divorce was allowed in one instance. “When a man takes a wife and marries
her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found
some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in
her hand, and sends her out of his house,” (Deut 24:1). Divorce was allowed
for one reason, this being some uncleanness, found in the wife. What did this
mean? Two schools of thought emerged: one
saying that the uncleanness referred to sexual immorality, the other said it
meant anything the husband wanted. Jesus did not deal with either school of
thought, but went right to God’s law in the Garden of Eden and explained that
there is one only cause for divorce, that being sexual immorality. Later on
Jesus said, “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the
commandments of men” (Matthew 15.9). The Talmud and Mishna dealt with the
proper way for people to wash their hands, and how much one could do before
“working” and violating the Sabbath. The problem being, these were additions
to the Law of God and in many circumstances contradicted the Law. Therefore,
if one asks the question “why don’t we study the Torah?” We have to ask if
the person is referring to the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old
Testament; or are the referring to those Books plus the Mishna and Talmud.
Obviously we do study Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We
do not study the Mishna and Talmud because they are simply the ideas of men and
not God. Those Rabbis were not inspired and their words are not to be treated as
equal to God’s Word. There
was also the implication that the Torah has changed over the years. Again if one
is meaning the Pentateuch, then I would deny such is true. On numerous occasions
we are told the word of God has been changed over the years. The Keep
this in mind. Jesus quoted from the Hebrew Bible in His ministry. He quoted from
Deuteronomy in dealing with Satan in Matthew 4. He answered questions based on
what the Hebrew Bible said. At no time did Jesus correct any perversions in the
Hebrew Bible. The Jews took great pains to make sure manuscripts were accurately
recorded. Each page would have a certain number of lines, words, and letters.
Each line, word, and letter was numbered. This was done to make sure all errors
would be caught. No ancient manuscript has been found to refute the Bible as we
have it now. God’s word has been preserved for us today. – Dennis Tucker |