Some who hold this theory are ready to admit that there may be a few verses here and there interpolated into the record by later scribes; but they maintain that the books in their substance and entirety came in their present form from the hands of Moses. Besides, it must not be overlooked that in all this legislation "the priests are not at all referred to in general, but by name, as Aaron and his sons, or the sons of Aaron the priests.". rev2023.5.1.43405. If they had really believed Moses, they would have seen in the whole spirit of the Pentateuch a manifestation of God, which would have led them to the fuller manifestation in Christ. These are all the statements made in the writings themselves concerning their origin. On the contrary, we embrace it as the word of God in preparation for Messiah Jesus, and as the word of God in the ongoing illumination of the meaning of Jesus and his work. Every writing inspired of God is profitable reading. This was the collection, remember, most used by our Lord and his apostles. - Sola Gratia. I am aware that this is not the usual interpretation of these words, but I believe that it is the only meaning that the words will bear. Both Old Testament and New Testament. He is not careful in any of these cases to quote the exact words of the law, but he does give the meaning of it. And Jesus expressly forbids judicial oaths. No, this is not the precise state of the case. These books are partly historical and partly legal. It is certain that if Moses wrote these books he did not call them "Genesis," "Exodus," "Leviticus," "Numbers," "Deuteronomy;" for these words, again, come from languages that he never heard. This may, indeed, have been anticipatory legislation, but the explanation is not probable. The simple, unforced, natural interpretation of these laws takes us back, I say, to the time of Moses, to the years of the wandering in the wilderness. . Jesus quotes the law of divorce from Deuteronomy xxiv.1,2. Shall we understand Paul, then, as certifying the authenticity and infallibility of this whole collection? You know neither me nor my Father.. Jesus said in Matthew 5:1718, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (see Exodus 20:24-25) Joshua 23:6. "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you." This was the name by which these books were chiefly known among the Jews; it signifies simply "The Law." Many of these old tales of theirs were extremely childish. Here is what Jesus taught about the second of these things: the commandments as he saw them. Doubtless Paul did mean to commend to Timothy the Old Testament Scriptures as containing precious and saving truth. The statement when written would be false, and God is not the author of falsehood. If, as you assert, God ordained that marriage should be indissoluble, how comes it that Moses commanded () us to practise divorce, and prescribed rules as to its conduct?They are referring to Deuteronomy 24:1, 2.Jesus had escaped the trap which was laid for him, and foiled them by the very words of Scripture and the plain intention . But Paul says in the verses preceding, that Timothy had known from a child the Sacred Writings which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. - Why did Moses then command? It has been said, indeed, that Moses was directed by inspiration to say such things about himself; but I do not believe that egotism is a supernatural product; men take that in the natural way. He saw him as his Son in heaven eternally (John 1:13), and he saw what his Son would be in history when he came. Test yourself and test others who claim to know God. "When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and shalt cast out many nations before thee, then thou shalt utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them." [Footnote: Introduction to the Old Testament, i.240. But these English titles, which are partly translated and partly transferred to English from older Latin and Greek titles, tell us nothing trustworthy about the authorship of the books. If you will look into your Revised Version you will see that his words, addressed to the Jews, are not a command but an assertion: "Ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life" (John v.39); if you searched them carefully you would find some testimony there concerning me. Luke 20. So in Exodus xxi.24, "Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." First, then, we find upon the face of the record several reasons for believing that the books cannot have come, in their present form, from the hand of Moses. But the new leader found himself at once in a very different position. John 3:32 says, "He bears witness to what he has seen and heard.". Copyright 2023. This means that the way the Old Testament gets people ready to know Jesus is not merely by specific prophecies that have specific fulfillments in Jesus (like being born in Bethlehem), but far more profoundly, the point is: If you meet God, and know God, and admire God, and trust God, and are shaped by God as he truly reveals himself and his ways in the whole of the Old Testament, then when Jesus comes, you will know him. Fourth, it is for our comfort. The Hebrew collection was not at this time definitely closed; there was still a dispute among the Palestinian Jews as to whether two or three of the books which it now contains should go into it; that dispute was not concluded until half a century after the death of our Lord. And even these were not delivered by him in the same form as we find them now." Perhaps the most astonishing statements about the Scriptures in the Gospel of John is John 12:3741 where John quotes Isaiah 6 (verse 10) which has in it the famous vision of God: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3). 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord[a] I was not known to them. That was Jesus view. Ex 34 v 19 These fables had wide currency among the Jews; they were believed by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Augustine, and others of the great fathers of the Christian Church; but they are not credited in these days. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abrahams sake.. Other difficulties, however, of a much more serious kind, present themselves. ; these writings, say the destructive critics, were first produced in part about 730 B.C., but were mainly written after the Exile (about 444 B.C. It is no part of the ceremonial law; it is an ethical rule. 18:43 - 2 - Moses wrote of prophesies that were to be fulfilled by Christ. The book of Hebrews deals with this extensively, and deals with how Christ is the fulfilment of the law. These Sacred Writings had not at this time been gathered into a volume by themselves, with a fixed table of contents. There is a moral leadership of God in history; revelation is the record of that leadership. As soon as I posted this question, my mind went to the famous story of Jacob's ladder, in Genesis 28:10-22. This means "The Five Books of Moses." In Leviticus we have a similar instance. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; Exodus 6:1-2 Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. . And although it did not come into being in the way in which we have been taught by the traditions of the rabbins, yet we shall see that it contains some wonderful evidence of the superintending care of God, -- of that continuous and growing manifestation of his truth and his love to the people of Israel, which is what we mean by revelation. It is not necessary to draw out this evidence at length; I will only refer to a few out of scores of instances. You can use this as your guide: Welcome to the site! 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. It is in that great historical movement of which the Bible is the record that we find the revelation of God to men. They are frequently mentioned in the New Testament as inspired and authoritative books; they are referred to as the writings of Moses; we have the testimony of Jesus Christ and of his apostles to their genuineness and authenticity." Listen to the way John uses the word. Large parts of the legislation concerning leprosy are full of the same incidental references to the fact that the people were dwelling in camp. All of the feasts are an introduction to the coming and second coming of Christ. Like the manna in the desert, Jesus is the Bread from Heaven (John 6:51) that satisfies our spiritual hunger and gives us life. However, I suspect that Jesus was referring to the fact that much of Mosaic law was a type, or shadow, of Christ and the new covenant. In other words, Gentiles who believe in Jesus the Messiah are included in the blessing of Abraham. All the legislation respecting the construction of the tabernacle, the disposition of it in the camp, the transportation of it from place to place in the wilderness, the order of the march, the summoning of the people when camp was to be broken, with all its minute and circumstantial directions, would be destitute of meaning if it had been written while the people were living in Palestine, scattered all over the land, dwelling in their own houses, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. AccomplishedAuthor3 1 yr. ago. Well, if he had said that, it would not prove that the Scriptures they searched were errorless. Our Lord himself speaks more than once in stern censure of these traditions by which, as he charges, their moral sense was blunted and the law of God was made of none effect. Therefore they must be the infallible word of God." Passages in these five books bear witness to the facts that the Christ would suffer, that the Christ would rise from the dead, that the Christ would enter into His glory, and that repentance for . Download our eBooks to read on your computers, phone, tablet, or eReader. It is not likely either that Moses wrote the words in Exodus xi.3: "Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of all the people;" nor those in Numbers xii.3: "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were on the face of the earth." Acts 7:22 states, "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.". i. John 5:45,46 41 I do not receive glory from people. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.. 15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; 16 According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. Genesis 48:3 The overall message of Leviticus is sanctification. To this it is sufficient to reply, Christ and the apostles do quote the Old Testament Scriptures; they find a great treasure of inspired and inspiring truth in them, and so can we; they recognize the fact that they are organically related to that kingdom which Christ came to found, and that they record the earlier stages of that great course of revelation which culminates in Christ; but they nowhere pronounce any of these writings free from error; there is not a hint or suggestion anywhere in the New Testament that any of the writings of the Old Testament are infallible; and Christ himself, as we have seen, clearly warns his disciples that they do not even furnish a safe rule of moral conduct. It illustrates the lengths to which destructive criticism can go. The Jews in the time of our Lord always considered these five books as one connected work; they called the whole sometimes "Torah," or "The Law," sometimes "The Law of Moses," sometimes "The Five-fifths of the Law." That is the whole statement. The reference to it by the Lord and his apostles is therefore legitimate. There can be little doubt that the third commandment is quoted and criticised by our Lord, in this discourse. I agree that this could be turned into a really excellent answer. It only takes a minute to sign up. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Four of them are Greek words, and one of them, Numbers, is a Latin word. Balaam references two important points: First, "a star shall come from Jacob" and "a scepter comes forth from Israel.". And when you get a chance you may want to read. But we must not force his language into any wholesale indorsement of every letter and word, or even of every chapter and book of these old writings. Moses was the (adopted) son of a king (Exodus 2:10), and Jesus is the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32). 2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: I am the Lord. There was a reason for this law; it was intended to guard against a debasing superstition; but how would it have been possible to obey it when the people were scattered all over the land of Palestine? Our modern Hebrew Bibles give them the general title, "Quinque Libri Mosis." They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots (John 19:24=Psalm 22:18). Such notable men as John the Baptist, Philip, Peter, and Stephen all testified that Jesus Christ, not Muhammad, is the prophet predicted in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. [Footnote: The Religion of Israel, p.9.] Our Lord nowhere says that the first five books of the Old Testament were all written by Moses. What are the 'Scriptures' mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15? We have also in the Book of Deuteronomy (xxxi.24-26) a statement that Moses wrote "the words of the law" in a book, and put it in the ark of the covenant for preservation. The most decisive thing about this New Covenant is that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, died for sinners so that both Jews and Gentiles who trust him would become the heirs of the Old Testament promises. I do hope to see more from you! Jesus a perfect sacrifice (a fulfillment of the law of Moses), the Lamb in the first passover of Exodus 12 had to be kept for four days before the passover for inspection. Mosaic authorship of the Torah does rule out the use of oral tradition, sources (i.e., Genesis 5:1; Numbers 21:14), or, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, later textual updates by subsequent writers (i.e., the name "Chaldeans" in Genesis 11:28). Thus, to quote the summary of Bleek, we find in both places, (a) that all the males shall appear before Jehovah three times in every year; (b) that no leavened bread shall be used at the killing of the Paschal Lamb, and that the fat shall be preserved until the next morning; (c) that the first of the fruits of the field shall be brought into the house of the Lord; (d) that the young kid shall not be seethed in its mother's milk. It is the law revealed to Moses by God. Not only is this book a great defense of our faith in . Even though the books of the Pentateuch themselves do not clearly identify the author, there are many passages that attribute them to Moses or as being his words (Exodus 17:14, 24:4-7;Numbers 33:1-2; Deuteronomy 31:9-22). Thus in Exodus xxxiv.17-26, there is a collection of legal enactments, all of which can be found, in the same order and almost the same words, in the twenty-third chapter of the same book. All of them. So far, therefore, as our Lord himself and his apostles are concerned, we have no decisive judgment either as to the authorship of these old writings or as to their absolute freedom from error. And when she is departed out of his house she may go and be another man's wife." Hate is a much less insistent master; it asks . (confusion). John 12:3741 is an amazing window onto how Jesus viewed the Jewish Scriptures. A careful examination of them may throw some light upon the question of their origin. and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then Paul shows us that this promise is fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus, the Messiah. It would seem that this must have been written at a day when the Canaanite was no longer in the land, -- after the occupation of the land and the expulsion of the Canaanites. Was it some rabbin of the olden time? John shows us this three times. It is sometimes said that these retaliations were simply permitted under the Mosaic law, but this is a great error; they were enjoined: "Thine eye shall not pity," it is said in another place (Deut. It is clearly ascribed to Moses; it is distinctly said to have been enacted by command of God. Was Aristarchus the first to propose heliocentrism? Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were promulgated, he founded the religious community known as Israel. It is evident that Jewish tradition is not always to be trusted. Conspiracy theorists suggest His texts were hidden for nefarious reasons. In the first verse of the twentieth chapter of Numbers we read that the people came to Kadesh in the first month. I do not know where else we can go for information except to the books themselves. (John 3:16-18). 43 I have come in my Fathers name, and you do not receive me. The five books of Moses are liberally sprinkled with symbolic references to Jesus. Like the snake in the desert that was lifted up that those who were bitten by deadly snakes could look upon and be saved, Jesus was lifted up so that we who have been bitten by Satan in our sin can look upon Jesus and be saved from spiritual death. The titles in our English Bible are much more significant and appropriate than these original Hebrew titles; thus Genesis signifies origin, and Genesis is the Book of Origins; Exodus means departure, and the book describes the departure of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus points out the fact that the book is mainly occupied with the Levitical legislation; Numbers gives a history of the numbering of the people, and Deuteronomy, which means the second law, contains what seems to be a recapitulation and reenactment of the legislation of the preceding books. 1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are comingnot the realities themselves. Not to insist upon this, however, several other examples are given in the discourse concerning which there can be no question. Dean, would you be willing to come back and flesh this out and add references? 15:43 - 1 - Moses wrote of the need for Christ. But over this Latin title in the Hebrew Bible is the Hebrew word "Torah." Genesis is a defense for why the land belonged to the God who had the right to give it to Israel. of whom. 43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, There are also quite a number of inconsistencies and contradictions in the legislation, all of which may be easily explained, but not on the theory that the laws all came from the pen of one infallibly inspired lawgiver. 33:15 - 3 - Moses showed us others who were longing for Christ. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me (John 13:18=Psalm 41:9). 29 And when Moses came down from Mount . After the idolatry of the people Moses was again commanded to write these words, "and" it is added, "he wrote upon the tables the words of the Covenant, the ten commandments." Let us test these two theories by interrogating the books themselves. He doesnt argue that something happened. . It's a demanding emotion that insists on changing you. Jesus said that Moses wrote about Him: If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. The Law of Moses ( Hebrew: Torat Moshe ), also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Moses wrote many things that foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah. Because most of them do not appear to be prophetic. As yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead (John 20:9=Psalm 16:10). Interestingly, however, "Elohim" is plural, so . It was originally one book, and it is not easy to determine at what time its division into five parts took place. The Old Testament is a lesson book for the nations that keeps shedding light on the work of Christ. And, of course, we have the famous prophetic act of Abraham sacrificing Isaac in Genesis 22:1-19, representing God sacrificing His Son Jesus for us. Doubtless there is good reason for the new classification, but it will be more convenient to begin with the traditional division and speak first of the five books reckoned by the later Jews as the "Torah," or the Five-fifths of the Law. Later criticism is also inclined to add to the Pentateuch the Book of Joshua, and to say that the first six books of the Bible were put into their present form by the same hand. The Jews had strict practices on how to copy the Bible to guarantee its accuracy. The law and the feasts were only the foreshadowing of the coming of the Messiah. The common argument by which Christ is made a witness to the authenticity and infallible authority of the Old Testament runs as follows: Christ quotes Moses as the author of this legislation; therefore Moses must have written the whole Pentateuch. As a new visitor, I'd recommend checking out the following two posts, which are meant to help newcomers "learn the ropes": Also, this would be a much better answer if you were to cite scholars, preachers, or anyone that believes that this is a reference to Jesus and not just God's forgiving, sovereignty. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. "Thus did the Lord," as Dr. Bruce has said, is a more perfect formula of revelation than "Thus said the Lord."
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