Did Yeshua Do Away With the Law?

In my Christian denomination the doctrine that Jesus did away with the Law was very important. We made it clear that we were not like “the Jews” who were under the Law. We had “grace” and they didn’t. All of our sins were forgiven when we were saved – past, present and future. A “big doctrine” in my church was “once saved always saved.” Once you were saved sin was a problem of the past and you could never lose your ticket to Heaven.

We never considered how this belief affected our relationships with each other right here on earth. If we did something that harmed or hurt someone else, we just prayed and asked God to forgive us – which sounds kind of weird for people to do that continually stressed that all of their sins had been forgiven. This was a personal thing, like most things are for many Christians today – a me and God thing! The person we hurt wasn’t included! This is a very “comfortable religion” as long as you weren’t the one getting hurt.

Is this what Yeshua taught? Let’s examine the verses on which my church based their doctrines about the “Law.” We begin with Matthew 5:17-18. The words below are from the New King James Version.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Let’s begin by examining the word “Law.” It is the English translation of the Greek word νόμος (nomos). Now let’s take the Greek word back and discover the Hebrew word used Yeshua spoke. It was תּוֹרָה (Torah).  Always pay attention to the context in which a word appears. Yeshua used it with the word “Prophets” – the Torah and the Prophets (Nevi’im). Every Jewish person listening to Yeshua – as well as most Jews today – would have known exactly what he meant. The Torah and the Prophets are two sections of the Jewish Scriptures. There is also a third section called the Writings (Ketuvim).

● Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

● Nevi’im (Prophets) – Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

● Ketuvim (Writings) – Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and 1 & 2 Chronicles.

Let’s add this information to our reconstruction of what Yeshua said and update it:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.  

In Hebrew the phrase “I came to” meant “my purpose is” or “I intend to.” So what do you think “destroy the Torah” mean to Yeshua? A story recorded in the Talmud (a commentary on the Mishnah, Oral Law) provides the answer. In Shabbat 116a-b Rabbi Gamaliel said:

“Look at the end of the book, wherein it is written, `I came not to destroy the Torah of Moses nor to add to the Torah of Moses.’”

Rabbi Gamaliel was referring to Deuteronomy 13:1 (12:32 in Christian Bibles):

All that I have commanded you, be careful to do it;

you shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

Yeshua often used wordplays to make key points. The wordplay used here is seen in the words destroy and fulfill. Thanks to Rabbi Gamaliel we are able to unlock the meanings of Yeshua words:

● “Destroy” meant “remove words or add words to the Torah or the Prophets.”

● “Fulfill” meant “accurately quote and correctly interpret the words of the Torah and the Prophets.”

Let’s add the above information to our reconstruction of Yeshua’s words:

Do not think that I intend to remove words from or add words to the Torah or the Prophets. I do not intend to misinterpret them! I intend to accurately quote and correctly interpret them. Amen!

Yeshua now strengthens the points he just made with the words below (v. 18):

I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,

one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Torah till all is fulfilled.

Yeshua did not say “jot” and “tittle.” The Hebrew words he spoke were “yod” and “qotz.”

A “yod” is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the “qotz” is the even smaller point at the top of the yod. (See It’s a Yod, NOT a Jot and Tittle for more info).

I say to you, not even one yod or even the tip of a yod will be removed from the Torah as long as the heavens and the earth remain.

These are not the words of someone who wants to “do away with the Torah and the Prophets”? For Yeshua’s Jewish audience, the idea that Yeshua was teaching people “to do away with the Torah and Prophets” would have seemed as crazy as telling an evangelical Christian audience today that Billy Graham “preached that Christians should to do away with the Bible!”

So where did the idea “grace replaced the Law” come from? Marcion, a leader at the church in Rome in the 140s CE gets credit for it. Marcion taught that the god of the Jews was a different and evil god from the good god of the Christians. He taught that the “Jewish Law had been superseded by Christian grace.” Marcion also created the first New Christian Scriptures – a New Testament without the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament). He was declared a heretic by the church at Rome around 145 CE, but the Roman Church kept Marcion’s New Testament and his doctrine about Christian grace.

If Yeshua had encountered Marcion he would have asked him –

“Why are you destroying the Torah and the Prophets?”

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Shalom,

Jim Myers