Subject: Does the OT apply to us as christians? |
Bible Note: Hank: Thank you for an excellent post, one which gets right to the heart of the matter and is consistent with both the Scriptures and reason. I am reposting my Note to you so that you will not overlook it. :-) --kalos ******************** To "make full" the meaning of the Torah "Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete." The only "conflict" here is between what "you have heard of old time" -- the incomplete meaning or a distortion -- vs. what Jesus shows them -- the complete, full spiritual sense to be understood and obeyed.' The idea that Jesus contradicts Moses is absurd. There is no conflict between Moses' commandments and Jesus' teachings on them. For example, where is the conflict between a command to not murder your brother and a command to not be angry with him or call him a fool? Far from there being a conflict, both of these commands -- don't be angry and do not murder -- are in harmony with each other. IF the text had said that it's not OK to be angry, but it is OK to murder, now THAT would be a contradiction. But there is no such contradiction in the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount or anywhere else. "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." Matthew 5:17 'Replacement theology likewise understands that Yeshua at his first coming fulfilled the Torah, so that we don't have to do so (the logic leading to this conclusion is unclear);... 'But the word usually translated "fulfill", Greek pleroo, does not necessarily convey this specific sense. Rather, it is a very common word which simply means "fill", "fill up", "make full", as in filling a cup or a hole. It should be evident that the actual meaning is as rendered in the Jewish New Testament: "Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete" -- that is, to "make full" the meaning of what the Torah and the ethical demands of the Prophets require. 'In fact, this verse, so understood, states the theme of the entire Sermon on the Mount -- in which six times the Messiah says, "you have heard of old time" the incomplete meaning or a distortion, "but I say to you" the complete, full spiritual sense to be understood and obeyed.' (David H. Stern, "Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel", 1988, Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc.) |