I AM Bible Studies and Resources

Introduction

This study contains words and phrases that are interchangeable:
1. The Law/Torah
2. Old Testament/Tanakh
3. New Testament/New Covenant
4. Christ/Messiah
5. Jesus/Yeshua
6. Jewish Christian/Messianic Jew/believer

The Law [Torah]

Before we can begin this study we need a definition that was relevant at the time of the writing of the New Testament.
Both Yeshua (Jn. 10:34), His hearers (Jn. 12:34) and the NT writers (1 Cor. 14:21) all refer to the Scriptures (OT) by using the word Law [Torah] - Greek: nomos. Therefore in a general sense it is correct to use number 3 above as the definition of The Law as used in the NT.
However for the purpose of this study, because of the complexity of the subject, we will use a simple system of differentiating between the Scriptures in general, law in general and The Law specifically - that is the 613 commandments as given through Moses.

Wherever the 613 (according to the rabbis there are 613 - I haven't personally checked the actual number - but anyway since it is in common use, it will also be used in this study) commandments are in view then the form 'The Law' [Torah] will be used.
Wherever the Scriptures in general are in view the form the 'Scriptures' [Tanakh] will be used.
Wherever law in general, as in laws ordained by God but not part of, or given before and included in, The Law [Torah] then the form 'law' will be used.

I hope that this will enable the reader to better understand the differences contained in the New Testament.

The Law was given at Mount Sinai through Moses (and later confirmed in Moab before crossing the Jordan - Devarim / Deuteronomy 29). It consisted of 613 commandments of which the Ten Commandments are a part. The Law, after Moses had read aloud to the people all that it contained, was confirmed as a covenant:

3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do."
4 Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5 He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to the LORD.
6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken will we do, and be obedient."
8 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words."
Shemot / Exodus 24:3-8

7 For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as the LORD our God is whenever we call on him?
8 What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
Devarim / Deuteronomy 4:7-8

19 He shows his word to Jacob;
His statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not done this for any nation;
They don't know his ordinances.
Praise the LORD!
Tehillim / Psalm 147:19-20

The Law was never given to the Nations; the Gentiles had no part of it - it was exclusively Israel's.

The Law [Torah] in the New Testament

The Greek word translated law is 'nomos'. Depending upon it's context and whether it has the article or not, will determine how it ought to be rendered i.e.. The Law [Torah], as in the 613 commandments given through Moses; or law in general - meaning laws that have been given by God but not exclusively a part of The Law [Torah] and also civil laws made by the governing authorities. For the purpose of this study we are going to confine the meaning of nomos to the first two definitions and not deal with laws made by governing authorities, of which there are a few mentioned in the New Testament.
Below is an example of the two usages of the word nomos:

But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
Rom. 3:21

The word nomos is used twice, the first is without the article and signifies law in general, whilst the second is with the article and should be rendered the 'Law'. There has always been law, right from the very beginning when God instructed Adam not to eat from the tree. Those that wanted to please God had to obey His laws (even though no-one did so perfectly - Beresheet / Genesis 3:11). The New testament brings out the truth that it was only by combining faith with obedience that one could please God (Heb. 11).
The Law itself is a single unit comprised of 613 commandments; Scripture views it as such and nowhere divides it into subcategories such as 'moral', 'ceremonial' and 'civil' although for studying purposes it is convenient to do so.

The Law cannot be changed - no-one can add to it nor subtract from it:

You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Devarim / Deuteronomy 4:2

17 Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 For most assuredly, I tell you, until Heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.
19 Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.
Mt. 5:17-19

The New Testament affirms this: Paul, referring to the Abrahamic Covenant shows a principle contained in all covenants that have been confirmed, as The Law was:

Brothers, I speak like men. Though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it.
Gal. 3:15

David H. Stern has put forward the view that The Law [Torah] has been 'transformed' into the Kingdom Torah:

For if the system of cohanim is transformed, there must of necessity occur a transformation of Torah.
Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 7:12 (Jewish New Testament by David H. Stern)

If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.
Ya. (James) 2:8 (JNT)

He translates Hebrews 8:6 in an interesting way:

But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises.
Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 8:6 (JNT)

The word that he translates Torah is a form of the word nomos, actually nomotheteo which Vines gives as: "to ordain by law, to enact"; Strongs: to legislate, i.e. (pass.) to have (the Mosaic) enactments injoined, be sanctioned (by them):- establish, receive the law; Bullinger: to make or give laws, establish as law, legislate, sanction by law.
David H. Stern by his translation is trying to prove that the New Covenant is The Law [Torah] transformed; however, as we have seen previously this is not possible as Scripture does not allow The Law to be added to or subtracted from, or 'transformed'.
I am sure that David H. Stern's heart is in the right place and that his purpose for translating the way he does and the theology that he holds to is to further the Gospel among the Jewish people in a way that would make it easier for Jews to accept (See 'Messianic Jewish Manifesto'). However this is a compromise and as such we cannot expect God to honor it; he does however teach that, although under The [transformed] Torah, there is only salvation in the death and resurrection of Yeshua, by His shed blood.
.
To back up his claim that The Torah has been transformed, David H. Stern points to the Old Testament:
"One can say, for example, that the Torah was "amended" in the Tanakh itself when Purim was made a required festival centuries after Moshe." (Jewish New Testament Commentary p. 570).
He make a similar analogy quoting Tehillim / Psalm 110:4 on Melchizedeck. However his mistake is to confuse the Tanakh [Old Testament] with Torah [The Law] - as in the 613 commandments (this highlights the problem, and associated confusion, when using the term Torah to mean both the Old Testament and The Law).
However this cannot be as, we have seen already, Scripture does not allow The Law to be changed at all. The New Covenant, which contains the Royal Law or Law of Messiah (or as David H. Stern refers to it - Kingdom Torah), is new - not a rework of the old:

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
8 For finding fault with them, he said,
"Behold, the days come," says the Lord,
"That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers,
In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt;
For they didn't continue in my covenant,
And I disregarded them," says the Lord.
10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
After those days," says the Lord;
"I will put my laws into their mind,
I will also write them on their heart.
I will be to them a God,
And they will be to me a people.
11 They will not teach every man his fellow citizen,
Every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
For all will know me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.
I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more."
13 In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.
Heb. 8:7-13

Also:

11 Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it have the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also of the law
Heb. 7:11-12

If the priesthood is being changed then The Law also has to be changed. Under The Law only those descended from the tribe of Levi could serve as priests; Yeshua however was descended, not from the tribe of Levi but from the tribe of Judah:

For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, as to which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
Heb. 7:14

So it is evident from Scripture that The Law has been changed, not transformed into another but changed for another - a better one:

By so much also has Yeshua become the collateral of a better covenant.
Heb. 7:22