What is the true teaching of Jesus about the Old Testament Law? (2021-01-02) #

0:00:01 hello and in this episode i want to ask
0:00:04 what is the true teaching of jesus
0:00:07 about the law the jewish lord this
0:00:10 is also called the torah which
0:00:14 was revealed to moses on mount sinai
0:00:17 containing
0:00:18 613 commandments of the law
0:00:21 and of course jews have looked to to
0:00:23 this uh to obey these commandments
0:00:25 ever since then and what did jesus teach
0:00:28 about
0:00:28 obedience to the the laws because
0:00:31 today's christians
0:00:32 uh obey very few if any of them perhaps
0:00:35 the ten commandments maybe
0:00:36 uh but certainly not all 613
0:00:40 and also uh after looking at what jesus
0:00:42 taught i want to look at what paul
0:00:44 taught in the new testament
0:00:46 and then briefly consider what the quran
0:00:48 has to say
0:00:49 about the matter so if we look at the
0:00:51 gospel of matthew
0:00:53 chapter 5 jesus is presented
0:00:56 as teaching the following verse 17
0:00:59 onwards
0:01:01 do not think that i have come to abolish
0:01:03 the law
0:01:04 or the prophets i have not come to
0:01:06 abolish but to fulfill
0:01:09 for i for truly i tell you until heaven
0:01:11 and earth pass away
0:01:13 not one letter not one stroke of a
0:01:16 letter
0:01:16 will pass from the law until all is
0:01:19 accomplished
0:01:20 therefore whoever breaks one of the
0:01:23 least of these commandments
0:01:24 and teaches others to do the same will
0:01:27 be called
0:01:28 least in the kingdom of heaven but
0:01:31 whoever does them
0:01:32 and teaches them will be called great in
0:01:34 the kingdom of heaven
0:01:36 for i tell you unless your righteousness
0:01:39 exceeds that of the scribes
0:01:41 and pharisees you will never enter the
0:01:44 kingdom of heaven
0:01:46 now this passage is in the famous sermon
0:01:50 on the mount in matthew's gospel that's
0:01:52 matthew 5 through
0:01:53 to 7. so it seems pretty clear there
0:01:55 that the law
0:01:56 in the kingdom of god is to be followed
0:01:59 with a renewed intensity
0:02:01 even your righteousness must exceed that
0:02:02 of the pharisees and the scribes
0:02:05 and until heaven until the physical
0:02:07 passing away of the universe
0:02:09 itself not one jot or tittle
0:02:12 uh in the uh more more literal english
0:02:15 will pass
0:02:16 from the law itself so this means you
0:02:19 know for christians
0:02:20 or disciples of jesus you must obey the
0:02:22 law
0:02:24 now at the end of jesus ministry uh in
0:02:26 his last
0:02:27 uh recorded sermon to the crowds
0:02:30 according to matthew's gospel
0:02:32 this is matthew 23
0:02:35 jesus had this to say as well about the
0:02:37 law
0:02:39 jesus said to the said to the crowds and
0:02:42 to his disciples
0:02:43 the scribes and the pharisees sit on
0:02:46 moses's seat
0:02:48 that means they um they teach the law
0:02:52 therefore do whatever they teach you
0:02:55 and follow it but do not do as they do
0:02:58 for they do not practice what they
0:03:00 preach so here jesus is endorsing the
0:03:02 pharisees interpretation of the torah
0:03:05 and his disciples should follow their
0:03:07 teaching but of course their practice is
0:03:09 hypocritical they they're double
0:03:10 standard
0:03:11 so you don't do that but you practice
0:03:13 and follow what they teach
0:03:15 and then later in the same sermon in
0:03:17 verse 23 jesus
0:03:19 says woe to you scribes and pharisees
0:03:22 hypocrites for you tithe mint dil and
0:03:25 cumin
0:03:26 and have neglected the weightier matters
0:03:29 of the law
0:03:29 justice mercy and faith it is these
0:03:33 you ought to have practiced without
0:03:36 neglecting
0:03:37 the others so here we have the law is
0:03:40 interpreted by in a typical rabbinic
0:03:41 fashion jesus emphasizing some
0:03:43 principles of the torah
0:03:45 over others but he does say don't
0:03:48 neglect the others
0:03:49 so there's no sense here that anything
0:03:51 in the law has been abolished or in any
0:03:53 way
0:03:54 nullified or abrogated at all
0:03:57 um so that's jesus
0:04:00 so let's turn now to paul and see what
0:04:04 he has to say
0:04:05 about the law now paul has a lot to say
0:04:07 on the law in romans particularly in
0:04:09 galatians and
0:04:10 here and there everywhere and there's a
0:04:12 lot of scholarly
0:04:13 argument and controversy about how to
0:04:15 interpret what he means
0:04:17 but i i want to focus on a particular
0:04:19 passage which i think is unambiguous
0:04:22 in paul's letter to the ephesians
0:04:24 chapter 2
0:04:25 verse 15.
0:04:28 where he says about jesus he has
0:04:31 abolished the law
0:04:32 with its commandments and ordinances so
0:04:35 that he might
0:04:36 create in himself one new humanity in
0:04:39 place of the two
0:04:40 thus making peace and so on he's talking
0:04:43 here about how
0:04:45 the the dividing war as you would see it
0:04:47 between jew and gentile has been broken
0:04:49 down or destroyed this barrier has gone
0:04:52 but the point here
0:04:53 for our purposes he has abolished the
0:04:56 law with its commandment and ordinances
0:04:59 this is the mirror image the polar
0:05:01 opposite of what jesus says do not think
0:05:03 i have come to abolish the law
0:05:05 paul says he has come to abolish the law
0:05:07 you you couldn't get it as
0:05:09 uh contrast and contradiction between
0:05:13 matthews jesus um what paul teaches in
0:05:16 ephesians before i come to uh what the
0:05:20 quran
0:05:21 might say on this i just want to share
0:05:23 with you what
0:05:25 um top biblical scholars uh have said or
0:05:28 some top biblical scholars have said
0:05:29 about this very problem
0:05:31 and i want to reference this huge tome
0:05:34 it's called the new jerome biblical
0:05:36 commentary
0:05:37 edited by raymond brown and others this
0:05:39 is actually from my student days at
0:05:41 university
0:05:43 this is a text that i used now this is
0:05:45 not any old commentary
0:05:48 this is a roman catholic commentary and
0:05:50 it contains uh
0:05:52 on the uh inside cover the imprimiter
0:05:55 and primitive is an official declaration
0:05:57 by the roman catholic church
0:05:59 that this is a prude for publication so
0:06:01 this is an official roman catholic
0:06:03 doctrine uh document and on the uh in
0:06:06 the contents page
0:06:08 it has a forward two forwards by two
0:06:11 cardinals of the church so they're the
0:06:13 highest authorities in the church
0:06:15 under the pope cardinal uh martini
0:06:18 and cardinal beer have both written
0:06:20 forwards or introductions
0:06:22 to this so this is a kind of official
0:06:25 roman catholic
0:06:26 text and uh the people on it
0:06:30 uh who are edited raymond brown joseph
0:06:32 it's meyer
0:06:34 are both um catholic priests and raymond
0:06:37 brown i heard lecture
0:06:38 at oxford university once so on this
0:06:41 passage
0:06:42 in matthew's gospel chapter 5
0:06:45 verse 17 onwards i'll just read to you
0:06:48 what
0:06:48 they say because it actually makes
0:06:51 reference to islam as well
0:06:52 fascinating so remember jesus says in
0:06:55 matthew 5
0:06:56 do not think i have come to abolish the
0:06:58 law or the prophets
0:07:00 and these official catholic
0:07:03 biblical scholars say these verses give
0:07:06 the basic
0:07:07 legal principles of the sermon the
0:07:09 sermon on the mount
0:07:11 they are the most controversial verses
0:07:13 in matthew and there is no consensus on
0:07:16 their interpretation
0:07:17 the interpreter must try to state the
0:07:19 problem clearly
0:07:20 and to provide a historically honest
0:07:22 judgment even at the price
0:07:24 of theological tidiness see this is what
0:07:27 i like about these scholars
0:07:29 even though they're committed christians
0:07:30 they're priests they're speaking on
0:07:31 behalf of the church at the highest
0:07:33 levels
0:07:34 they want to be honest okay they're not
0:07:36 trying to cover over or pretend
0:07:39 uh that jesus said something other than
0:07:40 he does and typically in my view
0:07:42 christians tend to
0:07:44 be very try to cover over this passage
0:07:47 and pretend it doesn't say what it
0:07:48 obviously does say
0:07:50 and so let's continue the problem arises
0:07:52 because the plain sense of the words
0:07:55 is that jesus affirms the abiding
0:07:58 validity of the torah
0:08:00 but this contradicts paul e.g
0:08:04 galatians 2 15 16 romans 3 21-31
0:08:09 moreover no major christian church
0:08:12 requires observance of
0:08:13 all 613 precepts of the old testament
0:08:17 law
0:08:18 ethical and ceremonial but only the
0:08:21 ethical commandments such as the
0:08:22 decalogue that's the ten commandments
0:08:25 and the commandments to love god and
0:08:27 neighbor which is in leviticus and
0:08:28 deuteronomy
0:08:30 thus there is a gap between the teaching
0:08:32 here
0:08:33 in this passage in matthew and the
0:08:35 teaching and practice of the churches
0:08:38 the position adopted here is the
0:08:40 following there are
0:08:41 there are contradictions within the new
0:08:44 testament on penultimate matters
0:08:47 by penalty matters they mean on things
0:08:49 that are just not ultimate
0:08:50 importance but just short of that of
0:08:52 secondary ultimate importance
0:08:54 so it's frankly acknowledging that there
0:08:56 are contradictions
0:08:58 and that jesus teaching
0:09:01 in this passage contradicts paul
0:09:06 then just to continue this whole passage
0:09:08 is extraordinary
0:09:10 um and then it says
0:09:13 that the uh the verses in this passage
0:09:17 reflect the outlook of jewish
0:09:19 christianity
0:09:21 which as a separate movement was
0:09:23 eventually defeated
0:09:24 by paulinism paulism is paul's own views
0:09:28 and died out perhaps to be reborn in a
0:09:32 different form
0:09:32 as islam wow that that's quite
0:09:36 quite a confession that the jewish jesus
0:09:38 is teaching
0:09:39 in matthew's gospel uh was ultimately
0:09:42 defeated by paul's teaching in ephesians
0:09:44 the law has been up that's why
0:09:45 christians don't follow the law
0:09:46 uh today they followed just perhaps a
0:09:48 handful of laws from the ten
0:09:50 commandments and ignore all the others
0:09:52 the laws about not eating pork uh the
0:09:54 laws about circumcision
0:09:56 uh the laws about a whole range of
0:09:58 things that they they they consider
0:09:59 this abolish because paul says so
0:10:02 but this original jewish christianity
0:10:06 was eventually defeated by paul's views
0:10:09 and died out
0:10:10 as we know it did perhaps to be reborn
0:10:13 in a different form as islam isn't it
0:10:16 interesting
0:10:17 so they say there's in a sense you one
0:10:19 could say to simplify
0:10:21 that the teaching of jesus here finds
0:10:23 its ultimate uh
0:10:25 presence in today's world in islam
0:10:28 not in the churches isn't that
0:10:30 interesting remember this is an official
0:10:31 roman catholic doctrine
0:10:33 endorsed at the highest levels
0:10:36 um so what does the quran say so
0:10:40 we have two extreme but we have two
0:10:42 extreme views here
0:10:43 at the extremes we have the view on the
0:10:45 one hand of jesus in matthew
0:10:48 that in the kingdom of god which jesus
0:10:50 was calling people to enter remember
0:10:53 this wasn't the old covenant this was
0:10:56 what jesus was preaching if you look at
0:10:57 matthew mark and luke this was the
0:10:59 substance of his message calling people
0:11:01 to believe in the god is bringing a new
0:11:03 thing into being
0:11:05 through the kingdom of god and in that
0:11:08 kingdom
0:11:09 there is an intensified renewed
0:11:11 obedience to the torah
0:11:13 which of course christians don't follow
0:11:15 anymore
0:11:16 paul says the opposite that he has
0:11:19 abolished he
0:11:20 jesus has abolished the law with its
0:11:22 commandments
0:11:23 and what does the quran say well
0:11:26 strangely
0:11:27 it takes a middle path in chapter
0:11:31 3 verse 50 it has jesus say i have come
0:11:35 to confirm the truth of the torah which
0:11:38 preceded me
0:11:40 and to make some things lawful to you
0:11:42 which used to be
0:11:43 forbidden interesting
0:11:47 so jesus affirms the torah continuing
0:11:49 validity of it
0:11:50 but there are some things which
0:11:54 used to be forbidden that he makes
0:11:57 lawful very interesting so it's neither
0:12:00 the extreme of matthew who says that you
0:12:03 obey all of the law if you're a disciple
0:12:05 of jesus nor paul says you don't obey
0:12:06 any of it
0:12:07 in effect has been abolished but you the
0:12:09 law
0:12:10 is invalid it is still uh in force
0:12:13 some bits and pieces of the law have
0:12:15 been made lawful
0:12:17 to you as to what those uh elements are
0:12:20 that's another subject it seems to be
0:12:24 um a fascinating middle path between the
0:12:27 two
0:12:27 extremes and um i'll leave you
0:12:30 uh to decide what the truth of the
0:12:33 matter is
0:12:35 but what it does show i think quite
0:12:37 clearly is and as the catholic
0:12:39 um commentary admits that christians
0:12:41 today
0:12:42 the churches today overwhelmingly do not
0:12:45 follow
0:12:45 the teaching of the plain teaching of
0:12:47 jesus in matthew's gospel in matthew 5
0:12:49 and matthew 23
0:12:51 they follow the teaching of paul which
0:12:53 basically has
0:12:54 has abolished the law in its and it's in
0:12:56 its entirety
0:12:58 um and and that is a problem for
0:13:01 christianity
0:13:02 islam comes well the quran comes quite
0:13:05 close i think closer to the teaching of
0:13:06 jesus
0:13:08 than christians do they christianity
0:13:11 sorry islam still requires circumcision
0:13:14 it still upholds the law on
0:13:18 the prohibition of eating certain kinds
0:13:20 of food eating blood
0:13:21 eating uh pork and so on that's uh also
0:13:24 taught by james
0:13:25 in the book of acts he upholds that law
0:13:28 uh at the council in acts 15
0:13:30 again christians have ignored that so um
0:13:33 we have a
0:13:34 pretty mess here about what's going on i
0:13:37 think
0:13:37 typically christians ignore the teaching
0:13:39 of matthew and they follow
0:13:41 paul um and the quran interestingly
0:13:44 stands closer to matthew uh and some may
0:13:48 think
0:13:48 closer to the historical jesus but i'll
0:13:50 leave that for you to decide
0:13:52 until next time