Chapter One

A Unique Document

Having defined what we mean by "Torah," let us now look into what kind of document it is. To some this may seem like a superfluous question. "It is law," they say. 'True, it does contain some laws. But upon more careful examination, we discover that Torah is far beyond the rather simplistic description of "law"

Teaching

    First and foremost, the Torah is "God's teaching." This is the primary meaning of the Hebrew word Torah, hrwt . The word does not mean "law"; it means "teaching." Moreover, the root for "Torah" can be traced to the Hebrew word "to throw," or even "to shoot an arrow " Thus, "The word `Torah' means literally, 'teaching,' whether it is the wise man instructing his son, or God instructing Israel."' Hence, we can say that "Torah" is God's teaching, hitting the mark of man's needs.

    Torah is a document in which God has revealed Himself to mankind and taught us about Himself and His righteousness. In the Torah, one can learn all the theological concepts that are later expanded in the rest of the Bible. In the Torah, one can learn much about sin, sacrifice, sanctification, salvation, and even about the Savior Himself-Yeshua!

A Covenant

Secondly, Torah is a covenant. By this, we mean that Torah is a legally binding agreement between God and His own people. The evidence for this is overwhelming. Several times within the Torah, it calls itself a covenant (brit). Any number of references could be cited, but perhaps two will be sufficient. The first passage is in Exodus 34:27. The context is when God gave the first installment of written revelation including the Ten Commandments, as well as other instructions. "And the Lord said to Moshe: 'Write down these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments, I make a covenant [brit] with you and with Israel.'"

    The second reference is Deuteronomy 29:1. The context here is near the end of Moshe's life, over 40 years after the events in Exodus 34. God has imparted much more teaching and instruction, which Moshe has written down. Now, soon to enter the Promised Land, Moshe summarizes all the teaching from God and calls it, again, a covenant. He says:

These are the terms of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moshe to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

  Since Torah is a covenant, there are legal obligations to both parties involved in this agreement. God, the One Who initiated this covenant, legally binds Himself to keep His word which He spoke in the covenant. Israel, the recipient of this agreement, is likewise bound to do the same. In a sense, one could say that, understood in this light, Torah is really the national constitution for the nation of Israel. This becomes especially clear when one looks at Torah as a covenant in the light of historical research, comparing it to other contemporary national covenants.

     There has been much documentation in recent years for the fascinating research accomplished by scholars like George Mendenhall, Meredith Kline and others. They have compared the documents of Torah with other documents in the same historical time frame (the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries BCE). Specifically, written treaties between nations and their conquered or vassal nations have been examined and compared with Torah. The similarity in their forms and structures are striking. The parallels are extremely helpful in further enhancing our understanding of Torah as a covenant document.

    To illustrate this, let us compare the typical form of an ancient Hittite treaty with the format of the Book of Deuteronomy. It has been found that the standard outline for such vassal treaties approximates the following:

Preamble-a basic introductory paragraph of the covenant

Historical Prologue-the acts of the great king, what he has done for the vassal nation

Stipulations-the main bulk of the treaty/covenant, the expectations of the vassal nation

Blessings and Curses-the things that will happen to the vassal nation if they comply with the covenant or do not comply with the covenant

Witnesses-the signatures of those important people who witness the enactment of the covenant

Means of Succession (sometimes)-provision in the covenant for who takes over after the great king.

Provision for Depositing the Covenant (sometimes) discusses where the covenant or copies of the covenant will be stored

Now let us compare this format with Deuteronomy:

Preamble (Deuteronomy 1:1-5)-gives basic introductory remarks about the Book of Deuteronomy Historical Prologue (Deuteronomy 1:6-4:49)-tells some of the great things the Great King (God) has done for Israel

Stipulations (Deuteronomy 5:1-26:19)-the bulk of the book, known to laymen as "law"; more accurately, the stipulations which God, the Great King, has given to Israel to maintain this covenant (more on that later)

Blessings and Curses (Deuteronomy 27-30)-the things which God promised would happen to Israel if they keep the covenant or break the covenant

Witnesses (Deuteronomy 30:19)-God calls upon heaven and earth to witness this covenant.

Succession (Deuteronomy 31:1-8)-God provides for Joshua to follow Moshe when he dies.

Deposit/Reading (Deuteronomy 31:9-13)-provision made to store the covenant in the ark, and to read it to all the people at a certain time.

  What does all this tell us? For one thing, from a historical perspective, the clear parallels between these vassal treaties and the Torah serve to buttress the evangelical contention that the Torah is as it presents itself-a coherent document written by Moshe in the middle to late second millennium BCE.

  Second, this information leads us to believe that the Torah is not just a list of do's and don'ts. It is, instead, a critically important document describing the legally binding relationship between Israel and God. Furthermore, it is a document that was given by God to serve as the national constitution for the nation of Israel. For in it we have everything from a preamble (compared to a "We the people..." in the U. S. Constitution) to verification by formal witnesses.

 The do's and don'ts are merely the stipulations by which Israel, the redeemed nation, can maintain its covenant relationship before its Great King and enjoy the benefits thereof.

A Ketubah

Although Torah describes itself as a legal covenant and the extrabiblical evidence points in that direction as well, there is a portion within the Torah which hints at its being still another kind of document. One cannot be too dogmatic on this point, but there seems to be considerable evidence within the Torah that would prompt one to label it a ketubah. A ketubah is a formal, written document, which spells out the terms of the Jewish marriage contract between husband and wife. "The 'ketubah' also has a symbolic meaning. Since the bride and the groom represent Israel and God at Sinai, when the Torah was given, the ketubah represents the 'book of covenant'"-the Torah!3 Thus, according to Rabbi Kaplan, there is a connection between the Torah and the marriage contract.

 The first hint of this is found in Exodus 6:6-7. In this passage, God tells Moshe what He intends to do through him for Israel. In short, God says that He will "set them apart," He will "deliver" them from their bondage (bring them out from under the yoke of slavery), He will "redeem" them, and He will "take" them to be His people. (Those of you familiar with Pesach will remember that these four verbs become names for each of the four cups of wine that are taken during the Seder)

  The last verb, "will take," is used elsewhere in the Tanakh-among other uses, to describe what happens when a man "takes" a woman to be his wife. In the context of Exodus 6, then, it appears that God is betrothing Israel to be His wife. But when is the wedding?

  According to traditional Jewish thinking, the wedding took place at Mount Sinai. Although the biblical text does not specify that a wedding was taking place, the similarities between the phenomena at Mount Sinai and a traditional Jewish wedding are striking. First, there was a chuppah, a canopy We can see this in Exodus 19:9 when God says that, "I will come to you in a thick cloud..." The cloud was a covering which can be seen to symbolize the chuppah under which the bride meets the Groom.

 Every groom has an endearing name for the bride that reminds him of how much she means to him. God gave Israel such a name. In Exodus 19:5-7, God tells Israel that she is His "treasured possession." The Hebrew word is segulah. It is a word that was also found in ancient texts from this same period. It was used by kings to describe how much more precious certain objects were to them than all the other objects they received when they conquered a nation. While the king valued all of his possessions, only a certain few treasures were especially cared for, protected, and honored. These were his segulot. Thus, when God calls Israel His segulah, He is using it as a most endearing term. He cares for all His creation, but considers Israel His special bride.

     One of the main ingredients of the wedding is the ketubah itself. This is the document that shows that the marriage is legal. It is also the document that serves to remind both parties of their mutually agreed-upon responsibilities to make that marriage work well. In this case, the ketubah is Torah summarized in Exodus 20. It is the marriage agreement between God and Israel. God even provided two copies-one for Himself, and one for them. Both were to be kept in the ark. Thus, we read in Exodus 31:18, "When He finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moshe the two tablets of the pact [covenant], stone tablets inscribed with the finger of God."

  Finally, what is a wedding without a ring? The ring serves as an outward symbol of the marriage covenant between the two partners. Where is the ring in this marriage? It is found in Exodus 31:12-17. In verse 13, we are told that God gave Shabbat as a sign (Hebrew, "oat," ta between Himself and the children of Israel throughout the ages. In fact, so important is Shabbat as a sign of the covenant that it is repeated once more in this passage (verse 17). Hence, Shabbat is the ring, the outward sign of this marriage covenant.

Yeshua's Stamp of Approval

The Torah is unique because it is a covenant, a national constitution, and a marriage agreement. But it is also unique because of the way Yeshua related to it. Yeshua has not received the credit He deserves from many circles today as the greatest Torah teacher who ever lived. However, we once studied with a rabbi who gave Him that accolade. With Yeshua there was an underlying assumption about Torah throughout His teachings. The assumption is that He clearly perceived that God's covenant people are to have a living, meaningful, and ongoing relationship to Torah. In other words, in Yeshua's thinking, one of the purposes of Torah is to describe the lifestyle of the redeemed community (This will be examined in more detail later)

  Matthew 5:17-20 teaches this very clearly. In this passage, Yeshua forthrightly states that He did not come to do away with the Torah. In addition, He also rebukes anyone else for teaching that it should be done away with. He said,

"Whosoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

  To back up His statement, He then embarks upon a series of teachings in Matthew 5-7 where He quotes how some of the Torah teachers of His day understood various passages in the Torah. He then gives His own interpretation. The telltale sign of this is the repeated use of the formula, "You have heard that the ancients were told (erroneous teaching of the rabbis), but I say unto you (correct interpretation of Torah given by Yeshua)." He was doing this to practice what He taught in Matthew 5:17 when He said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to make the meaning full." Yeshua was speaking the common parlance of the rabbis of His day According to scholars David Bivin and Roy Blizzard, Jr.,

"Destroy" [abolish] and "fulfill" are technical terms of rabbinic augmentation. When a rabbi felt that a colleague had misinterpreted a passage of Scripture, he would say, "You are destroying the law!"...What was "destroying the law" for one rabbi, was "fulfilling the law" (correctly interpreting Scripture) for another.4

   When a proper interpretation of a passage was given, the rabbis said that it was "fulfilled," or interpreted properly. Conversely, when an erroneous interpretation was given, it was said that a teacher "abolished" or misinterpreted the passage.

  If, as some say, the believer is to have no meaningful relationship to Torah in this day and age, then this passage in Matthew would have been a most appropriate place for Yeshua to teach it. Clearly, He did not.

  There is another important passage from the gospels which gives Yeshua's stamp of approval for the Torah. In Luke 24, following His resurrection, Yeshua revealed Himself to two of His followers while walking with them on the road to Emmaus.

"Beginning with Moshe and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."

Again, in verse 44, He says something similar:

"These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Torah of Moshe and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."

Could it be that with the use of the word "fulfilled" He was saying that in order for Torah (and the rest of the Tanakh) to be interpreted properly, one must see how they speak about Himself?

  Yeshua was saying, emphatically, that one of the major purposes for the Torah was to understand it in such a way as to see Him in all of its teachings. This, by the way, establishes a critically important hermeneutical principle for properly interpreting the Torah. We can learn how to follow any given teaching once we learn how it reveals the Messiah.

 Furthermore, Yeshua's life was one of perfectly living out the written Torah. His teaching perfectly clarified and explained the Torah. He was so related to the Torah that some of His earliest followers referred to Him as haTorah-"The Torah"!5

 In this chapter we learned that the Bible reveals that Torah is an extremely important document. It is an instructional document, teaching about God and His ways. It is also a legal covenant or agreement between God and Israel. It is to be the national constitution for Israel, carefully laid out by God, describing how the Great King Himself wants His nation, Israel, to function within His kingdom. Lastly, Torah is a sacred marriage covenant between God (the Groom) and Israel (His bride).

  Perceived in this way, the Torah appears to be more than a grand list of laws that are impossible to keep. The role Torah plays as a legal covenant is extremely important. There are, however, more functions to the Torah. Before we discuss how to properly relate to Torah, it is necessary to look into some of its other purposes.

On to Chapter Two