Stump a Bible Scholar: Following “the Law”

Last updated on: September 9, 2014 at 8:00 am by Guest Contributor

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Stump a Bible Scholar: Following “the Law” 2014-09-08T23:50:11+00:00 Guest Contributor

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Tuesday is Stump a Scholar day here at Patheos Progressive Christian — and no question is too tough or too radical for our experts!

This month, we’re answering your questions on the Bible with resident expert Professor Jerry Sumney. Dr. Sumney is professor of biblical studies at Lexington Theological Seminary and the author of Colossians: A Commentary (2008) and Identifying Paul’s Opponents (1990). He is also the editor of Reading Romans (2012) and the coeditor of Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters (1996) and Paul and Pathos (2006). He’s also the author of the brand new Bible: An Introduction, Second Edition from Fortress Press, a dynamic interactive digital textbook for learning about the Bible on your own.

The fourth question in our new series comes from our Facebook inquiry (to which many of you responded) and is from Michael Wood. Keep the questions coming in the Comments section below or on Facebook! Your comments on Prof. Sumney’s answers are also welcome, below.

Michael W. asks:

When Jesus said he came not to change the law, was it the Law as outlined in Leviticus he was speaking about?

Professor Sumney responds:

The short answer is yes, and more. When Jesus talks about the Law he means all of the Torah, that is, the first five books of the Bible. So that includes Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, books that have a lot of instruction about how to live. Like all Jews of the first century, Jesus saw the Torah as God’s instructions for how to live. These instructions were seen as permanent, as the will of God. But Jesus and the Pharisees thought these laws needed to be interpreted so that they were relevant and applicable to the new time. (Remember that the first century was a new time in comparison with the time when the books of the Torah were given their basic form sometime in the 6th or 5th century B.C.E.) Notice that when Jesus interprets the Law he always makes it harder to keep. The law that says you cannot murder means, Jesus says, that you cannot hold a grudge (really that you cannot harbor hatred) that makes you want to murder someone (Matthew 5:21-26). Or notice that the commandment that says you cannot commit adultery means that you cannot lust (Matthew 5:27-30). Like other Jewish interpreters of his day, Jesus was pointing his audience to the true intent of the Law.

For his whole life Jesus remained a faithful and observant Jew. Questions about instructions such as those in Leviticus come to be a problem only after the church begins to admit Gentiles who have not converted fully (that is, become proselytes) to Judaism. Since the Law was really given to the Israelites/Jews, the church decided that Gentile church members would not be expected to keep the commandments that made Jews a distinct ethno-religious group. Paul calls those commandments the “works of the law” (for example in Galatians 2:16). Jewish members of the early church continued to be Torah observant. They kept the Sabbath, the food laws, and worshipped in the temple—along with the other commandments. At the same time, they believed that God had done something new in Jesus. A new age had dawned in which God’s Spirit was present as never before and in which Gentiles who believed in Jesus (and so worshiped only God) were to be counted among God’s people.

Got a question? We’ve got an answer! Join the new Stump A Scholar series every Tuesday here at Patheos Progressive Christian!

And to learn more about the Bible on your own, check out The Bible: An Introduction, Second Edition interactive digital textbook by Jerry L. Sumney here!

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