The Torah - Its Place in Scripture
The first five Books of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are called the Pentateuch or in Hebrew
Torah. They are called the Books of Moses and form the centre of the Bible. This can be demonstrated graphically as concentric circles around the
Torah with the Writings, the next circle followed by the Prophets and finally the New Testament forming the outer circle to form the complete Bible. In the Hebrew Scriptures this order is slightly different besides the lack of the
B’rit Hadashah. Here the Torah is encircled by the Prophets (
Nevi’im) and then the Writings (
K’tuvim) that together make up the
Tanach (which is made up by combining these three word in Hebrew). This diagram can be used to come to a better understanding of the place of the
Torah in Scripture.
The word
Torah occurs over two hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures while the word used in the Greek is
nomos. It occurs also over two hundred times in the New Testament. Most translators have tended to mis-translate these words as law in most English translations of the Bible. The word Torah is derived from the verb
yarah to teach or instruct. Hence
Torah carries the meaning of Teaching or Instructions of God. It is a archery term that means 'to hit the mark'. This then fits with the description above as an archery target with the
Torah forming the bulls-eye as shown in the diagram to the right with the arrow hitting the bulls -eye in yellow with the red and the blue representing the Prophets and Writings. It is only with much practice that we are able to hit the bulls-eye with the help of the Holy Spirit,
Ruach HaKodesh. Interesting the term in Hebrew 'to miss the mark' is
chet which means sin or error!!! More on this in the next newsletter.
Hebrew is one of the few languages that is not only phonetic, but numerical and pictorial. The four letters
תורה that spell
Torah represent the numbers 5+200+6+400=611! Now traditionally there are 613 commandments that are contained in the
Torah, so what about the two missing commandments. Yeshua was asked in Matthew 22:36 which is the greatest commandment in the
Torah and the Prophets and He states 'to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the (611) commandments'. For as Paul writes in 1Corithians 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." The commandments of
Torah hangs on these two commandments of love. Hence love is the key for
Torah to be written on our hearts! It is not about salvation but about righteousness and holiness.
In Summary
To bring about the One New Man the Jewish people need to accept their Messiah,
Yeshua HaMashiach and return to
Torah to be sanctified. While the Gentiles, once they have accepted the Jewish Messiah need to start walking in the truth of the
Torah in preparation for the return of Messiah who is the living
Torah (Word made flesh).
*Any comments or ideas that you have on the above subject can be made on our Face Book 'Aleph Omega' page with the link above.
Coming Next
- The Torah - Its place in our lives
- Penny's Insights - A look at the Book of Judges and some of the people we know so well. Lets delve a little deeper and taste, see and hear what we so often miss as well as how we can relate it to the Brit Chadashah (New Testament)
