Created: Mon 30-June-2025 - 13:14
Christians returning to God's Divine Revelation and Wisdom in the Torah
Traditional Christianity dates the Torah—God's Law and Commandments—back to Mount Sinai when it was given verbally to Moses and the people by YHWH. But what if the Torah (God's Law) is much older than that? Would this change the seemingly anti-nomionistic attitude of the Church and Christians today? Would Christians have to re-evaluate their stance on God's commandments, and truly follow it with a circumcised heart?
God speaking the 10 Words (i.e. 10 Commandments)
Exod 20.1
God spoke all these words, saying,
In this message, we will look at writings in and beyond Scripture to come to a suggestion as to how old God's Law really is. The findings might surprise.
In order to grasp the full aspect of the God's Law and its age, we must look at various passages in the New Covenant (Brit Chadashah), the Tanakh (Original Testament), and Rabbinic literature, such as Midrash and Mishnah.
We will unveil how the Torah is clearly connected to Divine Revelation, and Divine Wisdom, i.e. God's Wisdom. Traditional Christian doctrines have kept believers in Messiah away from being educated by Torah (God's wisdom) by forcing unsound doctrines—opposed to Yeshua Messiah's teachings:
- We are not under the law anymore
- The Law is for Jews, we are gentiles
- We are saved by grace and don't have to obey any law
- The Old Testament is for Jews, I'm under the New Covenant
We will slowy uncover how the Torah was formed before the creation of the Heavens and Earth and the world. By understanding why the Torah is enduring (and not just for Jews), we will understand the catastrophic impact on ignoring the Torah, and disobeying God by not keeping His commandments.
Fallacy: Limiting the "Old Testament" to the Mosaic Laws
There is a noticeable fallacy amongst Christians as in limiting and binding the OT (Tanakh) and the Old Covenant to the Mosaic Laws. Whole doctrines are built around the assumption that the Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) replaces the Old Covenant, and therefore also replaces God's Law and Commandments. Upon further investigation of Scripture, a suggestion can be formed as to say that although God made a new everlasting covenant of peace with the House of Israel and Judah, the doctrine of and abolished Torah does not hold under scrutiny.
👉 See also the series on MOC - The Sermon on the Mount
Divine Revelation
The Written Torah
Traditional Jewish View (Tanakh, Midrash, Mishnah, Talmud):
According to Orthodox Jewish tradition, the Torah (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) was dictated by God to Moses over a 40-year period, beginning with the Revelation at Mount Sinai in 1312 BCE and culminating with Moses's death in 1272 BCE.
This tradition holds that the entire Written Torah, along with the Oral Torah (which explains and elaborates on the Written Torah), was given to Moses at Sinai. The Oral Law was eventually codified and written down in the Mishnah (redacted around 200 CE) and elaborated upon in the Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud around 450 CE, Babylonian Talmud around 600 CE). Midrashic literature, which provides exegesis and commentary on the biblical text, also reflects this ancient understanding of the Torah's divine and ancient origin.
In this view, the Torah is not merely a human composition but a divine revelation, making its "age" essentially timeless as it stems from God. However, its transmission to humanity occurred at a specific point in history, approximately 3,300 years ago.
Traditional Christian View and Modern Scholarship
The traditional Christian view on God's Law is that it originated at Mount Sinai, and was given to the Israelites specifically—therefore, they say, it does not apply to 'Gentiles' today. God's commandments are perceived as 'good moral compass' but not binding. In other words, many teachers and doctrines say that Christians today are better off doing things on their own terms than keeping God's commandments. The justification for such a doctrine is oftentimes brought from 'Sola Fide', saved by faith only apart from works.
Modern biblical scholarship, including many non-Orthodox Jewish scholars, generally posits a different understanding of the Torah's composition. Some scholars suggesting a completion date between 450-350 BCE, or even extending into the Hellenistic period (333–164 BCE).
The Word before the Written Torah
In the beginning, we learn from John in his Gospel. In Exodus chapters 19 and 20, we learn that God spoke His commandments. In Hebrew, the word used for the 10 commandments is Word. Therefore, the 10 commandments are not referred to as commandments, but as the 10 words.
Torah & Divine Wisdom before the Creation
In a fascinating thesis, Whitfield Mowbray suggests that the Torah (i.e. God's Law) is far older than Mount Sinai, even older than the Tanakh. It should be noticed that Mowbray makes a deep connection between the Torah and Divine Wisdom—thereby highlighting remarkable passages in the Tankah (Old Testament)
"TORAH was used by the Jews as the comprehensive name for the Divine revelation, written and oral, in which they preserved the sole standard and norm of their religion..."
Torah, and its misfortunate translation in English
Mowbray continues in his thesis as follows, addressing the unfortunate translation of Torah as "Law", thereby limiting its very nature to a mere legalistic aspect.
"Some misunderstanding has occurred (not unnaturally) on account of the difficulty of rendering the word TORAH into English. 'Law' is unsatisfactory, yet there seems to be no obvious substitute. Torah was not the mere legislation, but the whole of revelation, i.e. all that God has made known of His nature and of what He would have men to do and to be.
The prophets call their own utterance TORAH: no less are the Psalms worthy of that title. To the unwritten law the religious and moral teachings of the Haggadah belong no less than the juristically formulated rules of the Halakah.
Briefly, then, TORAH is the vehicle of revelation; but, from another stand point, it is the whole content of revelation."
Torah and its identification as Wisdom
"...the Torah, in the larger sense, is that wherein it was at an early stage identified with WISDOM.
The Mosaic Law, the distinctive Wisdom of Israel, was revealed by God Himself. Thus, it was God's Wisdom (not man's) concerning which we find a great deal in the proverbs and works of other Jewish H'KHAMIM."
"In Deut.4:6 it is pressed upon the Israelites as a motive for keeping the statutes and ordinances which YHWH enjoined upon them "
Divine Revelation (Torah) and Divine Wisdom (Hokhmah)
The crucial passage, Mowbray continues, identifying Divine revelation (Torah) and Divine Wisdom (Hokhmah) is Proverbs 8:22
The Book of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus gives us even more context .
"No less definite is the place of this doctrine in Rabbinical works, with the added inference that it was universally acknowledged. Apart from Proverbs 8:22ff., other Scriptures are cited as identifying Wisdom and the Law.
Bar-Kappara thus interprets Proverbs 9:1-3 (combined with Proverbs 2:6 and 8:22) and, by reckoning Numbers 10:35 ff as a book by itself, finds seven books of the Law corresponding to the seven pillars with which Wisdom built her house. Proverbs 9:1
Once granted this equivalence, the rest is but a logical sequence. All that Scripture says about the nature, fruits and worth of Wisdom are applied to the Law, whether in the broader sense of revelation, or the more particular Law of Moses."
The Law is older than the World
"The most important consequence of this application to the Law of the properties of theDivine Wisdom is that the Law is older than the world."
Prov 8.22
"Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old.
Prov 8.23
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed.
In this context, let us examine a passage from the book "Paul and Rabbinic Judaism" by W.D. Davies
"In the Book of Baruch we read that God “found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved”. “After that it was seen upon earth and conversed among men. This is the book of the commandments of God and the law which abideth for ever.”
So too in 4 Maccabees : “Wisdom (σοφ(α) is a knowledge of things divine and
human, and of their causes.. . ”, and “This Wisdom is the education
given by the Law.”
Schechter has written: “As soon as the Torah was identified with the Wisdom of Proverbs, the mind did not rest satisfied with looking upon it as a mere condition for the existence o f the world.
Every connotation of the term Wisdom, in the famous eighth chapter of Proverbs was invested with life and individuality. The Torah by this same process was personified and endowed with a mystical life of its own which emanates from God yet is partly detached from him.”
Davies continues in his book:
"The Torah, like Wisdom, came to be regarded as older than the
world. Thus it is the first among the seven things which were created
before the world. 5 Again in Sifre on Deut. 11. 10, Prov. 8. 22 is taken to
mean that the Law was created before everything. “The Law because
it is more highly prized (literally, dearer) than everything, was created
before everything, as it is said, *The Lord created me as the beginning
of his way.’” 6 (Prov. 8. 22.)"
In the Bereshit Rabba 1, we read that 6 things preceded the creation of the World
Whitfield Mowbray continues in his thesis:
"The Law stands first among the seven things which were created before the world, and repentance is next to it. Then there are enumerated- the Garden of Eden, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Sanctuary and the Name of Messiah."
7 Things created before the World
In summary, the seven things that were created before the world Mowbray refers are:
- The Law (Torah)
- Repentance
- Garden of Eden
- Gehenna
- Throne of Glory
- Sanctuary
- Name of Messiah
God's People kept from Wisdom
When we connect the Torah with Wisdom given by YHWH to His people, we then might come to the conclusion that those doctrines trying to keep Christians, believers, and followers of Messiah away from the Torah, keep them from God's wisdom, and ultimately keep them in disobedience.
Christians are (deliberately?) kept from being educated by Torah, i.e. from the Wisdom of God.
The Perpetuity of the Torah
Mowbray gives us a sound exegetical foundation of the perpetuity of the Torah being asserted. The most prominent passage is found in Matthew chapter 5
Elsewhere the.perpetuity of the Law is asserted:
in Baruch 4:1, "the book of the commandments of God
and the Law. that exists to eternity." In Ecclus.24:9, with verse 83, the Wisdom that says of herself, "before time from the beginning He created me, and unto the end
of time ! shall not cease," is "the Law that God commanded Moses." In Enoch 99:2, i tis the "eternal Law."
The Rabbinial doctrine is adequately illustrated in Matthew 5:18, "Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not the apex of a letter (Hebrew: yod), shall pass away from the Law till it all be done."
A similar idea is found in Luke 16:17, "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for
one tittle of the law to fall."
A parallel occurs in Genesis Rabbah (10:11) on Genesis 8:1, whence, by combination with Psalm 119:96 and Job 11:9, it is concluded that heaven and earth have measure (limit) but the Law (Torah) has none.
That is, heaven and earth will have an end (Isaiah 51:6), but the Law will not.