Torah on the Basis of Better Promises

The following is taken from David Stern’s book Restoring The Jewishness Of The Gospel. I find it very interesting because it gives a perspective on the applicability of the Law to both the Jew and Gentile.

Page 50 includes discussion in reference to Hebrews 8:6 which reads in the NAS, “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.” (Heb 8:6).

According to Stern, “But upon examining the Greek text I noticed that the phrase “is founded on” renders the word “nenomothetetai”, a compnound of our friend “nomos” (law, Torah) with the common verb “tithemi” (to put, place)…But in the letter to these Messianic Jews, the word “nomos”, which appears 14 times, always Torah specifically, never legislation in general. Moreover, the only other appearnace of “nenomothetetai” in the New Testament is a few verses back…where it can only refer to the giving of the Torah at Sinai…Therefore the Jewish New Testament renders Messianic Jews 8:6: ‘But now the work Yueshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises’. So the New Covenant has been ‘given as Torah’, which implies that Torah still exists and is to be observed in the present age – by all Jews and by all Gentiles, as we shall see…”

From his book, we can see that David Stern concludes that the new covenant is Torah founded on better promises. But if Torah, how does it apply to the Jew and Gentile. Stern makes a very interesting observation about the ruling of the Jerusalem Council. Although specific guidance was given to Gentiles, the lack of guidance to Jewish Christians implies that no change to their beliefs was required.

From page 57 in reference to the Jerusalem Counsel (Acts 15). “This (the ruling of the Jerusalem Council) teaches us that the elements of Torah which apply to Gentiles under the New Covenant are not the same as those which apply to Jews. (The Jerusalem Council made no change whatever in the Torah as it applies to Jews, so that a number of years later there could still be in Jerusalem “tens of thousands” of Messianic Jews who were “zealots for the Torah.”) It should not surprise us if New Covenant Torah specifies different commandments for Jews and Gentiles. First, the Five Books of Moses have commands which apply to some groups and not others – to the king but not to his subjects, to cohanim (“priests”) but not to other Jews, to men but not women. Second, the New Testament too has different commands for different categories of people, for example, men and woman, husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters, leaders and followers, widows.

However, Acts 15 also teaches that although Gentiles were required to observe only four laws upon entering the Messianic Community, they were permitted to learn as much about Judaism as they wished and presumably to observe as many Jewish laws and customs as they wished. The only proviso added in the New Covenant (in Galatians) is that Gentiles should not suppose that their self-Judaizing will earn them “salvation points” with God…

It’s easy for many Gentile Christians to agree with the abstract statement that the Torah is still in force under the New Covenant, for they are unlikely to have a sense of how to draw out its implications…What ought to be done, and what ought not to be done in particular situations? Should one refrain form lighting fires or from driving on Shabbat? Should a man wear a kippah in a congregational meeting? Should he wear tzitziyot (tassels on the corners of his garment)?…May a Messianic Gentile be called up to read from the Torah scroll in a Messianic synagogue? May a Gentile Christian convert to Judiasm? And if so, under what auspices? How should Messianic Jews relate to the State of Israel? Should Messianic Jews immigrate to Israel? Is there halakhah concerning when a Messianic Jew might marry a Gentile Christian?…To what extent may or should Gentile members of Messianic Jewish congregations imitate or take on Jewish practices? Etcetera.”

All these are questions that we are struggling with, but to conclude requirements may be different for the Jew and for the Gentile finds some precedent in scripture. Does this prevent me from studying and participating in Jewish laws and customs? Not at all. For if “the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ” (Gal 3:24), then these instructions have much benefit because we have not arrived at a complete understanding but are on the upward path.