Bible Studies

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Our Fathers Have Inherited Lies
Part 2: The Dialogue continues
By David Wiseman
“So says Jehovah of hosts: ‘In those days ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold, and will seize the skirt of a man, a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” Zcharyah (Zechariah) 8:23 LITV
With long, steady yet anxious strides, dressed in a dark gray suit, carrying his King James Version, a lanky figure approached the front door. The house itself was average looking; two live oaks in the front yard, the house of red brick, and fairly small. A large picture window in the front room seemed to stare out like a single, blank, staring eye.
The man, John Preacher, D.D., knocked firmly on the dark brown door. As he waited he could hear a bird twitter and a squirrel coughing wildly and yappingly at something or another. The summer sun stood high and hot in the sky, in roasting simpleness. John glared up at it in reproach. It ought to know better, he seemed to say.
The door swung open, revealing a little man dressed in khakis and a clean, white dress shirt. Holding the screen door open, for John, he stepped out, reverently touching an object on his doorframe and kissing his fingers, then saying, “Come in, come in!”
John stepped in, respectfully imitating his host, touching the object, called a mezuzah, and kissing his fingers. “Good to see you again, David.” John addressed the other man.
“Yes, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” answered David, as he lead the way to the dining room. There was on the dining table a scattering of books, huge reference books, a scholar’s dream world. “I have everything we could want laid out.” David explained, “A Strong’s, a Brown, Driver, Brigg’s, a Green’s. What more could we ask for?”
The two of them sat down opposite one another.
“Where did we leave off?” David opened.
“With a lot of unanswered questions.” John smiled back. “Your main argument circled around Matthew 5:17-18. I’ll read that to you. ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’
“Okay, so it says that it will ‘in no wise pass from the law,’ but that doesn’t mean we’ll have to keep it. It simply means it will be there.”
“Read on to the next verse, if you will.” David requested.
“‘Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’”
David explained, “So there, Yeshua makes it clear that He is saying that we need to keep the Torah.”
“I found another verse, though. Romans 8:1-4 says, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’”
“But you remember what Paul said in Romans 7:7, ‘What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? Let it not be! But I did not know sin except through the law; for also I did not know lust except the law said, you shall not lust.’ (LITV) so the ‘law of sin and death’ must be something other than the Law of Moses, the Torah. And Paul makes another interesting point here. How do you know what sin is, except through the Law? The Ten Commandments are part of the Law. So, which of those is it that you wanted to break?”
“Alright, but what about Galatians 5:14? ‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’”
“In that passage, Paul is echoing Yeshua in Matthew 22:37-40. ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments all the Law and the Prophets hang.’ (LITV) He said this because all of the Law is based on the commands to love God and to love your neighbor. So in these two, the whole Law is done. It is fulfilled. But the Law tells us how to do them.”
“Okay, and in Romans 13:8, ‘Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.’”
“What is the Hebrew idea of being fulfilled? To a Hebrew thinker, ‘fulfill’ something means to give a greater meaning to it. So when Paul says that anyone who loves another has fulfilled the Law, he’s saying he has given a greater meaning to it. The Torah has a greater meaning when you love, than when you merely keep it as a ritual. It’s meaningless as a ritual, but with love, it has meaning.
“Oh, I didn’t really offer a good explanation of Galatians 3:24-25 before. I did some research on the Greek in that passage, and I think I’ve found the answer. In verse 24, it says, ‘So that the Law has become a trainer of us until Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ (LITV) There, trainer is in the singular. Then in verse 25, ‘But faith coming, we are no longer under a trainer.’ (LITV) But there, trainer is in the plural. So it really says, ‘But faith coming, we are no longer under trainers.’ So he clearly isn’t talking about the same thing. I believe that in verse 25 he is talking about the rabbis, the Jewish teachers, who were teaching the ritual law, which they now call the Talmud. There are many times that Yeshua clearly taught against the ritual law, which is not the same thing as the Torah. It was a tradition of man.”
“So you’re saying that this was another bad translation?” John asked.
“I’m afraid most Bibles are full of them.” Replied David, gravely.
“So you’re saying that you know better than the generations of scholars in Greek and Hebrew that came before you? I know you’ve studied Hebrew, but you haven’t even studied Greek.”
“I’m not saying I know more, I’m saying I think they translated with an agenda. If I had my own translation of the Bible I’m sure it would be tainted by my own biases. That’s why I prefer to use an interlinear, so I can double-check the translation.” For several seconds no one said anything. Then David broke in, “Coffee?”
“Sure.” John replied.

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