When the Hebrew word Torah is transcribed as law in our scriptures

[Blik]

When we read the word law in our bibles, it is almost always a transcription of the Hebrew word Torah. It is true that the Torah is law, but oh, what an inadequate way of saying torah.

What do you think of when you read the word law in scripture? Do you think of it as the same as the word Torah?

We have many scholars on this site, I hope they will define Torah.

 

[JaumeJ]

Teaching.

 

[JaumeJ]

Not to be pedant; it also means "instructions;" even more concise than teaching. A guide to pleasing the Father.

 

[Blik]

Not to be pedant; it also means "instructions;" even more concise than teaching. A guide to pleasing the Father.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible has a long explanation of torah, you arre able to say it with one sentence: A guide to pleasing the Father.

 

[JaumeJ]

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible has a long explanation of torah, you arre able to say it with one sentence: A guide to pleasing the Father.

You certainly know how to humble me.

 

[JeremiahsCup]

I had been taught it meant "Teachings", but this is pretty much the same thing as a law, which much of the books in it are indeed codes of law anyways, and the stories of Genesis, the curses and the blessings and the events thereof form the backbone of what is the law, so it is easy to see how the words are interchangeable depending on how loose or strict one's English vernacular is.

 

[JaumeJ]

When reviewing the Laws, I love to keep in mind what Jesus-Yeshua taught the Pharisees, and that is to include the principles of faith, mercy, and justice when applying them. Is so doing we are readily equipped to know which laws are extant while there is a sun and a moon.

 

[Blik]

I had been taught it meant "Teachings", but this is pretty much the same thing as a law, which much of the books in it are indeed codes of law anyways, and the stories of Genesis, the curses and the blessings and the events thereof form the backbone of what is the law, so it is easy to see how the words are interchangeable depending on how loose or strict one's English vernacular is.

This is all so true. The problem comes in when we think of law as like rules coming from the police. God gives it through His love for us as the word Torah'means. To think of the law as only coming from a judge type person would be like thinking of a wise, wonderful, and loving father's training of his son stern laws.

 

[posthuman]

why did all the devout, Hellenized Jews translate "Torah" as "nomos" in Greek apparently without objection or controversy?
this is what they used in the Septuagint and in their writings.

why do Paul, John, Matthew, Luke, James all use "nomos" ((law)) ubiquitously in their epistles very obviously with reference to the books of Moses, instead of using something like "didaché" ((teaching/instruction/guidance))?

am i to learn that all the writers of the New Testament were wrong? that they mislead us by the words we call scripture?

 

[JaumeJ]

It is quite possible the Greek versions of the Evangelists are after the Hebrew or Aramaic versions.

It seems reasonable to be a possibility since all the Apostles, the Twelve that is, were Israelis. Also if the first converts were primarily of Judah and the dispersion, it stands to erason they would have taught in most of the synagogues in the language of the OT, since the NT was not availed for two hundred years...….....…….
There was a lot of anti-Jew feeling by the time the NT was compiled and there accompanied it a great pulling away from anything that seemed @too Jewish@ for the folk coming into the assemplies.

 

[Blik]

why did all the devout, Hellenized Jews translate "Torah" as "nomos" in Greek apparently without objection or controversy?
this is what they used in the Septuagint and in their writings.

why do Paul, John, Matthew, Luke, James all use "nomos" ((law)) ubiquitously in their epistles very obviously with reference to the books of Moses, instead of using something like "didaché" ((teaching/instruction/guidance))?

am i to learn that all the writers of the New Testament were wrong? that they mislead us by the words we call scripture?

Why do you say that they were "wrong". Torah is law, it s all correct. It is just there is no word in other languages that corresponds to the complete meaning of Torah.

If you think they were all wrong, what word do you think you would agree was right?

Hebrew thinking and Greek thinking is very different, and the languages reflect that. Some scholars are translating the Greek scripture into Hebrew in order to understand the scripture better. Almost all men who wrote down what God told them had Hebrew as their original language and had a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew scripture, so they thought in Hebrew even as they wrote in Greek.

 

[Prycejosh1987]

When we read the word law in our bibles, it is almost always a transcription of the Hebrew word Torah. It is true that the Torah is law, but oh, what an inadequate way of saying torah.

What do you think of when you read the word law in scripture? Do you think of it as the same as the word Torah?

We have many scholars on this site, I hope they will define Torah.

That is a tricky question to answer, because the Torah holds the law, i would not say it is the law itself. I like to think of it as the original gospel, as God choose Israel as his people and made a covenant with them and developed a relationship with them as Jesus does in the new testament. It even has its parallels.