This post presents a three-part series looking at what the term “Law of Moses” (and similar) meant to different people at different times in the Bible; 1) The Israelites, at various points in their history, 2) Jesus (in His many interactions with others involving His understanding of its meaning), and 3) Paul, who infamously dismissed “works of the law” as valid for justification of his Jewish brethren.
What’s the point of this? A couple of things. First, scholars agree that what is called the Torah today — the Pentateuch (first five books) of the Hebrew Bible — were written (8th-5th centuries BC) late relative to Moses and the Exodus/Sinai story in response, primarily, to the Babylonian exile. And second, it is my belief, and that of others, that there was in fact an original, small set of moral and ethical laws, including instructions to love God and your neighbor, that was transmitted to the figure of Moses, which, no doubt in response to the exile, was vastly expanded into laws describing the Temple Cult system as an attempt to reform the people and head off a repeat of the catastrophe of the exile. The question I want to answer is: “Could these people see through all the layers of the Levitical Torah added within the Pentateuch back to the law given to Moses and written down by him on a scroll at Moab?”
What Did the “Law of Moses” Mean To — the Israelites?
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