Easter

[Bengalzona]

(04-03-2016, 07:07 PM)xxlt Wrote: I appreciate the sentiment, but will quibble a bit. The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) could be called a manual on how to live your life, but the rest of it could be called historical biographies, non-fiction, fiction, mysticism, or any number of things. I think the only books that focus on "how to live" are the first five, and thankfully most people have decided laws on how to live therein are not so great. Animal sacrifice, polygamy, misogyny, etc. - not how I want anyone living his or her life.

I'd have to disagree about the rest of the Bible not being a manual for how to live your life. The New Testament is almost exclusively about Jesus and part of the main purpose of having Jesus walk the Earth was to serve as an example and to teach (specifically, to show people how they are "getting it all wrong"). And in Christian theology, the purpose of the Old Testament was to lead to the New Testament (Christ fulfilling the prophecies and sealing the deal, etc.).

One of the main differences for the sect split in Judaism between the Saduccees and the Pharisees (who would eventually father modern Judaism) was concerning the Torah. To the Sadduccees, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were the complete laws that needed to be followed to be righteous. Nothing else was to be considered. The Pharisees believed that the Torah was the main source of God's instructions, but that the teachings of prophets and rabbis, particularly the commentary on the Torah, were almost equally important and should be considered. The third major sect, the Essenes (where Christianity probably sprang from), came along later and followed with the Pharisees on this thinking.

There are actually some misconceptions about the "Biblical Laws" from the Torah. There are 613 Mitzvah (a.k.a. commandments) listed in the Torah. These break down into three major groups:

1) Civil Laws - These were laws specifically for governing the country of Israel at that time. They are generally easy to pick out because they are typically followed by punishments. But some were also health codes (don't eat things that crawl on the ocean bottom, don't eat things with cloven hooves, etc.). They were specific only to Israel at that time. Many are somewhat unique in the world at that time. When Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans in 70 AD, the rules generally became obsolete as the country of Judah ceased to exist (Judah being the last part of the original country of Israel). It is worth noting, however, that modern Jews still try to adhere to some or most of these rules (without the ancient punishments, of course).

2) Ceremonial Laws - These were rules specifying how worship was to be conducted. These were rules about how the temple was to be constructed, what priests were supposed to do, etc. These laws also included instructions for making offerings and sacrifices. Offerings and sacrifices were standard practice in the ancient world. In the Christian belief, these rules were made obsolete by Christ (i.e. The animal offerings and sacrifices only 'covered', ones sins. True redemption could not come until there was a 'perfect sacrifice'). If there was any question about these rules being obsolete, they were also answered by the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.

3) Moral Laws - These are specifically the Ten Commandments. These were the laws about how a person was to live their life and they are still applicable today (with a caveat). They basically break down into two sets of rules. The first set is commands to worship and respect God. The second set is commands about the treatment of other people. Jesus noted this when asked which commandment was the greatest (Matthew 22:37-39), which was basically an expansion of what Moses had said earlier (Deuteronomy 6:5). These are the condensed versions of the Ten Commandments.

The thing about these moral laws that we should always remember is that they deal with sin. Sin, theologically, is a violation of God's laws. It being God's laws, administration of justice was the purview of God and God alone. Not man. These laws were NOT set down for men to enforce on other men. We cannot even begin to define some of them. For example, take "Thou shall not kill". That should be the easiest and most straight forward, right? Ask twenty people what that should entail, and I'll bet you get more than ten different answers. Surely everyone agrees that people shouldn't murder each other. But what about self-defense? What about war? We can assume that this means "only kill humans". But should we automatically assume that? What about someone who tortures animals for enjoyment? Isn't there something not right about that dude? The reason that we can't define them is that they are concerning a persons heart and intent, things that we humans have trouble finding true evidence to convict other people. But in Christian belief, God is omniscient and knows all of these things.

In fact, I mentioned a caveat above when I said these are still applicable today. That caveat is that, in Christian theology, no one but Christ ever obeyed ALL of the Ten Commandments. Everyone has failed in one or more (and usually more). This is central to Christian theology. And this goes back to Christ being the great example.