The Torah (2) Throughout the First Testament
André H. Roosma 13 March 2012
Following on Part 1 on the word Torah, here first something about the beginning.
I was always taught that the Torah
originated from the time of Moses (about
15th century before Christ).
However, that is not the first time that the word תּורה - Torah appears in
the narrative of the Bible. In Genesis 26: 5 God says: Abraham has obeyed
תורתי -
Torotai - which can be translated as: ‘My Torah’s’ Two things are remarkable here: (1) the plural form and (2) that
apparently, Abraham already knew those Torah’s of God.
By the way: This confirms what we discovered the previous time:
that Torah can better be translated by
‘instruction’ than by ‘law’.
Let’s have another look at that oldest, pictographic, Biblical
script.1 In that script, תורתי looks like this: . That is: - : cross, mark, signature, confirmation, end; - : tent pin; security, attachment, safety, to connect, to secure; - : face (sideways); (higher) other / Other (God); - : cross, mark, signature, confirmation, end; - : hand, arm, He (God) gives, to work, to give. All together we can read this as: covenant sign of God,
given by Himself. We know that Abraham indeed received instructions and a covenant sign
from God Himself!
In Exodus 24: 12 God speaks with Moses:
YaHUaH said to Moses,
„Come up to Me on the mountain, and wait there. And I will give you
tablets of stone, the Torah, and the
commandment which I have written to teach them.
Two things draw our attention here: (1) God gave the Torah to Moses; it was not a clever invention by Moses
himself. And (2) the Torah was meant
to teach or direct Isra’el.
The last time the word Torah
appears in the First Testament is telling as well. That is in Malachi 4: 4,
where God tells Israel:
“Remember the Torah of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that
I commanded him at Horeb for all Isra’el.”
The Torah – the instructions and
the histories on how God walked with His people, as passed on by Moses,
are to be remembered.
This remembering includes that we fill our hearts
with it, like I shared in the series on the
Shema‘.
From there we come to wonder and stand in awe, and to yield ourselves and
worship. Then God can circumcise our hearts (as Psalm 19:
7a notes so succinctly: “The Torah
of YaHUaH is perfect, converting the soul; ...”),
such that we become full of Him and start to live - from the inside out -
after His instructions.
Hallelu YaH !
Notes
Sometimes you suddenly stumble upon an apt and succinct
note in old Jewish writings. What about this one, from a 6th century Midrash: ומה המים
מניחין מקום
גבוה
והולכים
במקום נמוך,
כך תורה מנחת
מי שדעתו
גבוהה עליו
ומדבקת במי
שדעתו נמוכה
עליו And just as water rests [temporarily] on a high place
but roams around in a low place, so the Torah rests [temporarily] on one
whose opinion of himself is high but cleaves to one whose opinion of himself
is lowly.
Shir ha-Shirim
Rabbah on Song of Songs 1: 2b/3 (cited in: ‘The Descent of Torah’, weblog
by Carl Kinbar - a Jewish ‘Rav’, 25 Aug. 2011; more extensive in
True Joy Through Water , webdocument by Canfei Nesharim, Part IV, p.4)
This is a sequel to: The Shema‘ – the First Testament declaration of faith (1),
Part (2),
Part (3),
Part (4),
Part (5), and
Torah
- Part (1) A series of laws and commandments?
Next article: Torah - Part (3) Absolutely
delightful!.
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