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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] New or Renewed in Jeremiah 31:31?
  • Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:32:04 -0500

Dear Yohanan,
I think the issue here is that you are creating a difference between God's Torah and Mosaic Torah, as if they are not one, and the same. But the issue is that they are one, and the same to, and I do not think that there is any place in the Miq'ra that proves otherwise as far as text is concerned.
HH: The Mosaic covenant was certainly a conduit of God's law and the expression of it which Israel was obliged to keep. That covenant was the vehicle by which he chose to communicate his law to Israel. But God had laws before there ever was a Mosaic covenant:

Gen. 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Ex. 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people should go out and gather a certain amount every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

HH: Remember that Exodus 16 is prior to the arrival at Sinai and before the institution of the Mosaic covenant. The people were in the wilderness of Sin at that time:

Ex. 16:1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.

HH: They did not reach Sinai until Exodus 19:

Ex. 19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

HH: So God had a law before the Mosaic covenant.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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