Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Gary Hedrick" <garyh AT cjfm.org>]

        It's interesting to note that some traditional ancient and medieval
Jewish sources allowed for the possibility of a new Torah, or a new Law,
that the Messiah would introduce upon his arrival. A good source on this is
Raphael Patai's The Messiah Texts, where he devotes an entire chapter to
developing this concept of a coming New Torah. In Orthodox Judaism, Torah is
generally thought of as eternal, but as Karl asks, does that necessarily
mean it's eternal in the same form? Patai quotes extensively from
traditional writings that answer that question in the negative. I suspect
the sensitivity of this subject stems from supersessionist ideas that have
evolved over the centuries in Christendom (i.e., notions that the NT has
replaced the OT and the Church has replaced Israel as the People of God),
and their sometimes troubling implications, but I personally am not a
supersessionist (at least not in the traditional sense of that term) and I
don't have a problem with TORATI being a New Torah introduced by the
Messiah. 

Gary Hedrick
San Antonio, Texas

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 12:33 PM
To: bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] TORATI in Jer 31:33: Is it the Mosaic Torah?

Bill:

On 9/27/07, Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Karl wrote:-
>
> >Hence, this could be a new "Torah", an implication given also by the
> >immediate context.
>
> There is no suggestion that the torati is new in these verses.
> My translation:-
>
>....
>
> The context is of a new covenant not a new torah. The difference
> is in where the torah resides. In the previous covenant it resided
> external to the house of Israel and the house of Judah as a written
> torah. In the new covenant YHWH himself will write the torah on their
> hearts.
>
> Bill Rea, ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_
> E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                </   New
> Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax  64-3-364-2332        /)  Zealand
> Unix Systems Administrator                    (/'

My question: is this the same Torah? This is the reason I raised the
issue of theological vs. secular meanings of "Torah". If the
theological reading is the correct one, then yes, it is the same
Torah. If the secular meaning is what is correct, then it could very
well be a new teaching. While I am leaning towards the latter, you're
right, the theological meaning could be right. This is one where we
need to ask Jeremiah for clarification, or just say that we don't have
enough information and agree to disagree.

Karl W. Randolph.
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