Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Karl wrote:-

>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.

The plain reading is that it is the same torah. If someone wants to
read it otherwise then they need to make the case that it is a different
torah. That last sentence is pretty lame. The text does not support
your interpretation so you retreat into ``we can't know''. End of
conversation.

Gary wrote:-

>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.

Medieval interpreters aren't going to be helpful in determining the
original meaning of the text, which in this case is rather plain. The
question one must ask about these ``ancient'' sources is how ancient are
they? Are they contemporaneous with Jeremiah and hence useful for making
the case that the idea of a new torah was current in his time? Or are they
also just later interpretations?

Gary further wrote:-

>In Orthodox Judaism, Torah is generally thought of as eternal

That's because you can't find the idea of a new torah in any
of the cannonical Hebrew texts. (Any of our Jewish friends care
to comment?) If you go to the interpretive
literature you can find just about any idea you want. But you
should not read back into the texts themselves ideas from
later interpreters where the texts clearly do not support their
interpretations.

Bill Rea, ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_
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