A Study on the Laws and Codes of the Old Testament
AUTHORS
Saya Lee,Dept. General Education, Namseoul Univ., Cheonan. Korea
ABSTRACT
The Pentateuch of the Old Testament has many laws and law-codes, for example, Decalogue, Covenant Code, Deuteronomy Code and Holiness Code, etc. Those laws and law-codes of the old testament have long history. They were influenced by the laws of ancient near eastern world and have developed in old testament itself and have underwent a good deal of changes in their interpretations after codifying. The purpose of this article is to investigate the particularities of the pentateuchal laws of ancient Isaelites in the old testament and to search the role and effective value of those laws in the present time. The Pentateuch laws and codes are within the scope of the Torah. The fundamental meaning of Hebrew Torah is the teaching of God to His people Israel. God gave Torah to Israel because He loved them and still loves Israel and all the peoples of the world. So we can learn that the fundamental mind of the laws of old testament is love(=agape). Is the Torah still valid today? We can not apply all the contents of the laws of old testament to our daily life but the laws of old testament are valid and have simultaneity in the period of old and new testament and even nowadays, because love remains unchanged like God Himself even in our ever-changing world.
KEYWORDS
Law, Love, Old testament, Ten commandments, Judaism
REFERENCES
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[5] R. W. Moberly, “Old testament theology,” Grandrapids: Baker Academic, (2017)
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[7] B. W. Anderson, “Understanding old testament,” Seoul: Christian Digest, (1994)
[8] G. von Rad, “Old testament theology 1,” trans. by Huck Heo, Woekwan: Bundo Press, (1976)