RF Bible Study: Saturday study notes 3/15/25

Jesus & the Law of Moses.

1. Reexamination of Christianity: opening comments from me.

2. Read Hebrews 7: the new High Priest changed the Law.

3. Read Hebrews 8: a new legislation

4. Under Jesus' NC links.

MOTIVE: circumcision party alive and going strong!

https://jesuskingdomgospel.com/the-one-god-unitarian-view-is-not-the-gospel/

Reexamination of Christianity

The common Christian view that Jesus and his Apostles remained Torah-observant needs to be thoroughly reexamined! This belief is bound by the common misconception that the real reason the Jewish authorities wanted Jesus killed was because he broke their “social norms” or “traditions." In other words, Jesus was not teaching and sometimes acting against the Mosaic system as such. After all, how could Jesus be made a “lawbreaker,” i.e., a sinner if he was going around not only teaching against Moses but breaking any of God laws, so the argument goes.

First, it is obvious that Jesus was not a sinner or a lawbreaker. But he was the promised Messiah, sinless Lamb of God and, as a result, “the lawmaker” of God. In Gen 49 Jacob blessed his sons with a prophecy: 10 “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet.” (KJV)

The Hebrew translated as “lawgiver” by the KJ appears as the “ruler’s staff” in most modern translations. But the old King James best captures the sense of one who explains or interprets the law. Compare this with Ps 60:7 where God calls Judah “my lawgiver.” That’s why the NT calls Jesus, the Son of David, greater than Moses! He was, after all, “found worthy of greater honor than Moses,” according to Heb 3.3. So it’s only right that Jesus has the authority to exhort the Jewish establishment for ignoring “the commandment of God” with their self-imposed traditions.

The New High Priest changed the Law: Heb 7:11-28

Takeaways

v.11 the OT priesthood was founded, based on the Law of Moses.

PICTURE the Law as the foundation of a house, the priesthood.

But v.12 says the law was changed because there's a new building that was erected for a new priesthood home, vv.13-14.
This new priest is not from the family of Levi, as mandated by the Law of Moses, but by the order of King Melquizedech (vv. 11, 15, 17).
So that OT priesthood was established, founded on what turned out to be a shallow, temporary foundation called "weak," v.18.
But now there's a new deep, permanent foundation for a skyscraper, the new priestly home ("indestructible," v.16; "better hope," v.19).
v.17 shows this is yet another fulfillment of OT Messianic prophecies like the all-important Ps 110:4
In the previous v.3 God prophesied that this new priest would be His own procreatedhuman Son.
This shows that just as Jesus was already the Son of God from the womb (Ps 109:3LXX), in the same way he was to be the New High Priest from the womb (v.4).

Hebrews 8:1-6

v.6 the new covenant "is enacted on [nenomothetetai] better promises."
nenonomothetetai = “enacted,” or “established upon.”
"nomos" [law], “tithemi,” [to put, place] = “legislation has been established.”
AB “en-Torahed” on better promises. This shows that the New Covenant Torah of Messiah (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:21) supersedes the Old Torah in the letter. The New Covenant was introduced and ratified by Jesus (Lk. 22:28-30) and Paul was “a minister of the New Covenant” (2 Cor. 3:6). At the Parousia it will be made with Jews who accept the Messiah at that time (Rom. 11:26). Meanwhile any Jew or Gentile is urged to believe and obey the Messiah Jesus.
paraphrase:

“For this new covenant, obtained by the work of Christ, has become a ministry far superior to the first covenant at Sinai. That’s why the covenant Jesus currently mediates is better. But more than that, this new covenant has been given to us Christians as Torah on the basis of better promises.”

SUMMARY

When was the Law of Moses changed? Heb 7:12

This NC Law was established when "Christ came/appeared," i.e., during his earthly ministry and not just when he died!

Hebrews 9.11a “Christ came/appeared as high priest (paraginomai),” to arrive or to come on the scene (Wuests' Word Studies, Hebrews; Vine's NT Word Pictures).

NOTE: King Melquizedeck parallel, Genesis 14, who also appears as "priest of the Most High God"!