Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 2.4
What you will learn
- Name the five books of the Torah and describe the contents of each in a sentence.
- Explain the purposes of the sacrificial system and the tabernacle.
- Describe the Christian division of the law into moral, ceremonial and civil parts, and the objections to it.
- Explain how Jewish tradition understands Torah as teaching and as a way of life.
The big idea
The Torah is the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The word means teaching, and it includes story as well as law. At its center are the laws given at Sinai and the plan for a tent of worship, the tabernacle, where God would dwell among his people. The laws cover worship, justice and daily life, and they aim to make a whole people holy. Jews and Christians read them very differently, and each reading has deep roots.
Key terms
- Torah
- Hebrew for teaching or instruction. It names the first five books of the Bible, also called the Pentateuch, and in wider use all of Jewish teaching.
- Pentateuch
- A Greek word meaning five scrolls, used for the five books of Moses.
- Tabernacle
- The portable tent sanctuary described in Exodus 25 to 31 and 35 to 40, where God was said to dwell among Israel.
- Atonement
- The covering or removal of sin and its effects, so that a relationship with God is restored.
- Clean and unclean
- Categories in Leviticus describing what could approach the sanctuary and what could not. Unclean does not always mean sinful.
- Halakha
- The body of Jewish law and practice that grows from the Torah and its interpretation. The word means the way of walking.
- Mitzvah (plural mitzvot)
- A commandment. Jewish tradition counts 613 in the Torah.
- Documentary hypothesis
- A scholarly theory that the Torah was assembled from several earlier sources. It has been revised and challenged in many ways.
Background
The Torah opens with creation and the story of the patriarchs, and then tells of the exodus and Sinai. Genesis holds the stories from creation to the death of Joseph. Exodus tells of the rescue and the covenant. Leviticus is mainly laws for priests and people on worship and holiness. Numbers tells of the journey through the wilderness and the first generation’s failure to enter the land. Deuteronomy is a series of speeches by Moses before his death, restating the law and calling for loyalty.
Jewish and Christian tradition has long ascribed the Torah to Moses. Many modern scholars have proposed that it took shape over centuries from several sources, edited together, while others defend Mosaic authorship in a stronger sense or propose different models. The theory commonly taught as the documentary hypothesis has been much revised, and the debate is active. This lesson uses the text as it stands and notes the debate.
The laws can seem foreign to modern readers. They include sacrifices, rules about food and skin disease, and penalties that the modern world would not impose. They also include the command to love the neighbor as oneself (Leviticus 19:18) and to treat the foreigner as a native (Leviticus 19:34). The aim of this lesson is to see the laws as their first audience might have, as ways of living in the presence of a holy God.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The tabernacle
God gives Moses a pattern for a tent that can be carried through the wilderness (Exodus 25 to 31, with the building described in chapters 35 to 40). It has an outer court with an altar for sacrifices and a basin for washing. Inside the tent is a holy place with a lampstand, a table of bread, and an altar of incense, and beyond a curtain the most holy place, which holds the ark of the covenant. The ark contains the tablets of the law and is covered by the mercy seat.
The tent is a sign that God lives among his people. At its completion the cloud covers the tent and the glory of the Lord fills it (Exodus 40). Many readers note that the language of Exodus 25 to 40 echoes the creation story in Genesis 1, as if the tabernacle were a small world in which God is at home.
Step 2: Sacrifice and priesthood
Leviticus 1 to 7 describes several kinds of offerings: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. Each has its own purpose, such as thanks, communion, or removing guilt. A priest from the family of Aaron presents the offering, and the blood is treated with great care because life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11).
On the Day of Atonement, described in Leviticus 16, the high priest enters the most holy place once a year to make atonement for himself, for the priests and for the whole people. Two goats are used, one offered and the other sent into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people. Jews observe Yom Kippur today with fasting and prayer, and Christians read the rite in the light of Christ’s work in Hebrews 9 and 10.
Step 3: Holiness and the shape of daily life
Leviticus 11 to 15 sets out rules for foods, childbirth, skin conditions and bodily emissions, sorted into clean and unclean. Scholars give several explanations: hygiene, symbolism, rejection of pagan practice, or marking a boundary around life and death. None is certain. Leviticus 17 to 26 is often called the Holiness Code, with the call be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2), and laws on justice, the poor, honest weights, the Sabbath year and the Jubilee.
The festivals, listed in Leviticus 23, give the year its rhythm: Passover, the feast of weeks, the feast of tabernacles, and the Day of Atonement. They tie worship to the harvest and to the memory of Egypt.
Step 4: Three Christian ways to sort the law
Early Christians asked how the law applies to those who are not under Moses. A long-standing answer, set out by Thomas Aquinas and developed in Reformed theology, divides the law into three kinds. The moral law, centered on the Ten Commandments, is held to bind all people always. The ceremonial law of sacrifices and purity is held to have been fulfilled in Christ. The civil law, for the nation of Israel, is held to have lapsed with that nation’s political life, though its principles of justice remain instructive.
Critics note that the text itself does not mark such divisions, and that Leviticus 19 mixes love of neighbor with mixed fabrics and field rules. Other Christians, including many Lutherans and dispensationalists, emphasize the contrast between law and gospel, and some Jewish voices hold that Torah is a single whole that cannot be divided at all. The threefold scheme is useful and debated.
- What does the word Torah mean, and why does the meaning matter?
- What does the tabernacle say about God’s way of being with his people?
- What is the purpose of sacrifice in Leviticus, and what is the role of blood?
- How might the idea of clean and unclean have functioned in daily life?
- What is the strength of the threefold division of the law, and what is its weakness?
- What parts of the Torah do you find hardest to understand, and what would help you?
Examples
The scapegoat
On the Day of Atonement, the high priest lays his hands on a living goat, confesses the sins of the people over it, and sends it into the wilderness. The English word scapegoat comes from this rite. Ancient and modern readers have seen it as a picture of sin being carried away.
Gleaning
Leviticus 19:9 and 10 tells landowners not to reap the corners of their fields or gather every fallen grain, but to leave them for the poor and the stranger. It shows how worship and economic justice sit together in the law.
A synagogue Torah scroll
In a synagogue the Torah is kept in an ark, handwritten on a scroll, and read through in sections over a year. People stand when it is carried. The practice shows that Torah is received as a living guide and not only as a text.
Different perspectives
Jewish readers
For Jews the Torah is the center of life. The written Torah is read with the oral tradition, recorded in the Mishnah and Talmud, which tells how to keep the commandments. Since the temple fell in AD 70, prayer, study and charity have taken the place of sacrifice, and the rabbis hold that the commandments remain binding.
Catholic readers
The Catholic Church holds that the moral law of the Old Testament remains and that the ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ and the sacrifice of the Mass. The Catechism calls the Old Law a preparation for the gospel.
Orthodox readers
The Orthodox read the temple, priesthood and sacrifices as types fulfilled in Christ and in the church’s worship. The tabernacle pattern shapes the layout of the church building, with its sanctuary, nave and altar.
Protestant readers
Reformed Protestants use the threefold division and hold that the moral law continues as a guide. Lutherans stress the difference between law and gospel. Others, such as many Baptists and dispensationalists, hold that believers are not under the Mosaic law as a system and take their guidance from the New Testament.
Scholarly views
Scholars study Leviticus as priestly teaching from the temple tradition, and compare its rites with those of neighboring cultures. They disagree on when its material was written and on the reasons for its purity laws.
Why it matters
The Torah gives Israel its sense of who God is and who they are. Its themes of holiness, justice, atonement and presence appear throughout the Bible, and the New Testament cannot be fully understood without them. Reading the laws on their own terms also corrects the idea that the Old Testament is only about rules. Its rules are set in the context of a relationship.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Torah is just a list of rules.
Correction: It is mostly narrative, and the laws are set inside a story of rescue and covenant. Torah means teaching.
Misunderstanding: Jews believed that animal sacrifice earned forgiveness by itself.
Correction: The Old Testament prophets, such as Isaiah 1 and Hosea 6, criticize sacrifice without justice and loyalty. The sacrifices were understood as God’s provision for approach and atonement.
Misunderstanding: All Christians agree that the Old Testament law no longer applies.
Correction: Christian traditions hold that Christ fulfilled the law, and differ on how much of it still binds. Most keep the moral teaching of the Ten Commandments. The differences are real.
Misunderstanding: Unclean means sinful.
Correction: In Leviticus many unclean states, such as childbirth or caring for the dead, are ordinary and not sinful. They restricted entry to the sanctuary for a time.
Knowledge check
What are the five books of the Torah and what is each mainly about?
Genesis tells of creation and the patriarchs. Exodus tells of the rescue from Egypt and the covenant at Sinai, with plans for the tabernacle. Leviticus gives laws for worship, priests and holiness. Numbers tells of the wilderness journey. Deuteronomy gives Moses’s farewell speeches and restates the law. Together they form the foundation of Jewish Scripture.
What was the purpose of the tabernacle?
It was a portable sanctuary where God’s presence dwelled among Israel and where sacrifices and worship were offered through the priests. Its structure, with an outer court, a holy place and a most holy place containing the ark, expressed degrees of nearness to God. It moved with Israel in the wilderness and was later replaced by the temple in Jerusalem.
What happens on the Day of Atonement according to Leviticus 16?
The high priest, after offerings for himself, enters the most holy place with blood to make atonement for the sanctuary and the people. Two goats are chosen. One is offered and the other has the sins of Israel confessed over it and is sent into the wilderness. The day is a fast, and Jews keep it today as Yom Kippur.
Describe the threefold division of the law and one objection to it.
The scheme sorts the law into moral, ceremonial and civil parts. The moral law is held to bind all people, the ceremonial law to be fulfilled in Christ, and the civil law to be tied to Israel’s national life. One objection is that the Torah does not itself separate these categories, and laws of different kinds are mixed together, as in Leviticus 19.
Think it through
- What does it mean to you that worship in the Torah is detailed and physical?
- Why might a law code include both rituals and laws about caring for the poor?
- Is the idea of holiness as being set apart for God familiar to you or strange?
- How would you explain the purpose of the tabernacle to someone who has never heard of it?
Independent assignment
A map of the tent
In your own notebook, read Exodus 25 to 27 and 40 and Leviticus 16. Draw a simple plan of the tabernacle, labeling each object and noting its use. Then write 250 to 350 words on what the layout teaches about approaching God and about who could enter which part. Mention one place where Jewish and Christian readers interpret the system differently. Keep it for yourself.
Further study
- Jewish Publication Society, The Hebrew Bible in English (JPS translation) Read Leviticus 16 and 19, and Deuteronomy 6 and 30.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read the treatise on the Old Law, in the Prima Secundae, for the medieval division into moral, ceremonial and judicial precepts.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Read Book 2, chapter 7, on the law, for the Reformed account of its uses.
- Leviticus 19 Holiness, justice and love of neighbor.
- Leviticus 16 The Day of Atonement.
- Exodus 40 The tabernacle is finished and filled with glory.
- Hebrews 9 A Christian reading of the tabernacle.