As early after the death of Moses as the events of Joshua
8, the Torah given by God to Moses was called "the Torah of Moses."
Do we then think that the authors of Joshua, 1-2Kings, 2Chronicles, Ezra,
Nehemiah, Daniel somehow denied the "God to Moses" connection because
they all wrote, "the Torah of Moses"? Joshua's author likewise called
it "the Torah of God," as did the author of Nehemiah (plus Luke and
Paul). The author of 1-2Kings also called it "the Torah of YHWH," as
did the author of 1-2Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, David, the author of Psa 119,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos (and Luke).
Nowhere in the Gospels that I know of does Jesus himself
say, "the Torah of God" or, "the Torah of YHWH." But given
the overlap of terms in prior Scripture, of "the Torah of Moses/God/YHWH,"
is anyone really going to argue (from silence) that Jesus didn't affirm the
divine origin of the set of writings he referred to as "the Torah of
Moses"? Where does the weight of evidence lie?
Furthermore, if we affirm Jesus as the divine LOGOS who
himself was instrumental in the Israelites receiving the Torah, then it is a
short inference away to assume that Jesus affirmed the divine origin of what he
himself was instrumental in giving them.
On top of that, if we take the speaker of Psa 40:6-8 to
in some sense be the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, as the writer to the Hebrews
obviously did (10:5), then we can note with confidence that he specifically
calls the Torah, "Your Torah" while speaking to "my God"
(Psa 40:8).
When Jesus said "your Torah" to the Jewish
people and their leaders (Joh 8:17; 10:34), he was not somehow disavowing its
divine origins or his duty to obey it himself. He was stressing *their duty* to
obey it. In both instance they were seeking to put someone to death contrary to
the procedures of the Torah. From Christ's words and actions, we may again
infer his acknowledgment that "the Torah of Moses" is indeed
"the Torah of God" and "of YHWH."
-Michael Millier
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