The Story of Torah
As a Christian, we often struggle to understand what we should do with “all those oppressive Old Testament laws” that we supposedly don’t have to live under because of Jesus. I say “supposedly” because in practice you won’t find many Christians who say “Because of Jesus, I’m free to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie in court, all on my way to pagan worship of other gods.” But if as a Christian I do say, “I’m no longer under the law” isn’t it consistent with saying I can live however I want? As many have pointed out, “Law” is an unfortunate translation of torah. Using ‘teaching’ or ‘instruction’ better prepares us for the material we meet in the first five books of the Bible. After all, you read about 70 chapters of ‘story’ before you get material that you could call “law”. It is true that 58 chapters of the 189 in the Torah do contain laws, but a majority of what we call “The Law” is a story. A better way to understand torah is to watch what happens in its story. The