He called together all the head cohanim and Torah-teachers of the people and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?”

“Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete.

Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.

for he was not instructing them like their Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.

A Torah-teacher approached and said to him, “Rabbi, I will follow you wherever you go.”

On seeing this, some of the Torah-teachers said among themselves, “This man is blaspheming!”

For all the prophets and the Torah prophesied until Yochanan.

“Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the cohanim profane Shabbat and yet are blameless?

At this some of the Torah-teachers said, “Rabbi, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”

The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all the things that cause people to sin and all the people who are far from Torah;

He said to them, “So then, every Torah-teacher who has been made into a talmid for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a home who brings out of his storage room both new things and old.”

since Yochanan had told Herod, “It violates the Torah for you to have her as your wife.”

Then some P’rushim and Torah-teachers from Yerushalayim came to Yeshua and asked him,

From that time on, Yeshua began making it clear to his talmidim that he had to go to Yerushalayim and endure much suffering at the hands of the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and that he had to be put to death; but that on the third day, he had to be raised to life.

The talmidim asked him, “Then why do the Torah-teachers say that Eliyahu must come first?”

“We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the head cohanim and Torah-teachers. They will sentence him to death

But when the head cohanim and Torah-teachers saw the wonderful things he was doing, and the children crying out in the Temple, “Please deliver us!” to the Son of David, they were furious.

So tell us your opinion: does Torah permit paying taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?”

and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh’eilah to trap him:

“Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?”

All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”

“The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim,” he said, “sit in the seat of Moshe.

“But woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! For you are shutting the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces, neither entering yourselves nor allowing those who wish to enter to do so.

“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You go about over land and sea to make one proselyte; and when you succeed, you make him twice as fit for Gei-Hinnom as you are!

“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah — justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to — without neglecting the others!

“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and all kinds of rottenness.

Likewise, you appear to people from the outside to be good and honest, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and far from Torah.

“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the tzaddikim,

Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and Torah-teachers — some of them you will kill, indeed, you will have them executed on stakes as criminals; some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

and many people’s love will grow cold because of increased distance from Torah.

Those who had seized Yeshua led him off to Kayafa the cohen hagadol, where the Torah-teachers and elders were assembled.

Likewise, the head cohanim jeered at him, along with the Torah-teachers and elders,

They were amazed at the way he taught, for he did not instruct them like the Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.

Some Torah-teachers sitting there thought to themselves,

When the Torah-teachers and the P’rushim saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his talmidim, “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”

The Torah-teachers who came down from Yerushalayim said, “He has Ba‘al-Zibbul in him,” and “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.”

but Yochanan had told him, “It violates the Torah for you to marry your brother’s wife.”

The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua

The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?”

He began teaching them that the Son of Man had to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and that he had to be put to death; but that after three days, he had to rise again.

They also asked him, “Why do the Torah-teachers say that Eliyahu has to come first?”

When they got back to the talmidim, they saw a large crowd around them and some Torah-teachers arguing with them.

Some P’rushim came up and tried to trap him by asking him, “Does the Torah permit a man to divorce his wife?”

“We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers. They will sentence him to death and turn him over to the Goyim,

The head cohanim and the Torah-teachers heard what he said and tried to find a way to do away with him; they were afraid of him, because the crowds were utterly taken by his teaching.

They went back into Yerushalayim; and as he was walking in the Temple courts, there came to him the head cohanim, the Torah-teachers and the elders;

They came and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and are not concerned with what people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person’s status but really teach what God’s way is. Does Torah say that taxes are to be paid to the Roman Emperor, or not?”

One of the Torah-teachers came up and heard them engaged in this discussion. Seeing that Yeshua answered them well, he asked him, “Which is the most important mitzvah of them all?”

The Torah-teacher said to him, “Well said, Rabbi; you speak the truth when you say that he is one, and that there is no other besides him;

As Yeshua was teaching in the Temple, he asked, “How is it that the Torah-teachers say the Messiah is the Son of David?

As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers who like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces,

It was now two days before Pesach (that is, the festival of Matzah), and the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers were trying to find some way to arrest Yeshua surreptitiously and have him put to death;

While Yeshua was still speaking, Y’hudah (one of the Twelve!) came, and with him a crowd carrying swords and clubs, from the head cohanim, the Torah-teachers and the elders.

They led Yeshua to the cohen hagadol, with whom all the head cohanim, elders and Torah-teachers were assembling.

As soon as it was morning, the head cohanim held a council meeting with the elders, the Torah-teachers and the whole Sanhedrin. Then they put Yeshua in chains, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

Likewise, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers made fun of him, saying to each other, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself!”

When the time came for their purification according to the Torah of Moshe, they took him up to Yerushalayim to present him to Adonai

(as it is written in the Torah of Adonai, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to Adonai”)

and also to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the Torah of Adonai.

Prompted by the Spirit, he went into the Temple courts; and when the parents brought in the child Yeshua to do for him what the Torah required,

When Yosef and Miryam had finished doing everything required by the Torah of Adonai, they returned to the Galil, to their town Natzeret.

One day when Yeshua was teaching, there were P’rushim and Torah-teachers present who had come from various villages in the Galil and Y’hudah, also from Yerushalayim; and the power of Adonai was with him to heal the sick.

The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim began thinking, “Who is this fellow that speaks such blasphemies? Who can forgive sin except God?”

The P’rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?”

The Torah-teachers and P’rushim watched Yeshua carefully to see if he would heal on Shabbat, so that they could accuse him of something.

but the P’rushim and the Torah-teachers, by not letting themselves be immersed by him, nullified for themselves God’s plan.

adding, “The Son of Man has to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and he has to be put to death; but on the third day, he has to be raised to life.”

An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking, “Rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?”

But Yeshua said to him, “What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?”

One of the experts in Torah answered him, “Rabbi, by saying these things you are insulting us also.”

Yeshua said, “Woe to you Torah experts too! You load people down with burdens they can hardly bear, and you won’t lift a finger to help them!

“Woe to you Torah experts! For you have taken away the key of knowledge! Not only did you yourselves not go in, you also have stopped those who were trying to enter!”

As Yeshua left that place, the Torah-teachers and the P’rushim began to oppose him bitterly and to provoke him to express his views on all sorts of subjects,

Yeshua spoke up and asked the Torah experts and P’rushim, “Does the Torah allow healing on Shabbat or not?”

and the P’rushim and Torah-teachers kept grumbling. “This fellow,” they said, “welcomes sinners — he even eats with them!”

Up to the time of Yochanan there were the Torah and the Prophets. Since then the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is pushing to get in.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the Torah to become void.

Every day he taught at the Temple. The head cohanim, the Torah-teachers and the leaders of the people tried to find a way of putting an end to him;

One day, as Yeshua was teaching the people at the Temple, making known the Good News, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers, along with the elders, came up to him

The Torah-teachers and the head cohanim would have seized him at that very moment, because they knew that he had aimed this parable at them, but they were afraid of the people.

Does Torah permit us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?”

Some of the Torah-teachers answered, “Well spoken, Rabbi.”

“Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers that like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, the kind that like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets,

and the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers began trying to find some way to get rid of Yeshua, because they were afraid of the people.

At daybreak, the people’s council of elders, including both head cohanim and Torah-teachers, met and led him off to their Sanhedrin,

However, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers stood there, vehemently pressing their case against him.

Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.”

For the Torah was given through Moshe; grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah.

Philip found Natan’el and told him, “We’ve found the one that Moshe wrote about in the Torah, also the Prophets — it’s Yeshua Ben-Yosef from Natzeret!”

so the Judeans said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! It’s against Torah for you to carry your mat!”

Didn’t Moshe give you the Torah? Yet not one of you obeys the Torah! Why are you out to kill me?”

If a boy is circumcised on Shabbat so that the Torah of Moshe will not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man’s whole body well on Shabbat?

True, these ‘am-ha’aretz do, but they know nothing about the Torah, they are under a curse!”

“Our Torah doesn’t condemn a man — does it? — until after hearing from him and finding out what he’s doing.”

The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and made her stand in the center of the group.

Now in our Torah, Moshe commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. What do you say about it?”

And even in your Torah it is written that the testimony of two people is valid.

Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah, ‘I have said, “You people are Elohim’ ”?

The crowd answered, “We have learned from the Torah that the Messiah remains forever. How is it that you say the Son of Man has to be ‘lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

But this has happened in order to fulfill the words in their Torah which read, ‘They hated me for no reason at all.’

This man was arrested in accordance with God’s predetermined plan and foreknowledge; and, through the agency of persons not bound by the Torah, you nailed him up on a stake and killed him!

The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim,

But one of the members of the Sanhedrin rose to his feet, a Parush named Gamli’el, a teacher of the Torah highly respected by all the people. He ordered the men put outside for a little while

They stirred up the people, as well as the elders and the Torah-teachers; so they came and arrested him and led him before the Sanhedrin.

There they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the Torah;

you! — who receive the Torah as having been delivered by angels — but do not keep it!”

After the reading from the Torah and from the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent them a message, “Brothers, if any of you has a word of exhortation for the people, speak!”

That is, God clears everyone who puts his trust in this man, even in regard to all the things concerning which you could not be cleared by the Torah of Moshe.

But some of those who had come to trust were from the party of the P’rushim; and they stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe.”

saying, “This man is trying to persuade people to worship God in ways that violate the Torah.”

On hearing it, they praised God; but they also said to him, “You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Judeans, and they are all zealots for the Torah.

Take them with you, be purified with them, and pay the expenses connected with having their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to these rumors which they have heard about you; but that, on the contrary, you yourself stay in line and keep the Torah.

“Men of Isra’el, help!” they shouted. “This is the man who goes everywhere teaching everyone things against the people, against the Torah and against this place! And now he has even brought some Goyim into the Temple and defiled this holy place!”

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of Gamli’el in every detail of the Torah of our forefathers. I was a zealot for God, as all of you are today.

“A man named Hananyah, an observant follower of the Torah who was highly regarded by the entire Jewish community there,

Then Sha’ul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Will you sit there judging me according to the Torah, yet in violation of the Torah order me to be struck?”

Sha’ul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was the cohen hagadol; for it says in the Torah, ‘You are not to speak disparagingly of a ruler of your people.’”

So there was a great uproar, with some of the Torah-teachers who were on the side of the P’rushim standing up and joining in — “We don’t find anything wrong with this man; and if a spirit or an angel spoke to him, what of it?”

I found that he was charged in connection with questions of their “Torah” but that there was no charge deserving death or prison.

“But this I do admit to you: I worship the God of our fathers in accordance with the Way (which they call a sect). I continue to believe everything that accords with the Torah and everything written in the Prophets.

In reply, Sha’ul said, “I have committed no offense — not against the Torah to which the Jews hold, not against the Temple, and not against the Emperor.”

So they arranged a day with him and came to his quarters in large numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, giving a thorough witness about the Kingdom of God and making use of both the Torah of Moshe and the Prophets to persuade them about Yeshua.

All who have sinned outside the framework of Torah will die outside the framework of Torah; and all who have sinned within the framework of Torah will be judged by Torah.

For it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God’s sight.

For whenever Gentiles, who have no Torah, do naturally what the Torah requires, then these, even though they don’t have Torah, for themselves are Torah!

For their lives show that the conduct the Torah dictates is written in their hearts. Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them

But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God

and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah;

an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth;

You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? —

For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!

Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b’rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it!

Moreover, we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those living within the framework of the Torah, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God’s adverse judgment.

For in his sight no one alive will be considered righteous on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, because what Torah really does is show people how sinful they are.

But now, quite apart from Torah, God’s way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well —

So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting.

Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands.

Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.

The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as God’s free gift, a promise that can be relied on by all the seed, not only those who live within the framework of the Torah, but also those with the kind of trust Avraham had — Avraham avinu for all of us.

Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.

And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more.

Surely you know, brothers — for I am speaking to those who understand Torah — that the Torah has authority over a person only so long as he lives?

For example, a married woman is bound by Torah to her husband while he is alive; but if the husband dies, she is released from the part of the Torah that deals with husbands.

Therefore, while the husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress if she marries another man; but if the husband dies, she is free from that part of the Torah; so that if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

Thus, my brothers, you have been made dead with regard to the Torah through the Messiah’s body, so that you may belong to someone else, namely, the one who has been raised from the dead, in order for us to bear fruit for God.

For when we were living according to our old nature, the passions connected with sins worked through the Torah in our various parts, with the result that we bore fruit for death.

But now we have been released from this aspect of the Torah, because we have died to that which had us in its clutches, so that we are serving in the new way provided by the Spirit and not in the old way of outwardly following the letter of the law.

Therefore, what are we to say? That the Torah is sinful? Heaven forbid! Rather, the function of the Torah was that without it, I would not have known what sin is. For example, I would not have become conscious of what greed is if the Torah had not said, “Thou shalt not covet.”

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of evil desires — for apart from Torah, sin is dead.

I was once alive outside the framework of Torah. But when the commandment really encountered me, sin sprang to life,

So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.

For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave.

Now if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the Torah is good.

So I find it to be the rule, a kind of perverse “torah,” that although I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me!

For in my inner self I completely agree with God’s Torah;

but in my various parts, I see a different “torah,” one that battles with the Torah in my mind and makes me a prisoner of sin’s “torah,” which is operating in my various parts.

Thanks be to God [, he will]! — through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord! To sum up: with my mind, I am a slave of God’s Torah; but with my old nature, I am a slave of sin’s “Torah.”

Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the “Torah” of sin and death.

For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing he executed the punishment against sin in human nature,

so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old nature wants but according to what the Spirit wants.

For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah — indeed, it cannot.

the people of Isra’el! They were made God’s children, the Sh’khinah has been with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the Temple service and the promises;

However, Isra’el, even though they kept pursuing a Torah that offers righteousness, did not reach what the Torah offers.

For the goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts.

For Moshe writes about the righteousness grounded in the Torah that the person who does these things will attain life through them.

Don’t owe anyone anything — except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled Torah.

Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah.

Where does that leave the philosopher, the Torah-teacher, or any of today’s thinkers? Hasn’t God made this world’s wisdom look pretty foolish?

What I am saying is not based merely on human authority, because the Torah says the same thing —

for in the Torah of Moshe it is written, “You are not to put a muzzle on an ox when it is treading out the grain.” If God is concerned about cattle,

That is, with Jews, what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews. With people in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah, I put myself in the position of someone under such legalism, in order to win those under this legalism, even though I myself am not in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah.

With those who live outside the framework of Torah, I put myself in the position of someone outside the Torah in order to win those outside the Torah — although I myself am not outside the framework of God’s Torah but within the framework of Torah as upheld by the Messiah.

In the Torah it is written, “By other tongues, by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people. But even then they will not listen to me,” says Adonai.

let the wives remain silent when the congregation meets; they are certainly not permitted to speak out. Rather, let them remain subordinate, as also the Torah says;

The sting of death is sin; and sin draws its power from the Torah;

“But,” says the Torah, “whenever someone turns to Adonai, the veil is taken away.”

even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous by God on the ground of his legalistic observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua’s trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we too have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to him, in order that we might be declared righteous on the ground of the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness and not on the ground of our legalistic observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous.

For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God.

I want to know from you just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance of Torah commands or by trusting in what you heard and being faithful to it?

What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you — does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?

For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse, since it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the Scroll of the Torah.”

The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf; for the Tanakh says, “Everyone who hangs from a stake comes under a curse.”

Here is what I am saying: the legal part of the Torah, which came into being 430 years later, does not nullify an oath sworn by God, so as to abolish the promise.

For if the inheritance comes from the legal part of the Torah, it no longer comes from a promise. But God gave it to Avraham through a promise.

So then, why the legal part of the Torah? It was added in order to create transgressions, until the coming of the seed about whom the promise had been made. Moreover, it was handed down through angels and a mediator.

Does this mean that the legal part of the Torah stands in opposition to God’s promises? Heaven forbid! For if the legal part of the Torah which God gave had had in itself the power to give life, then righteousness really would have come by legalistically following such a Torah.

Now before the time for this trusting faithfulness came, we were imprisoned in subjection to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism, kept under guard until this yet-to-come trusting faithfulness would be revealed.

Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a custodian until the Messiah came, so that we might be declared righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful.

but when the appointed time arrived, God sent forth his Son. He was born from a woman, born into a culture in which legalistic perversion of the Torah was the norm,

Tell me, you who want to be in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism, don’t you hear what the Torah itself says?

Again, I warn you: any man who undergoes b’rit-milah is obligated to observe the entire Torah!

For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself”;

But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.

humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

Bear one another’s burdens — in this way you will be fulfilling the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds.

For even those who are getting circumcised don’t observe the Torah. On the contrary, they want you to get circumcised so that they can boast of having gained your adherence.

by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom,

b’rit-milah on the eighth day,by birth belonging to the people of Isra’el,from the tribe of Binyamin,a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents,in regard to the Torah, a Parush,

Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom.

For already this separating from Torah is at work secretly, but it will be secretly only until he who is restraining is out of the way.

Then the one who embodies separation from Torah will be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the glory of his coming.

When this man who avoids Torah comes, the Adversary will give him the power to work all kinds of false miracles, signs and wonders.

They want to be teachers of Torah, but they understand neither their own words nor the matters about which they make such emphatic pronouncements.

We know that the Torah is good, provided one uses it in the way the Torah itself intends.

We are aware that Torah is not for a person who is righteous, but for those who are heedless of Torah and rebellious, ungodly and sinful, wicked and worldly, for people who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

He gave himself up on our behalf in order to free us from all violation of Torah and purify for himself a people who would be his own, eager to do good.

But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, quarrels and fights about the Torah; because they are worthless and futile.

Do your best to help Zenas the Torah expert and Apollos with their arrangements for travelling, so that they will lack nothing.

Now the descendants of Levi who became cohanim have a commandment in the Torah to take a tenth of the income of the people, that is, from their own brothers, despite the fact that they too are descended from Avraham.

Therefore, if it had been possible to reach the goal through the system of cohanim derived from Levi (since in connection with it, the people were given the Torah), what need would there have been for another, different kind of cohen, the one spoken of as to be compared with Malki-Tzedek and not to be compared with Aharon?

For if the system of cohanim is transformed, there must of necessity occur a transformation of Torah.

one who became a cohen not by virtue of a rule in the Torah concerning physical descent, but by virtue of the power of an indestructible life.

(for the Torah did not bring anything to the goal); and, on the other hand, a hope of something better is introduced, through which we are drawing near to God.

For the Torah appoints as cohanim g’dolim men who have weakness; but the text which speaks about the swearing of the oath, a text written later than the Torah, appoints a Son who has been brought to the goal forever.

Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a cohen at all, since there already are cohanim offering the gifts required by the Torah.

But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises.

“‘For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Isra’el after those days,’ says Adonai: ‘I will put my Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

After Moshe had proclaimed every command of the Torah to all the people, he took the blood of the calves with some water and used scarlet wool and hyssop to sprinkle both the scroll itself and all the people;

In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

For the Torah has in it a shadow of the good things to come, but not the actual manifestation of the originals. Therefore, it can never, by means of the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, bring to the goal those who approach the Holy Place to offer them.

In saying first, “You neither willed nor were pleased with animal sacrifices, meal offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings,” things which are offered in accordance with the Torah;

“ ‘This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days,’ says Adonai: ‘I will put my Torah on their hearts, and write it on their minds . . . ,’ ”

Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.

But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.

If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.

For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all.

For the One who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah.

Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom.

Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge.

There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?

Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah.