what does it mean to fulfill the Torah Circa Matthew 5:17 ?what if fulfilling the Torah means causing it to overflow? to Super abound? what if it means to surpass Circa Matthew 5:20?
joshualinog
🏹➵𖦏📜 TORAH
the passage
Matthew 5:17-20 SBLGNT 17 Μὴ νομίσητε ὅτι ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον ἢ τοὺς προφήτας· οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι· 18 ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἕως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ, ἰῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου, ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται. 19 ὃς ἐὰν οὖν λύσῃ μίαν τῶν ἐντολῶν τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων καὶ διδάξῃ οὕτως τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἐλάχιστος κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν· ὃς δ’ ἂν ποιήσῃ καὶ διδάξῃ, οὗτος μέγας κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. 20 λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ⸂ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη⸃ πλεῖον τῶν γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.
thoughts
- this is the first mention of scribes and the preamble to discussing the writings and the Torah itself. should it be seen more contextually as comparing the job of teaching the Torah to the contemporaneously accepted teachers of the Torah. in fact this would make more sense of the repeated refrain that will follow which is you have heard it said but I Yeshua say to you . he is not saying you have heard it said in the Torah itself, rather he is saying you have heard it said by your teachers who are the scribes the Pharisees the interpreters of the Torah and the prophets. he may be saying that he as a teacher surpasses them as teachers and he as a teacher is able to make his disciples surpass their current teachers of the Torah the Pharisees.
- semantically there is a commonality between the verb translated as surpass and the verb typically translated as fulfill. they’re semantic background is actually connected and there is overlap if you change the translation of the first verb from fulfill to overflow or super abound or become filled or filling or spilling over Circa Isaiah and the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh covering the Earth as the waters cover the Seas
- Yeshua should be heard here as saying he will bring Torah in the cup up to a full cup, up to perfect Torah, doing Torah so that it is not lacking, or very simply, Torah-fullness! this is in fact how the Torah on the mount ends:Matthew 7:23 LEB And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness or torahlessness!’ here the opposite of Torah-lessness, is torahfulness
- consider that the word used for surpass is actually used in physical quantity language and is translated as two super abound be left over or abound : Matthew 13:12 LEB For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
- therefore the translation should be to fill - up past the Pharisees
- this brings up a very practical and simple question: through what means or mechanism or activity does Yeshua intend to bring Torah to its full unlacking state? through what activity does Yeshua intend to bring Torah abundance? the answer is simple through instructing and being an instructor. this is synonymous with being the messiah! the Messiah has come to bring Torah and to be the superlative best instructor. Christians have read this abstractly as having to do with sacrifice. the verse has nothing to do with Yeshua representatively dealing with death, sacrifice, punishment, retribution, or forgiveness. the verse has to do with him functioning as the Messiah, that is as an instructor instructing! this means he understood himself as doing the job to its maximum of instructing others on how to do Torah ! consider this passage in Matthew Matthew 23:8-10 LEB 8 But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because one is your teacher, and you are all brothers, 9 And do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your heavenly Father. 10 And do not be called teachers, because one is your teacher, the Christ.Yeshua believed that the Messiah would take over the job of instructing the Torah, not getting rid of it. if he was getting rid of anything, it may be getting rid of the job of the scribes and the Pharisees by overtaking and subsuming their role.