JeffinGA - "So the woman gets her hand cut off for trying to help her husband out, but the man who is actually in the fight doesn't get any punishment? I'm still confused as to the logic or reasoning behind this law."
Remember that this was several thousand years ago. Just 200 years ago, the U.S. held a law that a man could club his wife so long as he used a wooden tool within proper measurements and proportions. I'm still confused as to the logic or reasoning behind that law.
The point is this...sometimes non-Christians or non-Jews point to the OT (Tanakh) and say something like "why should my wife get her hand cut off for helping me in a fight?!!!" The answer is, "she shouldn't." That was a civil law and doesn't apply today. Civil punishments for whatever may be considered crimes have changed through the year, and for the better. So the point is not to get hung up on OT civil laws, since they have either changed or don't apply. Focus on the moral laws.
Chokmah - "In Christianity, the Tanakh is secondary."
While some Christians (mostly dispensationalists) do consider the Tanakh secondary, most consider it absolutely equal. Without the OT, we wouldn't know that Christ is Christ. I always debate any Christian who says we don't need the OT or it's not as important. If that's the case, how do we know what the Messiah was supposed to look like without the prophesies?
I lead praise and worship at my church and begin each song with a Bible passage that connects with the song. I find that I read from the OT more often than the NT.
Some Christians would say the church (universal church - God's children) started at Antioch, but I would say it started with Abraham. Some will agree with me and some will disagree. But the fact of the matter is that, in Matthew 5:17, Christ said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to FULFILL them." (emphasis mine) Jesus was very clear that He didn't come to do away with the OT. I see Christianity not as some new religion that started 2,000 years ago, but as a fulfillment of Judaism.
In Romans 9, Paul writes "6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."[b] 8In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
God's children in the OT spent their lives looking forward to the promise that God would some day provide the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin. Christians know that Christ was that perfect sacrifice and we look backward to the cross as the promise that God kept His Word and fulfilled the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin. In other words, I am a child of the promise and regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Shalom.
Remember that this was several thousand years ago. Just 200 years ago, the U.S. held a law that a man could club his wife so long as he used a wooden tool within proper measurements and proportions. I'm still confused as to the logic or reasoning behind that law.
The point is this...sometimes non-Christians or non-Jews point to the OT (Tanakh) and say something like "why should my wife get her hand cut off for helping me in a fight?!!!" The answer is, "she shouldn't." That was a civil law and doesn't apply today. Civil punishments for whatever may be considered crimes have changed through the year, and for the better. So the point is not to get hung up on OT civil laws, since they have either changed or don't apply. Focus on the moral laws.
Chokmah - "In Christianity, the Tanakh is secondary."
While some Christians (mostly dispensationalists) do consider the Tanakh secondary, most consider it absolutely equal. Without the OT, we wouldn't know that Christ is Christ. I always debate any Christian who says we don't need the OT or it's not as important. If that's the case, how do we know what the Messiah was supposed to look like without the prophesies?
I lead praise and worship at my church and begin each song with a Bible passage that connects with the song. I find that I read from the OT more often than the NT.
Some Christians would say the church (universal church - God's children) started at Antioch, but I would say it started with Abraham. Some will agree with me and some will disagree. But the fact of the matter is that, in Matthew 5:17, Christ said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to FULFILL them." (emphasis mine) Jesus was very clear that He didn't come to do away with the OT. I see Christianity not as some new religion that started 2,000 years ago, but as a fulfillment of Judaism.
In Romans 9, Paul writes "6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."[b] 8In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
God's children in the OT spent their lives looking forward to the promise that God would some day provide the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin. Christians know that Christ was that perfect sacrifice and we look backward to the cross as the promise that God kept His Word and fulfilled the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin. In other words, I am a child of the promise and regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Shalom.
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Praise Jesus.
