The Law of Moses: Commentaries on the Old and New Testament Law

By Roderick O. Ford

The Law of Moses: Commentaries on the New and Old Testament Law is a simple yet thought-provoking analysis of the Mosaic legal code found in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It carefully analyzes the Old Testament Law as the foundation of the New Testament Gospel, and it places them within the context of parables and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The Law of Moses is especially useful for those persons who are familiar with the New Testament and the teachings of Christ but who have not yet studied the deeper meanings of the Old Testament Law. This book is also a great Bible-study companion that is practical and useful for knowledgeable and experienced Christians, Muslims, and Jews, including lawyers, pastors, and theologians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524576592

Roderick O. Ford

Roderick Ford is the proud grandson and grandnephew of Methodist ministers. He is a former officer in the United States Army and holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Christian Bible Institute & Seminary and a Doctor of Letters in Christian Theology-Law and Religion from St. Clements University. He is a graduate of Morgan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (College of Law). Mr. Ford holds professional designations from Michigan State University, Cornell University, and the Human Resource Certification Institute. Mr. Ford is the rector of the St. Luke’s Inn of Court International (“The Labor Ministry”), which is a professional organization for Christian professionals and a chaplaincy service that is designed to assist churches, bible colleges, and other faith-based organizations with addressing workplace equity and justice. Mr. Ford practices law as a solo practitioner in Tampa, Florida. You may visit his office online at www.fordlawfirm.org. You may also visit the St. Luke’s Inn of Court at www.laborministries.org. May God richly bless you, and thanks so much for your support!

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Copyright © 2017 by Roderick O. Ford.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-7660-8

                eBook           978-1-5245-7659-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Rev. date: 01/18/2017

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One The Law Of Moses: General Duty Of Holiness

§ 1.   The Ten Commandments (Statute)

§ 2.   The Law Of Justice, Blessing And Curse (Statute)

§ 3.   The Law Of Righteous Judgment (Statute)

§ 4.   The Law Of Holiness, Righteousness And Just Judgment (Statute)

Chapter Two The Law Of Moses: Foodstuff And Meat Offering

§ 1.   The Law Of The Burnt Offering (Statute)

§ 2.   The Law Of The Drink Offering (Statute)

§ 3.   The Law Of The Grain Offering (Statute)

§ 4.   The Law Of The Heave Offering (Statute)

§ 5.   The Law Of The Meat Offering (Statute)

§ 6.   The Law Of The Peace Offering (Statute)

§ 7.   The Law Of The Sin Offering (Statute)

§ 8.   The Law Of The Wave Offering (Statute)

Chapter Three The Law Of Moses: General Laws On Atonement

§ 1.   The Law Of Vows, Sanctification, Dedication, And Tithes (Statute)

§ 2.   The Law Of Annual Atonement (Statute)

§ 3.   The Law Of The Red Heifer (Statute)

Chapter Four The Law Of Moses: Sexual Relations, Dietary Laws, Health And Sanitation

§ 1.   The Law Of Health And Sanitation (Statute)

§ 2.   The Law Of Maternity (Statute)

§ 3.   The Law Of Sex, Sexuality, And Sexual Relations (Statute)

§ 4.   The Dietary Law (Statute)

Chapter Five The Law Of Moses: Laborers, Slaves, Debtors, And Finance

§ 1.   The Law Of Debtors And Discharge Of Debts (Statutes)

§ 2.   The Law Of Slavery (Statute)

§ 3.   The Law Of Usury (Statute)

§ 4.   The Law Of Tithing (Statute)

Chapter Six The Law Of Moses: Priests, Levites And Nazarenes

§ 1.   The Law Of The Levites (Statute)

§ 2.   The Law Of The Nazarite (Statute)

Chapter Seven The Law Of Moses In Judaism And Islam

§ 1.   The Law Of Moses In Judaism

§ 2.   The Law Of Moses (Torah, Talmud, And Quran) In Islam

§ 3.   The Law Of Moses (Torah, Talmud, And Quran) In Islam (Part 2)

§ 4.   The Law Of Moses And The Messiah

Chapter Eight A Final Word

References

About The Author

DEDICATION

In Tribute to

The Reverend John Wesley (1703-1791)

and

The Holy Club at Oxford and the Methodist Movements

within

The Church of England

and

The United Methodist Church

of

The United States of America

2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I hereby extend a very special appreciation to all of the men and women at the Christian Bible Institute & Seminary and the St. Clements Education Group (St. Clements University) for providing pioneering distance education to men and women throughout the world and for partnering with the St. Luke’s Inn of Court. I also extend a very special appreciation to those who worked with me in the Labor Ministry, Inc. (St. Luke’s Inn of Court) over the past few years, including Rev. Willie Branch, Jr.; Rev. Charles Davis; Rev. Gregory Gay; Evangelist Ronline Cannady; Attorney Kamilah Perry; Patricia Stephens; Jo Anna Williams; my fellow A.M.E. Brother Henry Smith; Dr. Tony V. Lewis of the Christian Bible Institute & Seminary; Dr. David Le Cornu of the St. Clements University; Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Michael Miller, both of the Payne Theological Seminary, and many others.

PREFACE

This book is actually a sequel to The Parables of Christ: Commentaries of Jesus of Nazareth’s Interpretations of the Law of Moses (2015, 2017). I realized after completing The Parables of Christ, that a second book, devoted wholly to analyzing the Law of Moses, was fully appropriate. This book is designed to provide the reader, particularly Christian readers, with a quick overview of a rather complex, ancient legal code. I write as a Christian, and so my perspective is Christian. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to be scholarly and objective, and to take into account all three of the Abrahamic faith traditions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. I have gained a new appreciation for Islam and Judaism in the process and new insights on the possibility of ecumenical cooperation between all three Abrahamic faith traditions. In presenting this book, I have also embraced the viewpoints of St. Paul and St. Augustine of Hippo that the Law of Moses was preceded by, and was designed to implement, the covenant that was given to Abraham. St. Paul, a former Jewish Pharisee, was a de facto doctor of the law of faith. He often referred to faith as the conscience. St. Paul’s ministry explained how this internal conscience was in reality the same law as the Law of Moses. According to St. Paul, a law of faith, or universal moral law, pre-dated the Law of Moses. Father Abraham is, according to St. Paul, the key to the law of faith. St. Paul wrote:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God give it to Abraham by promise [i.e., covenant].¹

Abraham believed God, St. Paul wrote, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.² Thus, the fact that Abraham believed God, and that God considered Abraham’s belief as righteousness, was very significant to St. Paul’s understanding of faith. For instance, St. Paul acknowledged that there were non-Christian Gentiles who which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.³ For when the Gentiles, wrote St. Paul, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.⁴ Is he the God of the Jews only? asked St. Paul. is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.⁵ What shall we say then? St Paul also asked. That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.⁶ Here St. Paul acknowledges that even the righteousness which is of faith had already been attained by the Gentiles, who had neither the Law of Moses nor any knowledge of Jesus Christ. Thus, we may also conceptualize the Abrahamic faith as a non-sectarian concept, as well as a religious idea. Indeed, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians⁷ and that the Law of Moses does bear a striking resemblance to ancient Egyptian jurisprudence and literature.⁸ I do not expound upon this subject at all in this book, but the topic is very important for those who may be reading this book from a purely scholarly or secular viewpoint. I believe that the Law of Moses, as an extraction of ancient Egyptian civilization and culture, can be viewed not simply as the foundation of the Christian religion but also as the foundation of western jurisprudence, with similarities to pagan Greco-Roman natural law.⁹ Thus, Law of Moses (and the Abrahamic faith tradition) may also be conceptualized as non-sectarian, moral and legal reasoning and as natural moral law, which serves the foundation of mores, folkways, cultural norms, customary law, statutory law, constitutional law, etc.¹⁰ Thus, from this perspective, the Law of Moses may be viewed as an important ancient legal code for world jurisprudence, including Roman law and Anglo-American common law.¹¹

The Law of Moses is also the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. From the Christian point of view, I have borrowed heavily from St. Augustine of Hippo, who writes, "[f]or when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, ‘There is no good for a man, except that he should eat and drink,’ what can he be more credibly understood to say, than what belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognize the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking through the prophecy, ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; but a body has Thou perfected for me.’ Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served up to the partakers of it."¹² In other words, according to Christian dogma, the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross, followed by his resurrection from the dead, supersede and replace all of the sacrifices required in the Law of Moses. However, as I have pointed out in The Parables of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth had no intention of repealing the spirit, the heart, or the moral substance of the Law of Moses. Instead, Jesus’ ministry was designed to provide an alternative method of fulfilling this law. What this book allows us to do is to carefully analyze specific Mosaic statutes and codes and, next, question whether it makes sense for Christians to still adhere to them or not. It allows us to separate those Mosaic laws which were clearly replaced by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and which Mosaic laws that clearly continue to have force and validity, such as the obligation to do justice and judgment and The Ten Commandments. In summary, I have concluded that the central objective of the Law of Moses, the Gospel of Christ, and the Moslem doctrine of submission is holiness, or the holy life, which is also virtue. It is from this perspective that I present this book, The Law of Moses, which purports that this ancient Law, including all of its outdated rituals and sacrifices, continue to reflect the mind and personality of God and to symbolize the true meaning of holiness and virtue. While the Christian no longer considers these symbolic sacrifices to be necessary, and while the Jew can no longer perform most of them, since the Temple in Jerusalem is no longer in existence, the central meaning of contrition, sacrifice, attention to detail, and devotion under the Gospel of Christ is not different in quality and content than in ancient Israel under the old Mosaic legal code. In fact, Jesus’ message in the four Gospels repeatedly required his followers to be perfect.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that when Moses issued the Law of Moses (i.e., the Pentateuch), he did so, while under very difficult and trying circumstances in a wilderness, to a large number of people who were only recently emancipated from Egyptian slavery. To my mind, this is very significant, because it reveals to me that the Law of Moses was especially designed for a specific category of persons (i.e., ancient Israelites), and that it was narrowly tailored to teach them in, what I have dubbed the Arts and Sciences of Virtuous and Righteous Living. I can easily imagine that these people were likely illiterate, not well-educated, undisciplined without a taskmaster, fearful, and not self-sufficient. They must have also been very superstitious as well, thus explaining the reasons their constructed a golden calf to worship it. Indeed, the Law of Moses was narrowly tailored for people who were superstitious and sinful. For this reason, the Law of Moses is a book of religious instruction and a guide for superstitious, sinful people. These superstitious, sinful people were trying to climb out of moral and spiritual enslavement to sin. Indeed, like these ancient Israelites, most persons today also need the disciplining hand of religious ritual, in order to learn the true meaning of virtue, holiness or the holy life.¹³ Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been great pastors who cared deeply for the souls of the poor and who endeavored to elevate them, not simply from physical slavery, but also from mental or spiritual slavery as well. Following in the footsteps of Moses, the great lawgiver, I commend the life and legacy of the Rev. Alexander Crummell (1819- 1898), an African American Episcopal Priest, who wrought a great work among the African American freedmen during the late nineteenth century.

INTRODUCTION

Why should secular lawyers, jurists, scholars, and non-religious persons study the Law of Moses in the twenty-first century? It is because the Law of Moses continues to reflect the most fundamental and basic ideas and ideals of right and wrong; natural justice; natural equity; ethics; and jurisprudence.¹⁴ Indeed, it is quite likely that the Law of Moses, its spirit together with its body, were infused into the traditions of the Anglo-Saxons and Normans who gave birth to the English common law. Although this book was written to address a religious audience, I have written it with an open invitation to the non-believer in mind. Although I do not make a claim that one single individual named Moses actually wrote the entire Pentateuch (i.e., the Law of Moses), I do believe that the Law of Moses should be objectively studied as tool to construct a just social order, alongside, and similar to, the study of political science, economics, law, and sociology. For the purpose of simplicity, I refer to Moses as a real person who authored the entire Pentateuch. I am aware that many scholars dispute the single-person authorship of the Law of Moses. I do not, believe, however, that this dispute is operative or relevant to the subject matter of this book. What should matter is that the Law of Moses exists, that it has moral authority, and that it has exercised a profound influence upon the civilized world for multiple centuries.

Throughout this book, I not only look at a few antiquated, ancient Mosaic codes, but I ask, What is the real purpose of this particular Mosaic code, and does it have a modern-day counterpart or corollary from which we may extract certain basic, universal, ethical, or Christian principles? Since this book is written from a Christian perspective, I also ask, Did the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross annul this particular Mosaic code, or is it still relevant and applicable? In the end, I have concluded that the genius of Moses was that he understood human beings and human psychology, the value of symbolism, and the need for establishing social custom in order to ensure a just social order and compliance with law. The Law of Moses appears to have been designed to teach a newly-emancipated nation on how to comply with divine law. Law grows out of custom and culture; but, for Moses, the law of God required the development of godly custom, ritual, and culture in order to remain in compliance. What Moses was aiming for was