Defining the Word Torah

A comprehensive grasp of Torah, both with the head and heart, is essential if one is to not only understand the heart of YHVH Elohim, but to understand the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith, for a love and comprehension of Torah is to grasp with the heart and mind the very fabric, foundation and bedrock of the Testimony of Yeshua (New Testament). But what does the word Torah actually mean? Hebrew is a rich language. A single word can have a multiplicity of connotations at all levels of human comprehension, experience. Spiritual implications beyond the ken of human understanding can be found therein.

For nearly 2000 years since the time the Christian church departed from its Hebrew roots (in the early to mid second-century of the common era) the Hebrew word Torah (Strong’s H8451, TWOT 910b) has been translated in the writings of Christian theologians and in all of the most common English Bible’s as law. Is this an accurate translation of the Hebrew word Torah? Does it capture the true essence, heart and meaning of the word? This is an important question to answer.

If we were to ask you to technically define any English word you could avail yourself of a dictionary which should give you the precise meaning of that word. In any college level dictionary a word will have a primary meaning, after which follows on average of three to five additional definitions for that word. Each subsequent definition typically is broader in scope and less literal than the first definition given. Should we, for example, ask you to define the word circle, would you give me dictionary definition number five (“a cycle”) or six (“a group of persons sharing a common interest”), or would you give me the dictionary’s primary definition: “a ring or a halo”? Yet Christian theologians and Bible translators for nearly two thousand years having been defining Torah using not its primary, but its fourth or fifth Hebrew definition. This is either dishonest or ignorant scholarship or perhaps translation bias. Which one? You be the judge. But history bears out the fact that the “Christian church” has the blood of more Jews on its hands than any other religious group on the planet. The facts ought to speak for themselves. The church has had a perennial grudge against (putting it mildly), if not hatred for the Jews and their Tanakh (whom the early church fathers derisively referred to as the “Old” Testament connoting that which is worn out, no longer valid or applicable and i.e. passé) since the second-century. A cursory glance at the writings of the earliest church fathers writing in the early to middle part of the second-century verifies what we have stated (see Ignatius [ca. a.d. 50-115] in his Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, chap. 10; Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, chap. 4; The Epistle of Barnabas [of Alexandria, Egypt], chapters 2, 13 and 14 [ca. a.d. 100-120]; Irenaeus [ca. a.d. 120-202] Against Heresies, Book 4, chap. 16.5; Justin Martyr in Dialogue of Justin Martyr With Trypho the Jew, chap. 11 [ca. a.d. 160]).

The primary meaning of the word Torah (Strong’s H8451, TWOT 910b), according to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament is “teaching” (and not “law”). Strong’s Concordance lists the meaning of Torah in this order: “a precept, a statute.” The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon defines Torah as “direction, instruction, law”  (in that order). According to Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,

Torah signifies primarily “direction, teaching, instruction” (Prov 13:14). It is derived from the verb yarah [VRH] [meaning] ‘to project, point out’ (3384) and hence to point out or teach. The law of [Elohim] is that which points out or indicates His will to man … Seen against its background of the verb yarah, it becomes clear that Torah is much more than law or a set of rules. Torah is not restriction or hindrance, but instead the means whereby one can reach a goal or ideal.

The TWOT similarly states,

The word Torah means basically teaching whether it is the wise man instructing his son or [Elohim] instructing Israel. The wise give insight into all aspects of life so that the young may know how to conduct themselves and to live a long blessed life (Prov 3:1f). So too [Elohim], motivated by love, reveals to man basic insights into how to live with each other and how to approach [Elohim]. Through the law [Elohim] shows his interest in all aspects of man’s life which is to be lived under his direction and care. Law of [Elohim] stands parallel to [the] word of [YHVH] to signify that law is the revelation of [Elohim’s] will (e.g. Isa 1:10).

As already noted, the word Torah originates from the root word yarah  (Strong’s H3384) which means “to flow as water, to lay or throw as in shooting an arrow; to point out as if aiming the finger to make a point, to teach.” Another cognate (related word) of the word Torah is the Hebrew word moreh (Strong’s H4175) which means “teacher or archer (as in one who shoots at a target).” Moreh derives from the same Hebrew root word, yarah, as does Torah. Therefore, when one is walking according to the Torah of YHVH Elohim, one is walking in the light of YHVH’s truth, which is hitting the mark of righteousness. Likewise, YHVH’s teachings or instructions are a river of life flowing from his throne aimed at hitting the mark of truth and righteousness. By contrast, the Hebrew word for sin is chata (Strong’s H2298) which means “to miss the mark,” i.e., transgressing the Torah as 1 John 3:4 states, “Sin is the transgression of the Torah.” 

Here is what Scripture says about the Torah of Elohim:

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Torah is the truth. (Ps 119:142)

For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. (Prov 6:23)

[Yeshua speaking], Think not that I am come to destroy the Torah, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. (Matt 5:17)

[Yeshua speaking], For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one yud [the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet] or one tittle [the smallest flourish, overhang or crown on a Hebrew letter] shall in no wise pass from the Torah, till all be fulfilled [i.e. till heaven and earth pass away]. (Matt 5:18)

Wherefore the Torah is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Rom 7:12)

For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Rom 7:14)

He that said, I know him, and keeps not his [Torah] commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)

 

We have just given you the technical meaning of the word Torah, But what is the general, colloquial or common meaning of the word? It connotes different meanings to different people. In its strictest sense the Torah refers to the first five books of YHVH’s Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy which are referred to as the books of Moses since he was YHVH’s instrument for putting them into written form. Christians refer to these five books as The Pentateuch while Jews call them The Chumash.

In the Jewish religion, the term Torah can also refer to the entire Tanakh as well as the Jewish rabbinical commentaries (called the Oral Torah) on the Chumash (e.g. Mishna, Gemara and Talmud). While some aspects of these works may be enlightening from an historical perspective, we do not view the Oral Torah as inspired or indispensable for the understanding of Scripture.

When we use the term Torah we are referring to the Chumash or Pentateuch. We believe that it this is the Written Torah while the Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) being the Word of Elohim in flesh-form is the Living Torah (John 1:1–4; 1 John 1:1–3; Rev 19:13).

The Whole of the Torah Can Be Summed Up in One Sentence

The Tanakh and Jewish writings contain a number of phrases which express the quintessential essence of the Torah. One of these best-known passages naming several of these phrases is in the Jewish Talmud:

“[R.] Simlai said, ‘613 commandments were given to Moses—365 negative mitzvot (commandments), the same as the number of days in the year, and 248 positive mitzvot, the same as the number of parts in a man’s body. David came and reduced them to eleven (Ps 15), Isaiah to six (Isa 33:15), Micah to three (Micah 6:8), Isaiah again to two—“Observe and do righteousness” (Isa 56:1). Then Amos came and reduced them to one, “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4)—as did Habakkuk, “The righteous one will live by his trusting [or by faith] (Habakkuk 2:4)”’ (Makkot 23b–24a, abridged) (Jewish New Testament Commentary, by David Stern, p. 565).

We see some of these same Torah summation type statements in the Testimony of Yeshua. For example, the phrase, “the just shall live by faith” is found in three passages of the Testimony of Yeshua (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38); In Leviticus 19:18 we find the phrase, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the summation of the last five of the famous Ten Commandments which in itself is a summation of any of the 613 Torah commandments which relate to human relationships. We see both Yeshua in his famous “Golden Rule” passage of Matthew 7:12, “Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Paul echoes this concept in Romans 13:8, “Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of the Torah.” Love is the foundation and quintessential concept behind the Torah-law of Elohim. Yeshua states this in Mark 12:29-31,

And Yeshua answered him, The first of all the [Torah] commandments is, Hear, O Israel; YHVH our Elohim is one Master: And thou shalt love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love your neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Love must be the motive behind all our righteous deeds or else our actions count for nothing (1 Cor 13:1–13). The concept of love and the keeping of YHVH’s Torah-law are codependent actions. One cannot exist without the other. John, in his epistle, discusses this idea at length in 1 John 2:7–11; 3:11-24; 4:7–2 where he states that “Elohim is love” (4:8, 16) and that one’s love of Elohim and man is linked to obedience to the Torah-commandments (2:7–9; 3:11–18). As YHVH first loved us, we should love our fellow man (4:7–11), in word, deed and in (Torah) truth (3:18). This relates to Yeshua’s admonition to his disciples in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my Torah-commandments.”