On the view taken of the ‘law’ in the NT see the following article; and on the law in post- biblical Judaism (the Mishna, ete.), see TORAH.
* It ought not in this connexion to be forgotten that only unintentional sins were atoned for by the sin-offering, not sins committed ‘ with a high hand’ (Nu 1590f), i.e. in deliberate defiance of God’s will.
+ Driver, Sermons on the OT, p. 181f.; cf. Sanday, BL 183 ff. ; Ottley, BL 2287.
LAW (IN NEW TESTAMENT)
LAW (IN NEW TESTAMENT) 73
LitgratuRE.—Kuenen, Selig. of Isr. (1875) ii. 250-286 (on P), Hibb. Lect. 1882, 82 ff. (priests and térah), 156-167 (the priestly law), Hex. § 10. 4 (meaning of térahk); Wellhausen, Hist. passim, esp. chs. i.-iii. ix. (see Contents, pp. xi-xvi), x. (the Oral and the Written Torah), els 435-440, Isr. wu. Jtid. Geach. (1894) pp. 134 ff.; W. R. Smith, O7/C2 p, 298 ff. (Térah), 428- 430, and Lectures xi. (laws of JE) xii. (Deut. and P); Ryle, Canon of the OT' (1892), 22-33, 48 f., 57-60, 71-4, 75-91 ; Monte- fiore, Hibb. Lect. 1892 (see Index, ‘ Torah’ and ‘ Law’); Smend, Alttest. Rel.-Gesch. 1893 (see Index, ‘Thorah’ and ‘ Gesetz’) ; Schultz, OT Theol. i. 188 ff. and ch. xviii. (sacred institutions of Israel, acc. to P); Nowack, Arch. (1894) ii. passim (sacred institutions described according to the different Codes, see Con- tents); Briggs, Higher Crit. of the Hex. (1897); Bruce, Apolo- eae (1893), pp. 208 ff., 261 ff.; Sanday, Bampt. Lect. 1893,
t. iv. (pp. 168-188); Ottley, Bampt. Lect. 1897, Lect. v. (religious ideas and symbolism of P); Cheyne, Jewish Rel. Life after the Exile, 1899, p. 72 fi. S. R. DRIVER.
LAW (In NEw TESTAMENT).—
Use of term ‘ Law’ in NT. L Relation of Jesus to the Law. (1) His recognition of its divine origin and authority. (2) His critical attitude towards the Law. II, Attitude of the Early Church to the Law, and especially the ractice and teaching of St. Paul. A, Practice of the earliest Christian society. B. Practice and doctrine of St. Paul. (a) His practice during his Second Missionary Journey. ὁ) His practice during his Third Missionary Journey. ‘c) St. Paul's use of the term ‘law.’ d) His teaching in his Four Great Epistles as regards (1) the place of the Law in History; (2) the mode in which it acts in the individual who lives under it; (8) the relation of Law and Gospel, and esp. the relation of Christ’s Death to the Law; (4) the relation of the Christian to law. (e) St. Paul’s action on his last visit to Jerusalem. (7) Teaching of his later Epistles. ΠῚ. The Law in the Epistle to the Hebrews. IV. The Law in the other NT Books. Literature.
The word law (νόμος) is used in the NT of ‘any law whatsoever’ (Grimm, Lez. s.v.), but when ‘the law’ is spoken of without qualification, it is always the law of God which is meant. This is not a classical meaning or use of the word, and explains the fact that in the NT (with the exception of a quotation from the LXX of Jer 31 (38)* in He 8” 1016) it is always found in the singular. ‘The law of God,’ or ‘the law of Moses,’ or ‘the law’ simpliciter, is the style of Scripture ; a classical writer would say ‘ the laws’ of Athens orof Solon. But ‘the law,’ and ‘law’ without the article, are religious conceptions, and it is as such that they are treated here. The word occurs some 196 times in the NT, but it is not found in Mk, in Th, 2 Co, Col, Tit, 2 Ti, Philem, 1 and 2 P, Jude, the Epp. of John, and Rev. To bring out its significance in the NT it will be convenient to examine (1) the relation of Jesus to the law; (2) the attitude of the early Church to the law, and especially the practice and teaching of St. Paul ; (3) the peculiar view of the law taken in the ee to the Hebrews; and (4) the indications in other NT books of legal or antinomian tendencies in the first century of the Christian era. The necessary preliminary to the understanding of all these points is a knowledge of the contents of the ‘law’ of the OT, for which reference may be made to the preceding article.
THE RELATION OF JESUS TO THE LAW.— To begin with, the relation of Jesus to the law was passive, like that of every Jew. born under the law (Gal 4*); the requirements of the law in regard to circumeision and purification were complied with in His case as in that of any child of Jewish birth (Lk 27+). He was taken up to the temple when He had completed His twelfth year (Lk 2"), and became, like other Jewish youths, πὴ ΡΠ 13 (or 73> 73) a son of the law. He
would be instructed in it, and its responsibilities would be laid on Him, simply because it was the law of the nation of which He was a member.
He
He was |
must have accepted it as part of the national inheritance to which He was born. The NT gives us no means whatever of judging how the passive unconscious relation to the law was changed into the conscious and responsible one which we see when our Lord entered on His public work. No doubt He grew into that power of judgment and liberty of action which characterize His ministry ; but we cannot tell what eflort and perplexity, or whether any effort or perplexity, accompanied this growth. When we consider the shortness of His ministry, it seems extremely improbable that we should be able to trace within its narrow limits any ‘evolution’ or progressive change in His attitude to the law. That attitude was really determined by His character, by the spirit of son- ship, of free appreciation of God’s will, of un- restrained love to man; and His character was complete when He identified Himself with our sinful race in His baptism, and received there the attestation of the heavenly Father as His beloved Son. No doubt, as one thing in His life led on te another, and as opposition defined His attitude, it became more and more clear what His relation to ‘the law,’ both as a divine institution and as a divine institution administered and corrupted by man, must be; but in principle this was deter- mined from the beginning. Hence it is not necessary, under the idea that clear self-conscious- ness is the last result of action, to attempt to trace in detail the practical impulses under which our Lord’s attitude to the law was gradually defined, or to assume that He was learning His own mind all the time (so practically Holtzmann, NT Theologie, i. 130-160); we may take the Synoptics as they stand, and aim at a more systematic view.