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Why did the Christians chose the Torah and added it to the New Testament?

ebnyasoo3ebnyasoo3
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
Hello all,

I was talking to a friend of mine at work and we were talking and he told me that what he does not understand is why did Christians chose the Torah of the Jewish and added it to the new testament to make up the Bible.

I understand the answer but I can't formulate it in words.

Thanks
God bless
Ebnyasoo3

Comments

  • CopticSoldierCopticSoldier
    Its considered to be part of the old testament brother, you are referring to the first 5 books of the bible (Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers)?
  • mabsootamabsoota
    the jews (those jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah) added the new testament books (gradually) to the torah and the prophets (1st 5 books of old testament plus other old testament books).
    it was not the other way around!
  • andrew8345andrew8345
    There are several reasons for keeping the Pentateuch along with the other scriptures written before Christ. This decision was in no way a clear cut one. There was debate. A man by the name of Marcion, along with others, felt that Jesus was a more superior God than the one of the Hebrew Bible. Some felt that they were incompatible.

    Some reasons it was kept:

    1. For practical purposes, it was a way of showing the Romans that they weren't just the new kids on the block. The Romans didn't like new things and thought basically if something was 'old it was as good as gold.' The Christians had to make themselves the legitimate extension of Judaism.

    2. The prophecies about Christ are all in the Hebrew Bible.

    3. God is the creator of the world and humans. Thus he cares about human affairs.


    I am sure there are several more reasons. Unfortunately, many of us have become Marcionites and have neglected the OT. And all we know of it are the stories we heard in sunday school.
  • imikhailimikhail
    During the apostle's time, there was no written book called the NT. They preached from the OT along with the events that took place while Jesus was on earth.

    We as Christians are bound by both the OT and the NT for both form the map to being saved. The OT is fulfilled through the NT and the NT is founded on the OT.
  • HolmesHolmes
    + Irini nem ehmot,

    For the first 100 years of Christianity, the NT as we know it didn't even exist. For the next 300 years, the official canon of the NT had not been decided. Early Christians relied almost exclusively on the OT (namely the Septuagint) as well as the oral tradition of the Apostles.
  • SudaniSudani
    "That by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established."
  • CopticSoldierCopticSoldier
    What imikhail and Κηφᾶς said.

    The early church and its doctrine was based on their new understanding of God as revealed to them by Christ and they slowly had it revealed to them in Scriptures (which to us today is the Old Testament). Where we now have an established New Testament canon handed down to us through tradition the early Christians used to look at the Old Testament scriptures and try to find Christ in them. This was a a completely new way of looking at the Old Testament which they now had because after the coming of the Son of God, all the promises and prophecies which God has made there were coming true and could be seen in the person of the Word of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, His teachings and living example.  Examples of this style of interpretation can be found in the dialoges of Ss. Stephen, Peter and Paul in Acts where they spoke about Christ as the fulfilment of the promises of God wrought in the Old Testament when asked to make a defence for the beliefs they were now confessing.

    This new way of looking at the Old Testament was very prominent in the early church and can be seen in early Christian writings like 'demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching' by St Irenaeus and the Epistle of Barnabas where the Old Testament is explained as the story of the promised Son of God Who would come to save us and now is.  This includes things we commonly meditate on today such as the significance of Noah's ark representing the Church or the sacrifice of Isaac on Mt Moriah representing the sacrifice of Christ for us.

    Please pray for me,

    LiD
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