An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels Jesus And Mosaic Law

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It should be obvious that Christianity, though beginning as a Jewish sect, has become rather different to its Old Testament predecessor in many respects. Christians are not obliged to get circumcised, they can eat pork, and they set the Sabbath on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. The changes were kicking in even during the life and ministry of Jesus. Asked directly if he planned to destroy Mosaic Laws (the laws set out by Moses in the Old Testament), Jesus makes it clear that he was a champion of Mosaic Laws, and that all were expected to continue to obey them. This was clearly a problematic assertion, though some Mosaic Laws are maintained in Christianity, especially the Ten Commandments. Today, some Mosaic Laws are dismissed as antiquated, such as the rule about building a parapet around the roof to prevent anyone falling off, as that would cause them to die and spill blood on the property which would be seen as bad in the eyes of God. The rule makes sense in an age when roofs were flat and many walked on roofs, kept cattle up there and even slept on the roof on hot nights. The risk of falling was going to affect more than a careless roofer. Nowadays properties have sloping roofs (many climates make the flat roof impractical), so the law is now regarded as anachronistic to most. Strictly speaking however, the lack of a parapet makes most householders and builders breakers of religious law. Jesus says he was out to ‘fulfil’ Mosaic laws but laws are not fulfilled. They are enforced, obeyed or broken. As Jesus was seen as being God incarnate, direct worship of him was seen as a new covenant, and rendered many Mosaic Commandments advisory at best. The new religion as presented by the Paulian Church also saw how much more appealing it was to potential non Jewish converts, the Gentiles, not to impose a whole strict life governing moral and social code of conduct on them. Some early Christian sects held to some or all Mosaic laws now largely ignored by Christian, but these movements were dismissed and even punished as heretical. Jesus himself was circumcised but he does not practice or encourage circumcision. After one miracle where he renders a man with amputated limbs whole again he is criticised for violating Sabbath Law, suggesting (though not directly stating) that he even restored the man’s foreskin. In Acts, Paul circumcises his follower, Timothy, because they are evangelizing to a Jewish community. The circumcision allows them to fit in among the men they are talking with and sidesteps the controversy of the lack of obligation for Christians to be circumcised. There was never a point in Christian history, let alone the Bible, where Circumcision was forbidden outright. Though Jesus was often criticised for disregarding the Sabbath by the Sadducees and Pharisees the replacement of the Saturday Sabbath with the day off work for worship switching to Sundays really begins after Jesus’s return from death on a Sunday (Easter). Again the two major religions were each developing a separate identity. Islam would later follow a system much closer to Jewish Mosaic Laws than Christians ever did. Many Seventh Day Adventist groups get their name from a call for a return to Saturday-Sabbath worship. Arthur Chappell