Torah

What the Torah Is

'Torah' (Hebrew for 'instruction' or 'teaching,' commonly translated 'law' in English Bibles) refers most precisely to the five books of Moses — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — and by extension to the covenant instruction God gave Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, recorded across those books. It is far broader than a list of rules: alongside legal instruction (like the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17) it contains Israel's origin story, its covenant history with God, and extensive instructions for worship, holiness, and communal life. Jewish tradition and the New Testament alike often refer to the whole Hebrew Scriptures shorthand as 'the Law and the Prophets' (Matthew 7:12; 22:40; Luke 24:44), naming the Torah as the first and foundational section of a larger, three-part canon.

The Torah in Jesus's Teaching

Jesus addresses the Torah's ongoing authority directly in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill' (Matthew 5:17) — followed by teaching that repeatedly intensifies the law's demands ('You have heard... but I tell you,' Matthew 5:21-48) rather than setting them aside. He summarized 'the whole law and the prophets' as depending on loving God and loving one's neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40), and Luke records the risen Jesus explaining to his disciples 'that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms' concerning himself had to be fulfilled (Luke 24:44) — reading the entire Torah as ultimately pointing toward himself.

As an infant, Jesus himself was presented at the temple 'according to the law of Moses' (Luke 2:22-24), and throughout his ministry he observed Jewish practice while repeatedly clashing with the religious leaders' additional oral traditions built up around the written Torah, which he distinguished sharply from the law itself (Mark 7:8-13).

The Torah and the New Testament Church

The relationship between the Torah and Gentile believers became the early church's first major theological controversy. Paul, a former Pharisee trained rigorously in the law, argues extensively in Romans and Galatians that no one is justified before God by keeping the law's works, but by faith in Christ — the law itself, in his reading, was never meant as a path to righteousness but rather to reveal sin and point toward the need for a savior (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:19-24). Acts 15's Jerusalem Council took up the practical version of this question directly — whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved — and concluded they did not (Acts 15:1-29), a foundational decision for the gospel's spread beyond Judaism. Protestant tradition has generally read the Torah's civil and ceremonial commands (sacrifices, dietary laws, and the like) as fulfilled and set aside in Christ, while its moral commands remain a true and abiding reflection of God's character.

Scripture references

• Exodus 20:1-17 — The Ten Commandments given at Sinai
• Matthew 5:17-20 — Jesus: 'I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill'
• Luke 24:44 — The risen Jesus explains the Law, Prophets, and Psalms point to him
• Romans 3:20 — "By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified"
• Galatians 3:19-24 — The law as a 'tutor' pointing toward Christ
• Acts 15:1-29 — The Jerusalem Council: Gentile believers not required to keep the law of Moses

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Torah
• Got Questions: What is the Torah?