Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Oral Law
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Matthew 6:5-8
In Jesus' time, the act of prayer had devolved mainly into hypocritical public prayers and memorized rote prayers. Because Jesus had shown Himself to be so different from other teachers of God's way of life, His disciples were understandably confused about how they should pray. When they ask Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1), Jesus responds with what has often been called—mistakenly—“the Lord's Prayer” (see Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4; the real “Lord's Prayer” appears in John 17). He does not intend us to recite this prayer mindlessly but offers an outline for our own far longer, deeper, and more personal prayers to the Father in heaven. Jesus' disciples had grown up in Judaism, which was dominated at the time by the Pharisees, pious laymen who observed and taught strict adherence to the law. However, as Jesus pointed out, the Pharisees put their traditions (their Oral Law, restrictions to keep them from sinning and becoming ritually impure) above the law of God. Their instruction on prayer, then, proved to be insincere, as they prayed publicly to receive the approbation of men rather than to honor God. Thus, Jesus instructs His disciples to shun the example of these hypocrites. He teaches them to find a private place to pray, away from an audience, so that they could have genuine, one-on-one conversations with God. He also tells them to avoid going to the opposite extreme of using “vain repetitions,” rote prayers repeated endlessly. God is a real Person who desires a real relationship with those He calls. We should speak reverently and respectfully to Him, certainly, but we should not yammer at Him like an unhearing block of wood, stone, or metal, as the heathens treat their idols.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part One): Introduction
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Galatians 2:11-14
Paul cites an example of the kind of conduct that was either directly part of halakha or what it produced. It connects to Peter's experience in Acts 10:28: And [Peter] said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. The first part of verse 28 has a direct tie to halakha. God had given Peter a vision, recorded earlier in the chapter, in order to instruct him that his perception, his interpretation, was wrong. He was not supposed to call any man common or unclean simply because he had been born to some other racial group or ethnic family other than Jewish. God's law commanded Israelites to do no such thing as refuse to eat with the Gentiles or even keep company with them. This is a practice derived from Judaism. Even though Peter knew this, he still became carried away into gross hypocrisy when the conditions were right, thus giving us an opportunity to learn that, when Paul is condemning law in the book of Galatians, he is not condemning God's law, but laws men added, thinking they were doing God service. Here is what happened. Peter came to Antioch for some unstated reason. The church in the town of Antioch was predominately a Gentile church, and while he was there, he circulated freely with the Gentiles. A bit later, though, some Jews arrived, claiming they were from James. Their presence, and possibly their arguments, influenced Peter to withdraw from the Gentiles. So strong was this influence that even Barnabas, Paul's traveling companion on so many of his journeys, was affected so that he withdrew too. What these Jews—and the apostles caught in it—were doing was effectively driving the church apart! Their teachings and actions were erecting a wall between Jew and Gentile. They were influencing Jews to think they were better than Gentiles, and the Gentiles, that they were inferior unless they submitted to the Jews' standard. The Gentiles wanted to do the right thing, and in their childish ignorance, they began to be led astray. All this was dividing the church. The standard these Jews taught came neither from God's law nor from the gospel, and the fruit it was producing was class distinction and respect of persons. It came from halakha, part of the Oral Law that frequently had nothing in harmony with God's law.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Five)
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