– Law (Torah) is understood to mean the whole of the Pentateuch, that is, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) attributed to Moses and taken as a special expression of the will of God:
Ps 18,8-9 : The Law of the Lord is perfect, it comforts the soul; the order of the Lord is sure, it instructs the simple.
Ps 118 : Happy are those whose life is pure, and follow the Law of the Lord.
Mt 12 : 5: Have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests break the Sabbath rest in the temple?
Lc 2,32-33.39 : As a light to lighten the nations, and for the glory of your people Israel.
Acts 7:53 : You who received the Law through the ministry of angels and did not keep it.
– The Law is the bond of the covenant:
Ex 19,7 : Moses came and, summoning the elders of the people, he communicated to them the words that the Lord had commanded him to repeat.
Ex 23,21 : And listen to what he tells you. Do not resist him, for he would not forgive your fault.
Ex 24,7 : He took the book of the covenant and read it to the people, who replied: “We will do everything the Lord has said”.
Lev 26,14-45 : But if you do not listen to me and do not keep my commandments […] and your soul hates my laws.
Deut 28,15-68 : If you do not carefully observe all his commandments […] all these curses will come upon you […].
Jos 24,21-22: “No”, cried the people, “because it is the Lord that we want to serve!”.
2Kings 23: 2 : He then read before them the complete text of the Book of the Covenant which had been discovered in the Temple of the Lord.
– And it contains moral prescriptions:
Ex 20,1-17 : I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Deut 5,6-21 : I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
– Juridical and cultural: cf. the book of Leviticus.
– Moses is her mediator:
Jn 1:17 : For the Law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Gal 3:19 : So what is the Law? It is a complement joined in view of transgressions.
– And updates it in time:
Deuteronomy 5:2-21 : The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Deuteronomy 12-28 : These are the laws and ordinances that you must observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you.
2Kings 18,3-4 : Seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
2Kings 21:1–23 :5 : Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
– The Law permeates the entire OT:
Dt 8,11 : Beware of forgetting the Lord […] by neglecting to observe his orders, his precepts and his laws.
Deut 33:10 : Teach your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel; present the incense to your smell.
1Mc 1,41-63 : King Antiochus published an edict for the whole kingdom, prescribing that all peoples form a single people.
2Mc 6,18-28 : A certain man already advanced in age […], Eleazar, who sat in the first place among the doctors of the Law.
Eclo 24,8-23 : Alone I traversed the vault of heaven, and penetrated the depths of the chasms.
Jr 5,4-5 : They are only vulgar and foolish, because they do not know the ways of the Lord, the Law of their God.
Jr 11,1-12 : I heard the text of this covenant and I transmitted it to the people of Judah.
Ez 22,1-16.26 : And you, son of man, […] will you not judge this bloodthirsty city?
Dan 7,25 : He will utter insults against the Most High, and will form the project to change the times and the Law.
Hos 4 :6 : Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
– The prophets announce that it will be written on hearts:
Jr 31,33 : I will instill my Law in him; I will engrave it on her heart.
Ez 36,26-27 : I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
– With the coming of Jesus, the law brought by him perfects and completes the old law:
Mt 5,17-18 : Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets.
Rom 8:1-2 : The Law of the Spirit of Life has set me free, in Jesus Christ, from the Law of sin and death.
Rom 10 :4: For Christ is the end of the Law, to justify everyone who believes.
Gal 3: Who fascinated you, before whose eyes was presented the image of Jesus Christ crucified?
– And overcomes:
Rom 6:14 : Sin will no longer have dominion over you, because now you are no longer under law but under grace.
Rom 7:4 : Therefore, my brethren, you too were made dead to the law through the sacrifice of the body of Christ.
Gal 2:19 : Indeed, by faith I died to the Law in order to live for God.
Heb 7:18 : With this, the old legislation is abolished, because of its ineffectiveness and uselessness.
– For the New Covenant:
Mt 26:28 : Because this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant, shed for many men in remission of sins.
Lk 22:20 : This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
1Cor 11:25 : This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; as often as you drink it, do it in remembrance of me.
Heb 8,6-8.13 Our High Priest, however, has a ministry that is all the more excellent as he is a mediator.
– In Paul, the Law cannot lead to perfection:
Heb 7:19 : For the Law made nothing perfect. It was just the bearer of a better hope that leads us to God.
– But it develops a pedagogical function:
Gal 3:19-27 : Indeed, by faith I died to the Law in order to live for God. I am nailed to the cross of Christ.
– It is not in itself the cause of sin:
Rom 7:13-24 : It was sin that, in order to really show itself to be sin, brought death for me through what is good.
– By itself it is holy and good:
Rom 7:16 : And if I do what I do not want, I acknowledge that the Law is good.
1Tm 1,8 : We know that the Law is good, as long as it is used legitimately.
– But through it one has greater experience of sin and transgression:
Rom 3:19 : Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be stopped.
– And therefore it may also be said that it is the power of sin:
Rom 7,7-8 : What shall we say then? That the Law is sin? Not at all. But I did not know sin except through the Law.
1Cor 15:56 : Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
– The value of the Law is limited to the duration of human life:
Rom 7: 1 : Do you not know, brethren, that the Law has dominion over a man only as long as he lives?
Heb 9,16-17 : Because where there is a will, the testator’s death must intervene.
– Not for the righteous, but for the unrighteous:
1Tm 1,9-10 : And keep in mind that the Law was not made for the righteous, but for transgressors and rebels.
– No one will be justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ:
Rom 1:16s : I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is power from God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
Gal 2:16 : We know, however, that no one is justified by keeping the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ.
– The natural law:
Acts 14:16 : In times past he allowed all nations to go his ways.
Rom 1:19s : For what can be known about God they read in themselves, for God has revealed it to them with evidence.
Rm 2,14s : The pagans, who do not have the Law, naturally doing the things that are of the Law.
