Page 86 - BV17

86 Is Judaism the Religion of Moses?

had inherited from the heathen within the period of religious anarchy, were falsely termed the
"traditions of the fathers" -- handed down from Moses, the prophets and teachers of old!

These traditions Jesus condemned.

There was, however, one difficulty for the Jewish teachers to overcome in this interpreta-
tion. There were no such customs and practices as these mentioned in all of Moses' Law nor in any
other part of the Scripture.

This did not dampen the spirit of the Jewish teachers! They also had an answer for this.
They maintained that these customs were not put down in written form, and because of this, were
not found in the text of Scripture. "These customs were handed down ORALLY from Moses," was
their assertion! "They were passed by word of mouth from Moses through every generation."

By assuming that there was an Oral Law, called the "traditions of the fathers," this freed the
Jewish teachers from having to appeal to the Written Scripture for evidence to back up their state-
ments.

"Accordingly, the teachers themselves CAME TO BELIEVE that such generally recog-
nized laws and practices MUST HAVE BEEN old traditional laws and practices accepted
by the fathers and transmitted to following generations IN ADDITION to the Written Law.
Such a belief would naturally free the teachers from the necessity of finding SCRIPTURAL
PROOF FOR ALL THE NEW PRACTICES" (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, p. 211).

These traditional laws -- the Oral Laws -- were not from Moses nor any of the prophets.
There is not a single reference in the Scripture that Moses gave the Israelites any Oral or Traditional
Laws that were to be handed down along with the Written Word. The Bible states just the opposite.
It plainly says that Moses WROTE THE WHOLE LAW IN A BOOK. There was no such thing as
an Oral Law of Moses.

Notice:

"And it came to pass, when Moses had MADE AN END OF WRITING THE WORDS OF
THIS LAW IN A BOOK, UNTIL THEY WERE FINISHED, that Moses commanded the
Levites ... saying, TAKE THIS BOOK OF THE LAW, and put it in the side of the ark of the
covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there FOR A WITNESS AGAINST THEE"
(Deut. 31:24-26).

Moses wrote the Law in a book. And it was this written Word of God that was to be a wit-
ness against the Israelites for future generations, not any so-called Oral Law.

Notice this confession of Dr. Lauterbach:

"These traditional laws naturally had no indication in the Written Law and no basis in the
teachings of the Sopherim, BECAUSE THEY DEVELOPED AFTER THE PERIOD OF
THE SOPHERIM" (ibid., p. 206).

The Berean Voice September-October 2002