Mistranslated: Word 6 – Torah

God’s Instruction as Loving Guidance, Not Legalistic Law

Hebrew: תּוֹרָה (torah) – instruction, teaching, guidance

Greek (LXX): νόμος (nomos) – intructional rules, guidelines

❌ Mistranslation and Misunderstanding

When most modern readers hear the word Torah, they think law—as in legal code, rules, or commandments. And many Bible translations reinforce this by rendering Torah simply as “law,” particularly in older English Bibles influenced by Western jurisprudence.

This has led to a tragic distortion. For centuries, Torah has been seen by many Christians as the cold, rigid opposite of grace—a burdensome system Jesus came to abolish or override. In this misunderstanding, Torah is seen as legalism, Jesus as freedom. Torah is rules; Jesus is love.

But this division is not only theologically false—it’s linguistically and narratively inaccurate. Torah has been mistranslated, and with it, the very heart of God’s early covenant guidance has been deeply misunderstood.

✅ Recovering the Word’s Real Meaning

The Hebrew word Torah (תּוֹרָה) does not mean “law” in the rigid sense of Roman or modern legal codes. Its root, yarah, means “to guide,” “to instruct,” or “to point out the way.” Torah is teaching and guidance, not just rules. It is God’s loving guidance for a flourishing life in covenant relationship.

Think of Torah more like a parent guiding a child, or a skilled teacher preparing students for wisdom, or even a path marker leading travelers toward a destination. That’s what the word itself implies.

This is why Psalm 1 celebrates the person who delights in the Torah—because it’s not about cold obligation, but relational wisdom. The Torah is God’s revealed instruction for how to live well, in harmony with others, with creation, and with God.

And it’s important to emphasize: Torah is not static. It unfolds and adapts as the story progresses. Commands given to a recently liberated band of slaves in Exodus look different than the moral trajectory Jesus calls people to in the Sermon on the Mount. But that’s not a contradiction—it’s divine accommodation.

💡 Torah as Divine Accommodation

God meets people where they are.

Torah is a form of divine accommodation—God stepping into real history, real cultures, and real moral limitations to begin the long process of forming a people who could reflect His love, wisdom, and righteousness. As Paul says in Galatians 3:24, the Torah was a “pedagogue”—a tutor or guardian—to prepare us for Christ.

Think about it this way: the Torah was not meant to be a final word, but a training ground. The commands of Torah were suited to their time and audience, gradually preparing them for maturity, just as a good teacher adjusts their instruction for a child before introducing adult complexity.

When Jesus said in Matthew 19:8 that Moses allowed divorce “because of your hardness of heart,” He was identifying this principle: Torah sometimes reflects the moral reality of the people it was guiding, not God’s ideal.

And Jesus doesn’t throw out Torah. He fulfills it (Matt. 5:17). Not by legalistically keeping every letter unchanged, but by embodying what Torah was always pointing toward: a life of perfect agape, lived in step with divine Logos.

“On these two commandments [to love God and love neighbor] hang all the Torah and the Prophets.” — Matthew 22:40

In other words, the goal of Torah was always love. Agape is the thread that runs through the whole thing.

🔁 Torah in the Larger Story

Placed here in the first part of our 21-word chiasm—Created for Shalom—Torah stands as a pivotal word. It links our original vocation (Tselem and Demut) to our pathway of growth into righteousness (Dikaiosune).

Torah gives shape to how humans, made in God’s image (with the capacity for Logos and called to Agape), are to live together in harmony, justice, and peace.

This means Torah is not a random rulebook, nor a discarded stage in God’s plan—it’s the revealed Logos (God’s wisdom) given to help us grow into His Agape. It’s the trail map given to help us walk toward the restful communion of Shabbat.

In this way, Torah is like scaffolding for a house under construction. When the house is complete, the scaffolding comes down—but it wasn’t pointless. It held everything in place as the real structure took form. And that structure is the life of Jesus: Torah embodied, Wisdom incarnate, Love enfleshed.

📖 Jesus and Paul on Torah: Law or Loving Instruction?

When Torah is reduced to legal code, Jesus and Paul’s teachings can seem contradictory or anti-Jewish. But when we recover Torah as loving guidance—as God’s wisdom and relational instruction—everything shifts into harmony.

Here’s how several key passages take on deeper meaning through this restored lens:

Matthew 5:17

“Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Mistranslated view: Jesus obeyed the law perfectly so we don’t have to; He abolished its relevance.

Retranslated view: Jesus is the fulfillment of Torah’s goal—embodying the life of agape love and wisdom it was always pointing toward.

Matthew 22:40

“All the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments: Love God and love your neighbor.”

Mistranslated view: Love summarizes the law but stands apart from it.

Retranslated view: Love isn’t just a summary—it is the very heart and goal of Torah. Every command was meant to shape people in love, even if they don’t arrive there immediately it was pointing the way to a more loving way of living then their lived context.

Romans 3:20

“By works of the law no human being will be justified…”

Mistranslated view: The law failed as a path to righteousness and has been replaced by grace.

Retransllated view: Paul critiques legalism—not Torah. Torah was never about earning salvation or right relationship (righteousness or justification) with God, but about guiding people toward trust and love.

Galatians 3:24

“The law was our guardian until Christ came…”

Mistranslated view: Torah was a harsh disciplinarian, now obsolete.

Retranslated view: Torah was a wise tutor, lovingly guiding immature people toward maturity—preparing hearts for the way of Christ.

Romans 7:12

“So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

Mistranslated view: Paul is making an awkward concession after bashing the law.

Retranslated view: Paul affirms Torah’s goodness—its problem wasn’t in Torah itself, but in the way it was misused for self-righteousness.

Romans 10:4

“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Mistranslated view: Christ ends the law; it’s no longer needed.

Retranslated view: Telos means goal or fulfillment—Christ is what Torah was always aiming at and guiding its adherents too: the embodiment of divine love, the living out love for God, self and neighbor as embodied and demonstrated by Jesus.

Romans 13:10

“Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Mistranslated view: Paul replaces law with love.

Retranslated view: Paul reveals that love doesn’t replace Torah—it completes it. Torah’s goal was always agape love.

Galatians 5:14

“The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Mistranslated view: The law is set aside in favor of a simpler rule.

Retranslated view: Paul insists the law’s true essence is love. This has always been its heartbeat—not a new idea, but the point all along.

🧭 Conclusion: Torah Was Never the Problem—Legalism Was

Jesus and Paul both affirm Torah as God’s loving guiding instruction. They reject rigid legalism, not divine wisdom.

The Torah, rightly understood, is a sacred path into agape.

It is not abolished—it is fulfilled in love.

✨ Recap: What Torah Really Means

• Not “Law,” but Loving Instruction
  
  Torah means teaching, guidance, wisdom—for human flourishing in covenant with God.
  
• Not Abolished, but Fulfilled
  
  Jesus embodies Torah’s telos: agape love, relational wisdom, and restorative justice.
  
• Not Legalistic, but Accommodating
  
  God gave Torah as part of His agape—meeting people where they were, shaping them toward where they’re meant to be.
  

Not a Discarded Past, but a Rooted Path

Torah is part of the unfolding journey toward Shabbat—toward the world set right again, ruled by love, truth, and peace.

🔑 Word Summary: Torah

Literal Meaning: Instruction, guidance, pointing the way

Biblical Role: A loving framework for how to live in covenant with God and one another

Theological Meaning: Torah is the divine pedagogy—God’s compassionate guidance for formation, not legal domination

In Our Words: Torah is not a rigid law code to control us, but the relational wisdom of a loving God who walks with us. It’s a divine curriculum, preparing us to live in harmony with God, each other, and the world. It is Logos given in love, pointing us toward agape-shaped lives.

🔜 What Comes Next: Shalom

Torah isn’t the end—it’s the guidepost. Its destination is the life God has always intended for His people: a world rightly ordered by love, truth, and peace.

Next, we’ll explore Shalom—not just the absence of conflict, but the wholeness, harmony, and rest of God dwelling fully with His people.

Mistranslated Series: Word 7 – Shalom