if you read through the torah you will find some verses that appear pretty awful the death penalty is applied for minor offenses or things that don't seem worthy of death to us israelites are allowed to keep slaves and women are not on an equal level with men skeptics often bring up these verses to show there are horrible things permitted in the bible so the word of god contains some pretty immoral ideas but seeking to defend the bible christians often attempt to offer explanations for why we are misunderstanding these passages based on the cultural context or what the original hebrew meant but then skeptics often reply that it is the christians who are misunderstanding what the passages are saying so as a christian i propose a compromise let's just say the skeptics are right the torah does contain numerous passages that contain immoral ideas but also god admits the torah was never meant to be a perfect moral code to begin i want to point out this is part two of a series so much of what i say here will be building on this previous video where we point out the torah was not a prescriptive law code or legislation it was more akin to didactic wisdom literature and was set up as a suzerain treaty but why would god still allow the torah to contain verses that appear to be okay with slavery or treating women as second-class citizens well we need to remember the bible implies in many places that the torah was not a perfect moral code from god it contained concessions for stiff-necked israel and god even admits this first in matthew 19 the pharisees come and attempt to trick jesus by asking him a question about the law of divorce they ask why moses allowed them to give a certificate of divorce and send their wives away but jesus replies because of your hardness of heart moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so this is a very important point made by jesus the law of divorce only existed because the hearts of the ancient israelites were hard god only allowed this for the time being because israel was not at a point yet where they could be given more ethical marriage guidelines considering scholars no tutorial was to be understood holistically and not as individual sections this implies some of what is in the torah was included due to a compromise between god and israel and this can be seen in other places as well in 1st samuel 8 the people approach samuel and demand that israel be allowed to have a king instead of being led by god directly god warns that this is a bad idea but allows it anyway and gives israel a king besides god himself remember that the torah functions as stipulations of a suzerain treaty where god was seen as their king and ruler by allowing an earthly king to mediate between him and israel god allowed the covenant to be modified between israel and himself but based on input from israel so although god was in charge the stipulations of the covenant were not entirely from god if he approved he allowed the people of israel to modify the covenant even if god preferred another way likewise in numbers 27 we see members of israel offering changes to the torah and getting them approved the daughters of zelophehad point out their father had no male heir and do not want the inheritance taken away from them and given to one of his brothers they bring this issue to moses and god allows this teaching to go into the torah so not everything we see in the torah was directly given by god he allowed israel to include teachings they saw fit with his permission additionally god implicitly admits the failure of the existing law among the israelites it was not providing justice for these daughters so god suggests the need for the rules and the wisdom of the torah to be updated when justice was not being obtained for the people of israel this is the most explicit passage when it comes to an example of updating the torah but we can see it in other places for example richard averbeck draws attention to deuteronomy 15 which updates and revises stipulations found in exodus 21 concerning the treatment of slaves he says it simply adds a feature to the law that is in keeping with the theology of deuteronomy yes there is revision here but not subversion so the evidence suggests the stipulations of the torah could be revised and expanded upon when justice was not being achieved so from these passages we get the implication the torah was not a perfect moral law given by god it was put together as a compromise with a stubborn people it could be modified in ways that god did not initially want or could be modified for just reasons and some of the passages come from requests by israelites now because israel was a high context society it is not always stated if god approved of each passage or if he was allowing something to be included to compromise with israel but these three passages i highlighted imply the torah as a whole contained concessions for israel included things god didn't want and was put together with input from israel which essentially means the biblical texts admit the torah was never meant to establish god's ideal moral system the torah was a temporary guardian meant to provide wisdom from god on how to properly live and represent god to the cultural world of the ancient near east it was supposed to teach israel to trust and depend on the lord what it would look like to be a holy people within their cultural background and some things that would be pleasing to a holy god it was not laying down a universal moral code humanity was not ready for such a revelation yet nor could we even work our way to righteousness so god established the torah to be our guardian for the time and to point to a need for something greater to come some might try to cite psalm 19 7 which in the english reads the law of the lord is perfect well first off we need to be careful with interpreting psalms literally as they typically contain a high amount of metaphors and hyperbole second the word we translate as perfect doesn't really carry the same connotations as the english word perfect this is the same word used to describe noah yet the bible doesn't teach that noah was without sin or had the literal sense of the english word perfection john golden gay translates this verse as the lord's teaching has integrity in other words it promotes a good life alan ross comments on this verse and notes that basically what it is saying is the law is sound consistent unimpaired and genuine in other words the law of the lord has divine integrity and its effect on people is that it restores life so the verse is essentially teaching the torah is something good and has integrity but it doesn't really carry the same meaning as utter perfection again the psalms tend to use hyperbole in poetic language not necessarily teach literal facts notice we're not saying that because the torah was not a perfect moral code that it was necessarily bad we are simply noting that torah was not meant to be universal moral legislation and it was cultural wisdom for that time and place in other words it was perfect for where the people were spiritually in that time and place within that culture but not meant to be moral wisdom or rules for all people or all cultures now the question might arise as to why god couldn't just make israel better by giving them an ideal moral code right away well probably for the same reason we wouldn't expect a sociopath to be able to run an orphanage unless we somehow removed his free will people and societies need time to progress towards a more virtuous way of thinking if you expect too much at first from a depraved mind you're actually more likely to hinder them instead of helping them progress to a better place the implication in the bible is the cultures of the ancient near east had become so corrupt that comprehending an ideal moral code would have been practically impossible israel was selected to be a light to these nations to hopefully help in bringing them a step closer to god israel herself also is not ready to fully represent the ideal life god desired however god could offer a culturally situated system to be the first stepping stone in bringing humanity back towards him this would be analogous to a parent working with their young child you may want your kid to eat all their vegetables and watch less tv but as a parent you might understand kids just aren't mature enough for this yet so we compromise let them have something they like in exchange for their cooperation in eating something good for them attempting to force too many strict roles in high expectations will only result in utter misery and little to no results in fact often when parents are too strict and demanding it can often make their kids worse off instead of helping them likewise israel and most of the planet was simply not ready for a perfect moral law from god so god used the torah as a stepping stone in revealing himself to humanity without removing significant human freedom so we don't need to defend the torah as if god intended for it to be an ideal moral system john walton puts it like this torah is not given as an ideal system [Music] it is a culturally situated system what would bring enhancement to the reputation of yahweh among the nations of the ancient near east that explains why we do not find in the torah any discussion of you know is it a good thing to have slaves those aren't issues on the table in the ancient world and torah is not going to deal with them it's not presenting an ideal system it's telling them how to live in the system that exists in their day there's no discussion about whether democracy might be a more humane government than monarchy we talked about this some yesterday there's no discussion whether patriarchy and male domination is is a sensible thing that's how it was in the ancient world god wasn't trying to create a new social system for them he was trying to tell them how to live without reproach in the systems that existed so we don't have to worry about the slam against christianity and against the bible oh a god who condones slavery a god who condones you know the the submission of women the god who does this or that he's working in a culture not in an ideal world we also need to point out the new testament also doesn't treat the torah as an ideal system christians are not commanded to keep the torah as if it was prescriptive law some might attempt to cite matthew 5 17 where jesus said he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it but j daniel hayes reminds us the antithesis is not between abolish and observe but between abolish and fulfill the word to fulfill occurs numerous times in matthew and it normally means to bring to its intended meaning jesus was not stating that the law is eternally binding on new testament believers jesus was constantly trying to explain how the pharisees had misunderstood the purpose of the torah it was not meant to be prescriptive law or the rules for god's ideal system it was meant to demonstrate how sinful humanity was and to point to the need for something greater to come as jesus said in john 5 39 you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me in the sermon on the mount jesus points out righteousness goes beyond just keeping certain laws but having your heart in the right place jesus demonstrates how just following the prescriptions of the torah fall from the righteousness that god actually demands so for christians the torah was meant to be fulfilled in something greater not be an ideal moral system jesus even says in matthew 5 that nothing will pass from the torah until all is accomplished or fulfilled implying that once it was fulfilled it would pass away and that is what we see in scripture in john 19 john records to jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the scriptures i thirst then jesus said it is finished then hebrews 7 8 teaches that jesus has set up a better covenant and then the authors point out and speaking of a new covenant he makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away so the torah is not prescriptive law for christians paul and jesus point out what christians are commanded to do is to believe in jesus love god and love others the new testament teaches that torah serve the purpose of preparing humanity for this covenant under christ it does not teach the torah was god's ideal moral system but merely a stepping stone pointing to something better to come and demonstrating the depravity humanity had fallen into paul even says the purpose of the torah was to increase sin as nt wright explains the point was to teach us that we needed to be safe from our sins through the grace of god the torah demonstrated humanity not be holy through our actions and thoughts and in trying to properly live the life tour laid out we would fail and sin even more god provided a covenant which was a compromise and israel could not even properly live by it instead the torah demonstrated how sinful humanity was and how incapable we are living in a way that would have pleased god so the torah served its purpose in showing that israel could not live in accordance with it in the need for a better covenant based on grace to take its place the torah was merely our guardian laying the groundwork for something better not an ideal system that got established so we don't need to pretend everything in the toro is necessarily morally good the biblical texts do not state this and teach that it was culturally situated and would be fulfilled one day so when confronted by verses in the torah that seem unethical there is no need to try to rationalize them to make them sound better instead simply point out what the torah was and that god never intended for it to be an ideal moral code you