THE JEWS ON THE TWO LAWS.
By D. M. Carrington
The “Jews’ Letters to Voltaire” is justly celebrated among all believers in the divine origin of the Bible as an able and critical work. It is well worth reading. In treating of the laws of the Old Testament, these letters make the same distinction between the two laws, the moral and the ceremonial, that we do. Here is what they say:— “But are these ritual laws, which you quote, only the divine law of the Jews? Are they the principal and most essential parts of it? Our prophets everywhere say the contrary. The decalogue, that most excellent compendium of morality, and so many other admirable precepts on the duties of man toward God, toward himself and toward his fellow-creatures, are the foundation and first part of this law; and whatever wise rules are given for external worship, and for everything that concerns it, on the authority of magistrates, on inheritances and suits, on trials and the manner of making peace or war, etc., in a word, on the whole administration, ecclesiastical, civil, and political,—these are the second part.”—Jews’ Letters to Voltaire, Part Second, Letter I. pp. 177, 178. In a foot-note they add: “The divine law of the Jews is distinguished into divine natural law, which comprehends the moral laws founded in the nature of things, and into divine positive law, which comprehends the ceremonial laws, the laws of civil polity, etc., which are founded merely on the good will and pleasure of God.” These plain and truthful statements by those learned Jews to that noted infidel are valuable. We can use them to good effect in our sermons on the two laws. On the words “for ever” the above learned Jews say:— “Your critics insist on the words ‘for ever,’ in sempiternum, to ‘the end of all ages.’ We may answer them that the Hebrew words which are thus rendered, signify only a long and indefinite space of time; there are numberless instances of this in Scripture.”—Jews’ Letters to Voltaire, A Short Commentary, Extract V. p. 423. This is also good and sensible. It proves that the learned Hebrews who certainly ought to be good critics on their own language, do not regard these words as necessarily meaning eternity. D. M. CARRINGTON.