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Theology Of Paul

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THEOLOGY OF PAUL<br />

M.M.NINAN<br />

___________________________________________________________<br />

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the<br />

wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1Pe 2:9)<br />

Thus all believers were Priests to the world as a whole. Ordination was simply laying on of hands conferring specific<br />

blessings for specific ministries to reach out into the world for Christ.<br />

However both the groups contained large number of jews. The Jews correctly held that the fallen man was sinful<br />

by nature and therefore was necessarily to be placed under the law. We have discussed this earlier. This is the<br />

First Covenant or Mosaic Covenant which was given in the Mount Zion. A description of the First Covenant<br />

Ceremony can be found in Ex. 24. An exact replication of the the first covenant is found in the Second Covenant<br />

Ceremony is found in Luke 22, In the first covenant God appeared as a Law giver and in the second covenant as<br />

a servant. This gives us the idea of the difference of law and grace.<br />

.The "law" ( Greek :nomos Hebrew: Mitzvah) consists of the Ten Commandments, the statutes and decrees given<br />

at Sinai,along with all the decrees subsequently given to Moses found in the five books of Moses, or the entire Old<br />

Testament, according to Rabinical analysis there were 613 commandments. On Mount Sinai God gave Moses 2<br />

tablets of stone, which contained the "Written Law", the 10 commandments by the finger of God Himself and God<br />

also spoke to Moses the "Oral Law" consisting of 603 commandments to Moses. According to Rabbi Ishmael only<br />

the principal commandments of these 613 were given on Mount Sinai, the remainder having been given in the Tent<br />

of Meeting. Rabbi Akiba, on the other hand, was of the opinion that they were all given on Mount Sinai, repeated in<br />

the Tent of Meeting, and declared a third time by Moses before his death. According to the Midrash, all divine<br />

commandments were given on Mount Sinai, and no prophet could add any new one (Midrash Sifra to Leviticus<br />

27:34; Talmud, Yoma 80a).<br />

(John1:17)” the law came through Moses ..."<br />

In rabbinic thought, God's will is the source of, and authority for, every moral and religious duty. In this way, the<br />

Mitzvot thus constitute the Divinely instituted rules of conduct. In rabbinic thought, the commandments are usually<br />

divided into two major groups:<br />

השע תוצמ • positive commandments (obligations) – mitzvot aseh<br />

השעת אל תוצמ • negative commandments (prohibitions) – mitzvot lo ta'aseh<br />

The system describing the practical application of the commandments is known as Halakha, loosely Jewish Law.<br />

The Halakha is the development of the Mitzvot as contained in the written law, via discussion and debate in the<br />

Oral law, as recorded in the rabbinic literature of the classical era, especially the Mishnah and the Talmud.<br />

The Halakha dictates and influences a wide variety of behavior of traditionalist Jews<br />

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