Early Christian Views of Jewish Law

Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians (Long Version) Direct teaching

“Old things are passed away: behold, all things have become new.” For if we still live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace.

Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians (Short Version) Direct teaching

For if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace.

Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphians (Short Version) Direct teaching

But if any one preach the Jewish law unto you, listen not to him.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

At all events, while the apostles were still preaching, and while eye-witnesses of (the works of) Jesus were still teaching His doctrine, there was no small discussion among the converts from Judaism regarding Gentile believers, on the point whether they ought to observe Jewish customs, or should reject the burden of clean and unclean meats, as not being obligatory on those who had abandoned their ancestral Gentile customs, and had become believers in Jesus.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

Here he has not observed that the Jewish converts have not deserted the law of their fathers, inasmuch as they live according to its prescriptions, receiving their very name from the poverty of the law, according to the literal acceptation of the word;

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

But if, Trypho,” I continued, “some of your race, who say they believe in this Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this Christ to live in all respects according to the law given by Moses, or choose not to associate so intimately with them, I in like manner do not approve of them.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

Thus all the precepts of the Jewish law have for their object the setting forth of righteousness, since they are given in a mysterious manner, that under the figure of carnal things those which are spiritual might be known.

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Direct teaching

Then too that the law was given to the children of Israel for this purpose, that they might profit by it, and return to those virtuous manners which, although they had received them from their fathers, they had corrupted in Egypt by reason of their intercourse with a barbarous people.

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Direct teaching

How far, then, must that law, which — as I have shown by the authority of the apostle — is spiritual, be spiritually received in order that the divine and sure idea of the law may be carried out?

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

For in respect of the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage;

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Direct teaching

...out this other phrase that has been brought forward: "Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the law." My understanding of this passage is that Moses, that famous servant of God, gave to those who wanted true understanding both a symbolic law and a real law. For example, after God made the world and everything in it in six days, He rested on the seventh day from all His works. By this I do not mean that He rested because He was tired, but that He did so because He had brought every creature He had decided to make to its perfect completion. And yet later the new law says, "My Father works until now, and I work." Does that mean, then, that He is still making heaven, or the sun, or man, or animals, or trees, or anything like that? No. The meaning is that when these visible things were completely finished, He rested from that kind of work. At the same time, however, He still continues to work on invisible things by an inward manner of action, and He saves men. In the same way, then, the lawgiver also wants every one of us to be devoted continually to this kind of work, just as God Himself is. So he commands us to rest continually from secular things and not to do any worldly kind

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

... to your view, is to be saved. For it is Christ Himself who has redeemed them from the curse of the law. As Paul also has given these further testimonies: that the letter kills and gives life to no one, and that the law is the ministry of death and the strength of sin. Archelaus said: You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. For many have also perished from the time of Christ's coming until the present time, and many are still perishing. I mean those who have not chosen to give themselves to works of righteousness. But only those who have received Him, and who still receive Him, have obtained power to become the sons of God. For the evangelist did not say that all have obtained that power. But on the other hand, he also did not set any limit on the time. This is what he says: "As many as received Him." Moreover, from the creation of the world He has always been with righteous people, and He has never stopped requiring their blood from the hands of the wicked, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias. And from where, then, did righteous Abel and all those worthy people after him, who are counted among the righteous, get their righteousne

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

...ration of death. For I do not think that even these things can add much to the disparagement of the law. The passage in question goes like this: "But if the ministration of death, engraved in letters on the stones, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face; which glory was to be done away," and so on. Now this passage at least acknowledges that there was glory on the face of Moses, and that certainly supports our position. And even though it is to be done away, and even though there is a veil in the reading of the same, that does not annoy me or disturb me, as long as there is still glory in it. Nor is it the case that whatever is to be done away is thereby, under all circumstances, reduced to a condition of dishonor. For when Scripture speaks of glory, it also shows us that it knew of differences in glory. So it says: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory." Therefore, although the sun has greater glory than the moon, it does not follow that the moon is thereby reduced to a condition of dish

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

But after Moses appeared, and had given the law to the children of Israel, and had brought back to their memory all the requirements of the law, and all that men needed to observe and do under it, and when he handed over to death only those who transgressed the law, then death was stopped from reigning over all men. For then it reigned over sinners alone, as the law said to it, "Do not touch those who keep my precepts." Therefore Moses served the ministration of this word upon death, while he gave up to destruction all others who were transgressors of the law. For Moses did not come with the intent that death might not reign in any region at all, since many were certainly held under the power of death even after Moses. And the law was called a ministration of death because then only transgressors of the law were punished, and not those who kept it, and who obeyed and observed the things that are in the law, as Abel did, whom Cain, who was made a vessel of the wicked one, slew. However, even after these things, death wished to break the covenant that had been made through Moses, and to reign again over the righteous. And for this purpose it did indeed attack the prophets, killing an

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

My view of this passage is that Moses, that illustrious servant of God, committed to those who wished to have the right vision, an emblematic law, and also a real law.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

Thus, too, on the authority of an apostle, he endeavoured to establish the position that the law of Moses is the law of death, and that the law of Jesus, on the contrary, is the law of life.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

and was pleased to give through Moses a written law to men, since verily the equity of the natural law filled to be retained in all its perfection in their hearts.

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Direct teaching

But now Christ, the end of the law, has come, disclosing all the obscurities of the law — all those things which antiquity had covered with the clouds of sacraments.

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Direct teaching

1 Corinthians 10:25 From these things it is plain that all those things are returned to their original blessedness now that the law is finished, and that we must not revert to the special observances of meats, which observances were ordained for a certain reason, but which evangelical liberty has now taken away, their discharge being given.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

... and atheistical heretics. Let us obey Christ as our King, since He has authority to change various ordinances and, as a lawgiver, has wisdom to make new ordinances in different circumstances; yet in such a way that the laws of nature are everywhere kept unchangeable.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Direct teaching

...o say does not become too long, I return directly to the matter before us. This man taught that the law of Moses, to speak briefly, does not come from the good God, but from the prince of evil. He said that it has no kinship with the new law of Christ, but is opposite and hostile to it, the one being the direct enemy of the other. When I heard such an opinion being taught, I repeated to the people that saying from the Gospel in which our Lord Jesus Christ said about Himself, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." But the man insisted that He did not say this at all. He argued that when we see that Christ actually set aside that same law, we must pay attention above all else to what He actually did. Then he began to quote many passages from the law, and also many from the Gospel and from the Apostle Paul, which seem to contradict one another. He said all this with complete confidence, and without any hesitation or fear. So I truly believe that he has that serpent as his helper, the one who is always our enemy. He said that in the law God says, "I make the rich man and the poor man," while here in the Gospel Jesus called the poor blessed and added that no one cou

Tertullian, Against Marcion Direct teaching

...thesis here: Elisha required a material means, used water, and did so seven times, while Christ, by using only a word, and that once for all, immediately brought about the cure. And surely I may claim the very Word also as belonging to the Creator’s substance. There is nothing over which the One who was the first Author is not also the more powerful. Surely it is incredible that the Creator’s power could by a word produce a remedy for one disease, when by a word it once brought into being so vast a fabric as the world! From what could the Christ of the Creator be better recognized than from the power of His word? But Christ is, on this account, another Christ, because He acted differently from Elisha, because the master is more powerful than his servant! Why, Marcion, do you make it a rule that servants must do things in exactly the same way as their masters? Are you not afraid that this argument will turn against you, if you deny that Christ belongs to the Creator because He was once more powerful than a servant of the Creator? In comparison with the weakness of Elisha, He is acknowledged to be the greater, if indeed greater. For the cure is the same, although the method of doi

Tertullian, Against Marcion Direct teaching

...woman put away from her husband also commits adultery." Luke 16:18 To forbid divorce, He makes it unlawful to marry a woman who has been put away. Moses, however, permitted repudiation in Deuteronomy: "When a man has taken a wife, and has lived with her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found unchastity in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand, and send her away out of his house." Deuteronomy 24:1 You see, therefore, that there is a difference between the law and the gospel, between Moses and Christ. To be sure there is. But then you have rejected that other gospel which bears witness to the same truth and the same Christ. There, while prohibiting divorce, He has given us a solution to this special question about it: "Moses," He says, "because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to give a bill of divorcement; but from the beginning it was not so." Matthew 19:8 For this reason, because He who made them male and female had also said, "The two shall become one flesh." "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man put asunder." Matthew 19:4, 6 Now by this answer of His to the Pharisees, He bot

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

But even Moses himself, by whom the law was given which they so tenaciously maintain, though they have fallen away from God, and have not acknowledged God, had foretold that it would come to pass that a very great prophet would be sent by God, who should be above the law, and be a bearer of the will of God to men.

Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews Supporting witness

Therefore, in this general and primordial law of God, the observance of which, in the case of the tree's fruit, He had sanctioned, we recognise enclosed all the precepts specially of the posterior Law, which germinated when disclosed at their proper times.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

Therefore Moses, and the prophets also themselves, call the law which was given to the Jews a testament: for unless the testator shall have died, a testament cannot be confirmed;

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

And for this reason he was also successor to Moses, to show that the new law given by Christ Jesus was about to succeed to the old law which was given by Moses.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

2. Since, then, the law originated with Moses, it terminated with John as a necessary consequence.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

How Christ Became a Fulfiller of the Law, and What Parts of It He Put a Period To, or Changed, or Transferred.

Galatians 3:10 Direct teaching

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

Galatians 2:16 Direct teaching

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Galatians 3:21 Direct teaching

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

Romans 3:20 Direct teaching

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Hebrews 9:10 Direct teaching

concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

Galatians 3:12 Direct teaching

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Galatians 3:2 Direct teaching

This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Hebrews 9:1 Direct teaching

Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.

Romans 3:27 Direct teaching

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Romans 3:28 Direct teaching

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

1 Corinthians 9:21 Direct teaching

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

Acts 15:5 Direct teaching

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”