Saturday, December 10, 2005

Ethics from the Old Testament

Ethics

As Luck suggests, “unless willing to live as brutes or beasts, all men must live by some sort of system of ethics or morals.”[15] Everyone lives by some system of ethics that more or less dictate their actions. This portion of the essay will examine how the Old Testament applies to a Christian system of ethics.

The greater question to be examined is “how should Christians apply the Old Testament ethic today?” If Christians are to take the Old Testament as a whole, literal, regimented, ethic then there is a considerable amount of change that must take place in the lives of Christians everywhere. For example, Leviticus 19:19 mandates that clothing of more than one type of fabric should not be worn at anytime by anyone. Surely this mandate is no longer applicable today right? But in the same breath in Leviticus 19:18 there is, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neightbor as yourself.” Now, this mandate would be seen as applicable to everyone everywhere right? As you can see this can create a fair amount of confusion as to what should be considered ethical for Christians in the contemporary world.

Dr. William Webb from Heritage Theological Seminary, has come up with a method by which various types of mandates can be differentiated and applied today. He wrote a book entitled Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis.[16] And in his book, he suggests that in Scripture there are two different types of mandates or commands. First, there are transcendent mandates. These are commands that transcend culture and time. This just means that those commands or mandates are timeless. An example of a transcendent mandate are the ten commandments. Next, there are cultural mandates that are not timeless and are relative to the culture and time in which they are written. For example, I am sure if you look at the clothes you are wearing right now, you will realize that at least one article of clothing is made up of more than one fiber. So are you wrong to be wearing that piece of clothing (or perhaps even your entire outfit)? Well no, of course not. Does this mean that Scripture isn’t true, authoritative, or inspired by God? Absolutely not! It is only acknowledging that Scripture was written BY GOD in a REAL TIME through REAL PEOPLE in a REAL PLACE. Moses was a real person who had real concerns for a real group of people that he really wanted to see obey God. At the time, God was wanting to illustrate to the rest of the world that his people were different, they were pure, they were committed to him and him alone. It was a message to the rest of the world that instead of serving many gods, Israel was committed to Yahweh. By wearing clothes of more than one clothing today are we breaking the law of Moses and screaming to the world that we are no different then they are? By and large no! So is it ok for you to wear clothing made of more than one fiber? Yes, as long as you are not forcing someone else to sin by doing so.[17]

Daniel Hays also suggests that the traditional method of breaking up Old Testament laws into civil, cremonial, and moral laws is not a sufficient interpretation of the Old Testament ethic, he further suggests that it, as well as other hermeneutics of Old Testament Law should not be divided up into applicable and non-applicable mandates. Instead, he suggests that principlism is a better method of interpretation. Principlism is a method of iterpretation that suggests finding the underlying principle that exists within an Old Testament Law. Examining that principle in light of New Testament teaching, and then teaching the principle not the mandate. Hays suggests a five step process in coming to a proper understanding of the text. First, what did the law mean to the original audience? Second, determine the difference between the original audience and contemporary Chrisitians. Third, develop universal principles from the text. Fourth, correlate the principle within New Testament teaching. Fifthly and finally, apply the modified universal principle today.[18]

When it comes to ethics, the bottom line is that Old Testament ethics existed for multiple reasons. One of which was to come along and help society to progress, it is one of the methods by which God has used to bring the world to where it needed to be for Jesus to come, and to get to where it is now. Now, obviously this does not mean that because society progresses humans are somehow better, or that humans are somehow in less need of God. Quite the contrary, the progression of society should further illustrate to everyone that the need for God is greater than ever. Because the more that someone has (whether it be material or moral goods) the more they seem to know that it isn’t enough and everything in the world cannot satisfy the human soul.

Conclusion

Why is the Old Testament valuable when we have the fullness of God’s revelation in Jesus and the New Testament? Simply put, because without the Old Testament, the fullness of God’s Revelation would not be full, rather it would seem disjointed and out of place. The Old Testament provides a context in which we can fully understand the fullness of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ and in the New Testament.



[1] Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read. Pg. 24

[2] Wright, NT. The Bible for the Post Modern world. http://latimer.godzone.net.nz/orange_lecture/orangelecture99.asp

[3] Ibid.

[4] Yancey, Philip. Pg. 24

[5] Ibid.

[6] Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden life in God. Ch. 3

[7] Erikson, Millard. Christian Theology. Pg. 1066

[8] Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: A practical Guide to Biblical Doctrine. Pg. 1004

Grudem is quoting the “Westminster larger Catechism.”

[9] Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read. Pgs. 111-112

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Nehemiah 8:10

- First off, I am not sure that a passage can be taken more out of context than this. I would normally leave a string of expletives following this, but come, on this is seminary.

[14] Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read. Pg. 20

[15] Luck, Coleman G. “Christian Ethics”

Bibliotheca sacra, 118 Jl-S 1961, p 228-238.

[16] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/008/31.64.html - I have to admit, that I have not read the book, but I have done a fair amount of research on the web. All of the information that I am referencing in this paragrapaph comes from this source or from the source referenced in footnote 24.

[18] Hays, Daniel. How to apply Old Testament law Today.

Bibliotheca sacra, 158 no 629 Ja-Mr 2001, p 30-32

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