Peace Nimrod:
Thank you for your indepth response. I do understand, for the most part, what you're trying to say, but I have some concerns with it.
The apostles left the Jewish brothers under more regulations, I will have to try and find them for you. I am outside right at the moment smoking a ham for Easter and I don’t have my bible with me.
ok, I will wait until you have time to show the verses where the apostles went away from the word of God and the teachings of Jesus, pbuh, and incorporated their own laws. (Me thinks you shouldn't be smoking ham :okay: )
In the case of the Old Testament Law though, although the “law” (little letter) for me is no longer in effect, for the Hebrews, who died before Jesus was resurrected, they will still be judged by the “Law” and all of its regulations ("law"-little L). That Judgment day comes after the world is destroyed.
My concern here is that someone seemed to take a lot of liberties with translating and interpreting the Hebrew and/or Greek manuscripts. You see, the use of capital letters didn't exist. For example, in the following verse from 2 Corrinthians 4:4(KJV) "4In whom the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them."
The same word used as "god" to refer to satan, is hotheos, the exact same word, hotheos, is used in the second word "God". As you know, capitalization is used for a proper name, BUT, it is also used to emphasize status or importance. In both instances, according to Greek, the word "GOD" should have been capitalized. Hotheos means The God, a proper name. Translators changed the emphasis and meaning here by altering text because, I'm sure you'll agree, none of us would be willing to give satan the same title as Allah, swt. Astagfurillah. However, understanding WHY they wouldn't want to give the same title, doesn't change the fact they altered translated text for their own purposes.
To show you how liberties are taken, the sytem gets reversed in translating John 1:1. In the portion that reads: "...and the Word was with God", the word used for "GOD" is hotheos, which means "The God". In the next part, "...and the Word was God", the word used for "GOD" is tontheos, which means "a god" with less emphasis because it is a common noun. Yet, translators took liberties to place emphasis where none existed. And, the question begs to be asked, "Why is the word "Word" capitalized at all?"
Soooo, that being said.....the Letter of the Law, or the letter of law, does not have separate meanings. But, it is through manipulating text through translations that serious problems occur. Now imagine how many times this has been done since the manuscripts were first written up to today? Jesus, pbuh, did not come to change the law of the prophets before Him, so I'm not understanding how you say it changed after the resurection. (Perhaps my understanding of what you said is not correct....I'm a tad confused by this part to be honest. :) ) If you can provide the verses it really helps me to have a better understanding.
The rest, speaking of letter of the law and intent, concerns me as well. I can't imagine man being punished when their intent was to serve God and worship only God following the laws given them. Whether they were too strict seems kind of petty. When your intentions are sincere and the purpose of trying to follow God's law is to serve only Him, why would that necessitate punishment? Also, Jesus, pbuh, chose His disciples and He personally taught them the message He was sent to deliver so they could, in turn, teach others. It was left to these 12, (well, 11, after Judas I guess :X ), to spread the word of God. Yet, Paul, a man who wanted nothing more than to see Jesus, pbuh, dead and persecuted many followers of Jesus, pbuh, comes along arguing with the disciples that what they learned from Jesus, pbuh, is wrong. :? I honestly mean no disrespect here, but these are areas where I had major concerns when I was Christian and they have never been explained.
Uffff, I'm making this post too long. Ok, I'll end here and look forward to further discussions.
Take care and Peace,
Hana