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February 19, 2026 |
| The Law and the Prophets | ||
The New Testament has many references to "the Law", "the Prophets", or "the Law and the Prophets." Most Christians don't understand what is meant by those.
In this short study, we'll see what they mean.
Pretty much all Christians understand that the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Some of them have enough understanding to divide the Old Testament into the Torah and the others, where the Torah is the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
While the Jews of Jesus' time, and of our time, recognized the Torah as a separate division, and they had other divisions, they used different names to refer to those divisions and groups of divisions, and the New Testament uses those names.
Do not think that I have come to revoke the Law or the Prophets; I am not come to revoke but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)
So, the short answer is that "the Law" and "the Prophets" refer to divisions of the books of the Old Testament. For a complete understanding, we will have to dig deeper.
The phrase "the Law" mostly refers to the 5 books of Moses, which we commonly call the Torah.
There are exceptions to that. The phrase "the Law" is sometimes used to refer to the entire Old Testament. Jesus does this a couple of times.
Yeshua said to them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I have said, "You are gods"'?" (John 10:34)
Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82, which he infers is in "the Law," though "the Psalms" is plainly not in the Torah.
If there is any lesson to be learned from this study, it is that the answer to what is meant by "the Law" and "the Prophets" is that the reader often needs to look at the context in order to get the meaning.
The English language is a very precise language. We have so many words that we can express subtle nuances of difference. Hebrew and Aramaic are not like that. They have far fewer words, and they expect the reader to be aware of the context and understand meanings through that. This is the reason that people say, "He's taken that verse out of context."
There is a verse where the author wants to make it clear which meaning of "the Law" he is using.
For the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Yeshua the Messiah. (John 1:17)
When John says "the Law" here, he is specifically referring to the Torah.
Instead of saying "the Law," an author could name Moses.
Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." (Luke 16:29)
The phrase "the Prophets" almost never refers to the people who were prophets. Instead it refers to the books of the Bible that were written by the recognized prophets.
Joshua
Judges
Samuel (combined as one book)
Kings (combined as one book)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Modern Jews group these books together in ways that we do not see in the New Testament, so I'm not going to waste your time with those.
Although the phrase "the Prophets" is commonly used in combination as "the Law and the Prophets," there are times when it is used by itself.
For it is written in the Prophets, "All of them will be taught of God." Everyone, therefore, who has heard from the Father and has learned from him, comes to me. (John 6:45)
As I mentioned above, there are times when "the prophets" appear and plainly do refer to the people.
Then rejoice and triumph, because your reward is great in Heaven, for just so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:12)
As I also said before, context is critical.
If an author wanted to refer to a particular prophet, he would generally use the name of the prophet, but here again, there are exceptions.
Now all this happened, that the thing which was spoken from the Lord Yahweh by the Prophet would be fulfilled: 23 "Behold the virgin shall conceive, and she shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, 'Our God is with us'". (Matthew 1:22-23)
Again, context.
The phrase "the Prophet" can be used in another way that is even more subtle.
He said to them, "What thing?" They were saying to him, "Concerning Yeshua, who was from Nazareth, a man who was the Prophet, mighty in word and in deed before God, and before the whole nation. (Luke 24:19)
And they asked him again, "What, therefore? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "No." "Are you the Prophet", and he said "No." (John 1:21)
Both of these are references, not to a prophet who had lived, but to Moses' prophecy of a coming "prophet like me."
Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him. (Deuteronomy 18:15)
By the way, they didn't listen.
In this case, the context to understand a New Testament reference comes from the 5th book of the Old Testament. Christians might wonder how anyone could be expected to know that context, but every Jew in Jesus' time knew it. That's why the Pharisees were asking John the Baptist. The Prophet was someone they were expecting because of prophecy.
The phrase "the Writings" refers to every other book that is not in "the Law" or "the Prophets." This phrase is largely unknown to Christians, though it appears in the New Testament.
The books in "the Writings" are considered by Jews to have "a slightly lower level of inspiration." Christians do not accept that. Some of these books prophesied about the Messiah.
And I said, "Behold, I come", because in the beginning of the Writings it is written of me, "to do your will, oh God." (Hebrews 10:7)
It shouldn't be a surprise that Hebrews is the only book that has this reference. When the verse says, "in the beginning of the Writings," he is referring to "the Psalms", which was considered the first book of "the Writings". The author of Hebrews is referring to Psalms 40:6 as being a prophecy of the Messiah.
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra
Nehemiah
Chronicles (1 and 2)
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
As with "the Prophets," there are ways of grouping these books together that do not appear in the New Testament and are not useful to us.
You may have been surprised earlier that the book of Daniel is missing from the Prophets, and instead appears here in the Writings. This was one of many changes that were made to Judaism to counter Christianity. Daniel contains very specific dates for the coming of the Messiah. From the Jewish perspective, the Messiah never came then, so Daniel cannot be understood literally and was demoted to "the Writings". Jesus specifically refers to Daniel as a prophet.
Generally, when you see the phrase "the Prophets" used, it includes "the Writings."
We saw earlier that "the Law" was sometimes used to refer to the entire Tanakh. There was another way to refer to the Tanakh. That was to say "The Law and The Prophets." Since saying "the Prophets" generally included "the Writings," this whole phrase referred to the entire Tanakh.
There are variations on this as well.
And he said to them, "These are the words that I spoke with you when I was with you, that everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled." (Luke 24:44)
When I started this study, I thought it would be very short and done quickly. Instead it has turned into much more.
I found it very interesting to do a search for the phrase "the Prophet" through the New Testament. That really showed all the ways that the phrases we've covered are used.