Early Christian Beliefs About the Pentateuch and the Law

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching

Of this divine law, then, Moses, who also was God's servant, was made the minister both to all the world, and chiefly to the Hebrews, who were also called Jews, whom an Egyptian king had in ancient days enslaved, and who were the righteous seed of godly and holy men — Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

Moses delivered the law to the people in five books.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

...regarded as venerable and holy by both the clergy and the laity. Of the Old Covenant, these are the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; one book of Joshua the son of Nun, one of the Judges, one of Ruth, four of the Kings, two of the Chronicles, two of Ezra, one of Esther, one of Judith, three of the Maccabees, one of Job, one hundred and fifty Psalms, three books of Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, and sixteen prophets. Besides these, be careful that your young people learn the Wisdom of the very learned Sirach. But our sacred books, that is, those of the New Covenant, are these: the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the fourteen Epistles of Paul; two Epistles of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude; two Epistles of Clement; and the Constitutions dedicated to you bishops by me, Clement, in eight books, which it is not fitting to publish before everyone because of the mysteries contained in them; and the Acts of us the Apostles.

Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks Supporting witness

If anyone claims that the writings of Moses and the other prophets were also written in Greek, let them read secular histories and learn that Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, after building the library in Alexandria and gathering books from everywhere, discovered that very ancient histories written in Hebrew were carefully preserved. Wanting to know their contents, he summoned seventy wise men from Jerusalem who knew both Greek and Hebrew and appointed them to translate the books. To ensure they could complete the translation quickly without disturbance, he had built, not within the city, but seven stadia away (where the Pharos was built), as many small huts as there were translators, so each could work independently. He instructed the officers responsible for this task to attend to them but prevented them from communicating with each other so that the accuracy of the translation could be verified by their agreement. When he learned that the seventy men not only conveyed the same meaning but used the same words, without disagreement even to one word, he was amazed and believed the translation was done by divine power, realizing that the men were worthy of all honor as beloved of God. He

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

...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

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...hrist, and all His divine arrangement, as it has been from the beginning, know that He gave a clear law to support the law of nature. It was pure, saving, and holy. His own name was written in it. It was perfect and will never fail, complete in ten commandments, unstained, and converting souls. When the Hebrews forgot it, He reminded them of it through the prophet Malachi, saying, "Remember the law of Moses, the man of God, who gave you commandments and ordinances to keep." This law is so holy and righteous that even our Savior, when He healed one leper at one time and later nine, said to the first, "Go, show yourself to the high priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." And later He said to the nine, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." Luke 17:14. For He nowhere has abolished the law, as Simon claims, but fulfilled it. For He says, "One iota, or one tittle, shall not pass from the law until all is fulfilled." For He says, "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." Moses himself, who was at once the lawgiver, the high priest, the prophet, and the king, and Elijah, the zealous follower of the prophets, were present at our Lord's tran

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Background

To demonstrate that the number five, which doesn't fit their argument and doesn't align with their system, is, in fact, prevalent, we can turn to the Scriptures for proof. The name "Soter" has five letters, as does "Pater" and "Agape" (love). Our Lord, after blessing the five loaves, fed five thousand men. Five virgins were called wise by the Lord, and similarly, five were called foolish. Furthermore, five men were with the Lord when He received testimony from the Father—namely Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elias. As the fifth person, the Lord entered the room of the dead girl and raised her, for, as the Scripture states, "He allowed no one to go in, except Peter, James, and the girl's father and mother." The rich man in hell mentioned his five brothers, to whom he wanted someone rising from the dead to be sent. The pool where the Lord instructed the paralytic man to return to his house had five porches. The shape of the cross also has five extremities: two in length, two in width, and one in the middle, where the person rests when nailed. Each hand has five fingers; we also have five senses. Our internal organs can be counted as five: the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, and kidneys.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

Stay away from all pagan books. What do you have to do with such foreign teachings, laws, or false prophets that overthrow the faith of unstable people? What lack do you find in the law of God, that you should turn to those pagan fables? If you want to read history, you have the books of the Kings. If you want books of wisdom or poetry, you have the books of the Prophets, Job, and Proverbs. In them you will find greater depth of understanding than in all the pagan poets and sophists, because these are the words of the Lord, the only wise God. If you want something to sing, you have the Psalms. If you want the origin of things, you have Genesis. If you want laws and statutes, you have the glorious law of the Lord God. Therefore, completely stay away from all strange and diabolical books. No, when you read the law, do not think that you are required to keep the added precepts, if not all of them, then even some of them. Read those only for the sake of history, so that you may know them and glorify God that He has delivered you from so great and so many bonds. Aim to distinguish which rules came from the law of nature, and which were added afterward, or were additional rules introduce

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

Therefore, we must take up the law of God, which can guide us on this path. It is a holy and heavenly law. Marcus Tullius, in the third book of his work On the Republic, described it in words that sound almost divine. I have included his words so that I may not speak at greater length: “There truly is a true law, right reason, in agreement with nature, spread among all people, unchanging and everlasting. It calls people to duty by commanding them, and turns them away from wrong by forbidding it. Yet it does not command or forbid the good in vain, nor does it move the wicked by commanding or forbidding. It is not lawful to alter any part of this law, nor is it permitted for us to change it, nor can it be completely abolished. Truly, we cannot be freed from this law either by the senate or by the people, nor should some other person be sought to explain or interpret it. There will not be one law at Rome and another at Athens, one law now and another later. But the same law, everlasting and unchangeable, will bind all nations at all times. And there will be one common Master and Ruler of all, God, the maker, judge, and giver of this law. And whoever does not obey it will flee from him

Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness

...have answered well enough the charges of the many crimes on which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have fully presented our case. We have shown how we can prove that what we say is true, from the trustworthiness and antiquity of our sacred writings, and also from the confession of the powers of spiritual wickedness themselves. Who will dare to refute us, not with skill in words, but, as we have made our demonstration, on the basis of reality? But while the truth we hold is made clear to all, unbelief meanwhile, even at the very time when it is convinced of the worth of Christianity, now well known both for its benefits and from the intercourse of life, takes up the idea that it is not really something divine, but rather a kind of philosophy. "These are the very things," it says, "that the philosophers advise and profess: innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, and chastity." Why then are we not allowed the same freedom and immunity for our teachings that they have, when we are compared with them in what we teach? Or why are they not also forced to the same acts, by refusing which our lives are put in danger, if they are so much like us? For who forces a phil

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Supporting witness

Moreover, concerning the righteousness which the law enjoined, confirmatory utterances are found both with the prophets and in the Gospels, because they all spoke inspired by one Spirit of God.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

Now perhaps, through these illustrations, no doubt will be enter­tained regarding the five books of Moses, by those who hold the writings of the apostle, as divinely in­spired.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

Now it is probable that, from these illustrations, those will entertain no doubt with respect to the five books of Moses, who have once given in their adhesion to the apostle, as divinely inspired;

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

And even Cicero, though ignorant of the sacred writings, saw this, who in his treatise on the Laws, in the first book, handed down the same thing as the prophets;

Irenaeus, Connection to John 5:46 Direct teaching

"For if ye had believed Moses, ye would also have believed Me; for he wrote of Me; "

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

... sound. He himself allows the words, "Of His fullness we all received, and grace for grace; for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," to have been spoken by the Baptist. And does it not follow that the person who received of the fullness of Christ, and a second grace in addition to what he had before, and who declared the law to have been given by Moses, but grace and truth to have come through Jesus Christ, is also the person who understood, from what he received from the fullness of Christ, how no one has seen God at any time, and how the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, had delivered the declaration about God to him and to all those who had received of His fullness? He was not declaring here for the first time Him who is in the bosom of the Father, as if there had never before been anyone fit to receive what He told His Apostles. Does He not teach us that He was before Abraham, and that Abraham rejoiced and was glad to see His day? The words, "Of His fullness all we received," and, "Grace for grace," show, as we have already made clear, that the prophets also received their gift from the fullness of Christ, and received a seco

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

Now of the Scriptures which are current and are believed to be divine in all the churches, one would not be wrong in saying that the first growth is the law of Moses, but the first fruits the Gospel.

Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews Supporting witness

And, primarily, we must lay it down that the ancient Law and the prophets could not have ceased, unless He had come who was constantly announced, through the same Law and through the same prophets, as to come.

Luke 24:44 Background

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

John 5:46 Background

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Matthew 5:17 Background

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

...matters that have come up so often must be set aside. I regret that I still have to argue about the law, after I have so often proved that its replacement by the gospel gives no argument for another god. For this was indeed predicted in Christ, and ordained for His Christ in the Creator's own plans. But I must return to that discussion as far as the apostle leads me, because this very epistle looks very much as if it abolishes the law. We have, however, often shown before now that God is declared by the apostle to be a Judge; and that in the Judge an Avenger is implied; and in the Avenger, the Creator. And so, in the passage where he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith," Romans 1:16-17, he undoubtedly ascribes both the gospel and salvation to Him whom, according to our heretic's own distinction, I have called the just God, not the good one. It is He who removes men from confidence in the law to faith in the gospel. That is, to His own law and His own gospel. When, again, he declares that "the wr

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching

... law given on stone tablets was still observed), no new covenant was established. They followed the Mosaic law until the Lord's coming. But from the Lord's arrival, the new covenant bringing peace and the law bringing life spread across the earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He shall rebuke many people; and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they shall learn war no more.” If another law and word from Jerusalem brought such peace among the Gentiles who accepted it, and convinced many nations of their folly, then it seems the prophets spoke of someone else. But if the law of liberty, meaning the word of God, preached by the apostles from Jerusalem across the world, brought such change that these nations transformed swords and war lances into ploughshares and converted them into tools for peaceful purposes and now no longer engage in fighting, but when struck, also offer the other cheek, then the prophets spoke not of anyone else but of Him who made these changes. This person is our Lord, and in Him, this declaration is confirmed; since He Himself ha

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

...re the rule of the Word must be kept with all our strength. Nothing at all must be done against the laws, and the commandments must not be weakened. For evil desire is called ὕβρις, insolence. And Plato called the horse of desire unruly when he read, "You became to me raging horses after females," Jeremiah 5:8. And those angels who came to Sodom will make the punishment of lust known to us. They burned those who wanted to treat them shamefully, together with the city, showing by this clear sign the fire that is the fruit of lust. For the things that happened to the people of old, as we said before, were written to warn us, so that we may not be held by the same sins, and may beware lest we fall into similar punishments. But we ought to regard boys as our children, and to look at other men's wives as their own daughters. For to restrain pleasures, and to rule the belly and the parts below the belly, belongs to the greatest mastery. For if reason does not allow the wise man even to move a finger carelessly, as the Stoics confess, how much more must those who pursue wisdom gain control over the part used in intercourse? And for this reason that part seems to be called the private p

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...e I was sitting in my house and praising the Lord for all that I had seen, I was thinking about the commandments: that they are excellent, powerful, glorious, and able to save a person's soul. I said to myself, "I will be blessed if I walk in these commandments, and everyone who walks in them will be blessed." While I was saying these things to myself, I suddenly saw him sitting beside me, and I heard him say this: "Why are you doubtful about the commandments that I gave you? They are excellent. Do not doubt them at all. Instead, put on faith in the Lord, and you will walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them. These commandments are useful for those who intend to repent. For if they do not walk in them, their repentance is in vain. Therefore, you who repent, throw away the wickedness of this world that wears you out. And by putting on all the virtues of a holy life, you will be able to keep these commandments, and you will no longer add to the number of your sins. Walk, therefore, in these commandments of mine, and you will live to God. All these things have been spoken to you by me." After he had said these words, he said to me, "Let us go into the fields, and I will show

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

He finished the twelve commandments and said to me, "You now have these commandments. Live by them, and urge your hearers to do the same, so that their repentance may be pure for the rest of their lives. Carefully carry out this ministry that I now entrust to you, and you will accomplish much. For you will find favor among those who are going to repent, and they will listen to your words, because I will be with you and will compel them to obey you." I said to him, "Sir, these commandments are great, good, and glorious, and they are able to make glad the heart of the person who can keep them. But I do not know whether a human being can keep these commandments, because they are extremely hard." He answered and said to me, "If you settle it in your mind that they can be kept, then you will keep them easily, and they will not be hard. But if you begin to think that they cannot be kept by man, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, if you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your household, since you have already decided for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by man."

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...hen, man is lord over the creatures of God and rules over all, is he not able to be lord over these commandments also? For," he says, "the man who has the Lord in his heart can also be lord over all, and over every one of these commandments. But for those who have the Lord only on their lips, Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8, while their hearts are hardened, John 12:40; 2 Corinthians 3:14, and who are far from the Lord, the commandments are hard and difficult. Therefore, you who are empty and unstable in your faith, put the Lord in your heart, and you will know that nothing is easier, sweeter, or more manageable than these commandments. Return, you who walk in the commandments of the devil, in harsh and bitter and savage licentiousness, and do not fear the devil. For he has no power against you, because I will be with you, the angel of repentance, who am lord over him. The devil has only fear, but his fear has no strength. So do not fear him, and he will flee from you."

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

but from the Lord’s advent, the new covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

5. The laws of bondage, however, were one by one promulgated to the people by Moses, suited for their instruction or for their punishment, as Moses himself declared: “And the commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments.” These things, therefore, which were given for bondage, and for a sign to them, He cancelled by the new covenant of liberty.