From Bereishit Rabah:
And the Torah said "In the beginning God created" and there is no beginning (reishit) except for Torah, as it is written: "God made me the beginning of His way" (Proverbs 8:22).
Some students of the Bible may not yet fully understand how it is, in truth, the Torah that Solomon referred to as the Wisdom of God in Proverbs 8. However, there is no reason to think that Paul the Apostle would not have both agreed with this teaching of Bereshit Rabah and also been ready to expand upon it to anyone who was ready in their understanding to receive such teaching.
How could anyone at all, however, think or say that Paul, when teaching about the Torah, means to say that God made the Torah as it is in heaven a thing of the past, as if Paul believed that God did not want to redeem creation at all but rather replace it with something else.
Why does Paul use the language that he does when teaching about the Torah? His language can seem to say that on the one hand the Torah was commanded to Israel and on the other hand the grace of God come to Israel in Mashiach? There is a need for further education about this.
There is a certain measure of abbreviation in Paul’s language when he speaks of the Torah. His language in speaking about the Torah was already everyday language to him before he became a follower of Yehoshua. Just as in the case of every other Jew, and especially a well educated Jew as was Saul of Tarsus, the word, “Torah”, could be used with a slightly different meaning in different contexts. In one context it meant the wisdom spoken of by Solomon in Proverbs 8. In another context it meant the Torah as given to Israel on Mount Sinai in God’s covenant with Israel. This is the same Torah but in different expressions and applications.
When Paul teaches in Romans 8 that the Torah was not able to fully liberate Israel from the slavery of sin he is not speaking about the the Torah as the Wisdom of God as King Solomon wrote about it in Proverbs. Instead, in abbreviated language, he is teaching that Adam did not attain to the full level of the Wisdom, the Torah, by which God created all things for time and eternity, because he disobeyed God. Likewise, without the work of Mashiach, Israel could not fully rectify Adam’s disobedience and attain to that level of the Torah, because, no matter how high Israel might ascend in this effort, there always remained an element of the weakness of the disobedience of Adam that Israel could never rectify. And even though the Torah as given to Israel would elevate Israel generation after generation, the element of weakness of the disobedience of Adam that remained would cause Israel to fall again, generation after generation, into corruption and captivity.
In every case where Paul wrote a letter to a certain assembly of followers of Yehoshua, he did so with the intention that his teaching in the letter would be fully explained in person to the people of that assembly by individuals who he himself had taught. In this way, there would be no misunderstanding through his abbreviated language, on the one hand, and no confusion, on the other hand, due to the mysteries of the ultimate redemption of Israel, which was yet to be revealed, and to which Paul continually alluded.
Much more can be said about Paul's language in speaking about the Torah. However, until the history and psychology of misunderstanding Paul's language about the Torah is explored, (as it has manifested in the whole gentile messianic community through the centuries and among all the various nations), the eternal Torah of Paul the Apostle's faith will not be fully appreciated in the gentile messianic community.
Much more can be said about Paul's language in speaking about the Torah. However, until the history and psychology of misunderstanding Paul's language about the Torah is explored, (as it has manifested in the whole gentile messianic community through the centuries and among all the various nations), the eternal Torah of Paul the Apostle's faith will not be fully appreciated in the gentile messianic community.
