Messiah is the Goal of the Torah

Messiah is the Goal of the Torah

In speaking to the Nephites Yeshua said:

Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end.

(3Nephi 15:5 (7:6 RLDS))

Messianic Jewish writer David Stern, in the "Introduction" to his Jewish New Testament writes concerning a parallel verse in Romans 10:4:

"But Greek telos, which gives the English word `teleology', usually means `goal, purpose, consummation', not `termination.' The Messiah did not bring the Torah to an end. Rather, as the Jewish New Testament renders it, `the goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts.' This is the point which Sha'ul is making in Romans 9:30-10:13. For this reason the Greek word de at the beginning of Romans 10:6 is rendered as a continuative, `moreover,' rather than as an adversative, `but'; for the latter world would imply that there are two paths to righteousness through deeds (i.e., obeying the Torah apart from faith, verse 5) and through faith (verses 6-10). However, Sha'ul's point throughout the passage, and indeed throughout Romans, is that for Jews and Gentiles alike there has never been more than one route to righteousness, namely, trusting God; so that the Torah is built on trusting God and from beginning to end has always required faith" (p. xxiii).

Stern translates the word telos in the Jewish New Testament Rom. 10:4 as "goal" thus saying "Messiah is the goal of the Torah." Thus clarifying the ambiguity of the word "end" here.

Back in 1893 when James Murdock S.T.D. translated the Aramaic Peshitta into English for the first time, he translated the Aramaic word used in the Aramaic Peshitta in Rom. 10:4 as “aim”. A note in the margin shows that the Aramaic word is SAKA and can be understood as “end, scope, summary”.

In my previous blogs I have shown that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the gift of the interpretation of languages, and that this involved Smith knowing the range of meanings of the words and phrases of the original Hebrew, but not necessarily knowing what was in the minds of the original authors.  Thus it was very possible for Smith to choose a word or phrase that was within the range of meaning of the original words and phrases but which did not express the intended meaning of the original author.

For this reason John Tvetness writes:

Some passages of the Book of Mormon can be better understood in Hebrew than in English because the Hebrew reflects word-play or a range of meaning which gives more sense to the passage.
(The Ensign; Oct. 1986 p.64)

When the Book of Mormon says:

Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end.

(3Nephi 15:5 (7:6 RLDS))

The word “end” was translated into Hebrew in Selections from the Book of Mormon in Hebrew, published by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1981 as TAK’LIT (תכלית) which was probably the word used in the original Hebrew.  TAK’LIT (Strong’s 8503) (תכלית) can mean “end” but can also mean “purpose, aim, intention or goal.” 

When Yeshua told the Nephites that the Torah has an “end” he did not mean that the Torah had a termination, but that the Torah has a purpose, a goal. 

There are several other passages i n the Book of Mormon that confirm that Messiah Yeshua is the "end of the Torah" not because He is the termination of the Torah, but because He is the goal of the Torah:

"...for this end ['goal', not termination] hath the law of Moses been given.."

(2 Nephi 11:4 (8:7-9 RLDS)

Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, TO ANSWER THE ENDS

OF THE LAW, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite

spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

(2 Nephi 2:7 (1:72 RLDS)