Answering Questions Non-Christians Ask

[Garland-Green]

Answering Questions Non-Christians Ask  

[cristobela]

edited

A note about the way the speaker used the word "tradition":

There is a tradition (a way to do things from generation to generation) that is commanded by God and then there is a tradition (a way to do things from generation to generation) that is self-imposed by men. I can't tell which use of the word "tradition" the speaker tried to apply when he brought up the Sadducees coming against Jesus with a hypothetical situation—not to mention a foolish and controversial quarrel about the law of God just to cause division (not unity) and find grounds to assassinate Jesus—based off of the practice of a brother marrying the wife of his deceased (and heirless) brother.

However, if the speaker is suggesting that this instruction came out of Moses' own mind, as a mere self-imposed tradition (as opposed to this being a way to do things from generation to generation that was commanded by God Himself), the biblical evidence does not support the claim that Moses made it up out of his own mind.


Exhibit A:

in 2nd Chronicles 25:4 there's a footnote suggesting the Law of Moses—what's being quoted from Deuteronomy 24:16—is commanded by YHWH Himself.

• 2 Chronicles 25:4 (NIV)
  
  4 Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”[a]
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. 2 Chronicles 25:4 Deut. 24:16

The footnote identifies this command coming from Deuteronomy 24. Just a chapter over is where we find the instruction of a brother marrying the widow of his heirless and deceased brother. As far as identifying that this law was spoken from YHWH's own mouth, neither chapter (Deuteronomy 24 nor Deuteronomy 25) gives explicit indication that "YHWH says" such and such. But clearly it was commanded by YHWH, as 2 Chronicles 25:4 explicitly says.

The verses detailing the instruction for a brother to marry the childless widow (of his dead brother), to give his dead brother an heir, says:

• Deuteronomy 25:5-6 (NIV)
  
  5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

One could refuse, but they'd be shamed by the widow in court:

• Deuteronomy 25:7-10 (NIV)
  
  7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” 10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

Exhibit B:

In certain books, the phrase "Law of YHWH" and "the Book of the Law of Moses" are used interchangeably.

• Nehemiah 8:1 (NIV)
  
  1 all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.
  
  
• Nehemiah 9:3 (NIV)
  
  3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.

Conclusion:

Moses did not make that law up out of his own reasoning or imagination or man's culture. These instructions are God's ways of "doing from generation to generation". Not self-imposed, self-derived ways of "doing from generation to generation". Like every other word that came out of the mouth of God, there is, at the very least on a physical level (and in many cases, on an emotional level as well) protection from harm and thus benefit for complying. Thus why our Heavenly Father commanded it in the first place. There is nothing morally wrong about a brother-in-law marrying the widow of his brother and keeping the tribes alive. Joining a new family (new grandparents, new uncles, new cousins, etc)—it's not just a new husband—and waiting for them to accept you, starting that process all over again, can be more stressful and socially exhausting.

Again, if the speaker was using the word "tradition" to suggest this is self-imposed tradition (a way of doing things from generation to generation that came from man, or that Moses made up himself), then the speaker is incorrect. The brother marrying the heirless brother's widow is the way of "doing from generation to generation" that came from God's mouth, not the way of "doing from generation to generation" that came from man. The latter, man's tradition, becomes a problem when it starts nullifying the former (God's way of doing things).

For an explicit example of that, we have the example of the lawless Pharisees: they made up traditions that nullified YHWH's commands as found in the Law of Moses. Jesus rebuked them for doing so in Matthew 15:1-9. For those who have never read the beginning half of that conversation, I'll provide it for your viewing pleasure:

• Matthew 15:1-9 (NIV)
  
  15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
  
  3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
  
  8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
  but their hearts are far from me.
  9 They worship me in vain;
  their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16
  b. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20:9
  c. Matthew 15:9 Isaiah 29:13

And if any of this starts throwing other parts of the New Testament into question for you (whoever is reading): do not fret, the New Testament doesn't contradict the Old Testament once you pay attention to certain details in every book/letter of the New Testament, and define words by their biblical definition. Helpful thread to read through: [Details in the New Testament that Get Ignored].