Tuesday, May 14, 2024

F. Garcia-López and Heinz-Josef Fabry on the Meaning of Law/Torah (תּוֹרָה) in Isaiah 8:16, 20

  

In Isa. 8:16, 20, teʿûḏâ in parallel with tôrâ can be translated “oracle,” for it refers to the message that Isaiah received from God as a prophet. In this context tôrâ is equivalent to oracular instruction. In the OT, then, tôrâ can mean a particular individual instruction embodying a command or decision, communicated in the temple by a priest. Thus tôrâ denotes an instruction or behavioral norm whose authority and binding force depend on its source. A word revealed by God takes the form of a law or an oracle. A prophetic tôrâ, instruction with oracular character, may be traced to a word (dāḇār) of Yahweh. (F. Garcia-López and Heinz-Josef Fabry, “תּוֹרָה,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, 17 vols [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2006], 15:640)

 

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