The Way, The Truth, The Life

Excerpt From Book

The Scriptures’ own view is there was written Torah and oral Torah. The written Torah was received on the mountain:

Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law …”
(Exodus 24:12a)

{Law?} No, that’s torah. {He’s referring to} The Teaching.

“and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.”
(Exodus 24:12b)

There’s a torah and a commandment on those stone tablets, and the Ten Commandments was [sic] all that was on the stone tablets. That’s the written Torah, and the Old Testament—I don’t dispute the fact that it’s revelation; I do dispute the fact that it’s written Torah. It’s a record of Moses receiving written Torah and oral Torah, a historical record telling you what happened to that oral Torah.

The Old Testament records what happened to that oral Torah, because they were held responsible to transfer that down from generation to generation. And the priests, not the Prophets, were responsible to teach each new generation, and the individuals themselves were responsible to teach their children.

Moses received that {oral} Torah before he went up to the mountain. He received that {oral Torah} at the base of the mountain, he received that {oral Torah} on the mountain, and he received that {oral Torah} after the mountain. He did not receive oral Torah simply on the mountain. He received it before, at the base, on top, and after {the mountain}. Before: In Exodus 18:13–16, it tells you that when the people came to Moses to be judged, he says,

“I judge between a man and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
(Exodus 18:16b)

{That’s} torah. That tells you that Moses already knew the {oral} Torah before he got to the mountain because that took place before he got to the mountain of Sinai. How did he know this {oral Torah}? Well, go back to {what} Exodus 12 {says} concerning the Passover, because the Passover is torah.

I explain in The Mystery of Scripture what torah is. It’s the explanation of symbolic ritual. It’s The oral Teaching that went along with this symbolic ritual of the sacrificial cult. The priests were supposed to be teaching the people what these symbolic rituals meant because these symbolic rituals were parabolic pantomime. The priests were supposed to be teaching this, not the Prophets! The Jews say the Prophets {of Israel} were supposed to teach. {That’s not true.} The Prophets were supposed to come in and restore The Teaching. If the need arose, God would use them as His spokesperson to restore The Teaching.

Larry Dee Harper, The Way, The Truth, The Life, Tape 2: “The Way: The Mystery of Scripture,” pp. 23–25