Someone please guide me about the Old Law

[iaskquestions]

I tried searching this forum but didn’t get satisfactory results.

What is the Old Law? What is Mosaic law? Are we obliged to follow it? If not, then why? I guess the church requires us to follow only the moral teaching of the Old Law right?

 

[NotWorthy]

I tried searching this forum but didn’t get satisfactory results.

What is the Old Law? What is Mosaic law? Are we obliged to follow it? If not, then why? I guess the church requires us to follow only the moral teaching of the Old Law right?

The ritualistic laws of the Mosaic Covenant are no longer necessary - fasting on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, eating only clean foods (no pork and what-not), the cleaning of purifying or oneself before eating, these are no longer necessary.

But the moral laws given in the Ten Commandments are still as valid as they ever were, even more so after Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

For instance, Circumcision was necessary for observance of the Old Law. Read Chapter 15 of the Acts, and you will see how this and all the other Mosaic Laws were over-ruled by the New Covenant Church.

Side note: The four remaining restrictions given by James in Chapter 15 of Acts were since squelched, as indicated in Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.

 

[Robbinson]

I tried searching this forum but didn’t get satisfactory results.

What is the Old Law? What is Mosaic law? Are we obliged to follow it? If not, then why? I guess the church requires us to follow only the moral teaching of the Old Law right?

I don’t know if there is an official Catholic teaching on this, but the way I understand it (interpret scripture) is that per Matt 5:17-18, Christ came and fulfilled most of the 613 commandments imbedded within the Old Testatement (presumably the “Old Law” to which you are refrerring) including the dietary laws, all the levitical laws re: sacrafice and priesthood, etc.

What remains is the moral law (10 commandments - or if you interpret Christ as satisfying the Sabbath - per Hebrews - as our “rest”, 9 of the 10 commandments). Jesus than expounded on the meaning of the 10 commandments focusing the spirtual (rather than formalistic) of applying these laws that had become common in Old Testatement times. Thus, the “golden rule” and the Beattitudes.

FYI Matt 5:17-18 read:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

 

[NotWorthy]

The moral laws are natural laws, which even atheistic societies most often follow. Notice that God punished Cain for slaying Abel long before Charlton Heston appeared with “15… no, 10…10 Commandments”.

 

[Bible_Reader]

I tried searching this forum but didn’t get satisfactory results.

What is the Old Law? What is Mosaic law? Are we obliged to follow it? If not, then why? I guess the church requires us to follow only the moral teaching of the Old Law right?

See Jeremiah 31:31-34.