Texts in Conversation
Paul in Romans 7 describes how the Torah can paradoxically create desire for what is forbidden, producing death. Rabbinic tradition in Exodus Rabbah is similar, describing the Torah as holy yet capable of harm when the evil inclination exploits it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 7:10
New Testament
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment, sin became alive 10 and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
Exodus Rabbah 5:9
Aggadah
Rabbinic
When the Holy One blessed be He gave the Torah at Sinai, He displayed His voice to Israel with miracles and wonders. How so? The Holy One blessed be He would speak, and the voice emerged and circulated throughout the world. Israel heard the voice coming to them from the south and were running to the south to greet the voice. From the south it shifted for them to the north, and they were running to the north. From the north it shifted to the east, and they were running to the east. From the east it shifted for them to the west, and they were running to the west. From the west it shifted for them to the heavens, and they were raising their eyes. It shifted to the earth, and they were looking at the earth, as it is stated: “From the heavens, He sounded His voice to you to admonish you [and on the earth He showed you His great fire]” (Deuteronomy 4:36). Israel were saying to each other: “But wisdom, where shall it be found?” (Job 28:12). Israel was saying: ‘From where does the Holy One blessed be He come, from the east or from the south?’ As it is stated: “The Lord came from Sinai and shone to them from Seir” (Deuteronomy 33:2), and it is written: “God came from the south” (Habakkuk 3:3), and it says: “All the people were seeing the voices” (Exodus 20:15). Voice is not written here, but “voices.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The voice would emerge and divide into seventy voices for seventy languages, so that all the nations could understand. Each and every nation would hear a voice in the language of that nation, and their souls departed. But Israel heard and they were not harmed. How would the voice emerge? Rabbi Tanḥuma said: It would emerge in two forms: It would kill the idolaters, who did not accept it, and would give life to Israel, who accepted the Torah.
Date: 1200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Sifre Deuteronomy, He'azinu 306, Exodus Rabbah, Ta'anit 7a, Numbers Rabbah, Sukkah 52b, Kiddushin 30b, P. Yoma 6.4, 34d ... Paul affirms that although the purpose of the Torah is to give life (compare Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 28:15-20, Proverbs 3:18, Ezekiel 20:11), the desire of the evil inclination is only for what is forbidden, and the punishment attendant on transgression means that its injunction can also bear fruit for death instead of the inheritance of eternal life ... Since God 'condescends' to human limitations in the commandments of the Torah, the Torah cannot make man live, despite (or even because of) the fact that it is 'holy and righteous and good' ..."
Shulam, Joseph, and Le Cornu, Hilary
A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Romans
(pp. 246-247) Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1998
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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