LAW, THE. The designation of the first of the three groups into which the books of the Old Testament are divided. The Hebrew name is Torah. It embraces Genesis (called in Hebrew Bereshith), Exodus (Shemith), Leviticus (Vayyikra), Numbers (Bemidhar), and Deu teronomy (Debh(irim). The first of the three groups to attain canonical authority, " it so far overshadowed the other divisions that even in the New Testament the one name 4 Law ' is used to cover the rest. Even our Lord, as reported to us, so far accepts the current formulas as to apply the term ' Law ' both to Prophetical Books and Psalms " (W. Sanday). The Jews regarded it as the one primary revelation, all else being secondary. " Even as far back as the Book of Ecclesiasticus, the Law as given by Moses was identified with Wisdom itself. This Idea was developed by the Rabbis, who regarded the Law as existing before the Creation, and saw in it the plan on which God had made the worlds. No second revelation
like it was possible. It had exhausted all the revelation which God could give to man." It is called " the jewel of jewels." In the tractate Sanhedrin (x. 1) it is said : " Whoever asserts that the Torah is not from heaven (from God), bath no part in the world to come." And again (fol. 99a) : " Whoever saith, that Moses wrote so much as a single verse out of his own knowledge, he (is a liar and) a contemner of the word of God." The Law was officially adopted and canonized by Ezra (444 B.C.). The book that was brought to light in the reign of Josiah (621 B.C.) was not the whole Law but the Book of Deuteronomy (see BOOK OF THE COVENANT). Another name for The Law is The Pentateuch. Cp. PENTATEUCH and CRITICISM, HIGHER. See W. Sanday, I.; G. Wildeboer; H. E. Ryle.