Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: Old Testament or New Testament?<\/a><\/p>\nYour friend is avoiding the extreme and saying only Matthew 5 should be considered Old Testament. However, the designation is arbitrary. Why is one chapter in a book different from the entire book? Realize that chapter and verse markings came long after the Bible was completed. Matthew 5:19 refers to the kingdom of heaven. Is this Old or New Testament? Matthew 5:22 indeed refers to the courts (the Sanhedrin Council). The courts are discussed in the Old Testament, but the Sanhedrin Council was formed after the Old Testament was completed. Matthew 5:23 refers to bringing gifts to the altar, but when Jesus gave the sermon, his audience was Jews living under the Old Testament laws. While the illustration was meaningful under the Old Testament, the principle being taught would apply to both testaments. Anger should be resolved quickly and before approaching God for worship. Is your friend arguing that Jesus’ teachings about anger can be ignored?<\/p>\n
Matthew 5-7 is one sermon given by Jesus. Why does he want to eliminate the first third of it? What about the rest of Jesus’ teachings in that sermon?<\/p>\n
Then there is the problem that James refers to Matthew 5 in his book (James 5:12 refers to Matthew 5:37). If Matthew 5 is Old Testament, then is James also Old Testament?<\/p>\n
Yet, your friend argues against Jesus’ teaching on divorce and not anger? Why? It doesn’t gain him anything. Matthew 19:9 gives a similar statement to the one found in Matthew 5:32.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, A friend of mine who is against divorce and remarriage says that Matthew 5 has a “Jewish element,” that is, the word “council” in Matthew 5:22, so it is a chapter only for Jews and not for Christians.\u00a0 What do you think about that? Thank you. Answer: This is a variation of an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[167,799,268],"class_list":["post-67117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce","tag-new-testament","tag-old-testament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57686,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-jesus-came-to-israel-only-argument\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":0},"title":"The “Jesus Came To Israel Only” Argument","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton The Argument Stated: \"MMLJ -- before the cross -- was taught only to the Jews of Israel.\" I keep seeing the argument expressed that Jesus spoke only to the lost sheep of Israel, or only to Israel. The conclusion drawn from that fact is that \"therefore\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56576,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospels-and-the-covenants\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":1},"title":"The Gospels and the Covenants","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roger Blackwelder It has been observed that the traditional divisions we use to describe the Bible are inaccurate. Genesis through Malachi are called the Old Testament or Old Covenant. Matthew through Revelation are called the New Testament or New Covenant. The titles are problematic for at least two reasons:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59357,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-roman-catholics-1486-ad-and-the-title-page-argument\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":2},"title":"The Roman Catholics, 1486 AD, and the “Title Page” Argument","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton The Argument: \"..the Roman Catholic church in 1486 AD arbitrarily placed the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John --before the cross -- (MMLJBC) in the New rather Old Testament by placing an erroneous New Testament \"title page\" between the books of Malachi and Matthew.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47600,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-matthew-199-only-for-jews\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":3},"title":"Is Matthew 19:9 only for Jews?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: About the marriage and divorce issue in Matthew 19:9, Jesus was replying to the Jewish people. Does this mean that it does not apply to Christians but only Jews? Answer: You are missing an important implication. When laws were given to people there is an immediate audience and implied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53407,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/matthew-was-written-for-the-jews-so-the-law-on-marriage-and-divorce-only-applies-to-the-jews\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":4},"title":"Matthew was written for the Jews, so the law on marriage and divorce only applies to the Jews","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was taught that you have to look at who's talking and who they are talking to. In Matthew 19, Jesus was talking to the Jews, and the Law of Moses was given to the Jews and not the Gentiles, even though Matthew is a New Testament book, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32812,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-there-only-one-gospel-when-we-have-four-gospels\/","url_meta":{"origin":67117,"position":5},"title":"Why is there only one gospel when we have four gospels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm confused, if there is only one gospel why do so many people say the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Answer: The gospel is the good news preached concerning Jesus Christ and salvation. All of the New Testament is the gospel in this sense. See The Message\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}