Author: Joe Simmons

  • Following Paul

    Following Paul

    🟦 Paul’s Method: Gleaning the Torah and the Prophets for New‑Covenant Doctrine

    Acts 26 provides a clear window into Paul’s interpretive method. Paul states that everything he preached came from:

    • Moses (Torah)
    • The Prophets
    • The rest of the Hebrew Scriptures

    He never appeals to Greek philosophy, pagan religion, or extra‑biblical traditions. His entire doctrinal framework is rooted in the first 39 books — but not in the Sinai covenant as a binding system.

    Paul extracts what is universal, moral, spiritual, and prophetic, and leaves behind what is covenantal, national, judicial, or temporary.

    This produces a consistent, traceable pattern.

    🟩 1. Paul Retains What Is Universal and Spiritual

    Habakkuk 2:4 — “The righteous shall live by faith.”

    Paul elevates this prophetic line as the governing principle of New‑Covenant righteousness.

    Moral principles

    Love, fidelity, honesty, sexual purity, justice, mercy — all affirmed and intensified in Paul’s letters.

    Prophetic promises

    Paul repeatedly cites the prophets to show that Gentile inclusion and Spirit‑empowered righteousness were foretold long before Christ.

    These elements are trans‑covenantal — they apply to all people in all eras.

    🟩 2. Paul Removes What Is Covenant‑Bound to Israel

    These elements belong to Israel’s national covenant and are never carried into the ekklēsia:

    Judicial penalties (stoning, executions)

    These are tied to Israel’s land jurisdiction. Paul never imports them into the assemblies.

    Dietary laws

    Explicitly set aside (Romans 14; 1 Timothy 4).

    Circumcision

    Not merely optional — forbidden for Gentiles (1 Corinthians 7; Galatians 5).

    Sacrificial system

    Fulfilled in Christ; never re‑established for Gentile believers.

    Righteousness by works (Deut 6:25)

    Paul replaces the Sinai formula with faith‑righteousness (Hab 2:4; Romans 1:17).

    These components are covenantal, not universal.

    🟩 3. Paul Builds Doctrine Only From the Hebrew Scriptures — Through a New‑Covenant Lens

    Paul’s gospel is:

    • rooted in Moses and the Prophets,
    • yet radically different from Sinai.

    He extracts:

    • the spiritual core,
    • the prophetic trajectory,
    • the universal moral truths.

    He discards:

    • the national,
    • the ceremonial,
    • the judicial,
    • the temporary elements of the Sinai covenant.

    This is why Paul can say he teaches “nothing except what Moses and the Prophets said” while simultaneously rejecting large portions of the Sinai system.

    🟩 4. The Result: A Purified, Spirit‑Driven Framework

    Paul distills the Hebrew Scriptures down to their universal, Spirit‑centered essence.

    By following Paul’s doctrines and practices, believers walk confidently in the revealed will of God for the nations.

    This is the jurisdictional shift: Scripture remains the source, but Sinai is not the covenant.

  • The Congregation of Israel

    The Mount Sinia Covenant is only between YHVH, and the biological descendants of Jacob who were redeemed from slavery in Egypt, along with their descendants. Jacob was given the name “Israel” in Genesis 32:28 and his children became the nation that YHVH “called out” from Egypt.

    This is the covenant identity the Torah itself establishes.

    Three Hebrew words are used for:

    • “Congregation”
    • “The Congregation of Israel”
    • “The Children of the congregation of Israel”

    🟦 1. #H5712 — עֵדָה (ʿēdāh)

    Meaning: congregation, assembly, community Occurrences: ~124 times

    This is the primary covenant‑identity term in Exodus–Numbers.

    It appears in phrases like:

    • Exodus 12:3—“all the congregation of Israel”
    • Exodus 12:6 — “the whole assembly of the congregation”
    • Exodus 12:47 — “all the congregation of Israel shall keep it”
    • Leviticus 4:13 — “the whole congregation of Israel”
    • Leviticus 19:2 — “speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel”
    • Numbers 14:5 — “all the assembly of the congregation of Israel”

    This is the term used in Exodus 12:3, 6, 47, and dozens more.

    🟦 2. #H4150 — מוֹעֵד (moʿēd)

    Meaning: appointed time, appointed place, meeting Occurrences: ~149 times

    This word is used for:

    • Ex 27:21 — “in the tabernacle of the congregation”
    • Ex 29:44 — “the tabernacle of the congregation”
    • Lev 8:3–4 — “gather all the congregation…

    It is not the normal word for “congregation,” but it is used in contexts where Israel gathers. It is not a covenant‑identity term.

    🟦 3. #H6951 — קָהָל (qāhāl)

    Meaning: assembly, gathered people, convocation Occurrences: ~86 times

    This is the word behind:

    • Deut 5:22 — “in the day of the assembly”
    • Deut 9:10 — “in the day of the assembly”
    • Deut 31:30 — “in the ears of all the assembly of Israel”

    This is the term that later becomes the Greek ekklesia in the Septuagint.

    How does the Jeremial 31:31-34 “New Covenant” effect this one?

    Jeremiah 31:31–34 does NOT expand the Sinai Covenant to include the Believing Gentiles. The New Covenant is made with the same people as the first covenant — the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

    This is the part most people misunderstand.

    Jeremiah does not say:

    • a covenant with the nations
    • a covenant with Gentiles
    • a covenant with the church
    • a covenant with “spiritual Israel”

    Jeremiah says:

    “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

    The recipients are the same people as Sinai — the biological descendants of Jacob.

    The New Covenant is not a new group.

    It is a new covenant with the same group.

    📘 The New Covenant replaces the Sinai Covenant for Israel

    Jeremiah says the New Covenant is:

    • “not like the covenant I made with their fathers”
    • “which they broke”
    • “but this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel”

    Meaning:

    ⭐ The New Covenant supersedes the Sinai Covenant for Israel,

    ⭐ but it does NOT expand the Sinai Covenant to include Gentiles.

    The Sinai Covenant remains what it always was:

    • a national covenant
    • with a specific people
    • defined by specific Hebrew identity terms
    • tied to the land
    • tied to the Exodus
    • tied to Jacob’s lineage

    The New Covenant does not change that.

    📘 The New Covenant introduces a new mode of relationship — not a new people

    Jeremiah 31 describes:

    • Torah written on the heart
    • direct knowing (yada) of YHVH
    • forgiveness of sins
    • internal transformation

    But the recipients remain:

    • Israel
    • Judah

    The covenant people do not change.

    The covenant conditions change.

    📘 So how does the New Covenant affect the Sinai Covenant?

    Here is the clean, precise answer:

    The New Covenant replaces the Sinai Covenant for the same people who received it — the biological descendants of Jacob (Israel and Judah). It does not add Gentiles to the Sinai Covenant, nor does it transform Gentiles into Israel. The covenant people remain the same, the covenant terms change.

    📘 What about Gentiles?

    • Gentiles were never part of the Sinai Covenant.
    • Torah Scholars did not see Gentiles participation in The New Covenant. (This was revealed only to The Apostle Paul)
    • Gentiles are never called ʿēdāh or qāhāl.
    • Gentiles are never included in “the congregation of Israel.”
    • The only Torah‑authorized doorway into Israel is full conversion (Ex 12:48).

    The New Covenant does not create a new doorway.

    It simply renews Israel’s relationship with YHVH.

    The Believing Gentiles are found in Deut 32: 21 as “The Foolish Nation” that YHVH will used to make His people jealous. The get all the benefits of knowing YHVH, without coming under Torah. Paul quotes this in Romans 10:19.

    🟦 1. Deuteronomy 32:21 identifies a non‑Israel group

    The verse says YHVH will provoke Israel to jealousy by:

    ⭐ “a foolish nation.”

    This “nation” is:

    • not Israel
    • not under Torah
    • not part of the Sinai Covenant
    • not the descendants of Jacob

    Your page already shows that the covenant identity is fixed and exclusive. Deut 32:21 introduces a group outside that identity.

    🟦 2. Why they are called “foolish”

    In Deuteronomy, “foolish” does not mean unintelligent.

    It means:

    • not trained in Torah
    • not part of the covenant
    • not the people who stood at Sinai
    • not the people YHVH redeemed from Egypt

    In other words:

    ⭐ They are “foolish” because they are non‑Israel.

    🟦 3. YHVH gives this non‑Israel group access to Himself

    This is the shocking part of Deut 32:

    YHVH turns toward a non‑covenant people and gives them:

    • relationship
    • revelation
    • mercy
    • knowledge of Him
    • spiritual blessing

    And He does this without:

    • making them Israel
    • placing them under Torah
    • adding them to the Sinai Covenant

    🟦 4. Why YHVH does this

    Deut 32:21 gives the reason:

    ⭐ To provoke Israel to jealousy.

    Meaning:

    • Israel sees outsiders receiving YHVH
    • Israel sees outsiders knowing Him
    • Israel sees outsiders blessed
    • Israel sees outsiders walking with Him

    And this provokes Israel to return.

    This is the divine strategy.

    🟦 5. “They get all the benefits of knowing YHVH, without coming under Torah”

    Based on your page’s logic, this means:

    ⭐ They receive YHVH

    ⭐ They receive revelation

    ⭐ They receive relationship

    ⭐ They receive mercy

    ⭐ They receive spiritual life

    But they do not:

    • enter the Sinai Covenant
    • become Israel
    • come under Torah obligations
    • join the ʿēdāh or qāhāl
    • take on Israel’s national constitution

    This is exactly what Deuteronomy 32 predicts.

    This explains: “Graffed-In” in Romans 11:24