đŚ Paulâs Method: Gleaning the Torah and the Prophets for NewâCovenant Doctrine
Acts 26 provides a clear window into Paulâs 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 extraâbiblical traditions. His entire doctrinal framework is rooted in the first 39 books â 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.
đŠ 1. Paul Retains What Is Universal and Spiritual
Habakkuk 2:4 â âThe righteous shall live by faith.â
Paul elevates this prophetic line as the governing principle of NewâCovenant righteousness.
Moral principles
Love, fidelity, honesty, sexual purity, justice, mercy â all affirmed and intensified in Paulâs letters.
Prophetic promises
Paul repeatedly cites the prophets to show that Gentile inclusion and Spiritâempowered righteousness were foretold long before Christ.
These elements are transâcovenantal â they apply to all people in all eras.
đŠ 2. Paul Removes What Is CovenantâBound to Israel
These elements belong to Israelâs national covenant and are never carried into the ekklÄsia:
Judicial penalties (stoning, executions)
These are tied to Israelâs land jurisdiction. Paul never imports them into the assemblies.
Dietary laws
Explicitly set aside (Romans 14; 1 Timothy 4).
Circumcision
Not merely optional â forbidden for Gentiles (1 Corinthians 7; Galatians 5).
Sacrificial system
Fulfilled in Christ; never reâestablished for Gentile believers.
Righteousness by works (Deut 6:25)
Paul replaces the Sinai formula with faithârighteousness (Hab 2:4; Romans 1:17).
These components are covenantal, not universal.
đŠ 3. Paul Builds Doctrine Only From the Hebrew Scriptures â Through a NewâCovenant Lens
Paulâs 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 ânothing except what Moses and the Prophets saidâ while simultaneously rejecting large portions of the Sinai system.
đŠ 4. The Result: A Purified, SpiritâDriven Framework
Paul distills the Hebrew Scriptures down to their universal, Spiritâcentered essence.
By following Paulâs 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 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 âcalled outâ 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”
đŚ 1. #H5712 â ע־×Ö¸× (ĘżÄdÄh)
Meaning: congregation, assembly, community Occurrences: ~124 times
This is the primary covenantâidentity term in ExodusâNumbers.
It appears in phrases like:
Exodus 12:3ââall the congregation of Israelâ
Exodus 12:6 â âthe whole assembly of the congregationâ
Exodus 12:47 â âall the congregation of Israel shall keep itâ
Leviticus 4:13 â âthe whole congregation of Israelâ
Leviticus 19:2 â âspeak to all the congregation of the children of Israelâ
Numbers 14:5 â âall the assembly of the congregation of Israelâ
This is the term used in Exodus 12:3, 6, 47, and dozens more.
đŚ 2. #H4150 â ××Öš×˘Öľ× (moĘżÄd)
Meaning: appointed time, appointed place, meeting Occurrences: ~149 times
This word is used for:
Ex 27:21 â âin the tabernacle of the congregationâ
Ex 29:44 â âthe tabernacle of the congregationâ
Lev 8:3â4 â âgather all the congregationâŚ
It is not the normal word for âcongregation,â but it is used in contexts where Israel gathers. It is not a covenantâidentity term.
đŚ 3. #H6951 â ×§Ö¸×Ö¸× (qÄhÄl)
Meaning: assembly, gathered people, convocation Occurrences: ~86 times
This is the word behind:
Deut 5:22 â âin the day of the assemblyâ
Deut 9:10 â âin the day of the assemblyâ
Deut 31:30 â âin the ears of all the assembly of Israelâ
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 31:31â34 does NOT expand the Sinai Covenantto include the Believing Gentiles.The New Covenant is made with the same people as the first covenant â 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 âspiritual Israelâ
Jeremiah says:
âI will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.â
The recipients are the same people as Sinai â the biological descendants of Jacob.
The New Covenant is not a new group.
It is a new covenant with the same group.
đ The New Covenant replaces the Sinai Covenant for Israel
Jeremiah says the New Covenant is:
ânot like the covenant I made with their fathersâ
âwhich they brokeâ
âbut this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israelâ
Meaning:
â The New Covenant supersedes the Sinai Covenant for Israel,
â 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 Jacobâs lineage
The New Covenant does not change that.
đ The New Covenant introduces a new mode of relationship â 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.
đ 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 â 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.
đ 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 ĘżÄdÄh or qÄhÄl.
Gentiles are never included in âthe congregation of Israel.â
The only Torahâauthorized doorway into Israel is full conversion (Ex 12:48).
The New Covenant does not create a new doorway.
It simply renews Israelâs 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.
đŚ 1. Deuteronomy 32:21 identifies a nonâIsrael group
The verse says YHVH will provoke Israel to jealousy by:
â âa foolish nation.â
This ânationâ 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.
đŚ 2. Why they are called âfoolishâ
In Deuteronomy, âfoolishâ 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:
â They are âfoolishâ because they are nonâIsrael.
đŚ 3. YHVH gives this nonâIsrael group access to Himself
This is the shocking part of Deut 32:
YHVH turns toward a nonâcovenant 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
đŚ 4. Why YHVH does this
Deut 32:21 gives the reason:
â 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.
đŚ 5. âThey get all the benefits of knowing YHVH, without coming under Torahâ