Jewish Literature in New Testament Times

The Jews and the Torah

What was the Torah to a Jew in Bible Times?

There was no nation in all of antiquity who had been so immersed in their national writings as the Jews were in their law. Not even the Greeks in the zenith of the Periclean Age could come close. Some may have possessed a larger amount of text with vast literature, but the Jews were in love with their book and they were a people of that book. For the Jew, it was not merely a representation of a prized culture, but it was Torah� and Torah was, to him, the voice of almighty God. Its instruction was to be obeyed without question, and followed to the very letter. The moral law impacted every thought, the civil law influenced every judicial system within Judaism, and the ceremonial law affected every lifestyle from the home to the Temple.

Also see The Text of the Old Testament