The pure in heart have holiness written on their hearts. There is a lot more involved here than the avoidance
of sin. The heart is our center of being. Y‘shua describes it in Mark 7:21- 23 ―For from within, out of men's
hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy,
slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean‘‖. Also from within
springs that holy desire to pursue Elohim and be like him. Someone once said that purity of heart is to will
this one thing. It is to hunger for Elohim alone and seek him with all the heart, soul, mind and strength. This
is without a doubt the most comprehensive of all the beatitudes. The pure in heart shall see YHWH and this
is the greatest promise in the Bible. In reflecting on this promise, the Psalmist exclaims: ―And I in
righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness" (Psa 17:15).
There is not space to discuss the remaining beatitudes; but they, too, amount to the Law of Elohim written on
the heart of man. The way of life that Y‘shua has ordained for his disciples has become greatly
misunderstood over the centuries. We must recover it. Today the beautiful and placid Mount of Beatitudes
stands in the Galilee. It is representative of the new Sinai where YHWH no longer writes on tablets of stone
but on tablets of the heart.
Destroy Fulfill
―Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil‖. (Matt
5:17)
Over the centuries, many people have read these words of the Messiah, and attempted to interpret them in
light of the prevailing theology. Typically, the approach taken is that Y‘shua may not have abolished the
Torah outright; but he certainly completed it, and thereby rendered it irrelevant for believers. This is, of
course, an oxymoron (a figure of speech combining contradictory words); but it is the best most Christian
interpreters can do with this passage.
What most people tend to forget is that the whole Bible is a 100% Hebraic book from its foundation and must
be strictly interpreted according to the rules and expectations of the Hebrew people who wrote and read the
text originally. To suppose otherwise, we would have to say that the writers of the Biblical texts wrote
nonsense to their audiences. So, we are left with the basic fact that this text meant something to the first
hearers of these words. What did it mean?
The understanding of this verse hinges upon two key terms. In Greek, they are "katalusai" and "plerosai".
These are the words that are rendered, respectively, as ―destroy" and ―fulfill‖. In order to better understand
this passage, we will examine the full range of meaning contained in each of these words. Then, an
alternative historical setting will be offered which uses these words in a technical sense not known to the
majority of Christian interpreters. Finally, this technical usage will be demonstrated to provide a better
understanding of these terms in their context.
First, we need to better understand the meanings of "katalusai" and "plerosai".
Katalusai Plerosai
This word means "destroy", "tear down", "abolish" or
"to overthrow completely‖.
In rabbinic usage, it is applied when one wishes to
attack an interpretation of the Torah as being less
than accurate.
In rabbinic argumentation, if you believe an
opponent's argument to be seriously flawed, you
might yell at him, "You are destroying the Torah!"
On the other hand, this word means "fill", "complete",
"cause to abound", or "consummate‖, to ―carry out‖,
to ―do‖, to ―perform‖ and ―obey‖...
In rabbinic argumentation, it has the force of
affirming what is considered a full and proper
interpretation of a text.
To say that someone has, "Fulfilled the Torah‖, is
equivalent to saying he has "Provided the best and
fullest understanding of the text", or that he has
"Brought out the consummate argument from among
the details provided".How would these definitions then affect our reading of Matt 5:17? Let's take a look. First, for comparison
purposes, here is the King James Version rendering. I'll bold the words that translate katalusai and plerosai.
―Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill‖. (Mat
5:17)
As I mentioned earlier, most Christian interpreters would explain that to mean...