The Holy Bible · Study pages

The Instructions

What Scripture commands, what it teaches by story, and what the apostles handed on · gathered from across the seventy books

The Hebrew name of the Law, Torah, means instruction. It is the word a father uses for what he teaches his son, and Scripture never stops giving it: through Moses at Sinai, through the prophets who told kings a story and let them judge themselves, through the Lord who commanded in His own name and taught the crowds in parables, and through the apostles who handed on what they had received.

This instruction does not sit in one place. A single commandment may rest on a verse in Leviticus, be taken up by Christ on the mountain, and be handed on again by Paul or James. The three gatherings below bring it together so that it can be found, read in order, and followed from one book to the next, and The Harmony of Instruction weaves them into one, with Proverbs and the Psalms beside them. Each is linked to the others: the commandments of Moses point forward to Christ’s teaching on them, and the teachings of the apostles point back to the word of the Lord they hand on.

These pages are doorways into the text, not additions to it. The authority is in the verses, which are quoted from the Saints Translation and linked to their place in the chapter. The selection, grouping, numbering and the wording of each summary are an editor’s work, and each page says where its list comes from and what rule it follows. Read the verse first, and the summary as a finger pointing to it.

The three gatherings

1. The Commandments

What God commands. Part One gives the 613 commandments of the Law of Moses, 248 to do and 365 not to do, in the traditional count of Maimonides and under his fourteen subjects, each with the verse it rests on. Part Two gathers 105 commandments of Jesus Christ from His own words in the four Gospels, with His words in red: first the places where He takes up a commandment of Moses and carries it to its root, then what He commands in His own name.

Part One: The Commandments of the Law · Index by verse · Part Two: The Commandments of Christ · The Law Fulfilled · Index by Gospel verse

2. The Parables

What Scripture teaches by story. Seventy-seven parables in three tiers: the fifty parables of Christ, given in full with His words in red and their parallels; seventeen parables of the prophets, from Jotham and Nathan to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel; and the ten Similitudes of the Shepherd of Hermas. The page states its rule of inclusion and has an index by book.

The Parables of Christ · The Parables of the Prophets · The Parables of Hermas · Index by book

3. The Teachings of the Apostles

What the apostles handed on. One hundred and thirty-six teachings drawn from every book from Acts to the Epistle of Barnabas. The sixty-eight major teachings hand on a word of the Lord, and each is linked to His commandment or to the Gospel verse. The sixty-eight minor teachings are grounded in the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms or an event of sacred history, read in Christ. “Minor” describes how a teaching is grounded, not its weight.

Major teachings · Minor teachings · Index by book

The Harmony of Instruction

The three gatherings woven into one. Under the six subjects of Christ’s own commandments, each section sets His word first, then the apostles who hand it on, the parables that picture it, the wisdom of Proverbs and the Psalms quoted beside it, and links into the Law, the Prophets and the rest of Scripture: what Paul called “the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27). Twenty-four sections; 165 passages of Proverbs and the Psalms quoted in full; 189 further passages linked, from Genesis to Malachi.

How to use them together

Begin anywhere and follow the links. From a commandment of the Law, Christ’s teaching leads to the place where the Lord takes it up. From a commandment of Christ, In the Law leads back to the numbered commandments it concerns. From a major teaching of the apostles, The word of Christ leads to the commandment being handed on. Every quoted verse links to its chapter, where it can be read in its setting. To read the Gospels themselves as one account, see The Saints Gospel, listed among the study pages on the register of books.

Saints Translation · The Instructions · editor’s gatherings of commandments, parables and apostolic teachings; verses quoted from the Saints Translation · working draft awaiting specialist review.