Analysis of Hays' Article on Applying Old Testament Today

Analysis of Hays’ Article on Applying the Old Testament Today |

Reflections on Hays’ Article

J. Daniel Hays in his article titled “Applying the Old Testament Law Today” attempts to review how Christians have applied and should apply the laws in the Old Testament today. I doing this he identified the traditional approach which divides the Mosaic Law into civil, ceremonial and moral laws and an alternative approach, called Principlism which seeks to find universal principles in the Old Testament legal material and to apply these principles to believers today.

Hays very rightly identified how some evangelical scholars interpret the Mosaic Law by emphasizing the distinction between moral, civil and ceremonial laws. Moral laws deal with timeless truths regarding God’s intention for human ethical behavior, Civil laws deal with Israel’s legal system, including issues of land, economics, and criminal justice, while Ceremonial laws deal with sacrifices, festivals, and priestly activities. In this, he opines that the traditional approach is useful to believers because it allows believers to know whether a particular law applies to them, universally, civilly or ceremonially. On the contrary, he wasted no words in showing the critical weaknesses of this approach looking at it from three broad perspectives of the distinctions being arbitrary, legal and narrative materials being intertwined and the overlook of the Law’s Theological Context. Furthermore, in identifying Principlism as the alternative and more acceptable approach, he recommended a step by step approach to applying Principlism. To apply this, we would have to look at the historical context of the law, deferential the initial audience from the present day believers, develop universal principles from the text, correlate the principles with the New Testament teaching and apply the modified universal principle to today’s life. The strength in Hays’ recommended approach is that it is very methodical and to a...