The Copy of the Torah
All Scripture is taken from my new Son Of Man Bible, the SOMB.bblx, e-Sword module, available on www.biblesupport.com. E-sword is available at e-sword.net.
Exodus 24:12, “Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there. I will give you the polished tablets of stone and the Torah and commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.”” There is no mention of a monetary transaction or contract for money, it looks like Yahweh is promising a gift to Moses and the children of Israel.
Exodus 31:18, “When the Almighty had finished talking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him two polished tablets of covenant decrees, made of stone, written on by his own hand.” When Yahweh actually handed the polished tablets of the 10 commandments to Moses, no money exchanged hands. Yahweh did not charge any fee, no price could suffice, for his holy commandments. Unfortunately, right after this, the children of Israel fell in the golden calf incident. Moses was so angry he threw down the tablets and broke them. You know the saying, you break it, you buy it.
Well, Moses still didn’t have to buy the broken Torah tablets, but he did have to hew out his own new stone tablets and polish them!! That may have taken a couple days. Exodus 34:1, “Yahweh said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first tablets. I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, the polished tablets that you broke.” Go ahead and read all of chapter 34 of Exodus, Yahweh didn’t charge for the 10 commandments or the polished stone tablets, but make no mistake, they cost Moses, but it was well worth the cost!! What sweet fellowship he had with Yahweh. I challenge you to do a word search for “tablets” and see all the references to the tablets of the 10 commandments and how many times Moses repeated that Yahweh gave the 10 commandments to him and the children of Israel. It was the summary of the covenent, kept in the Ark of the Covenant. Neither Yahweh nor Moses ever sold the Torah to anyone. Neither Yahweh nor Moses are hucksters or peddlers of Yahweh’s word.
40 years later, Moses was speaking instruction regarding Israel’s future kings:
Deuteronomy 17:17-20, “He must not take many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. 18 When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself in a scroll a copy of this Torah, from the Torah that is before the priests, who are Levites. 19 The scroll must be with him, and he must read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to honor Yahweh his Almighty, so as to keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes, to observe them. 20 He must do this so that his heart is not lifted up above his brothers, and so that he does not turn away from the commandments, to the right hand or to the left; for the purpose that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, among Israel.”
Notice, the kings of Israel were to borrow a Torah scroll from the priests of Israel and write their own copy of the Torah for themselves to read. No mention is made that the King had to buy or rent a Torah scroll from the priests. Verse 17 had just told the kings not to accumulate a lot of money, so apparently, they were not to sell their copied Torah scroll for money.
After defeating the city of Ai, Joshua built an altar to Yahweh for him and the children of Israel to sacrifice and make offerings to Yahweh. Then Joshua did something on the stones of the altar:
Joshua 8:32, “There, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the Torah of Moses.” Verses 34-35 then show Joshua reading the entire Torah to the people of Israel. He didn’t sell it to them. Joshua was not a huckster or peddler of the Word.
We’ve been over Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 2. Paul was in good company. He was not a huckster or peddler of Yahweh’s word:
2 Corinthians 2:17, “For we are not like so many people peddling the word of Yahweh for profit. Instead, with purity of motives, we speak in Messiah, as we are sent from Yahweh, in the sight of Yahweh.”
To charge money for the Word of Yahweh, or not to charge money for the Word of Yahweh, that is the QUESTION! How will you answer it?
Yeshua is not a marketing campaign or gimmick. Yeshua is not a product. Yeshua is the King of kings and Lord of lords. I bet he has a copy of His own Torah right there with him in the throne room of heaven. Would you dare to walk into the throne room of heaven and try to hustle Yahweh or Yeshua by hawking your latest book, CD, DVD, or youtube teaching? My knees buckle just at the thought of man’s arrogance to try something like that.
I fully agree with Copyright law, for works of men. But I don’t believe anyone has the right to copyright the Word of Yahweh. Think about it. Yahweh inscribed the 10 Commandments, the Torah Covenant with Israel, with his own finger on his own hewn polished stone tablets. The minute He inscribed those words in stone, He owned the copyright for all eternity. I bet His original rock solid Torah is older than any one of your copies. The moment we copy, print, publish, and sell a copyrighted Bible, we break Yahweh’s law. We become lawbreakers, thieves, crooks, criminals, peddlers, sheep fleecers. I highly recommend that anyone involved in this copyrighted Bible marketing scam repent immediately and ask Yahweh’s forgiveness. Judgment Day is just around the corner. It will be too late to repent then.
You can still copyright your material if you want to, but why not release it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License? Copyright is an access control mechanism, not a price control mechanism. Yahweh freely gave Moses and others His Word. What did Yeshua instruct his disciples in Matthew 10:8, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Do a Bible word search on the word “freely”. It will help you.
What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 11:7, “Did I sin by humbling myself so you might be exalted? For I freely preached the gospel of Yahweh to you.”
What did John the Revelator say? Revelation 22:17, “The Ruach and the Bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever desires it, let him freely have the water of life.” Read the rest of Chapter 22. Selling Yahweh’s Word cheapens the priceless gift!
Read Isaiah 55.
Gene Benjamin II
July 30, 2017