Old Testament Study for Latter-day Saints

Why the Old Testament Feels Hard

Most Latter-day Saints find the Old Testament the most difficult of the standard works, and the reasons are understandable. It spans thousands of years, moves between law codes and poetry and prophecy, and names people and places that are hard to keep straight. The book of Leviticus alone has turned back many readers who started at Genesis determined to read straight through.

The distance is real, but it is worth crossing. The Savior and the apostles quoted the Old Testament constantly, because it was their scripture. The Book of Mormon prophets did the same. To understand the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the covenants at the center of the temple, you have to understand the Old Testament that stands behind all of them.

Reading With the Restoration in View

Latter-day Saints do not come to the Old Testament alone. The Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham restore plain and precious truths that clarify the opening chapters of Genesis, including the purpose of the Creation and the nature of the Fall. Where traditional Christianity often reads the Fall as pure tragedy, Restoration scripture presents it as a necessary step in the plan of salvation, so that mankind could exist and progress.

Modern revelation reframes other passages too. Elijah's sealing power, described briefly in the Old Testament, is connected in Doctrine and Covenants 110 to the temple work that turns the hearts of the children to the fathers. Reading the Old Testament with the Restoration in view keeps you watching for how each covenant, sacrifice, and prophecy points toward Jesus Christ and His gospel.

The Torah, the Pentateuch, and the Law of Moses

Three names get used for overlapping things, and sorting them out removes a lot of confusion. The Church's Bible Dictionary defines Pentateuch as a Greek word meaning the fivefold book, and describes it as a name given to the five books that stand at the beginning of our Bible and that contain the Torah or law of Israel. Those five are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Torah is the Hebrew name for the same collection.

On authorship, the Latter-day Saint position is more careful than people often expect. The Bible Dictionary states that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, and that latter-day revelation confirms Moses as the author of those five books, citing 1 Nephi 5:10 to 11 and Moses 1:40 to 41. The same entry also says it is evident that Moses used several documentary sources in compiling Genesis, and that scribes and copyists have left their traces on the text as we have it. It gives an example: the account of Moses' own death in Deuteronomy 34:5 to 12 was surely added by a later hand. Divine authorship and a real human transmission history are both affirmed.

The Bible Dictionary also lists what the Pentateuch actually delivers: the creation of the world, the creation of man and animals, the Fall of Adam, the means of Redemption, the peopling of the earth, the commandments of God, the establishing of the Abrahamic family and covenant, and the history of the house of Israel from Abraham to the entry into the promised land. It names one more contribution, an emphasis on holiness and moral character in the worshipper of a holy God, anchored in Leviticus 11:44, 'Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.'

The law of Moses is where the Restoration adds something you will not find in most Old Testament commentaries. The Guide to the Scriptures states that God gave laws through Moses to the house of Israel to replace the higher law that they had failed to obey. Doctrine and Covenants 84:23 to 27 gives the account behind that: because of disobedience, the Lord took Moses and the Holy Priesthood from the children of Israel, leaving the law of carnal commandments. The law of Moses is not the original plan. It is what came after Israel refused the greater one.

That reframes Leviticus entirely. The Guide describes the law as many principles, rules, ceremonies, rituals, and symbols meant to remind the people of their duties, administered under the Aaronic Priesthood, and it calls the whole thing a preparatory gospel to bring its adherents to Christ. The Guide points to Galatians 3:19 to 24 for the same idea, that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, and to 2 Nephi 25:24 to 30, where Nephi describes keeping the law of Moses while looking forward with steadfastness unto Christ.

Then comes the fulfillment, in the Savior's own words. In 3 Nephi 9:17 He declares that in Him is the law of Moses fulfilled, and in 3 Nephi 15:1 to 10 that the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in Him. Be precise about what that means, because this is the point outsiders most often get backwards. The law was not discarded. The Bible Dictionary states that the law of carnal commandments and much of the ceremonial law were fulfilled at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Fulfilled, not abolished. What pointed forward reached the thing it was pointing at.

The Bible Dictionary is also careful to defend the law itself. It calls it a good law, adapted to a lower spiritual capacity than the fulness of the gospel requires, and says that although it was inferior to that fulness, many of its provisions were of high ethical and moral value equal to the divine laws of any dispensation. That matters, because the harsh words Jesus and Paul aimed at the law were not aimed at what God gave Moses. By New Testament times the Jewish leaders had added many unauthorized provisions and prohibitions, known as the traditions of the elders, until the law had become burdensome and had lost much of its spiritual meaning. That altered version is what gets condemned in the Gospels.

One more piece belongs here, and for Latter-day Saints it reframes the entire Old Testament. The Bible Dictionary states plainly that Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ. The God of Israel who spoke to Moses on the mountain and gave the law is the same person who later stood on the mount and taught the Sermon. Read that way, the Old Testament is not the harsh prelude to a gentler New Testament. It is the same Lord, working with a people at the capacity they had, preparing them for His own arrival.

Carry that into your reading. When you reach a chapter of offerings and purity rules and feel your attention drain away, the question is not what arbitrary rule is being imposed. It is what this particular symbol was training Israel to recognize when the Savior finally arrived, and who exactly was doing the training.

A Workable Way Through It

Do not feel bound to read every chapter at the same pace. The narrative books, Genesis, Exodus, First and Second Samuel, tell stories that carry you forward. The law codes and long genealogies can be read more quickly or with a study help at your side. Focusing on the people, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Ruth, and Esther, gives the history a spine you can follow.

Isaiah deserves special attention, because he is the most quoted Old Testament prophet in the Book of Mormon, and Nephi loved his words. Isaiah is also famously difficult. When a chapter of Isaiah or a passage of the law leaves you lost, LDS Sunday School can give you the historical setting and plain-language meaning, along with the connections to Restoration scripture that make the Old Testament come alive.