“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. – Mat 5:17
Many misinterpreted this passage and believe that Christ has come to do away with the law, but hold on, isn’t that what ‘abolish’ means, and didn’t He clearly state that He didn’t come to abolish it but to fulfill it? So what does “fulfill” mean?
In addition to what Monte Judah teaches in this short Q&A clip, here is my addition:
The translation of “to fulfill” is lekayem in Hebrew (le-KAI-yem), which means to uphold or establish, as well as to fulfill, complete or accomplish. David Bivin has pointed out that the phrase “fulfill the Law” is often used as an idiom to mean to properly interpret the Torah so that people can obey it as God really intends.2
The word “abolish” was likely either levatel, to nullify, or la’akor, to uproot, which meant to undermine the Torah by misinterpreting it. For example, the law against adultery could be interpreted as only about cheating on one’s spouse, but not about pornography. When Jesus declared that lust also was a violation of the commandment, he was clarifying the true intent of that law, so in rabbinic parlance he was “fulfilling the Law.”
The phrase “fulfill the Law” has another sense, which is to carry out a law – to actually do what it says.
By understanding this idiom we see that Jesus was emphatically stating that his intention was to explain God’s Word and live it out perfectly, not to undermine or destroy it.
Why was Jesus emphasizing this point? Most likely because the Jewish religious leaders had accused him of undermining the Torah in his preaching. Jesus was responding that he was not misinterpreting God’s law, but bringing it to its best understanding.
