Why Newtorah?

     'Torah' is a Hebrew word meaning 'instruction'. In the Jewish tradition, therefore, 'the Torah' is the name given to the divine instruction revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), where it is presented as the basis of the Old Covenant between God and the people of Israel.

     In the Christian tradition, the confession of Jesus as the Messiah and the representation of the Christian life as a new exodus leading to the formation of a new Israel by means of a new Covenant, all contributed to the expectation of a 'new torah'. Some scholars have argued that this expectation was fulfilled in the person of Jesus, or in the giving of his Spirit, but neither of these proposals agrees with the written character of what came to be known as 'the Torah'.

     Certain features of our interpretation 'in the light of the Temple' identify the Apocalypse as 'the new Torah', and its author, St. John, as 'the prophet like Moses' who was expected by the Jews during the Second Temple Period (for further details please read ch. 2 in Pt. II of 'The Apocalypse in the Light of the Temple'). As a name for the website, 'new Torah' draws attention to these previously neglected and very significant characteristics of the text of the Apocalypse.