At the time of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, the man-devised Talmud, not the Torah, had become the focal point of the Jewish religious leaders.

As R. Dawson Barlow explains in his 2005 book, The Apostasy of the Christian Church, “It was the liberal element of Judaism which added to the Torah rules, doctrines and traditions which had nothing to do with the Word of God.

“In fact, Josephus wrote a highly insightful comment concerning the Talmud which would serve as a powerful tool, if we should keep it in handy reach as useful arsenal: ‘The Pharisees had made many ordinances among the people, according to the tradition of their fathers . . . (of which) there is nothing written in the Law of Moses.’

“Even though the Talmud contained much which had nothing to do with the Old Testament, it eventually came to be perceived just as authoritative as the Scriptures. The Talmud ultimately became the proverbial tail that wagged the dog. Again note the words of The Book of Jewish Knowledge: ‘It was . . . due to the biblical tradition that the oral law (eventually) got to be considered equally as valid as the written law.’

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In Luke 5, when the Pharisees murmured against Christ’s disciples, saying, “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” Jesus answered, “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jordan explains, “The Pharisees begin to throw off on Christ’s ministry among publicans and sinners and He tells them, ‘Those that are whole need not a physician.’ Now, that’s always the problem with the Pharisee. He never believes he’s wrong. He always believes he’s right and he’s void of offence, never making a mistake.

“It’s, ‘I thank thee father that I’m not like this guy over yonder. I fast two times a week . . . I, I, I.’’ Jesus told them one time, ‘You tithe of the mint and the anise and yet you omit the weightier matters of the law.’ In other words, ‘You are bugs on ceremonial correctness; on looking right and performing.’

“In Israel, one of the required tithes was on the fruit and the increase of the land. Mint and anise were herbs used to season food. Obviously they couldn’t go to Jewel or Dominick’s or Piggly Wiggly and buy it, so they grew it. You’ll find that referred to in the Old Testament where they made anointing oil and incense and all that stuff. It’s just spices they used to eat with and they would grow it in their house.

“Now, the Pharisees were such sticklers for the ceremonies of the law, that if it was required to tithe of the increase of the land, they weren’t just going to do it on their business operations. These guys were such law keepers that even when their spices were growing in the kitchen they would tithe that! I mean, these guys were sticklers for keeping the letter of the law right down to the minutest little detail of the ceremonies of the law.

“And so Jesus says to them, ‘You do that and yet you omit the weightier matters—the moral things; the justice, compassion and mercy of the law and walking humbly with thy God.’

“You remember in Micah 6:8 where they’re told the three things God required? None of them were ceremonies. To do justly, and to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God, is the essence of the Great Commandment (‘Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart’) and the Second Commandment of, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

“Those two great commandments are in essence the restatement of the moral character of the law. Now, the law’s in two parts. Actually, it’s in three parts. There’s the statutes and the judgments. One part of the law focuses on your responsibility to God: Love the Lord thy God. The next part of the law focuses on your responsibilities to other people. That’s why Paul says in Gal. 5:14, ‘By love serve one another for love is the fulfillment of the law.’

“That is, when you by love serve one another there is absolutely nothing the justice of God would ever be mad at you about. So there’s this moral, relational thing with people. It’s expressed, for example, in, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not bear false witness.’

“All those things are moral things that had to do with your relationship with other people. Then the law had a third area and that’s the ceremonial things: ‘Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day.’ Why? Because it’s a sign between God and Israel. It’s not a moral commandment, it’s a ceremonial one.

“He told them they were to keep the Passover, for example. Why? It’s a sign between them and God. He told them they were to wear a certain kind of clothing. Why? It was a sign of their unique status with God—it made them different from all the nations. Those were ceremonial things.

“A ceremonial thing isn’t a moral thing and that’s why you can change the ceremonial things. God would say to Abraham, ‘You and all your descendants must be circumcised,’ and Moses would say, ‘If you’re not circumcised you have to be cast out,’ and then Paul would say, ‘Circumcision avails nothing.’

“Now, Paul would never come along and say, ‘You know, Moses said you couldn’t commit adultery, but I say it’s okay.’ He didn’t say that. Why? Because that’s a different kind of rule. That’s a moral statement, and the moral statement—the expression of the righteous character of God—is true in any age.

“You can’t eat shrimp according to Deuteronomy 14, but Paul says you can eat anything. That’s ceremonial. In Acts 10, the Lord puts a sheet down with all this food and says to eat, but Peter responds, ‘That stuff’s common and unclean, Lord. The Word of God says I can’t eat that.’

“And Jesus says to him, ‘If I tell you to eat it, don’t call anything that I’ve said is clean ‘common.’ ” The Lord Jesus Christ, in Acts 10, changed the regulation that He gave Israel through Moses that Peter had been following all his life, and said, ‘These things are no longer common or unclean.’

“Now, you couldn’t do that about a moral thing. You couldn’t say, ‘I said thou shalt not bear false witness but it’s now okay to bear false witness.’ Those are different kinds of regulations. One is moral and has to do with the expression of the righteousness of God, and the other is ceremonial and has to do with expressing figurative things, or typology. It’s a figure that’s designed to represent a spiritual truth.

“And what these Pharisees did is they got caught up on these figurative things—these ceremonies—and forgot to do justice, and walk humbly with God, and keep ‘the weightier matters.’ That’s why they would say, ‘We’re right! How in the world could anyone say we’re a sinner?!’

“How could anyone ever say they weren’t a sinner?! You’re not thinking—you’re certainly not thinking what the Bible teaches, are you? ‘All have sinned, come short of the glory of God. There’s none righteous, no not one.’ If you say you have no sin, what are you? You’ve made God a liar and the truth isn’t in you.

“The Pharisees had focused so much on the religious side of things that they’d forgotten the truth. And so that’s what Christ is saying. That’s why they ask Him in Luke 5: 33-35, ‘Why did John’s disciples fast, and we fast, but your disciples don’t fast?’

“They’re focusing on their religious ritualism and performance, missing the fact that the reason Christ’s disciples weren’t fasting is because He was the bridegroom—He’s there with them! You don’t fast when the bridegroom’s with you; you fast when He goes away! He says, ‘And I’m the bridegroom. The issue is who I am! I’m the king; I’m your looked-for and longed-for Redeemer! I’m the one you ought to be in love with and you’re not getting it!’

“That’s why He told them in John 5, ‘Search the scripture, they are they that testify of me. If you really believed what the Bible said you’d have believed in me because the Bible had Moses writing about me. And because you don’t believe in me demonstrates you don’t believe the Word of God to start with because I am the Word of God!’

“So, they get all caught up in the religious side of it and they’re focused on that and they’re missing Him.”