Yashua came to Fulfill Prophecy and Perpetuate the Law.
Please re-read this critical scripture with NEW EARS. Yashua spoke in simple, and yet, often complex ways. Here he is speaking about two distinct , yet completely separate ideas in the following Scripture:
Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law (or the Prophets); I did not come to abolish <them>, but to fulfill <them>.
Breaking this down the individual Greek words – translators add the ‘implied’ words, “them.” AND THEY ADD MEANING that is NOT there -> according to their belief and agenda. Let me ONLY write the original Greek text… and then ADD the Essene or Nazarene translation according to Yashua’s OTHER words in parenthesis.
Not think that I come to abolish the Law
or the Prophets;
I not come to abolish (REFERRING TO THE LAW),
but to fulfill (REFERRING TO THE PROPHETS).Matthew 5:17
People lump these two separate yet intertwining ideas (Law+Prophecy) together into Yashua somehow saying he came to fulfill the Law – so that the Torah Law no longer needed to be followed? Nothing could be further from the truth.
So imagine, if you will, he is using his hands to make gestures as he is speaking. He opens His left palm when He says “The Law.” He opens His right palm when He says, “The Prophets.” As He says, “abolish,” He nods his head towards his left hand and emphasizes it. As He says, “fulfill,” he nods His head toward his Right hand and emphasizes it. Can you picture this? We can definitively say this is more correct and come to this interpretation NOT by our wishful belief or agenda, BUT BY STUDYING and by reviewing ALL of His other words in scripture.
The Law is mentioned in Matthew at least 25 times. Mark 16 times. I found 19 mentions of the Law in John and Luke mentions the Law at least 46 times!!! http://biblehub.net/search.php?q=matthew+the+law
Do you think that the Law of Moses, the Torah, Leviticus were important to Yashua. We certainly think it was. He was very keen on clarifying the Law so that His followers could live within G*D’s plan and not men’s interpretations. And yet this single piece of scripture is used to decimate his essential teachings.
As synonyms for ‘Covenant’ and ‘Law’, they would often use the same words that figure so prominently in Taoism – ‘way’, ‘work’ or ‘works’ (‘ma’asim’ in Hebrew). They would speak, for instance, of ‘the Perfect of the Way’, or ‘the Way of Perfect Righteousness’ – ‘way’ meaning ‘the work of the Law’, or ‘the way in which the Law functions’, ‘the way in which the Law works’. Variations of these themes run all through the Dead Sea Scrolls to denote the Qumran community and its members.
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/scrolls_deadsea/deadsea_scrollsdeception/scrollsdeception11.htm
Yashua Explains the Law in terms of “Prophecy”
And then He said to them, “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things that are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Luke 24:25-27 AND 44
Yashua Explains the Law in terms of G*D’s Covenant to His children
31The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32Jesus replied to them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, “We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law: ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? 35If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot<mg1410, 3756=””> be nullified), 36are you saying of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38but if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may [h]know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 39Therefore they were seeking again to arrest Him, and He eluded their grasp.
John 10: 31-39 NASB
Yashua clearly says AND repeats this central concept in other sermons and parables: “I DID NOT COME TO ABOLISH THE LAW.”
Which is it?
Do we obey the Law?
Or do we disobey the Law because Yashua fulfilled it?
Jesus and the Essenes: An Esoteric History
https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/jesus-and-essenes-esoteric-history
And in Acts 9:2, the members of the ‘early Church’ are specifically referred to as ‘followers of the Way’ – a phrase identical with Qumran usage.