You shall therefore keep My statutes, and My ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live by them. I am YHVH. Lev 18:5
In today’s English, when we read something that says, “He shall live by them,” we automatically think it means, Doing this will cause a man to obtain the life of the spirit, that is, salvation. This understanding has fueled the belief that the Old Testament teaches a gospel of works for salvation, divorced from the New Testament which teaches a gospel of grace for salvation. So let’s look at the Hebrew:
TO LIVE. Strong’s H2425 חיי chayay, a primitive root.
chet ח = the wall, thus outside, divide, half
yud י = closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
yud י = closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
The story: The outside (chet) work (yud) a man does (yud, in the sense that action, doing, is accomplished with the hand) provides food, thus life for himself and his family.
BY THEM. – no Strong’s number, but according to the Interlinear Hebrew, the word is בהם, a preposition plus a 3rd person masculine plural. The preposition is ב bet, and the 3rd person masculine plural is הם hey + mem, “them.” Bet when used as a preposition means, “in, within, on, by.”
bet ב = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
hey ה = man w/ raised arms, thus look, reveal, wonder, worship, breath
mem ם מ = the water, thus chaos, mighty, blood
In (bet) [pointed to, hey, as the man with a raised arm can be pointing to something he sees, serving the grammatical function of indicating the object of the preposition] them (mem, indicating the third person masculine plural).
Some of the translations have translated the bet in its literal sense, “He shall live in them.”
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. KJV
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh. WEB
But really, careful reading debunks the salvation by works assumption. The Hebrew “to live,” as we can see from the parable of the root, is talking about that which provides for a family’s physical sustenance, referring back to the first man’s consequence for sin:
And to Adam He said, “Because you have paid heed to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns also and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it you were taken: for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Gen 3:17-19
He toils outside by the sweat of his brow to provide food, thus life, for his family.
We have in Lev 18:5 another instance of the Torah revealing its purpose: that obedience provides for physical life on this side of heaven.
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