In the Jewish tradition, the Torah is considered the foundational and unalterable covenant between God and His people Israel. Central to this belief is the command in Deuteronomy 13 (verses 1-5), which warns against adding to or subtracting from the Torah. Furthermore, it instructs that anyone claiming to have prophetic authority to alter or do away with the Torah’s commandments, even if they perform signs and wonders, is to be rejected as a false prophet. This passage has significant implications in understanding the Jewish stance on Christian figures, particularly the teachings of Paul the Apostle.
Deuteronomy 13: The Prohibition of Departing from Torah
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 begins with an unequivocal commandment: “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it” (Deut. 13:1). This injunction is understood as protecting the Torah’s integrity, ensuring that it remains complete and untouched. Every single aspect of the Torah is forever valid, from the seemingly smallest command to the greatest. Even Jesus publicly proclaimed that the Torah is forever valid and that not one part of it shall ever be done away with saying in Matthew 5:18 “For truly I tell you, lest heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means depart from the Torah” and again the next verse in complete contradiction to that of Paul– Jesus says “whoever practices and teaches the Torah will be called great in the kingdom of God”.
In Jewish thought, the Torah represents a divine and complete blueprint for ethical and spiritual life for all eternity. To add to or subtract from it would imply a lack of trust in its perfection as well as in the God who gave it.
Following this command in Deuteronomy 13, the text warns about individuals who might arise one day to challenge the Torah’s authority, specifically those claiming to be prophets or seers of visions who entice others to abandon God’s commandments. In verses 2-5, Moses instructs the Israelites to remain faithful to the Torah even if a prophet or visionary performs signs or miracles. In Deuteronomy 13 verse 4 it states:
“You shall not heed the words of that prophet, or that Seer of visions; for the Lord, your God, is testing you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul”
According to the text, if this individual calls for the worship of other gods or a departure from the commandments, they are deemed a false prophet, one whom God is using to “test” Israel with, to see if they will remain loyal to the Torah and to God.
Paul is well known for claiming to have seen visions from heaven, saying he is receiving divine revelation straight from heaven, being an apostle and prophet, and someone who supposedly performed signs and miracles. Yet he is very clear on his teachings about rejecting various aspects of the Torah, and departing from it all together as a mode of covenant with God. He fits the Deuteronomy 13 description perfectly. He is surely a false Prophet that was sent to test the Jewish people to see if they would follow his deception and depart from the Torah and worship another god.
Pauline Teachings and the Jewish Understanding of False Prophecy
With these verses in mind, we can explore why the Jewish faith rejects the teachings of Paul. Paul’s message often centered around the belief that faith in Jesus Christ superseded the traditional Jewish observance of the Torah. This approach is seen in his letters, where he presents a vision of faith that does not require adherence to the faith as outlined in the Torah.
In Jewish tradition, Paul’s approach raises red flags that correspond with the criteria laid out in Deuteronomy 13 on how to identify a false prophet. Paul’s teachings, which emphasize faith in Jesus over Torah observance, can be seen as “subtracting” from the Torah. By suggesting that followers of Jesus are not bound by the Torah’s laws (contradicting Jesus’ own words), Paul promotes a path that diverges significantly from the traditional Jewish understanding of covenantal fidelity. For instance, in Romans 10:4, Paul states, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Such statements are seen as a clear deviation from Torah.
The Jewish Perspective on Divine Revelation
Judaism holds that the Torah as given at Mount Sinai is the ultimate and final revelation from God, intended to guide not only that generation but all generations of Israel to come. Any later claims to prophetic insight are measured against the Torah’s teachings, and Deuteronomy 13 serves as a litmus test. If a claimed prophet teaches doctrines that diverge from the Torah or encourage practices contrary to it, Israel is to consider them a false prophet.
Paul’s teachings often focus on visions he had of Jesus, which he claimed provided him with divine authority to interpret Jewish law in a new way. In Galatians 1:11-12, Paul writes, “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation.” From a Jewish perspective, however, any prophet who receives “new revelations” that contradict the Torah’s teachings would fall under the description of a false prophet as outlined in Deuteronomy 13. The Torah emphasizes that any message deviating from its teachings, regardless of its source or visionary origins, is invalid.
The Issue of Human Worship in the Context of Deuteronomy 13
Another key reason Judaism cannot accept Paul’s teachings lies in the doctrine of worshiping his version of Jesus as Lord and Savior. In Judaism, worship is reserved exclusively for God. Deuteronomy 13 stresses that Israel must “follow the Lord your God and fear Him only” (Deut. 13:4). The promotion of Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi, as an object of worship and the central figure for salvation contradicts Jewish monotheism as prescribed in the Torah. Jewish tradition interprets the command to not serve other gods as a prohibition against deifying any human being.
By contrast, Paul encourages believers to “confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ (Romans 10:9) and again he says “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord” (Phillipians 2:11)
For Judaism, such a confession blatantly conflicts with the Torah’s insistence on loyalty to the God of Israel alone and is perceived as a call to worship a figure other than God Himself.
Conclusion:
For Judaism, Deuteronomy 13 serves as a safeguard, preserving the Torah’s eternal nature and warning against any attempts to alter its commandments. Paul’s teachings—emphasizing faith and loyalty to Jesus as Lord, over Torah observance and encouraging the worship of Jesus as a divine figure—are seen as incompatible with the Torah mandate. From a Jewish perspective, Paul’s claims to divine revelation and his encouragement to deviate from the Torah’s commandments place him precisely within the category of a false prophet as defined in Deuteronomy 13.
The command to neither add to nor subtract from the Torah reflects a fundamental belief in the Torah’s completeness and sanctity. Any figure promoting doctrines that undermine this principle cannot be accepted within Judaism. In this light, Paul’s teachings represent a departure from the Torah, a reinterpretation of the nature of God, and a gross apostasy from the Faith of Abraham. Thus Israel and all Jewish people, by virtue of the forever binding word of God cannot receive the teachings of the Apostle Paul. It is forbidden for them to do so by the decree of the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures.
Keeping all of these points in mind, the Christian Church that adheres to the message of the Apostle Paul should strongly reconsider their zealous approach in trying to convert Jews to Christianity. Doing so causes a Jewish person to apostatize from their true faith and break their covenant with the God of Israel thus failing the test and following a false prophet, according to the Torah’s clear teaching in Deuteronomy 13.
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