Duality In The Old Testament

Elaborated on throughout the course of the Hebrew Bible, the literary pattern that appears to be both present and prevalent is the idea of “Exile and Restoration.” This first comes to achieve predominance early on in Genesis; where Adam and Eve – having been deceived by the Serpent into partaking of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, against God’s express wishes – are soon discovered, cursed by God himself, and are henceforth banished from the Garden of Eden indefinitely; exiting to the East, and later returning from the West. Further circumstances where this duality becomes more clear follow Abraham’s original Covenant with God, leading onto the story of Moses – who kills an Egyptian quarreling with a Hebrew, and, in turn, flees to avoid the Pharaoh’s wrath; only to come into contact with God and be granted his next holy mission, recounted in the Book of Exodus – in which Moses liberates

The Torah usually refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – which means the reliability and authenticity of the New Testament is, in turn, questioned by the Jewish. They see the Torah as a firmly established part of their history, and the most Holy part of the Hebrew Bible, while the New Testament – which, in and of itself, contains various references and allusions to the rules and regulations that are also dictated by the Torah – comes to fall under further scrutiny in light of its contradictions in relation to the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament at large. That being said, it’s when one reaches Temple that the connections become far more clear and present – after all, according to the writers of the New Testament, Jesus himself came to pray there, and even predicted the destruction of the Second Temple – alluding it to his own body; to be torn down and raised up again over the span of three