What’s Biblical Law?

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Biblical law in a general sense is the legal application of passages found in the Bible or any legal system based on those passages. Given the many religions that use the Bible and their differing interpretations of its passages, the term “biblical law” can have different specific meanings to different people. For example, some would define it as the Ten Commandments found in the books of Exodus or Deuteronomy, and others would use the term to refer to the far-reaching instructions sometimes called the Law of Moses, or the Mosaic Law, found in the early five books of the Bible. Still others would base biblical law on Jesus’ teachings found in the New Testament. Some people even expand the definition to include biblical teachings about disciplines like physics, biology, psychology, astronomy, and even meteorology.

Also called divine law or God’s law, biblical law is often based on the interpretation of specific passages from the Old or New Testaments, or both. For example, Jews might base Biblical law on some or all of the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of the Law of Moses. Christians could rely on New Testament passages in which Jesus instructs his followers to love one another, forgive others, or not to judge. The Ten Commandments are considered a type of law in many religions, and some of them have formed the foundational laws of many legal systems throughout history.

Nonlegal definitions of biblical law are based on many specific passages that can apply to things like the laws of physics or the laws of nature. For example, some passages can be interpreted in accordance with the law of physics which states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Other passages can be interpreted as referring to teaching scientific principles, such as the water cycle.

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