The first issue that must be clarified is the significance and the place of the Law in the Old Testament. According to the traditional division the Old Testament is made up of the law, the prophets and the writings. However, if we look at the pentateuch we find that it contains not only law but also stories, songs and proverbs. Are we then to conclude that the Old Testament contains a part called the Torah which further contains, among other things, some articles of the law?
According to Van Ruler we must reject this understanding and take into consideration the important difference between the Hebrew word torah and its Greek translation nomos.4.4 Nomoshas the connotation of a formal and even immutable code of fixed laws. Torah, on the other hand, contains the meaning of an `instruction' with all the flexibility and historical adaptability of a living instruction.4.5 When we understand this idea that the Torah, the law of God, is instruction or in other words that the law is the whole of the "rechten en inzettingen des Heeren",4.6 it becomes clear that the Torah includes much more than only articles of law. The stories, songs and proverbs are also parts of the Torah as "zij wijzen ons ook van Godswege den weg in de verloren existentie."4.7
The Old Testament as a whole is a witness to God's struggle to express his will, his torah in the nation Israel. Therefore the entire Old Testament derives its meaning from the law.4.8
Therefore before we evaluate the significance of the Old Testament we must consider the question of the meaning of the law.