Quora Answer: Did Jesus (a.s.) End the Torah?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Did Jesus (a.s.) end the Torah?” 

I am not sure what you mean by that.  But Jesus (a.s.) did say this: 

Matthew 5:17-19

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to set aside the Law and the prophets; I have not come to set them aside, but to bring them to perfection.  ¹⁸ Believe me, heaven and earth must disappear sooner than one jot, one flourish should disappear from the Law; it must all be accomplished.  ¹⁹ Whoever, then, sets aside one of these commandments, though it were the least, and teaches men to do the like, will be of least account in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches others to keep them will be accounted in the Kingdom of Heaven as the greatest.” 

¹⁷ Μὴ νομίσητε ὅτι ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον ἢ τοὺς προφήτας: οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι.  ¹⁸ ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἕως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ, ἰῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται.  ¹⁹ ὃς ἐὰν οὖν λύσῃ μίαν τῶν ἐντολῶν τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων καὶ διδάξῃ οὕτως τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἐλάχιστος κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν: ὃς δ' ἂν ποιήσῃ καὶ διδάξῃ, οὗτος μέγας κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. 

¹⁷ Nolite putare quoniam veni solvere legem aut prophetas: non veni solvere, sed adimplere.  ¹⁸ Amen quippe dico vobis, donec transeat cælum et terra, jota unum aut unus apex non præteribit a lege, donec omnia fiant.  ¹⁹ Qui ergo solverit unum de mandatis istis minimis, et docuerit sic homines, minimus vocabitur in regno cælorum: qui autem fecerit et docuerit, hic magnus vocabitur in regno cælorum. 

This alone tells us otherwise. Jesus (a.s.) was a Jew, accounted as among the Pharisee sect by the people of his time.  He kept the Mosaic Law and the mitvah.  He ate according to Jewish dietary requirements, and observed their festivals.  And that was true with all his disciples. 

Christianity as we know it, deviated from that according to the teachings of Paul of Tarsus, who never met Jesus (a.s.).  We note the last part of his Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 8: 

Hebrews 8:13

¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he has superannuated the old.  And before long the superannuated, the antiquated, must needs disappear. 

¹³ ἐν τῷ λέγειν καινὴν πεπαλαίωκεν τὴν πρώτην: τὸ δὲ παλαιούμενον καὶ γηράσκον ἐγγὺς ἀφανισμοῦ. 

¹³ Dicendo autem novum: veteravit prius. Quod autem antiquatur, et senescit, prope interitum est. 

And with that, the “Law” changed, and that is why most Christians do not follow the Laws of the Torah, have dispensed with Jewish dietary requirements, and no longer commemorate most of the festivals the Jews did.  Christianity evolved from a Jewish sect into a separate faith in its own right.