Tremper Longman III makes the excellent point that although it is popular to categorize Israel's laws into three types: moral, civil, and ceremonial, the Israelites themselves did not make this distinction, for "all of life was religious to them."¹

However, "in spite of the fact that this threefold division was not native to Israel, we will find it useful as we grapple with our own responsibility toward the law of the Old Testament."² Longman ties each category to one of three roles of an Israelite. He was obligated to the moral law as a moral being, to the civil law as a citizen, and to the ceremonial law as a worshipper.

Endnotes

1. Tremper Longman III, Making Sense of the Old Testament: Three Crucial Questions (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 110.

2. Ibid.