How Does the New Testament's Greek Vocabulary Distinguish Between Categories of Law?¶

A Plain-English Summary of the Biblical Evidence

When Christians read the New Testament, they encounter a variety of words that the original Greek text uses to talk about God's law. A natural question arises: did the New Testament writers use different Greek words when referring to different kinds of law? Specifically, when they spoke about the Ten Commandments (the moral law), did they use different vocabulary than when they spoke about the ceremonial regulations -- the sacrificial system, dietary codes, and ritual requirements that pointed forward to Christ? This study examined the five most important Greek law terms in the New Testament -- entole (commandment), dogma (ordinance/decree), dikaioma (righteous requirement/ordinance), cheirographon (handwriting), and nomos (law) -- and tracked every occurrence to see what kind of law content each word actually refers to.

The results reveal a striking pattern: four of these five terms consistently distinguish between moral and ceremonial law. The New Testament authors did not use these words interchangeably.

"Entole" -- The Word for God's Moral Commandments¶

The Greek word entole (Strong's G1785) appears 71 times in the New Testament. When this study examined every instance where the content can be identified, a remarkably consistent picture emerged: when entole appears without any qualifying or limiting word attached to it, it always refers to moral content -- specifically, the Ten Commandments.

Jesus himself used the word this way. When a young man asked him about eternal life, Jesus said:

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17)

He then listed commandments from the Decalogue: "Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother" (Matthew 19:18-19). The word translated "commandments" is entole, and its content is plainly the Ten Commandments.

Paul used entole the same way. In Romans 7, he wrote:

"I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Romans 7:7)

He then called this commandment -- the tenth of the Ten Commandments --

"holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12)

One of the most telling verses is 1 Corinthians 7:19, where Paul explicitly separated entole from ceremonial law:

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." (1 Corinthians 7:19)

Circumcision was a ceremonial rite. Paul said it is "nothing" compared to what really matters: keeping the entole of God. The word entole here plainly does not include circumcision -- it refers to something distinct from ceremonial law.

The book of Revelation uses entole in the same way for end-time believers:

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

What about the passages where something was abolished or set aside? Here is where the pattern becomes especially significant. When entole does appear in a context where something is being abolished, the New Testament writers always add a qualifying word to narrow what they mean. In Ephesians 2:15, Paul wrote:

"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances." (Ephesians 2:15)

Notice the layered narrowing: the law... of commandments... contained in ordinances. The word "ordinances" here is dogmasin, which (as we will see) is a word the New Testament never uses for the Ten Commandments. The qualifier narrows entole from its usual moral sense to a specific subset -- ceremonial ordinances.

Similarly, in Hebrews 7:16, when the author discussed the old Levitical priesthood law being set aside, he wrote:

"Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life." (Hebrews 7:16)

The word "carnal" (sarkines) qualifies entole, narrowing it to the physical, fleshly priesthood succession law -- not the moral law of the Decalogue.

In short: entole by itself consistently means the moral commandments of God. Every time New Testament writers used entole for something ceremonial or something being abolished, they added a limiting word to signal the shift.

"Dogma" -- A Word Never Used for the Ten Commandments¶

The Greek word dogma (G1378) appears only five times in the New Testament. Two of those occurrences refer to decrees of the Roman emperor:

"There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." (Luke 2:1)

One refers to a decision of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 16:4). The remaining two occurrences -- the only ones that deal with God's law -- both refer to ceremonial regulations that were abolished:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." (Colossians 2:14)

The context in Colossians 2:16-17 identifies the content of these "ordinances" as "meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come." These are ceremonial regulations that foreshadowed Christ.

The other law-related use of dogma is in Ephesians 2:15, where it serves as the qualifier that narrows entole (as discussed above).

The pattern is complete and without exception: dogma is never used for the Ten Commandments anywhere in the New Testament. Not once. Every time it refers to God's law, it refers to ceremonial regulations.

"Dikaioma" -- A Pattern of Singular vs. Plural¶

The Greek word dikaioma (G1345) shows an interesting pattern in passages that specifically discuss God's law. When it appears in the singular with the article ("the righteous requirement"), it refers to the moral standard of the law. When it appears in the plural with a descriptive modifier, it refers to ceremonial ordinances.

In Romans 8:4, Paul wrote about the moral law (connected to the Decalogue he identified in Romans 7:7):

"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:4)

Here "the righteousness" (to dikaioma) is singular and refers to the moral standard of the law.

But in Hebrews 9:10, the author used the same word differently when discussing ceremonial regulations:

"Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9:10)

Here "carnal ordinances" (dikaiomata sarkos) is plural and carries the qualifier "carnal" (sarkos). The content is explicitly identified: meats, drinks, and ritual washings -- temporary ceremonial regulations imposed until Christ came.

This pattern is real but it is not an absolute rule. Outside of passages specifically discussing law categories, dikaioma appears in other forms that do not follow this pattern. The modifier ("carnal," "of divine service") is actually a stronger indicator of ceremonial content than the singular/plural distinction alone.

"Cheirographon" -- The Handwriting Nailed to the Cross¶

The Greek word cheirographon (G5498) appears only once in the New Testament, in Colossians 2:14:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." (Colossians 2:14)

The word literally means "hand-written document" (from cheir = hand + grapho = write). It is paired with dogmasin ("ordinances"), and as we have seen, dogma is never used for the Ten Commandments. The surrounding context (verses 16-17) identifies the content as dietary regulations, holidays, new moons, and sabbath observances described as "a shadow of things to come."

It is also worth noting that the Ten Commandments were "written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18), not hand-written. Moses' book of the law, by contrast, was written by Moses' own hand (Deuteronomy 31:24) and placed "in the side of the ark of the covenant" as "a witness against thee" (Deuteronomy 31:26). The description of the cheirographon as something "against us" and "contrary to us" fits the ceremonial code better than the Decalogue.

"Nomos" -- The Broadest Term¶

The Greek word nomos (G3551), usually translated "law," is by far the most common of the five terms. It is also the least precise when it comes to distinguishing between types of law. Paul himself used nomos in multiple senses -- sometimes for the moral law, sometimes for the ceremonial system, sometimes for the Pentateuch as a whole, and sometimes even for a general principle.

Some have suggested that the presence or absence of the Greek article ("the") with nomos distinguishes moral from ceremonial law -- that "the law" means the moral law while "law" without the article means something else. However, the evidence does not support this as a reliable rule. Paul used "the law" (articular nomos) when referring to the moral law:

"The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12)

But other New Testament writers also used "the law" (articular nomos) for the ceremonial system:

"The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." (Hebrews 10:1)

And nomos without the article is used for God's moral law written on the heart:

"I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." (Hebrews 8:10)

So the article pattern alone cannot tell us what kind of law is being discussed. Context must determine the meaning of nomos in any given passage.

That said, when nomos is accompanied by positive, affirming language -- "holy, just, good, spiritual," "law of liberty," "we establish the law" -- the identified content is consistently the moral law. Jesus said:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

And Paul affirmed:

"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." (Romans 3:31)

James called it "the law of liberty" and identified its content by quoting the sixth and seventh commandments of the Decalogue (James 2:8-12).

A Note on 2 Corinthians 3¶

Some readers point to 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 as evidence that the moral law itself was abolished, since it speaks of what was "done away." However, careful reading of the Greek grammar shows that what was "done away" is the glory and the ministry (the old covenant administration), not the law or the commandments themselves. The feminine participle "done away" (katargoumenen) grammatically agrees with "the glory" (ten doxan), not with the law or commandments, which are different grammatical genders. The text distinguishes between the enduring moral law and its temporary old covenant administration.

What the Bible Does NOT Say¶

Honesty requires acknowledging what the New Testament text does not explicitly state:

It does not say why the vocabulary pattern exists. The study can observe that New Testament writers consistently used different words for moral versus ceremonial law, but no verse in the Bible explains that this was an intentional, divinely designed coding system. The pattern is real, but the reason behind it is not stated.

It does not make the article pattern of nomos a reliable dividing line. Some Bible teachers have claimed that "the law" always means the moral law while "law" without the article means something else. The text itself disproves this. Both forms are used for both kinds of law.

It does not make the singular/plural pattern of dikaioma an absolute rule. In passages about the law, singular dikaioma tends to mean the moral standard and plural dikaioma with a modifier tends to mean ceremonial ordinances. But outside of law passages, this pattern does not hold consistently.

It does not make all five Greek terms equally precise. Four of the five terms partition cleanly between moral and ceremonial content. Nomos, the most common term, does not. The vocabulary system works as a whole, but nomos alone requires context to determine its referent.

Conclusion¶

The New Testament's Greek vocabulary does make a real, textual distinction between moral and ceremonial law -- and this distinction comes from the text itself, not from systems imposed on the Bible from the outside. When New Testament authors referred to the moral law (the Ten Commandments), they consistently used entole without a qualifier, singular articular dikaioma, and nomos with affirming language. When they referred to the ceremonial regulations that were abolished at the cross, they consistently used dogma, cheirographon, plural dikaioma with a modifier, and entole only with a narrowing qualifier.

This does not mean the system is perfectly rigid. Nomos has the broadest range and does not partition as cleanly as the other terms. But the overall vocabulary pattern is consistent and observable: four of five core law terms divide cleanly between what was affirmed and what was abolished. The New Testament writers chose different words for different content, and those word choices consistently align with the distinction between the enduring moral law and the temporary ceremonial system.

Based on the full technical study completed 2026-02-25

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