In this paper, I will utilize Thomas’s four categories of law—eternal, natural, human, and divine—to shed light on the continuity-discontinuity debate across biblical theological systems. His more robust metaphysical argument sheds light on contemporary debates on the continuity or discontinuity of the law within biblical theology..
I will argue that Thomas’s metaphysics and categories concerning biblical law aid in defending a position of continuity by grounding all types of law in one eternal law while also justifying where the necessary discontinuity exists as the ceremonial aspects of Mosaic law were an accommodation to Israel’s spiritual and chronological position on the redemptive timeline. The paper will have four main sections: 1) an overview of the metaphysics of participation and causation that undergird Thomas’s theology of the law, 2) an overview of Thomas’s four types of law as articulated in the Summa Theologica, 3) a theological and metaphysical articulation of how law can change, and 4) conclusions on the specifics of continuity and discontinuity of the law.
Keywords: Law, Mosaic Law, New Covenant Law, Thomas Aquinas, Metaphysics, Biblical Theological Systems, Discontinuity and Continuity, Participation, Thomistic Causation.