Where the Argument Collapses
The word “were” is not in the verse. The KJV prints it in italics because the translators supplied it. The Greek reads only “the law and the prophets until John.” The teaching that the Law ended at John rests on a word nobody wrote, and on the very next verse being ignored.
The Claim
Yahushua says the Law and the Prophets were until John. The Law ran up to John the Baptist and stopped there. After John, the kingdom is preached instead, and the Law belongs to an age that is over.
The Verse
The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
— Luke 16:16
Read the Next Sentence
Yahushua did not stop at verse 16. In the next breath He said it is easier “for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17).
If verse 16 means the Law ended at John, verse 17 says the opposite in the same speech. One of the two sentences has to give way.
Heaven and earth are still here. So is every tittle. Verse 17 is not the problem. The reading of verse 16 is.
The Two Letters Under “Until”
Yahushua spoke to Hebrew hearers. In Hebrew, “until” is written with two letters, ayin and dalet (עד).
Read one way, those letters are ad (H5704), until. Read another way, they are ed (H5707), a witness. The letters do not change. Only the vowel marks change, and the vowel marks were added centuries after Messiah by the Masoretes.
So a Hebrew hearer could take the saying two ways at once. The Law and the Prophets until John. The Law and the Prophets witness of John.
Greek has no word that carries both. The translator had to pick one, and he picked “until.” The witness sense was lost in the crossing.
Matthew Gives the Verb
Matthew records the same saying, and he does not leave the verb out. All the prophets and the Law “prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:13).
They prophesied. That is the work of a witness. And the next line tells us who they were speaking about: “this is Elias, which was for to come” (Matthew 11:14). The Law and the Prophets were speaking of John.
Paul uses the same pair the same way. The righteousness of Yahuah is “witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Romans 3:21). Not ended by them. Witnessed by them.
Two Witnesses for John
Torah says every matter is settled at the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15). Yahushua kept the same rule (Matthew 18:16).
John had his two witnesses before he was born.
The first is the Law. The last words of the prophets say “remember ye the law of Moses” (Malachi 4:4), and the very next verse says “I will send you Elijah the prophet” (Malachi 4:5). The Law is named, and then John is announced.
The second is the Prophets. Isaiah spoke of “the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness” (Isaiah 40:3), and John said that voice was his (John 1:23). Malachi spoke of a messenger sent ahead to prepare the way (Malachi 3:1), and Yahushua said that messenger was John (Matthew 11:10).
John did not come on his own word. He came on the word of Moses and the prophets.
What Changed at John
Something did change, and the verse says what it was. Since that time “the kingdom of God is preached.” The witnesses had done their work, and the one they spoke of had arrived.
That is a change in what was being announced. It is not a change in the Law. A witness who has given his testimony is not thrown out of court. His testimony stays on the record.
The Verdict
The verse does not say the Law ended. The word “were” was added, the Hebrew under “until” also reads “witness,” Matthew says the Law and the Prophets prophesied of John, and the next verse says not one tittle of the Law will fail.
The Law and the Prophets were John’s two witnesses. They testified, and their testimony stands. At the end of the book the same pair is still together, in the people who “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Yahushua Messiah” (Revelation 12:17).
Foundations Cited
F-13 Till Heaven and Earth Pass Away · F-15 Dispensational Vocabulary