Matthew 5:17 ...and slowing down our experience of the New Testament

"Think not that I came to down-loose the law or the before-staters: I came not to down-loose, but to make full."

What was Jesus' relationship to the older ways of seeing the Torah?  In the verse above, he makes clear that we should not think that he came to "down-loose" the law.  The Etymological New Testament translates ultra-literally with this two part word to reflect both components of the Greek.  The word KATA is often used to intensify the verb it precedes.  In this case, LUO, "to loose" becomes more intense, or as typically translated, "destroy."  The Greek word often translated "perish" is usually "from-loose" or "from-whole-loose" in the ENT.  Jesus goes on to say that he understood his teaching to be bringing the Torah to fullness. The ultra literal etymologies don't change the meaning of the text, but they do allow one to quickly note relationships between families of words.  They also allow us to see how the same Greek word has a broad semantic range in different contexts.  

And, the literal language has at least one more effect on a reader of the New Testament.  In the Special Note to the Reader of the ENT, it is observed that the ENT allows the reader "some additional perspective, to slow down and consider some other possible readings  that the Greek text offers."  And as we slow down and think through a passage, we gain "some space...where we might hear from the living Placer."