ABOUT TORAH PURSUANT
Faithful Study for a Faithful Life
Torah Pursuant exists to help people read Scripture carefully, understand Yeshua within the biblical and Jewish world in which he lived, and allow what they learn to shape the way they actually live.
We believe Torah is more than a subject to debate. It is God’s instruction, given within the story of Israel and worthy of careful study by disciples of Yeshua who want to understand Scripture, grow in wisdom, and live faithfully.
What Does “Torah Pursuant” Mean?
To pursue Torah is to seek God’s instruction faithfully rather than treating Scripture as a collection of isolated verses.
We begin with the biblical text, ask what it meant within its historical and literary setting, follow its connections through the Tanakh and Apostolic Writings, consider how Jewish and Christian communities have understood it, and then ask what faithful practice looks like today.
The goal is not simply to know more. It is to become more faithful, thoughtful, gracious, trustworthy, and attentive to God.
Torah, Yeshua, Israel, and the Nations
Torah Pursuant approaches Yeshua as Israel’s Messiah, teaching within Israel’s Scriptures rather than in opposition to them.
We affirm the continuing place and calling of Israel within the biblical story. The inclusion of the nations through Messiah does not require the erasure of Israel, Jewish identity, or the distinct histories and callings Scripture gives to Jews and Gentiles.
Unity in Messiah does not require sameness. We want Jewish and Gentile disciples to learn from one another without replacement theology, contempt, or the assumption that every difference must disappear.
HOW WE STUDY
Study Carefully Before You Decide
Scripture does not come to us in a historical vacuum. Every reader inherits translations, assumptions, traditions, controversies, and interpretations. Careful study requires enough humility to recognize them.
The Torah Pursuant Method brings together biblical context, language, history, literary analysis, the Tanakh, the Apostolic Writings, Jewish interpretation, Christian interpretation, reason, evidence, and practical formation.
History does not replace Scripture as our authority. It helps us understand the questions people have asked, the circumstances in which interpretations developed, and the assumptions we may otherwise never notice.
Knowledge Should Change the Way We Live
Biblical knowledge has not reached its purpose merely because we can explain it. What we believe should begin to affect our speech, habits, families, friendships, work, worship, hospitality, use of time, treatment of vulnerable people, and even the way we disagree.
That is why Torah Pursuant places unusual emphasis on spiritual formation and derekh eretz—the habits of dignity, restraint, hospitality, honesty, attentiveness, and good conduct that make healthy life with other people possible.
Obedience to God ought to make us more trustworthy and more pleasant to live with.
FOUNDER
About Mark S. Railey
Mark S. Railey is a biblical studies teacher, writer, minister, and founder of Torah Pursuant and Lyell. His work has focused on Scripture, biblical languages, spiritual formation, Jewish-Christian relations, leadership, and the practical question of how belief becomes a faithful way of life.
He earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies and Languages from Ouachita Baptist University and an advanced M.Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His additional study has included Biblical Hebrew in Jerusalem and graduate and doctoral work in spiritual formation, leadership, and Messianic Jewish studies.
Mark serves as Rosh Kehillah of Covenant Bridge Messianic Congregation in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Over several decades of ministry, teaching, writing, and academic work, he has increasingly focused on bringing careful biblical study together with formation, community, and ordinary faithful living.
His current work through Torah Pursuant and Lyell is aimed less at building another institution for its own sake than at developing useful scholarship, resources, relationships, and practices that other people can learn, test, improve, and carry forward.
Torah Pursuant and Lyell
Torah Pursuant is the public doorway into this work. It provides teaching, guided learning, articles, practical resources, and an accessible introduction to Torah Pursuant life.
Lyell develops the wider ecosystem behind that vision. Lyell Institute focuses on scholarship and teaching. Lyell Press preserves and distributes resources. Lyell Commons explores what happens when learning becomes friendship, hospitality, mentoring, service, family life, culture, and community.
The Institute discovers and teaches. The Press preserves and distributes. The Commons embodies and reproduces.