The Eternity of the Torah

One of my many unfinished projects is a sefer on the Rambam's 13 principles. I started on one principle - the ninth, the eternity of the Torah - but never finished it. I will be translating portions of what I've written in a series of posts. The following text of this principle is from Dr. Fred Rosner's translation of Rambam's commentary to Sanhedrin (Sepher-Herman Press, 1981):

The ninth fundamental principle is the abrogation (of the Torah), that is to say that this Torah of Moses will not be abrogated and no other Torah will come from God. One may not add to it nor delete from it, neither in the written nor the oral Torah, as it is written "Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." We have already explained all that needs to be explained concerning this fundamental principle at the beginning of this treatise.

There are four parts to this principle:
1. That the Torah will never be abrogated, i.e. that the commandments will always be binding.
2. That there will never be a new Torah.
3. That nothing will be removed from the Torah.
4. That nothing will be added to it.

Every English translation that I have seen translates a passage from the middle of the principle along the lines of "One may not add to it nor delete from it..." I am not sure that this is correct. R. Yosef Qafah translates this into Hebrew as "Ve-lo yisvasef bah ve-lo yigara mimenah..." which means "Nothing will be added to it nor deleted from it..." I don't know what the Arabic says but R. Qafah's translation follows from the Abarbanel's discussion in his Rosh Amanah (ch. 13):

However, this mistake in [understanding] the words of the master is evident because the specific commandment is not to add or detract [from the commandments] and the principle is to believe in the eternity of the Torah and that God will not add to nor detract from it... However, when the master brought, in explaining this principle, the verse "Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" - his intention was not to explain the belief of this principle, i.e. that God will not change the Torah, exchange it, add to it or subtract from it because the verse is speaking about Israel. Rather, the master's intent was that this Torah will never ever have an addition or a subtraction from it, and because of that it emerges that we are commanded not to add to or detract from it.

In other words, the Torah will never change. The principle of belief is that God will not change it but, certainly, we are not allowed to change it either.

The Rambam mentioned this principle four times in his Mishneh Torah - in Hilkhos Yesodei Ha-Torah (9:1); in Hilkhos Teshuvah (3:8), when listing those who are heretics; in Hilkhos Megillah 2:18; and in (uncensored versions of) Hilkhos Melakhim (11:3).

It is worth noting that this principle does not discuss adding or subtracting verses from the text of the Torah. That is contained in the eighth principle. The ninth principle deals with the commandments and their eternal status. But will the commandments remain in eternal force or are there passages in rabbinic literature implying that they will be abrogated in future times? That subject is for future, very lengthy posts.