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To: Billy the Mountain; Borges
Probably the same percentage of people who are proficient in ancient Greek (New Testament) or Arabic (Koran) and yet quote those scriptures to damn those groups.

Not even close. First, there are plenty of critical translations of both texts that have been produced by adherents of both faiths that allow non-adherents access to scholarly editions. Also, the New Testament is about 400 pages of text and the Koran is about 250 pages in translation. A non-adherent can pick up a translation and read it in a day and get the sense of it, without becoming an expert of course.

Moreover there are more than a hundred million people who can read the Koran in the original with comprehension and at least ten million who can do the same with the New Testament. Plenty of critiques of both texts come from people who are very proficient in the languages - one of the most prominent critics of the New Testament is Bart Ehrman, a former Christian who is considered to be an expert in the text to the extent of having assisted in the editing of the standard text.

When it comes to the Talmud, there is no standard translation. The closest is the Steinsaltz, which is recent. The Talmud is written in Rabbinic Hebrew (a different dialect than the Biblical Hebrew that so many Christian scholars have studied), Eastern Aramaic (a different dialect from the Biblical Aramaic that has been studied by a smaller number of Christian scholars), and even a large amount of transliterated Old French. Moreover, the Talmud is not written discursively like the New Testament and Koran, but in a very technical jargon full of abbreviations and references. Add to this the size of the Talmud, probably 4000 pages in full translation, and you have a text that very few non-Jews have the education or the patience to read in full even in translation. Certainly only a small minority of self-professed Jews have the education or the patience themselves.

The reality is that those who quote the Talmud to "damn" Jews have no concept of what the Talmud is, what it is for, how the text works, how accurate the supposed translation they are using is, or whether the supposed quote is in context.

It is much more likely that a critic of the New Testament or the Koran has a clue about what they are discussing. I have never heard of a critic of the Talmud who had any clue at all.

119 posted on 10/03/2010 8:40:59 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: wideawake

Many Jews don’t even read the Talmud. It’s primarily read by the highly orthodox only. The average Jewish family who Bar Mitzvahs their son and goes to Temple on the High Holidays most likely never set their eyes on it.


120 posted on 10/03/2010 9:23:41 AM PDT by Borges
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