Posted on 06/26/2013 10:15:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti still has a lot of decisions to make about his upcoming inauguration. Should he sit in with Moby, or would that be too show-offy? Which food truck should he hit first?
But one decision seems to have been made. Garcetti -- L.A.'s first elected Jewish mayor -- will take his oath on a Christian Bible.
His spokesman, Diego de la Garza, said the Bible belonged to Garcetti's Catholic grandmother.
As a candidate, Garcetti often noted that he would be the first elected Jewish mayor in the city's history. (One was appointed in the 1870s.) However, his heritage is complicated. His mother is Jewish. His father, former D.A. Gil Garcetti, is of Italian and Mexican descent. Garcetti, who speaks Spanish, calls himself "doble mestizo."
His complex ancestry created a dilemma for his inauguration. Some Jewish officials -- such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- take their oaths on a Hebrew Bible.
In Garcetti's case, tradition won out. His spokesman said that he used his paternal grandmother's Bible when he was sworn in as a councilman, and saw no reason to do anything differently this time. Garcetti's paternal grandmother, Juanita Iberri, was born in Arizona; her family came from Mexico.
However, if one wishes to review and get a great familiarity with the Old Testament, one may use a good English translation, not inspired as the original. but good enough to please The God.
Before you let your opinion run away from you, you might consider the Septuagint and all that means. After that, please take a look at
http://jewishpub.org/pdf/Tanakh1917.pdf
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
ACCORDING TO THE MASORETIC TEXT
A NEW TRANSLATION
WITH THE AID OF PREVIOUS VERSIONS AND WITH
CONSTANT CONSULTATION OF JEWISH AUTHORITIES
PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
5677-1917
Uh? Uh?
The Judaica Press and Artscroll both have much better translations of Tanakh than the JPS.
Using what underlying text? the Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia?
It is unclear to me that there is an “underlying text” other than the traditional Masoretic text, perhaps represented best by Aleppo Codex.
In any case, the JPS, Artscroll, Judaica Press and many Jewish translations other would use the same source text.
Those who want Christian or secular texts should ask their own teachers.
A translation of the Masoretic text is not “Christian” — it is a translation. An interpretation comes from applying hermeneutics to find the meaning of the text in the target language. All the modern English versions fail in this.
For Jews, the meaning in the text is determined by 3000 years of tradition, which, come to think of it, is exactly how the meaning of a text in English is determined, except it’s just hundreds of years instead of thousands.
Ah, the English translation is not an apograph, and it is not inspired, as is the original God-spoken Scriptural autograph. So, an English translation must be qualified for its precision in translating the nuances of the Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek, as well as warning of its own shift in drift of word-meanings.
That’s one of the reasons I recommend an interlinear or side-by-side translation with original text. Easy research into context and accuracy.
I have both, as well as a copy of Torah with translation, but mostly I use eSword which is free, easy to use, and has multiple versions free or reasonably priced, including BHS, Scrivener's TR, and the Robinson/Pierpont Koine Majority Text Form, with grammar. I also have an older LOGOS version with KJV, RV, NASB, BHS, and WH/Nestle-Aland. I use them all, as well as credible online resources.
See my tag? Here is what The God has done for my soul:
Ps 40:1-3 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
This song is not new in time, it is new in kind. No rapper of today can even come close to calling their cant a "song."
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