[count-your-change]

Mechon Mamre describes it’ self as follows:

“About Mechon Mamre and Our Work
“Mechon Mamre” is Hebrew for “the Mamre Institute”. Mamre is a place name for the place where Abraham our patriarch lived (see Genesis 13,18). Abraham is the forefather of both Jews and Gentiles who live by the instructions of God, and our site is intended for Jew and Gentile alike.
Mechon Mamre is a small group of observant Jewish Torah scholars in Israel who live by the plain and simple meaning of the RaMBaM’s Mishneh Torah and actively encourage others to do so. Most of us belong to the mainstream “Baladi” Yemenite Jewish community, continuing the tradition of living by the Mishneh Torah since the very days when the RaMBaM lived, and are students of the Rav Yosef ben-Dawid QaafiH zS”l (the leading rabbinical expert in recent generations on the teachings of the RaMBaM in general and on his Mishneh Torah in particular).”
jkuperman.com/TorahLinks/OnlineTexts.html -

And the JPS says of it’s self:

“A Word of Welcome to The Jewish Publication Society
From Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, CEO
Welcome to JPS. We are the oldest publisher of Jewish books in the United States. Our roots go back to before the Civil War, and our charter to 1888 in Philadelphia. Our legacy includes two acclaimed translations of the Hebrew Bible (the JPS Tanakh), esteemed biblical commentary, and over 120 years of scholarly and popular works of history, philosophy, and literature that have stood the test of time.” www.jewishpub.org

[kosta50]

I am familiar with this small, fringe group of Yemenite Jews. I find their English translations a bit odd. They use Shakespearean English akin to KJV's, which is rather strange, imo. I dropped them as a source when I read Isaiah 9:5 because I have no idea what "Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom" is supposed to be in English.

In addition to that they are asking for contributions from anyone in editing, proofreading and translating. What is also strange about this group is that they keep mentioning that they are writing for both Jews and Gentiles (!). That is just very "unJewish" to be perfectly blunt.

Bible interpretation and translation is a tricky, tainted business. Look at Psalm 19:7 It says that God's law (Torah) is perfect and can convert/restore the soul (and make man acceptable to God). Look at different Bible versions and how they translate the word shub.

Catholic NASB "restoring the soul"
Catholic Douay-Rheims "converting the soul,"
Prot. Young's Literal Translation "refreshing the soul,"
Prot. English New Revised Standard, "reviving the soul,"
Pprot. NIV "reviving the soul,"
Prot. KJV "converting the soul,"
Jewish Chabad.org (Ps 19:8) "restoring the soul",
Jewish machon mamre.org "restoring the soul (Ps 19:8)
Greek Septuagint "turning (epistrefon) the souls."

Notice how the Protestant Bibles, YLT, NERS and NIV avoid the term convert, or restore or turn, but use refresh, or revive. It was recognized early on that Psalm 19:7 was a serious blow to Christian and even rabbinic beliefs in the coming of the messiah, which is nowhere to be found in the Torah, since all one needs to be "saved" is the God's perfect law to turn back form his evil ways, and Torah is capable of restoring a fallen human to his righteousness.

I don't know what machon memre's agenda is, or why they translate 'ahab as "friend" when it clearly corresponds to the Greek agape, but it is not without a precedent (Zech 13:6), although in the vast majority of cases it is translated as "lover" or "loved" in the agape sense, but also in the sensual sense.

It is difficult for me to imagine that a Jewish group would consider God their friend because it is uncharacteristic of anything written in the Old Testament. No one in the OT gets that close to God.

I have learned that translations follow doctrinal bias and that by itself makes every translation and interpretation corrupt, for none is perfect.