Posted on 08/17/2011 6:40:36 AM PDT by marshmallow
Experts say they're looking to publish the authoritative edition of the Old Testament
Bible Project, center, Dr. Rafael Zer, editorial coordinator, left, and Efrat Leibowitz, graduate research assistant, confer in their office at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The ongoing work of these academic detectives shows that this foundation text of Western civilization has always been more fluid than many people's strongly held beliefs would suggest.
JERUSALEM — A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: The sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.
An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened.
Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies — publishing the authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, and tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia.
And it has evolved, despite deeply held beliefs to the contrary.
For many Jews and Christians, religion dictates that the words of the Bible in the original Hebrew are divine, unaltered and unalterable.
For Orthodox Jews, the accuracy is considered so inviolable that if a synagogue's Torah scroll is found to have a minute error in a single letter, the entire scroll is unusable.
But the ongoing work of the academic detectives of the Bible Project, as their undertaking is known, shows that this text at the root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was somewhat fluid for long periods of its history, and that its transmission through..........
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yeah, this is only the 20th time this has been posted.
It's a liberal hit piece on the Scriptures.
Why don’t they do something productive and start with the Koran?
“Why don’t they do something productive and start with the Koran?”
Because they wouldn’t live long enough to eat their supper.
Yeah, but are there any errors in this version?
I have to admit, pretty much every time I’ve ever seen somebody point out an “error” in the Bible, it was because of:
1) They were trying to rip a verse completely out of context and make it say something it didn’t say,
2) The critic was miscomprehending some point about the culture, etc. of ancient societies, and was simply trying to apply modern 21st century Western standards to something,
3) The critic was missing some basic point from the underlying biblical languages that even a cursory knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic would resolve, or
4) The critic simply failed to take the theological, historical, textual etc. context of the verse or passage into account (happens a lot with the “different numbers between Kings and Chronicles” type of criticisms).
Most of the time, critics of the Bible (largely atheists or “freethinkers,” but not always) are simply operating on ignorance and an unwillingness to actually acquaint themselves with the material well enough to be able to speak competently about it. Sometimes, the critics are simply being dishonest in their approach.
Either way, I have come to see that most critics of the Bible simply don’t deserve to be taken seriously until they can demonstrate that they actually know what they’re talking about.
Exactly. The Masoretic texts are preserved most accurately, as is the Textus Receptus.
It's a liberal hit piece on the Scriptures
And by the way, the “definitive” Kuran is a work that was rewritten by order of the Caliph Omar.
“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Rev 22:18-19
They must have changed this part first to cover their butts.
Oops...they are only dealing with the Old Testament so they didn’t read the aforementioned scripture.
Liberals always attack prophecies because they don't believe in the power of God.
I agree. I've never understood the obsession that so many "scholars" have with the Critical Greek texts, based as they are on a tiny minority of texts that show the marks of being gnostically corrupted.
Perhaps that's what a lot of it is, however. People reject the TR in favour of the CR because they WANT Bibles that dumb down and remove doctrine.
True, but they still should have read,
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." (Deuteronomy 4:2)
The basis of Islam? The two are polar opposites.
“Why don’t they do something productive and start with the Koran?”
You have the quote of the day! n/s
Sounds like you are arguing for the Majority Text, not the TR.
In reading the article, it appears that this project was started by Orthodox Jews in 1958 when a priceless Hebrew Bible manuscript arrived in Jerusalem after it was smuggled out of Aleppo, Syria. This was the 1,100-year-old Aleppo Codex, considered the oldest and most accurate version of the complete biblical text in Hebrew.
I'm referring to a reference in one of the Old Testament books, 1 or 2 Kings I think, where the time a certain king reigned is in question. While it's been decades since I looked at this, I remember it this way:
A king reigned for either 16 or 36 years, we don't know for sure. The problem is the reference to 16 or 36 cannot be determined and is most likely because of a smudge on the vellum or papyrus. The best example I could find at the time was this:
Not really an error...
The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen...
Oy! Ten! Ten commandments for all to obey!
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