Sinaite Notes – The Christian ‘Old’ Testament – 3

Image from biblicalproof.wordpress.com

[Originally posted June 10,2012 as part of our series on where in the Bible is the ‘word of God’. When you read even just the Torah or Five Books of Moses, much of what you read is narrative and history with laws and instructions and some ‘stuff’ which makes you wonder, ‘why in the world is this in the “Word of God”? We cling to assurances like “thus saith the Lord” that are followed by actual quotes from the very Mouth of YHWH. That said, here’s a primer on why we contend that the Christian “Old Testament” is redesigned in such a way that you will see the Christian Savior all over the books. But WHO does the original, the Hebrew Scriptures, actually assert as the One and Only God?—Admin1.]

———————-

The originators of the Christian Bible who decided to append the Hebrew Scriptures to the canon of the New Testament did not only tack it as a ‘prequel’ but transformed it in subtle ways, then renamed it the “Old Testament.” Understandably so. If they had left it as it originally was, it would not perfectly fit their New Testament theology and make sense to the Greek or Western mind.

If you think about it, why transform the scriptures that are not yours to begin with? Why not simply add to yours in original form and text and translation? Does that make sense unless there’s an underlying agenda?

Jews don’t read the Christian “Old Testament”; they read their Hebrew Scriptures, the “TNK.” Wonder why?

What specific transformations did the original Hebrew Bible undergo in the Christian Old Testament?

1. Order of Books

After the first five books of Moses, the OT books were rearranged from the original Hebrew Scriptures order (Neviim or “Prophets” and Ketuviim or “Sacred Writings”) following the logical progression in chronological order: i.e. the history of the beginnings of the nation of Israel from Genesis to Deuteronomy, continued through historical narratives, Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

Out of the blue, the book of Ruth was sandwiched between Judges and I Samuel, perhaps to follow the ancestry of David from whom Jesus would fit in both bloodline and kingly line.

Between this category and the last category of Prophets are the Wisdom Books which include Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

The OT four “major” prophets of Israel precede the 12 “minor” prophets. Actually in the original TNK, there are only 3 major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Daniel is not even considered a “prophet” and is relegated to the Ketuviim or the Writings; evidently the organizers of the Hebrew Scriptures’ canon considered Daniel simply as an ‘interpreter of dreams’, just like Joseph. In fact the book of Daniel almost did not make it into the Writings or the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures at all! But without Daniel as a “major” prophet in Christian OT, the book of Revelation in NT would not make much sense, since its interpretation heavily depends on the “prophecies” and images in Daniel. Because of this, to Christian bible teachers (like our long-time Bible teacher “RW” with whom some of us have had running debates in DISCOURSE), Daniel is probably the most important of the Christian OT’s “major” prophets.

By ending the Christian Old Testament with Malachi, the connection with its sequel, the New Testament, has been prepared because Elijah is supposed to return and there is speculation in NT who Elijah symbolically is during the time of Jesus . . . possibly John the Baptist?

While the Christian OT ends with Malachi which supposedly projects the return of “Elijah”, etc. etc. —-the original Hebrew Bible ends with the book of Chronicles. There is good reason for this, for one of YHWH’s “anointed” or “messiah,” a gentile king, Cyrus of Persia, has announced the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The final verse reads [ArtScroll rendition]:

Whoever there is among you of His entire people —

may HaShem his God be with him, and let him go up!

2. Number of Books —

The Hebrew Scriptures have 24 books; the Christian Old Testament has 39.
The Protestant Bible version split Samuel, Kings, Chronicles into I & II, then numbered the “minor” prophets as 12 separate books instead of being one book in the original Hebrew; it also split Ezra-Nehemiah which is counted as one book in the Hebrew Bible.
The Catholic Bible Old Testament add the apocryphal books to their version, books that were not considered as sacred scripture by the Jews. Other versions have Pseudepigrapha, also not considered as divinely-sourced scripture by the Jewish sages who reverently organized and decided on the official canon of the TNK.

3. Change of Hebrew Titles to Greek Titles —

Since the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek and that translation was known as the Septuagint, the Greek titles simply predominated. It is those Greek titles that have been retained, strangely even by some Hebrew Bibles that have been translated into English, perhaps to help new readers who are familiar with the Christian Old Testament identify the book. Along with book titles, names of people, places, objects naturally underwent the same process, first in Greek, then further Anglicized to what we recognize today.

Image from www.graceonlinelibrary.org

4. Mistranslation of verses used as prooftext, specifically to turn them into “messianic prophecies” pointing to Jesus Christ — Anti-missionary Jewish websites are the best links for specific studies relating to the mistranslation of these verses; we will try to get permission to reprint them in this series of articles but for now, here are samples in our posts:

We have many other posts related to specifics regarding changes made from the original Hebrew text of the Hebrew Scriptures or TNK to the Old Testament text in the Christian Bible. You will find them listed under SITEMAP. For now this is just an overview.

You, reader, seeker of Truth, should do your homework and check out the claims in this post and in fact in this whole website, and not swallow everything you read without question. Challenge us and express your views, DISCOURSE is the category for an exchange of differing views. We love being challenged and proven wrong . . . or right!

For starters, here’s some homework:

IN HIS NAME – Whose ‘Word’ is the Bible? – 2

Source: Exodus/Shemoth 24 – "the sight of the Glory of YHVH (was) like a consuming fire" -- We gentiles living in this 21st century are able to experience that climactic moment [God appearing on Sinai] by reading and studying this portion of the TORAH. Indeed, we see YHWH not quite as dramatically as the mixed multitude did, but perhaps even better through these accounts recorded in Exodus. There is a saying that hindsight is 20/20 vision, i.e., we begin to see and understand the question marks in our past only later in our lives, as we mature and hopefully become wiser and more introspective about the meaning or seeming meaninglessness of happenings in history, whether personal, national, or universal. Søren Kierkegaard adds a twist to this: “Only 20:20 vision is hindsight. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” As we endeavor to understand each portion in the TORAH of YHWH, much of it will seem irrelevant to our current situation but if we see beyond the time-bound cultural and religious situations and begin to understand what truly has not change—human nature and the Great Revelator who designed the perfect blueprint for living in peace, happily and contentedly with family, community, country and the nations, the unquestionable conclusion is: TORAH is relevant to ALL humankind, not just to Israel, to this very day.

Join the Conversation... Cancel reply