AUTHENCITY OF THE JEWISH BIBLE

Brethren, in Christendom the Jewish people are being seen or perceived as misdirected followers of God. However, if we open our minds and digest what we thought we knew concerning the Christian bible we would come to terms with the Jewish bible. As a Christian, i couldn't help but go through the torah to the point of comparing it with the Bible. The two books are very similar (Torah and Bible) but the difference sighted by me got me asking questions. The Tanakh (Jewish Bible) is strictly protected from wrong interpretation or writing just as the holy book forbade anyone from adding or removing from the holy book what the prophets or God has instructed. The Christian bible on the other hand has different versions and interpretations. Take for instance we have KJV, NIV etc. My humble question is this, would it be wrong if we fall back to the Tanakh for guidance as Christians?

I've looked at as many as 10 to 20 interpretations trying better to understand a single verse and I've looked up the definitions of Greek and Hebrew words to try to get a better understanding of certain words.I rarely rely on one interpretation.I started with a KJV bible so I'm more familiar with its interpretation but I will sometimes prefer another easily understood verse from another Bible.

The Tanakh contains about 2/3 of the Old Testament ....I done see a problem using it for reference or guidance.

There is no direct guidance for Christian Tanaka as it primarily deals with gentiles and Jews ... but not Christians.

If you are suggesting that Christians learn Hebrew (not very easy) and then go back to the Tanakh (the Old Testament or OT) then that is not even necessary. The King James Bible is a very faithful English translation of the entire Tanakh, and the first five books of the Tanakh are in fact the Torah. So you are actually going by incomplete information. On the other hand the modern Bible versions use a corrupted form of the OT and should be ignored.

Except that what is considered "accurate" is actually the exact opposite (in the modern versions).

Why only 2/3rds? The Tanakh and the Protestant Old Testament are identical. The superficial difference is that the 24 books of the Tanakh were split up and are now equivalent to 39 books in the English translations. For example Samuel is just one book in the Tanakh but two books in the OT.

Wisdom books and the order are different from our Bibles. Also the Jews regularly include Maccabees (1&2) and there are other differences.

Especially in the naming of the books of the Bible. But the texts are the same.

Our modern translations (which most devout jews ignore all translations and stick to Hebrew) are derived from the same sources. No deviations in that at all.

If you want a "more Jewish" translation then you need to look for an ISR translation. ISR stands for Institute of Scripture Studies. It's a Messianic Jewish translation from Jews in South Africa.

Currently most phone bibles have this as an option. YouVersion has TS2009 currently available. You will see that Jesus's name and God's name are always written in original Hebrew. (Because they are God) .

The names are also of special note....they aren't transliterated translated Latinized versions of their names....they are the transliterated original Hebrew names.

So you can see how everyone has murdered the pronunciation of these names over the centuries and still do today. And if you wish to converse with anyone about what you know...continue to murder the names because no one likes a smart-alec and they flat out won't know who you are talking about.

Just saying....they made me read scripture in SS class last Sunday....I don't see that happening again anytime soon.

We need to go by what the Lord Jesus Christ saw in His Hebrew Tanakh, and what He taught about it.

So please note carefully that Maccabees is DEFINITELY NOT in the Hebrew Bible (and the order of books is totally irrelevant): And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself... And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in [1] the Law of Moses, and in [2] the Prophets, and in [3] the Psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:27,44)

So let's take each point in order from the words of Christ:
(a) "Moses" = Torah = the Pentateuch = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But in the Tanakh those titles would be Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bemidbar, and Devarim. Christ calls it (above) "the Law of Moses".

(b) "All the prophets" rather than "the Prophets" meaning the entire Tanakh. Every one of the writers was regarded as a prophet. Why? Prophecy is divine inspiration and revelation, so those are actually the words of God. Thus we also have "all the Scriptures" (above).

(c)"The Law of Moses" (TORAH) = 5 books
"The Prophets" (NEVI'IM) = 8 books
"The Psalms" (KETUVIM) = 11 books [the Psalms is the first book in this group]
TOTAL NUMBER = 24 books (No Apocrypha included) = 39 OT books in English. For example the twelve minor prophets (treated as separate books in the OT) are only one book in the Tanakh.

I read English and God made sure that He preserved it in our universal English language for over 400 years.
The KJV is correct.

This is truly Who everyone needs.
They can read about Him from Genesis to Revelation accurately translated in my native tongue.

The Jewish Publication Society (JPS) originally used the Old Testament of the King James Bible for their English translation of the Tanakh. Later they had their own scholars work on it, yet commended the KJB highly. So Christrians can rest assured that they have all they need in their bibles.

Although I wouldn't be trusting Jews any more than I'd be trusting Muslims for their take on which bible version Christians should use.

Hate to break the news to some of you....

But Jesus read and wrote Hebrew.
Then He regularly quoted the Septuagint....
ALL of the New Testament writers used the Septuagint translation as a reference exclusively....not the Hebrew scriptures. The allusions are too closely matched to be anything else.

So much so that Stephan was stoned (in part) for doing so.

And when we get to Heaven....what language do you think that we will speak? Will there be reading and writing in Heaven?

what about the New Testament?

Hebrew Bible is a gift, and should be read and loved by all believers. but it's a very long prologue to the main event.

From wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblia_Hebraica_Stuttgartensia

The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, abbreviated as BHS or rarely BH4, is an edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex, and supplemented by masoretic and text-critical notes. It is the fourth edition in the Biblia Hebraica series started by Rudolf Kittel and is published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (German Bible Society) in Stuttgart.


Now where this comes in importance is that this IS THE source most used for most modern translations....there is a more updated conglomeration and I can't recall the name.

But depending upon which modern translation used (post Oxford/Cambridge Translation for the Church of England) they will use this for translating the Old Testament into the worst possible receptor language invented by mankind: Modern English. The Hebrew language is also possibly the worst Donor Language possible as well as it is completely metaphoric in nature and without vowels. So confusion can reign Supreme when parsing grammar that doesn't exist in either languages.

So the critical text commentators claim...

They teach that Augustin's theory that the late 4th century texts were valid and accurate. They're willing to disregard the Hebrew Bible for 59 fragments of verses from three OT books.
I don't buy it.

Well...
If they actually had two Latin Bibles that actually matched each other word-for-word....then they might actually have a leg to stand on. But they don't...and so can't.

That is PURE BALONEY. Jesus -- of all people -- would have known that the Septuagint is a very corrupt Greek translation which includes the Apocrypha (all non-inspired books).