[Textus Receptus Greek-Word Text at http://www.olivetree.com/bible/Frames/GreekNewTestament.htm]
This author had previously read about a discrepancy involving two
supposedly different Old-Testament Hebrew texts of the Bible:
I thus typed in both of them (one at a time) into major internet search
engines to investigate.
One KJV-only diehard wrote on the subject,
failing to declare that there was once a need for the creation of the
at-that-time new King James Version itself, and that "the KJV" has
undergone many revision and edition changes. He spoke of "THE Masoretic Text"
without defining if THAT meant the ben Chayyim or the ben Asher text
(purportedly discrepant against each other). He condemned Rudolf Kittel and his
editor Kahle for putting footnotes in the text of their Stuttgart-edition Hebrew Bible based on a Leningrad Manuscript - with the presumption that Kittel wanted to confuse readers by insinuating that they randomly replace the main text with footnote alterations or substitutions. He went on to state that the American Bible Society offers an 1866-incepted Letteris (ben Chayyim) Hebrew Old-Testament text for sale, but this author has never seen any such advertisement from ABS at any time ever. Mr. KJV-only also failed to state WHY the ben Asher Hebrew Test was THE (recognized) Received Text in authority until the 1500s, but somehow lost that authenticity until Kittel's 1937 edition of ben Asher's Text - which Text the RSV and NASV are thankfully based upon. Seventh, KJV-only gave credence to a certain "Daniel Bomberg" (whoever HE was) and who (according to the preface of the NKJV Bible) concocted and printed a so-called "first rabbinic bible" in 1516 (whatever THAT
was)......followed by [oh oh!]: a SECOND edition (the FIRST was NOT
GOOD ENOUGH)? One internet source stated that Jacob ben Chayyim was
apparently "some jewish refugee" who the source alleged to have become a
Christian (sounds suspicious)! So WHO WAS ben Chayyim, and what were his motives for trashing the traditional ben Asher Text?
With all this in mind, I synthesized two internet pieces from one Jewish author giving further info about ben Asher:
Aaron ben Moses ben Asher lived in Tiberius during the first half of the 10th century. His family had been involved in creating and maintaining the MASORAH for either five or six generations. Ben Asher rapidly gained fame as the most authoritative of the Tiberian masoretes, and even after his death, his name continued to hold respect. His vocalization of the Bible is still - for all intents and purposes - THE Text Jews continue to
use.
Moreover, Aaron ben Moses ben Asher was the first to take Hebrew
grammar seriously. His SEFER DIKDUKEI HA-TE'AMIM (Grammar of the
Vocalizations) was an original collection of grammatical rules and masoretic
information. Grammatical principles were not at that time considered worthy of
independent study.
Ben Asher had a tremendous influence on the world of
Biblical grammar and scholarship. From documents found in the CAIRO
GENIZA, it appears that this most famous masorete (and possibly his
family for generations) were also - incidently - KARAITES.
As early as the eighth century, Talmudic rabbis encountered a major
challenge. A group of Jews led by Anan ben David declared that they did not
accept the authority of the rabbis to interpret Torah. This group, originally
called the Ananites, developed their own understanding of Jewish law
based only on the written Torah. The Ananites were stricter and more rigid than
the rabbis in their understanding of Torah law. They simply did not accept the
rabbis as legitimate authorities of Jewish law. They denied the authority of the Mishnah and the Gemarra.
It is difficult to determine Ananite doctrines because the Ananites relied on the Torah Text.
Anan's famous adage was: "Search thoroughly the Torah and don't rely on my
opinions."
In the ninth century, the major group of Ananites combined
with other anti-rabbinic groups and became known as the Karaites
(followers of the Kra, or Torah Text) in their Masoretic tradition of
including VOWELS in the Torah Text. They believed that the Torah had
originally been written with vowels, and they viewed such Text as
the ONLY legitimate one.
It should not be
surprising to discover that many masoretes, so involved in the Masorah, held
Karaite beliefs. After all, it was the Karaites who placed such absolute
reliance on the Torah Text. It would be natural that they would devote their
lives to studying every aspect of it. The surprising element was that being a
Karaite did not disqualify Aaron ben Moses ben Asher in the eyes of Rabbinic
Jews.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. That One was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made (John 1:1-3).
If the Ten Commandments etched in stone did not exist before God carved them
out for Moses on the mountain, certainly the KJV did not exist before then
either. After Noah and his kin descended down off the ark on a world devoid of
any lifeforms and whatever hieroglyphics previously around (if
any, whether Phoenician, Egyptian, Chinese, whatever), God laid down the
Hebrew ALPHABET for Moses and the nations on Mount Sinai (amidst all
the then-existing Babel languages and their written symbols occurring
after The Flood).
The spoken (or oral) Bible started out
rather simply with God verbally, audibly or however (without printed mass media) telling humanity to reproduce and eat green stuff (Genesis chapter 1), and telling Adam in particular to not eat of "the forbidden tree." Apparently, that divine tidbit of as-yet-nonwritten Scripture was conveyed (by whoever) to the inferior gender, who soon became the first nude preacheress on record to
discourse with a snake. Her sermonette to Satan had a few omissions and
additions pertaining to the intended Original Text (e.g. the word "freely" was
left out, along with "midst of the garden," and a brand-new addition of hers
"neither shall you touch it" was added. Thus, that first weaker-sex woman
(ancestral grandmother of us all) competed against the Devil on her own, without Adam, in power-hungry feminist-"equality" arrogance and female naiivity
(precursor of maryolatrous catholic who presume a female and God alone can
create kiddies without any guy around).....and so corrupted the earliest and
simplest Scripture. Her usually-clothed-thereafter progenie have continued to
screw things up ever since, as more and more sacred sayings were mangled by
myriads mouthing mindless blatterings masquerading as gospel
truth.
Again, the LORD Himself intervened to (thankfully) a male
human, again. On the two tablets of stone in rock, He Himself (with any one of
His fingers, including His third) wrote down The Text, instructing Rabbi
Moses in details enabling him to compose the Pentateuch (Torah) Old Testament
according to creationist info supernaturally supplied.
God also talked to others verbally, like from between two cherubim above the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant after talking out of a burning bush which didn't really burn (i.e. DID burn but was constantly rejuvenated for more to burn (sort of like the future bodies of those who will forever continue to burn to the ages of the ages in the hellish Lake of Fire). He also spoke audibly out of a cloud, using the mouth of Jesus, out of a blinding light on some road to Damascus, and to a Peter, Paul, and John (original 12 apostles) and others in dreams and visions. Outside of what is recorded in the Bible, any dreams or visions having occurred or allegedly occurred, occurring or allegedly occurring, to occur or allegedly occur, can be questioned as to authenticity of whether or not being GOD'S actual revelation on a more or less take it or leave it basis.
Which brings us to what is TRULY canonical bona fide Bible, and what
is FAKE [pseudo]-"biblical" utterances. Jesus Himself read from a copy of the
book of Isaiah handed to Him in a temple. Whatever Old-Testament books and
writings He and his New-Testament gospel and epistle authors referred to can
obviously be considered canonical.
Such historically happened, causing
eyewitnesses to relate perfectly to next-generation faithful and honest copyists who non-carelessly read, recorded, and related ALL PERTINENT words written in common public alpha-to-omega Greek letters EVERYONE in their right mind could understand -- inerrant to the last iota jot and tittle. Dedicated printing of such on papyrus was inspired and infallible.
The Divine Copyright Enforcer had, has, and will have His ways to
insure that His Word is clearly and obviously
canonical......
First, He is the Jealous Executioner. To name a
few examples of the disfavored in the Old Testament who bit the dust: the
assaultive perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah, Er and Onan (Judah's son's of Genesis 38), pollutive harassing belligerant canaanites who Joshua and the Jews
exterminated under orders from God, Haman the diabolical
antisemite (Book of Esther), 100 state-trooper sheriff-deputy type soldiers
ganging up on Elijah (II Kings 1), 186,000 Assyrian commandos (Isaiah 37:36),
Hananiah the false prophet (Jeremiah 28), lying Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5),
child-murderer saint-beheader Roman governor Herod (Acts 12), at least sixteen
9112001 megavandal genocidal Saudi-terrorist kamakazes who admirably murdered
themselves with suicide, etc.
Second, the LORD preserved (and preserves!) the lives of his elect,
providentially provides for and fills them with boundless phenomenal faith, joy, and confidence. Remember The Bomb which annihilated Shinto-cultic Jap terrorists and their supporters who had brutally demolished Pearl Harbor. Remember ethereally-uplifting Billy-Graham-crusade-choir singing.
Getting back to the Dark Ages, saints within and outside the Catholic Church faithfully copied The ONE Text which they had received from previous saints and preserved by a Power not of this Earth.
Autograph-accurateText in papyrus, headquartered in Antioch, was
diversely scattered and read, becoming more ancient and worn as time went on,
but CAREFULLY-copied duplicates were PAINSTAKINGLY produced, and such
already-canonical Text was disseminiated in greater and greater numbers
worldwide.
Inevitably, counterfeits (like weeds) began to appear
from heretics such as Marcion and others who concocted corrupt
Alexandrian and Sinaiticus type Greek-lettered replacements - blasphemously
miscalled "manuscripts"- ultimately synthesized by the
occultic-spiritualist demonic duo Hort and Westcott in England in the late
1800s, peddled and promoted thereafter by Metzger, Aland, and Nestle.
The ORIGINAL Text survived in entirety, however,
true to God's promise and power of indestructibility and eternal
longevity. Erasmus (respected by Martin Luther) tried to sort out the genuine
from the garbage, and at that time did his best with consecutive improving
editions. Beza and Stephanus continued the refinement, and Scrivener of England
finally put it all together in 1894 into what is now know as the Scrivener
Trinitarian Greek Text of the New Testament for these momentous last days
before Christ's visible bodily return to Earth at Armageddon.
The Revised Standard Version (RSV) has, for its Isaiah 7:14, the following:
"a young woman shall conceive and bear a son" whereas the King
James Version (KJV) has the phrase "...virgin shall conceive..."
instead of young woman for the exact same passage.
Well,
WHICH IS it: "young woman," or "virgin?" All young-women virgins are
young women, but obviously not all young women are young-women virgins. If you
the reader don't get it, I'll elaborate: A young woman who has lain with a man
sexually is not a virgin, but she is still a young woman. Allow NONE to be
accursed FOOLS and blatter that "it doesn't matter" or "whatever" pertaining to
precise word choice. It certainly DOES matter!
Neither the words "young woman" nor "virgin" could legitimately
be REPLACED with the SUBSTITUTE word damsel, maid, maiden, nor
girl - being that such are not necessarily (and usually NOT) of
childbearing age, NOR necessarily virgin. Besides, both
boys and men can ALSO be virgins - though male ones, of course.
Also, the word maid is INADEQUATE as a
substitute word, because "maid" of nondeniable necessity carries an additional
connotation of SERVITUDE as a SLAVE or EMPLOYEE.
The TRUE Greek
Text of Matthew 1:23 contains the Greek word parthenos for virgin
(pronounced PARTH-en-ahss) speaking of that blessed virgin Mariam
(literal Greek spelling) who would conceive her FIRST-born (NOT
"only"-born) son (per Matthew 1:24) of the Holy SPIRIT [not occultish
"ghost" and not by Planned Parentlessness/Planned Promiscuity] with eroskenative "knowledge" (Gr. gin(o)sk(o), pronounced jean-OH-skoh) of and with a male human (see Luke 1:34) and -- to repeat as a choice-for-lifer -- bear a SON (Gr. uion, pronounced HWEE-ahn, per Luke 1:31) not abortive-tissue "fetus."
Many have related that Matthew 1:23 passage to the Old-Testament reference of Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah 7:14 does NOT contain Strong's English-lettered Hebrew-text Word# 1330 for VIRGIN, but DOES contain Strong's Word# 5959 for YOUNG WOMAN. In Genesis 24:16 virgin Rebekkah [with whom no male had yet lain] is identified with Strong's Word# 1330 (which the RSV has correctly translated as virgin), while Abraham's servant (in Genesis 24:43) requests of the Lord a Strong's Word# 5959 "young woman" (which the RSV has correctly translated as young woman).
Strong's Word# 1330 for VIRGIN is found in Job 31:1 describing who Job refused to look
lustfully at. The KJV has MIS-translated Strong's Word# 1330 as "maid," while
the RSV got it right using the word virgin.
Moreover, Strong's Word# 5959 (young woman) used in Isaiah 7:14 the
RSV properly translated in their main text as "young woman" but which the KJV
got WRONG using "virgin" in theirs. Strong's Word# 5959 (young woman) is
ALSO found in Exodus 2:8 with reference to the YOUNG-WOMAN (NOT
"virgin") sister of Moses who called her mother as a nurse for Moses at the
request of Pharoah's daughter. The KJV there used a somewhat-adequate word
"maid" while the RSV states the somewhat-adequate word "girl."
Concerned
theologians (including yours truly) wonder that since Isaiah 7:14 only refers to a young woman and in no way to the
virgin according to Strong's word numbering, WHAT is the
SOURCE reference of the Matthew 1:23 inerrant prophecy which obviously was
indeed spoken through some prophet? And while we consider that, WHAT is
"the book of Jashar" [something not in my Sacred-66 canonical Bible!] referred
to in Joshua 10:13 and II Samuel 1:18? How about some "Jannes and Jambres"
[never heard of them before!] who according to II Timothy 3:8 opposed Moses? And nowhere in the entire Bible is there any record of anyone being "sawn in two" (Hebrews 11:37).
I realize that all this may be too much for
martyr-stories-fabricating, purgatory/apocrapha-and-Paul-beheaded-presuming,
perpetual-virgin-ascended, mary-mother-of-god-worshipping, cultic catholics to
tolerate....but that's the way it is.
