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 Text 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.
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 catholics 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 (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/apocrypha-and-Paul-beheaded-presuming,
perpetual-virgin-ascended,
mary-mother-of-god-worshipping, cultic
catholics to tolerate....but that's the way it
is.