With languages changing over the years because of the mixture of cultures and the advancement of technology, it is necessary to go step by step backwards to find out how the words have altered. Because words do change over the years it does not mean we have to discard the ones that we think are obsolete, as a thesaurus will prove them to be an invaluable treasury. Even though the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are large enough as they are, they become even vaster when we examine the word changes. If you are not a Greek or Hebrew scholar of grammar - fear not, the main thing is to grasp the point of the passages of the Scriptures, and to know the significance of the signs of the Messiah that are always a proof of something that relates to what has gone before, in what is known as the 'Old'? Testament. The word 1st is not to be taken literarily as nothing has been made 1st in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms at all, because every teaching and action done in the New Testament is in relation to what has happened in the 1st. Unless the 1st (teaching) has been established the New (teaching) cannot come into existence, because whereas the Law comes through Moses - grace and Truth comes through the Messiah. It is right to point out that it is the way the events have changed in Scripture that are important - for example; a spiritual Egypt and a spiritual Sodom, (Revelation 11:8), are the same conditions as in the 1st way, but done on a different system of rules and levels of intellect in which time and space have no jurisdiction, but a time which has been preordained and set with a beginning and an end.
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He, (Christ), said to them: "Because of this every writer in the Scriptures, having been a student in regard to the kingdom of the heavens, is like to a man, a Head - teacher, who brings out of his treasure, (thesaurus), things new and Old." |
The New Testament is an extension of that which is regarded as the Old Testament. Every time we see the Messiah, His students, or anyone else in the New Testament relating to the Scriptures, we know that they are referring to the 1st Testament or more commonly known, the Law of Moses, along with the Prophets and the Psalms. The Law is not just a small set of rules and regulations, but a treasure house containing the mysteries of life hidden from the natural eyes of the mind. Following then is the importance of one of the signs that points directly to a proof of the Messiahs identity, by making what was accomplished over a vast amount of time into a moment of shear genius at the then present time. It should be understood by all that what happened all those years ago still applies today in a spiritual way, and accomplished by God and His Laws through the teachings of Moses and then accomplished through the teachings of the Messiah, whereby the law came through Moses, but the answers to the hidden meanings to those laws came by way of the Messiah through grace and truth. First though, a brief outline of how the Scriptures have come down to this present time. The Jewish Scriptures, the 1st Testament, were originally written, (BC) almost entirely in Hebrew, with a few short passages in Aramaic. When the Persian Empire controlled the eastern Mediterranean, Aramaic became the dialect of the area, and for scriptural reasons it became necessary for the Jewish communities of the region to have the Torah, or Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), translated into the common language from Traditional Hebrew resulting in the Targums, from the Aramaic meaning ‘translator.’ By the mid-3rd century BC Greek was the main language, and the Jewish elders of the 12 tribes of Israel began the task of translating the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language. The 1st Testament translated by the 70 Elders of Moses is called the Septuagint, meaning 70. The Hebrew Scriptures were the only Scriptures the early Christians knew, and as Christianity spread out through the Greek-speaking world, Christians used the Septuagint alongside the Hebrew. But the need for additional translations arose as Christianity spread to Syria and to Latin-speaking countries. Scriptures translated into Syriac and Latin appeared in the A.D.100's. About A.D. 383, Jerome began a revision of the Latin Scriptures. As his sources for the 1st Testament, Jerome used Hebrew and Greek texts and Latin translations. For the New Testament, he used Greek texts and Latin translation and he completed the project in A.D. 405. Jerome’s translation became the basis of the version known as the Vulgate, from the Latin word meaning popular. For centuries, the Vulgate was the only version of the Scriptures available. Hebrew scholars at Talmudic schools in Palestine and Babylonia about the 6th century AD began trying to retrieve and codify the Hebrew Scriptures, restoring them authoritatively and in the Hebrew language. Over centuries they laboured to complete the traditional, or, Masoretic text. The Hebrew has three divisions: the Torah (Law), the Nevi`im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings). The discovery of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls makes the handing down over the centuries of the Scriptures somewhat of a miracle. Little has changed to the Scriptures even though they have had to be copied numerous times over the years.
The first complete English translation of the Scriptures appeared in the
1380's,
John Wycliffe, an English philosopher and theologian, and his followers, made the translation
copying by hand. The new learning in the 15th and 16th centuries AD,
the Renaissance, revived the study of ancient Hebrew and Greek and led
to new translations, among them an important one by the Dutchman Erasmus,
who in 1516 published an edition of the New Testament containing the
Greek text. Meanwhile, in Germany, Martin Luther produced the first
complete translation from the original Greek and Hebrew into a modern
European language. His German translation of the New Testament was published
in 1522; and that of the complete Scriptures in 1534. About the same
time,
William Tyndale,
an Englishman, translated the Scriptures into English. Tyndale based
some of his translation on Luther's German translation. Publication
of Tyndale's New Testament began in Cologne, Germany, in 1525. Portions
of the 1st Testament appeared in 1530 and 1531. Miles Coverdale prepared
the first complete English Scriptures to be printed in Germany in 1535,
and he used much of Tyndale's translations. In 1604, King James I of
England authorized a committee of about 50 scholars to prepare a revision
of earlier English translations of the Scriptures. The new version appeared
in 1611 and became known as the Authorized, or King James Version, and
the translation was one of the great treasures of the English language.
When we go back to the original languages, in which the Scriptures
were written, it is a must for the person who seeks the genuine truth
to search them diligently. The Scriptures are indeed holy - holy meaning
that the Scriptures are perfect and true, and written by men under the
influence of the Holy Spirit (1Peter 1:12 - 2Peter 1:20 – 2 Peter 3:2),
hence, all Scripture is spiritually discerned by the students of the
Messiah of Israel - Israel
meaning that which Is real – the real thing. Israel
was waiting for the Messiah to set them free from all the burdens of
the Law that came from God - The Genius.' through Moses by the Holy
Spirit. However, it is a fair bet to assume that the one person in the
whole of history who could set one free from the Laws of The God - is
God Himself - which He did through a human being - His own Son who was
set apart in the wildernesses of the ancients to learn of his Fathers
desires. The suffering servant, written down in the Scriptures, in particular,
the Psalms, came to learn through all the weaknesses of mankind and
therefore take on the sufferings of man to provide for him a way out
in which one is able to escape from the penalties incurred by the Law.
The Messiah did this by teaching his students the mysteries of the Kingdom
of God. The students of the Messiah are given the keys to crack the
codes by which the Scriptures are written. After a life of ‘hell on
earth’ the Messiah finished off his severely afflicted life by being
murdered at the hands of sinners. But all this is written down mysteriously
in Holy Scripture in which the Spirit of Truth guides all to the hidden
meanings of the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms. The Messiah,
as He foretold through the Scriptures, was raised after 3 nights and
3 days in accordance with the evidence of Jonah and the 1st 3 Days of
Creation. English is the perfect language to use for translating the
ancient Hebrew and Greek languages - it is a melting pot of many languages
and there are numerous Greek words within it. The difficulty with the
languages isfound in the syntax – the construction of the sentence.
If we take a fifteen word sentence in English it is easy to see it in
a straight line, however, the same sentence in ancient Greek is all
jumbled up so the student usually has to use the index fingers of both
hands to follow the corresponding nouns and verbs in each language.
When learning translation of the Scriptures it is even more difficult
because, not only is the Hebrew jumbled up like the Greek, the Hebrew
is written in the opposite direction.
Keep in mind that a thesaurus on the nouns and verbs will give you a much better understanding of the Scriptures. The syntax of the ancient Hebrew and Greek Scriptures seems complicated to the beginner we have only two hands - so to try and work the Hebrew, Greek and English together is too time consuming. What happened in the past is that one used either the Hebrew or the Greek Scriptures - and left it at that. The problem is that the Hebrew is the crème de la crème of Scripture, but the Greek supplies the commentary. The differences in the Greek supply us with new information that is vital to translate the Greek New Testament. What we ourselves did many years ago was to colorize the nouns and verbs using underline at times when the longer sentences came in. You can try this yourself but there are no rules – do whatever suits you – but do build up a thesaurus and you will see a huge difference to the meaning of Scripture. Do not go out of your way and learn the modern languages because you will be wasting valuable time – familiarise yourself with the initial letters and guess on the pronunciation of the words. Without the 3 Scriptures – Moses, the Prophets and Psalms, the New Teaching - the New Covenant and New Way, would be ineffectual. Put it this way, the essence of the writers of the New Testament – induced in the Holy Spirit – is in relation to the then Scriptures of their time, being Moses, all the Prophets and the Psalms – the 3 must become 1, and can only be 1 by the direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. The following is found in 2Peter:
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First knowing this that not any prophecy of the Scriptures comes of one’s own interpretation, for not by the desire of man did ever prophecy come, but the Holy Spirit speaks - through holy men - carried by The Genius.' |
Anyone
who has spent as much time in the British Library as I have will have
come across the manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. There are many
manuscripts in other libraries around the world, but in total there
are around 5000 made up of some 120,000 fragments, and 5000 is a very
significant number in relation to fragments, for instance, the bread
of the feeding of the 5000, being mystical knowledge. Whatever the differences
are in the fragmented Greek New Testament it is very important to point
out that the New Testament writers were writing largely from the 1st
Testament. For example, the writers of the New Testament were writing
to people who were brought up on the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, not
only in what is written, but they were also eyewitnesses of the actual
Hebrew events recorded in the 1st Testament, so it was unnecessary to
write down many of the abridgements that would have made the New Testament
as large as the 1st. So then, when reading the New Testament, it is
assumed you will have a good knowledge of the 1st - because without
the 1st the New is seriously lacking in sense. It is important to discern
whether the writers of the New were writing about the law as an abridgement
of the 613 commandments - shortened to 10, or that the writers were
referring to the entire 1st Testament. If the writers were writing about
the entire 1st Testament there is no way that they insinuated that the
1st had been abolished, because that would be the abolishment of the
Messiah Himself. After all, Moses and the Prophets is the only autobiography
we have that has been handed down over the centuries. The Messiah opened
His students’ minds by unveiling himself through the hidden meanings
of the Scriptures - the entire 1st Testament.
It
is important to understand that the dimensions of the Ark of Noah and
the dimensions of the Tent of Witness in the desert are mystical pathways
leading to the body of the Messiah (Hebrews 10:20). Even so, at the
same time as the Tent being the body of one person, it also suggests
the breaking down to 50 men, each of the boards representing one man
with 2 hands and 2 feet (tenons and pedestals) and the Hebrew suggests
twinning. At first there appears to be only 48 boards, but as the 2
corner boards westward are doubled, we have 48 or 50 - and for a reason
- so we have 50 men corresponding to Pentecost. Remember also, that
the entire Tent came from the First fruits of gifted people who were
gifted in spiritual wisdom and knowledge.
The Ark and The Tent had
to be constructed according to how the patterns were shown to the Prophets
who were highly drawn upwards towards the Genius’ intelligence.
It is also important to point out that The Genius
is not restricted to attributes of mere man, but has billions of eyes
and billions of minds - He can see everywhere, from every possible angle,
and all at once. He sees inside out, back to front and up-side down.
He never sleeps because He never tires - He rests on the 7th day according
to how far His students are in their Divine Walk with Him - once one
rests He starts on another - He knows his students by name - and His
students know Him by faith. He is their Banker and whatever His students
save is very safe indeen. He is their attorney - the Day will come when
a defence has to be heard and answered. He is a friend to His students
as well as their Teacher - who needs anyone else!
