Showing posts with label Masoretic text. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masoretic text. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The staff and salvation
Genesis
I was curious as to what Genesis 47:31 meant - "'Swear to me,' he [Jacob] said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff." Particularly the part about the staff interested me. What I found out was that out of 10 or so translations, the NIV was the only one that used 'top of his staff'. The rest talk about the head of the bed. However, the staff terminology comes from Hebrews 11:21 and the Greek version of the Old Testament, which makes more sense than the Hebrew version 'head of the bed'. In fact, as I found out from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the bed likely didn't have have a 'head' as it was just a mat, so top of the staff makes more sense. Clarke's commentary suggests that Jacob, in his old age, simply needed to lean on the staff for support, and he worshiped God because Joseph would be able to bring his bones back to his forefathers' resting place.
Matthew
In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
This verse reminds me that once we're saved, it's not the end. Jesus was always looking to speak to the sinners, to rescue them and bring them into new life. Once we've been rescued, we shouldn't sit on our laurels; we should go out and help Jesus extend God's kingdom on earth.
Monday, December 6, 2010
What version of the bible do we have?
Key verse
John 17:3 - Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Amos
In Amos, we see an example of how we have the Old Testament based on the Masoretic text (Hebrew version), whereas the first century church had the Old Testament from the Septuagint (Greek version). Amos 5:25-26 reads rather differently than Acts 7:42-43, but if you follow the footnoting in your bible, you'll see that in fact, if we read the Septuagint version of Amos 5, the wording will be much the same as that in Acts 7. Stephen, the fellow who was quoting from Amos, was not confused about what the Old Testament said. In fact, he knew it quite well, only in Greek!
John 17:3 - Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Amos
In Amos, we see an example of how we have the Old Testament based on the Masoretic text (Hebrew version), whereas the first century church had the Old Testament from the Septuagint (Greek version). Amos 5:25-26 reads rather differently than Acts 7:42-43, but if you follow the footnoting in your bible, you'll see that in fact, if we read the Septuagint version of Amos 5, the wording will be much the same as that in Acts 7. Stephen, the fellow who was quoting from Amos, was not confused about what the Old Testament said. In fact, he knew it quite well, only in Greek!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
a little history
Key verse
Jeremiah 1:8 - "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.
Ecclesiastes
In terms of human nature, the truth about the world, and basically all abstract ideas, I suppose there is nothing new since the beginning of time. However, I think we see things in a different and new way all the time, and for each person, life is new. Life is not meaningless either, unless we decide to not give it meaning. All we do here on earth has a lot of meaning, provided we do it with a view to eternity. So long as we are investing in others and growing in God, we can have a lot of meaning in life, even if what we are doing is mundane and seemingly pointless.
Jeremiah
There is more than one version of the book of Jeremiah. Our English translations are based on the Masoretic (Hebrew) text, but there is a different version in the Septuagint (ancient Greek) text. This difference is likely due to the turmoil of Jeremiah's time. Jeremiah prophesied about the impending doom of Jerusalem, and lived to see the city captured by foreigners, while he himself was one of the captives.
I have to admire Jeremiah's tenacity in bringing God's message to the people of Jerusalem. At this time, circa 626-580 BC, the people of Judah were intent on straying from God's commands, even though Jeremiah, and Josiah, the king at the beginning of Jeremiah's career, kept trying to bring them back to God.
*Here's a neat fact: the term 'Jew' is actually a short form for Judahite, or an inhabitant of Judah, and therefore only came into existence when Judah split from the rest of Israel. This term was then later applied to all "Israelites" when northern Israel was completely assimilated into foreign countries (approx. 720 BC) -all of this information on Jeremiah is compliments of the Archaeological Study Bible
Interesting comparison - God touch Jeremiah's mouth with his hand when he called him to be a prophet, and an angel touched Isaiah's lips with a hot coal when he received his calling. In both cases, the mouths were sanctified and cleansed, so as to be worthy of the words which they would later speak.
**More on today's reading later. As we are starting four new books today, I will give some thoughts on the New Testament ones tomorrow.
Jeremiah 1:8 - "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.
Ecclesiastes
In terms of human nature, the truth about the world, and basically all abstract ideas, I suppose there is nothing new since the beginning of time. However, I think we see things in a different and new way all the time, and for each person, life is new. Life is not meaningless either, unless we decide to not give it meaning. All we do here on earth has a lot of meaning, provided we do it with a view to eternity. So long as we are investing in others and growing in God, we can have a lot of meaning in life, even if what we are doing is mundane and seemingly pointless.
Jeremiah
There is more than one version of the book of Jeremiah. Our English translations are based on the Masoretic (Hebrew) text, but there is a different version in the Septuagint (ancient Greek) text. This difference is likely due to the turmoil of Jeremiah's time. Jeremiah prophesied about the impending doom of Jerusalem, and lived to see the city captured by foreigners, while he himself was one of the captives.
I have to admire Jeremiah's tenacity in bringing God's message to the people of Jerusalem. At this time, circa 626-580 BC, the people of Judah were intent on straying from God's commands, even though Jeremiah, and Josiah, the king at the beginning of Jeremiah's career, kept trying to bring them back to God.
*Here's a neat fact: the term 'Jew' is actually a short form for Judahite, or an inhabitant of Judah, and therefore only came into existence when Judah split from the rest of Israel. This term was then later applied to all "Israelites" when northern Israel was completely assimilated into foreign countries (approx. 720 BC) -all of this information on Jeremiah is compliments of the Archaeological Study Bible
Interesting comparison - God touch Jeremiah's mouth with his hand when he called him to be a prophet, and an angel touched Isaiah's lips with a hot coal when he received his calling. In both cases, the mouths were sanctified and cleansed, so as to be worthy of the words which they would later speak.
**More on today's reading later. As we are starting four new books today, I will give some thoughts on the New Testament ones tomorrow.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Humble yourself
This is it! What have I discovered on day one of reading the entire bible? A lot, so it would seem. It's going to be difficult to keep my thoughts to a manageable length. There's so much to be learned from God's word! It's helpful to have a study bible to work through that will give you some context as to what a particular passage is talking about, or even provide cross-references that can point you to other passages in the bible that talk about the same issue. I am using the Archaeological Study Bible (I am a history nerd), which uses the NIV (New International Version) translation. Even if your bible does not contain these handy tools, you can find them online in a number of places. My favourite bible website is bible.cc. This website has numerous translations - even ones in different languages - as well as commentaries, maps, articles, and superb cross-referencing.
Key verses:
Luke 20:38 - He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.
Luke 20:27-40
One of the first things I wondered about when reading this passage was why have this crazy law making this woman marry a bunch of different men?? I found out that the levirate law originated from the patriarchal period and was fairly common among a variety of cultures in that day. This law was so important because the need to procreate and continue the family line was necessary when a nation's population was so small. Israel was in such a situation in Genesis and Exodus because it was still a young nation. Thus, if a woman didn't produce offspring through one man before he died, then another man (usually the husband's brother) would take his place. Moreover, a childless widow was basically a write-off in the ancient days because no one was around to care for her.
Jesus' answer to the Sadducees required a bit of thinking. Here is my conclusion: "that age" in verse 35 seems to be referencing God's kingdom to come. When that time comes, we'll know what the marriage relationship is trying to portray and we won't need to take part in that relationship with one specific person. Rather, we'll all be in intimate relationship with each other. Each of our love relationships here on earth represent one facet of the love God feels for each one of us. Parent-child, husband-wife, brother-sister, they all mirror some part of the larger whole that God has planned for us.
In the face of the Sadducees' non-belief in life after death, Jesus stressed the importance and truth about eternal life through him.
Hebrews 1:1-9
This passage clearly asserted Christ's authority over the angels. Many Jews in the New Testament age and before then believed in the supremacy and importance of angels. The author needed to debunk this myth by illustrating, through the Old Testament scriptures, that Jesus was God's Son, and as such, was on God's level in terms of authority.
A note here on the use of OT scriptures:
Apparently, the most common Old Testament translation these days is based off the Masoretic text, but the New Testament writers were most familiar with the early Greek translation called the Septuagint, and therefore quoted passages from that version. Thus, when we see an OT passage quoted in the NT, and then look back and find it worded differently, this is because our OT is based on a different translation than the NT references. I was curious about this because Hebrews 1:7 says "He makes his angels winds and his servants flames of fire". The passage that this comes from is Psalm 104:4 which says "He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants". The emphasis is placed on opposing parts of the phrases.
Proverbs 18
I resonated with nearly every proverb in this chapter. I will make note of just one. Verse 17: "The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him." Keep me humble, people, and make your comments!
Isaiah 1-2
Isaiah, the prophet, gave his message to the people of Judah when it was about to be destroyed. Everyone was doomed because of their sin. Isaiah seems to focus on the people's sin and imminent destruction. However, he also brings a message of hope and restoration by focusing on the coming of the renewed Mt. Zion, God's holy hill.
Life application
From today's reading, I have learned some things that I can apply to my own life. The main lesson is, don't get too proud, because eventually you'll be brought down! God is ultimately the one who will be exalted so we should really just honour and glorify him now and get the most out of our relationship by doing so. We were made to worship God. We just fight that sometimes.
Key verses:
Luke 20:38 - He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.
Isaiah 2:22 - Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
Luke 20:27-40
One of the first things I wondered about when reading this passage was why have this crazy law making this woman marry a bunch of different men?? I found out that the levirate law originated from the patriarchal period and was fairly common among a variety of cultures in that day. This law was so important because the need to procreate and continue the family line was necessary when a nation's population was so small. Israel was in such a situation in Genesis and Exodus because it was still a young nation. Thus, if a woman didn't produce offspring through one man before he died, then another man (usually the husband's brother) would take his place. Moreover, a childless widow was basically a write-off in the ancient days because no one was around to care for her.
Jesus' answer to the Sadducees required a bit of thinking. Here is my conclusion: "that age" in verse 35 seems to be referencing God's kingdom to come. When that time comes, we'll know what the marriage relationship is trying to portray and we won't need to take part in that relationship with one specific person. Rather, we'll all be in intimate relationship with each other. Each of our love relationships here on earth represent one facet of the love God feels for each one of us. Parent-child, husband-wife, brother-sister, they all mirror some part of the larger whole that God has planned for us.
In the face of the Sadducees' non-belief in life after death, Jesus stressed the importance and truth about eternal life through him.
Hebrews 1:1-9
This passage clearly asserted Christ's authority over the angels. Many Jews in the New Testament age and before then believed in the supremacy and importance of angels. The author needed to debunk this myth by illustrating, through the Old Testament scriptures, that Jesus was God's Son, and as such, was on God's level in terms of authority.
A note here on the use of OT scriptures:
Apparently, the most common Old Testament translation these days is based off the Masoretic text, but the New Testament writers were most familiar with the early Greek translation called the Septuagint, and therefore quoted passages from that version. Thus, when we see an OT passage quoted in the NT, and then look back and find it worded differently, this is because our OT is based on a different translation than the NT references. I was curious about this because Hebrews 1:7 says "He makes his angels winds and his servants flames of fire". The passage that this comes from is Psalm 104:4 which says "He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants". The emphasis is placed on opposing parts of the phrases.
Proverbs 18
I resonated with nearly every proverb in this chapter. I will make note of just one. Verse 17: "The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him." Keep me humble, people, and make your comments!
Isaiah 1-2
Isaiah, the prophet, gave his message to the people of Judah when it was about to be destroyed. Everyone was doomed because of their sin. Isaiah seems to focus on the people's sin and imminent destruction. However, he also brings a message of hope and restoration by focusing on the coming of the renewed Mt. Zion, God's holy hill.
Life application
From today's reading, I have learned some things that I can apply to my own life. The main lesson is, don't get too proud, because eventually you'll be brought down! God is ultimately the one who will be exalted so we should really just honour and glorify him now and get the most out of our relationship by doing so. We were made to worship God. We just fight that sometimes.
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