Biblical Hebrew Forum

[furuli AT online.no]

Dear Charles and Liz,

I have written a book (Danish and Norwegian) entitled "Science and 
Bible Translation - a study in "Christianizing" and "Mythologizing" 
of the Hebrew Text of the Bible" I argue along the same lines as you 
do, that a translator of the Hebrew text cannot translate the OT text 
in the light of the NT, i.e. presume that Isaiah and other prophets 
had a future Messiah or Jesus from Nasareth in mind. This would be to 
"Christianize" the OT.

However,  it is often forgotten that the "opposite" view, that much 
of the Biblical text is based on myth and redaction, and that a 
future Messiah and a future "golden age" was not in the minds of the 
prophets, are just as much based upon faith and speculation as the 
first mentioned beliefs. This would be to "Mythologize" the OT.  I 
have no problems with Cyrus being called Messiah or that Isaiah 
addressed the situation in connection with Ahaz, but I have the 
following question:

If we leave alone the NT, Cyrus and Ahaz, and carefully read the text 
of Isaiah, will you then deny that the writer of particular portions 
of the book had a distant future in mind and made predictions 
regarding this time? In other words, are you saying that the text of 
Isaiah only relates to a period  when the book was written or to a 
time before this period?

BTW, I argue in my book that scores of QATALs and WAYYIQTOLs in 
Isaiah by most modern Bible translations are translated wrongly, 
because of obsolete grammatical views.


Best regards

Rolf

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Liz wrote:

> Dear Harold,
> The only person ever called Messiah in the entire book
> of Isaiah is Cyrus the Great (Isaiah 45:1).
> You may read my article in HTR, "Cyrus the Messiah? The Historical
> Background to Isaiah 45:1" or in BR if you like.
> Liz Fried


Charles wrote:

It is doctrine in Christian circles to believe that the NT is authoritative
and that a passage from I Peter proves beyond doubt that Isaiah wrote with
Jesus of Nazareth in mind. It is standard in my circle as a Jew to take
Isaiah's own words seriously as reference to an eighth century crisis,
during which Isaiah was advising Ahaz about a Syro-Israelite threat. How his
words leap frog over 750 years and come to attain a first century CE context
that holds for all time is not a discussion I wish to have on this list.