Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Steve Miller" <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net>]

Kenneth & Ted,
I don't think the MT scribes would drop a line from the Bible on purpose.
However when there were 2 variants already existing, I think, rather weakly,
that the MT committee had some bias against the variant that agreed with the
New Testament. This is only my opinion regarding *why* certain variants got
accepted over others in the MT. To me this *why* is not important, and is
probably not provable. I would be very glad for it to be proven false. What
is important is what the correct Text is. 

An example is Isa 7:14. (This has nothing to do with "almah".) There is a
very significant difference between Matthew's quote and the MT text. MT
says, "you (2fs) shall call his name", which doesn't make sense because
there is no woman present, but is taken to mean that the child's mother
would name him Immanuel. There are many reasons a mother could name a child
Immanuel. It could be to express her feeling that God was with her people at
the time of the birth.

Matt 1:23 says "they shall call his name", 3rd person indef. subject, a
phrase common in the OT (Deu 25:10; Isa 9:6; Jer 23:6; Gen 32:28). When some
indefinite, large # of people, call his name Immanuel, that means that name
is what the child actually is. He is "God with us". It can be, but not
necessarily be, his actual name.

DSS matches Matt 1:23. However, the MT scribes did not add a tav to their
text to discredit the NT, because the MT exactly matches LXX even with the
2fs subject. The 2 variants existed before the birth of Christ.

Other examples are Ps 22:16 ("like a lion" vs "they pierced) and Isa 53:9
(deaths vs death). 

There are also verses where the MT supports the NT, but the DSS does not. I
would not know about these because, if the MT and NT agree, I usually have
no reason to investigate further. One such example is the verse that Ted
started with - Deut 32:43. While the DSS and LXX agree with Hebrews 1:6 in
the NT, the DSS does not contain the phrase quoted by Rom 15:10, while MT
and LXX do.


Sincerely,
-Steve Miller
www.voiceInWilderness.info
And I saw: and behold, a black horse, and he that sat upon it having a
balance in his hand.  And I heard as a voice in the midst of the four living
creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of
barley for a day's wages: and do not injure the oil and the wine. (Rev
6:5b-6)
The chariot in which are the black horses goes forth into the land of the
north. (Zech 6:6a) 

> -----Original Message-----
> From kenneth greifer Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 4:32 PM
> 
> Yigal,
> 
> If someone says that Jewish scholars dropped a line from the Torah to keep
> people from believing in their religion, they are also saying that all of
> the Jewish people of that time went along with these scholars. This is an
> accusation that all Jewish people in the past were willing to change the
> Torah, no matter how sacred they considered G-d's words to be, in order to
> deceive other people about the truth about G-d.
> 
> I think it is not just a simple comment about a few scholars.
> 
> Kenneth Greifer