Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Barry H." <nebarry AT verizon.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fred burlingame" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2010 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the hellenization of isaiah


> To sum up: the scholarly community apparently experiences no problem
> accepting the conclusion of hebrew language autographs for jerusalem and
> juda events preceding and succeeding new testament events. But when it 
> comes
> to events occurring between old testament and mishna, the scholarly
> community suddenly changes tack, and asserts the greek language as the
> source of the new testament autographs.
>
> I am but a humble student of hebrew. Something however, doesn't appear
> consistent about such reasoning. The new testament, be it true or false, 
> was
> apparently written in, by, for, and about the hebrew inhabitants of
> jerusalem and juda; who in turn spoke and wrote hebrew before and after 
> such
> new testament events.
>
> The numerosity of greek new testament manuscripts dated some 300 to 1,000
> years after the events in question, would appear to imply a conclusion of
> greek autograph, no more than the huge number of english language bibles
> today imply a conclusion of english language autograph for the new
> testament.
>
> Perhaps the time has arrived for hebrew scholars to attempt a hebrew
> re-translation of the greek manuscripts? Certainly, many other hebrew
> manuscripts available such as evan bohen.

You are making several false assumptions in your question, and I'm not sure 
if the question is based in a lack of knowledge concerning the relevant 
issues or due to some religious committment (and you are therefore raising 
the question in order to debate and defend a position).  If the former, any 
halfway decent historical introduction to the NT will answer your questions. 
The NT was not written only by and for the "hebrew [sic et passim] 
inhabitants of jerusalem and judea..." It was written for a missionary 
church that had spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire, and whose 
members nearly universally spoke Greek as a language of communication.  This 
was true even of the church at Rome.  You see, the "scholarly community" 
knows this, and this is why they "suddenly change tack..."

N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
V-P of Academic Affairs, TNARS
bhofstetter AT tnars.net
http://www.tnars.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry