Dear Chuck:
I am not being "confrontational." I am merely showing you that you asked me why I don't spend time going into the Aramaic scriptures. First of all, I don't read Aramaic. I will make a few comments in your email............
Dear Ray,
Why so confrontational? I am not inferring that you are wrong, stupid, sinning or for not being faithful to God’s Word. In fact no one who took the time to read dozens of your narratives and responses to emails, as I have done the past few days could ever come to any of those conclusions. I like you am simply seeking the Truth in the scriptures and this all started out as an inquiry to whether or not you have ever engaged in reading any of the Biblical versions (NT) that emanate from the Aramaic language.
COMMENT: No, that is not quite what you said to me in your original emal. You did not "inquire whether or not I was ever engaged in reading these Aramaic versions," but rather here is your original statement: "My thought is “If the original writings were in Hebrew/Aramaic OT, which you seem to address, and most of the NT was in Aramaic and not Greek as the Western church claims, why do you not use this “original” rendition of the Bible?” I have not seen you refer to this in any of your writings I have read over the past few days."
You asked: "WHY DO YOU NOT USE THIS ORIGINAL RENDITION OF THE BIBLE?" Can you see the difference in this and your new presentation? My question to you was how do we know that these "renditions" to be the original copies of the New Testament signatures? To which you suggested that I read a lot of material, to which I suggested you just tell me, as you apparently already read all of this material and must have some kind of proof.
As to the proof you ask for, there does not exist ANY ORIGINAL manuscripts written in the first century AD when it is commonly agreed to that the NT letters and Gospels were written, that have survived. So in fact no one knows for sure what language they were ORIGINALLY written in, and that goes for the Greek versions.
COMMENT: Well, there you have it. You have not proof and there is no proof. So how was my reply to you "confrontational?"
What we have is some very old Greek versions that can be documented to date back to some time during the 4th Century and we have some of the Eastern Texts that date back to the 5th Century, which definitely predates the KJV of the Bible. All that this proves is that both versions were in circulation in the East and the West within 300 years after the ORIGINALS from which all of these “copies and translations” come from. As you know the church split during this time frame into the Western Church (which removed anything that was Jewish from the church) and the Eastern Church which kept much of the original church system. Thus it would make sense that they each stuck to their own “versions” of the Bible, the East in Aramaic and the West in Greek/Latin.
COMMENT: That may be true, but it sill proves NOTHING as to which might have been the original signature language.
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What is fact is that the Shemitic family of languages is very very old and eventually evolved into four parts 1.) The southern Group, Arabic, Ethiopic, etc. 2. The Aramaic Group- Syirac, Chaldee, etc. 3. The Hebrew group – the Phoenician, Hebrew, etc. 4. The Assyrian and the Babylonian. These are ANCIENT languages and the common languages for the middle east area of the world for the Media-Persian Empire, Assyrian and Babylonian empires, long before the Greek and Roman empires controlled the area. Abraham from the area of UR spoke Hebrew. All of these languages evolved from the area south of Babylonia. The Aramaic language goes back in its history to the most pri mitive times and is the farthest developed of the Shemitic family of languages. Aramaic was THE language of commerce and business for hundreds of years prior to the time of Jesus, thus spoken by many cultures and peoples all over the middle east. Eventually it was supplanted in the middle east by the Greek, but not during the time of Jesus (30AD), and certainly was not spoken among the peoples of Israel during this time.
COMMENT: Greek was most assuredly spoken in Palestine during the first century A.D. Remember that that Alexander conquered Egypt centuries before Christ, and Greek was spoken from Egypt to India!
Could some of Paul’s letters which were written to Greek/gentile peoples have originally been written in Greek? Certainly, but he certainly would not have written to the Hebrews in Greek, and the Gospels were written down by Jews (except for Luke) who wrote down the eye witness accounts (except for John the Apostle) of the local Jewish witnesses to our Lord’s work and words.
In reading another scholarly work entitled “the languages of the Bible” written in 1877, it was commonly understood that much of our Lord’s mannerisms and dialogues (such as the Sermon of the Mount and the Parables) were very “semitic/aramaic” in both structure and delivery, that it is widely accepted that our Lord most certainly spoke to the common people of the area in their native tongue, which was Aramaic. So it makes sense to me that when these words were spoken, that they were recorded/written down in the same language in which they were spoken
As the author of this work states “The office of Aramaic language was still further to mediate between the old world and the new – the Hebrew and the Greek; for the Greek language was the chosen one to set forth the divine revelation in its completion.” I have no doubt it was God’s purpose that the Holy Scriptures were to be transcribed into the Greek language in order for it to be carried world wide and the message of the Gospel taken to the West/Gentile world in their own language.
No I have no PROOF, neither do you that the NT texts were ORIGINALLY written in Greek, but history and common sense would lead me to believe that the ORIGINALS were written in the same tongue in which the words were spoken and heard, to be transcribed later into a language that will carry the message to the whole world.
COMMENT: Don't you reckon we had better find these original Aramaic Scriptures that were not translated from Greek, pretty soon, of this world will have passed away and the Aramaic "language that will carry the message to the whole world," will never happen.
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Now back to my original intent in writing to you, which was mainly to commend you and thank you for your years of scholarly work that has greatly impressed me and enlightened me, and secondarily to inquire if you had ever compared some of the scriptures in the NT that come from the Aramaic to English (from Eastern Bibles, granted some were translated from Greek into Syriac, but not all)
COMMENT: "Now back to MY original intent in answering you email...." You state, "granted some were translated from Greek into Syriac, but NOT ALL." Okay, WHICH ONES? Which one were NOT translated from Greek into Syriac?
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to compare some of the idioms and words to further clarify meanings as you did with a Greek word study. I think I know the answer, and this does not mean that I am inferring any of the negative things you seem to have conjured up in your previous response.
Peace brother, keep up the good work, and I look forward to studying more of your work. Seeing some of the hateful responses that you have had in the past I see why you are somewhat sensitive and combative.
COMMENT: I am sorry if I hurt your feelings, but your are way, way out of line to suggest that my responses are "HATEFUL responses."
Sincerely,
Ray
PS I am constantly getting emails like yours that suck me in and take up my time, and end up being totally useless. I get a holier-than-thou sacred name cult emailing me almost weekly demanding why I still call YEHOWSHUWA, Jesus? I guess I just have found that original "Aramaic/Syriac" bible yet.
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But I am not deriding you nor am I challenging you, just an honest discussion on a matter of importance to me (seeking the truth) and the reason I believed you would be of some assistance to me on the matter.
FYI, my mantra in all of my teachings is a saying I picked up from a Jewish Scholar who wrote a most challenging book entitled “Decoding Isaiah”, Only a Right Belief, will lead you to the TRUTH. Very profound as you have found out for yourself.
Chuck