Recent content by shmuel

Rabinic or Mishnaic Hebrew as well as medieval Hebrew are distinct variants of the language. Modern Israeli Hebrew is based on Biblical Hebrew but with some simplification in grammar. Modern Hebrew does not use the consecutive verb forms that are typical of Biblical narratives. Modern Hebrew has...

As far as I know the oldest material that can be said to contain a Biblical text are the Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls that contain the Birkat Kohanim. These scrolls date from the 7th century BCE. If the Torah is dated to the period 1200-1400 BCE depending on whether you favor an early date or a...

Issues regarding the text of the Tanakh are especially great in the book of Jeremiah. Please see: http://www.talkreason.org/articles/jer.pdf Quoting in part:

Did you read what I wrote? I said materials written prior to the 9th century BCE were editted for spelling. The fact is that Hebrew did not use matres lectionis prior to the 9th century BCE, yet there is no portion of the Tanakh that is without these letters. The Torah, most of the former...

Actually any written material from the time of Moses, the conquest, the judges, and the united monarchy has been editted at least for spelling. The oldest complete manuscript of the Tanakh is the Lenigrad codex, which dates from around 1010 CE. We have complete copies of the NT that are...

Then how do you explain II Kiings 22:8-20? If the septuaguint is deception then why do the NT writers quote it? Take a look at Acts 15:16-18. It is a quote from Amos 9:11-12. Compare the quote in Acts with the Masoretic text.

I've posted material from Justin before. History is good for correcting ideas about the past. Americans seem to be poor about knowing history even the history of the US. Here is a link I have used many times before: http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/fathers.htm From the introduction to Justin's...

That sounds reasonable. At this time the community consisted of Abraham, his family, and mainly his servants. I am saying that the word "nefesh" is used to denote a number of concepts. The word "nefesh" in this verse simply denotes a person. Elsewhere it it used to denote other concepts, some...

No! A translation using more modern English would use the word "person" rather than "soul" for "nefesh" in this case. And so the NASB does.

The Hebrew word translated as "soul" is "nefesh", nun-pe-shin, which denotes in this instance the essential self, the total person. Nefesh need not refer to that which is non-material. The Tanakh uses it on occasion to refer to a dead person, Num 6:6.

The Scriptures mention the lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread plus the blood on the lintel and door posts. The rest of the ceremony was added later, probably much later. From an internet article: In the first half of the twentieth century, Lewy, Baneth, Krauss, and Goldschmidt drew...

I try to use both the traditional transliteration of names that came into English by way of Greek and Latin as well as those that come directly from Hebrew to English. I want people to understand that I do not find fault with traditional transliterations. I have used the name Jesus on this...

The following is a point about which I have been curious for a number of years, but it just never seemed worth the effort to post a question about it. But recently I've seen the name Y'shua used on this forum. So before I forget about it, I am finally going to post a question on the subject. I...

Gen 1:29,30 and Gen 9:3 indicate that man was a vegetarian before the flood; therefore, at that time clean and unclean could not refer to their use as food. After the flood, in Gen 9:3 every creeping thing is given as food.

The form in the Tanakh is 'ehyeh (alef-heh-yod-he). In Biblical Hebrew it is an imperfect, which denoted incomplete action without regard to time. (Actually scholars continue to engage in much debate about the verbal system of Biblical Hebrew). In modern Hebrew (which has adopted tenses under...