Origin of the Bible
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The Masoretic Text, or Tanakh (600 AD to 1000 AD), is another translation of the Hebrew text. It defines the books of the Jewish canon, and also the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation.
This monumental work was begun around the 6th century AD and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine (in Tiberias) over a few generation of Jews known as the Masoretes, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament. Encyclopædia Britannica says “to this end they gathered manuscripts and whatever oral traditions were available to them” (Comment: this means they are subjected to translation bias).
The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, known as the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century (900 AD to 1000 AD).
Sometimes, the Masoretic just doesn’t make sense, as when it says that Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, (I Samuel 13:1).
Disadvantage: (1) When the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament was made, the Hebrew text used was, of course, not marked with the vowel points which the Masoretes later placed in their text. And that the great majority of the variations between the Septuagint and the Masoretic text arise from the fact that the Masoretes’ translators supplied different vowels to the consonantal text from those of the Septuagint. Over time, in numerous instances, the Masoretes translators had before them the same text, but mistook it, misunderstood it, or interpreted it differently.
(2) Since the original Hebrew Text written on papyrus (subject to molds attacks) were subjected to “wear” and “tear”, later Hebrew Text weren’t as good as earlier version; as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. In European conditions, papyrus seems to have lasted only a matter of decades; a 200-year-old papyrus was considered extraordinary.
(3) The commissioning of the translation had a doctrinal prejudice against the growth and influence of Christianity. Hence they were influenced by anti-Christian bias.
One example is found in Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: The virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. The Masoretes say a young woman, which is bland and making the sign of Christ’s messiahship meaningless. The Septuagint says a virgin. The Targum says a virgin; the Vulgate says a virgin.
Also “Look, the young woman is with child [at that present time, not a future event!] and about to give birth to a son.
Deuteronomy 32:43 “and let all the angels of God worship him” (the deity of Christ) in the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scroll but not in Masoretic Text, Peshitta nor Vulgate, Quoted in Hebrew 1:6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Isaiah 61:1 “and recovery of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18) in the Septuagint but not in the Targum, Masoretic, Peshitta nor Vulgate.
Psalms 69:21 Septuagint They gave [me] also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst. KJV They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Masoretic moves it to verse 22: Yea, they put poison into my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Matt 27:34 they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink).
Psalms 22:16 Septuagint For many dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked doers has beset me round: they pierced my hands and my feet. This whole phase was deleted from the Masoretic Text. (They edited verse 17 in part until there is no verb “like lion [they maul] my hands and feet” Peshitta Ps 22:16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.
Zechariah 12:10 KJV took from the Peshitta: (and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.) Septuagint (they have mocked me) may not as good, but close, but the Masoretic Hard Edition changes the whole meaning “about those who are slain, wailing over them . . .”
“And in His name Gentiles will trust.” Matthew 12:21 fulfilled in Septuagint Isaiah 42:4 “and in his name shall the Gentiles trust.” JKV: And the isles shall wait for his law.
Psalm 145: In MT, one verse is missing from the acrostic psalm: although each verse begins with a word starting with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, there is none for the letter nun, which should have appeared between the mem sentence in v. 13 and the samekh sentence in v. 14. It is natural to think it was dropped from the text by scribal error, even if the mechanism for the omission is not obvious. At this place where MT lacks the nun verse, other witnesses have.
Matt 2:15 Out of Egypt have I called my son. Hosea 11:1 states, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Is this verse a Messianic prophecy?
Matt 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. Nowhere found, maybe Oral, and not written?
I Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: — couldn’t be found; could it be Oral?
Research found that only 68 percent of the New Testament are similar with the Masoretic Text (which is below the 93 percent quoted from the Septuagint). The Hebrew Bible—or Old Testament—that we have today differs from the Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible penned in the first millennium B.C.E. When transmitting any sort of a document from generation to generation, small alterations—some intentional, others not—are made. Even the most careful scribe makes errors, which are perpetuated and often compounded by future scribes. Thus, it should not surprise us that the Hebrew Bible, which has a transmission history of several millennia, contains textual difficulties, corruptions and even mistakes. Simply by choosing one Hebrew text over another, they were able to subvert the Incarnation, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, His healing of the blind, His crucifixion, and His salvation of the Gentiles.
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 