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I guess we need to begin in the beginning.
Answer for yourself: What is the "Septuagint?"
From the dramatic find in the caves of Qumran, The Dead Sea Scrolls presented the world with the most precious and ancient "version" of the Bible that Jesus used....the Jewish Masoretic text. Up to the time of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the oldest known copies of the Jewish Masoretic text were copies no earlier than 900-1000 A.D. Unknown to most Christians is the fact that these "Jewish Scriptures" are considerably different in key "theological passages" from the earlier Greek translation of them dating from 200 B.C.E. which is today called the "Septuagint." Many of these differences are in areas of "Messianic prophecy." Because of this difference in texts, especially in places that are considered "messianic" and dealing with a "deliverer" it was "assumed" by Christendom over the last thousand years that the Jewish texts of 900-1000 A.D. had expunged, altered, or had removed by the Jews passages which were, in their minds, concerning Jesus as the Messiah. Because these two "bibles" were so different Christendom today has accepted the "oldest texts of the Septuagint" as more correct because in Biblical studies there is an unwritten rule: "oldest manuscripts are the best and most likely correct." Not possessing any earlier copies of the Jewish Bible it was again "assumed," because of the great differences between these Bibles in "Messianic contexts," that the Jews had "written Jesus out of their Scriptures." But that all changed with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The discoveries at Qumran revealed not only the Greek texts of the Bible called the Septuagint but revealed substantial earlier copies of the Jewish Scriptures over 1000 years earlier than had been known to have existed. What we find startling is that these "older" copies of the Jewish Masoretic text agree almost identically with those later copies of 900-1000 A.D. This has startling repercussions concerning the debate between the Jews and the Christians as to "whose Bible is correct and which has been 'theologically' altered."
A persons' religious belief system should be based off the texts of the Bible. The problem we have now is that in key passages throughout the Jewish Bible we have the Jewish Masoretic text preserved by the Jews over thousands of years which reads considerably different than the revered Septuagint of Christianity. A Christian must be fully aware that basically the Old Testaments in our Christian Bibles come from this Septuagint and the Greek translations and not the Jewish Masoretic Hebrew texts long revered by the Rabbis and the Jewish people. Thus the problem confronting Christendom is that of Jewish texts which read completely different in the Jewish Bible when compared with the same texts in the supposedly Greek translation of them and the Christian's Old Testament. As if that is not bad enough we have the problem that every quote in the New Testament comes from this Greek text and not the Jewish Masoretic Hebrew text. The implication is serious; if it can be shown that the Greek translation is purposefully in error in key theological passages then such "quotes" from it in the New Testament as applied to Jesus will lead to error and incorrect beliefs attached to the man from Galilee. That means that a Christian's religious belief system concerning Jesus could be and is in error in many places. The result of which is idolatry in many instances.
The problem becomes critical when studying Messianic Prophecy because simply these passages have been altered when translated from the Jewish Scriptures into the Greek. The question remains...why and by whom? We will get to that answer in other articles but like I said up till 1948 and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Christendom had assumed over the centuries that it was the Jews who had altered their texts in reaction to and in response to Jesus and his Messianic status as claimed by Christianity. Now such an assumption is in doubt; and quite the opposite, with the existence of the Jewish texts at Qumran that verify the veracity and accuracy of the Jewish Masoretic texts of 900-1000 A.D., which up until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, had been discounted. That can no longer be. It seems most likely now that is was the Greek texts that had been altered and not the Jewish texts. What this means for the Christian is that when these Jewish Scriptures were altered in 200 B.C.E. or earlier by the Essenes of Alexandria, Egypt, they were not altering them to make them refer to a Jesus which would not be born for another 250 years or so; rather, their concepts of astral Godmen redeemers were written into the Greek translation to replace the Jewish Messiah. Later with the coming of Jesus these solar and sun-worship corruptions in the Greek texts were applied to Jesus and today Christianity's concepts and beliefs about Jesus have more in common with sun-worship than with Judaism and it's Jewish human Messiah.
Answer for yourself: What does this mean to the typical Christian?
Simply this. Many of your beliefs that you have come to accept about Jesus from the Christian Greek texts as found in your Old Testaments and New Testaments are wrong since these texts are exposed in the light of today as being altered from the earlier existing Hebrew Masoretic texts. This means that many "religious beliefs" held by Christians concerning Jesus are not only wrong but have led millions into idolatry or worse and they are not aware since they have never known or seen the Jewish Masoretic texts or a Jewish Bible which read differently from their Christian Old Testament. Today the evidence has surfaced and the "rocks have cried out the truth" about who has the true Word of God.
In the articles that follow I will attempt to lay out for you pertinent information necessary to understand this serious problem that confronts Christianity today. One you have read and studied the information presented then you are better equipped to make an intelligent decision regarding this matter.
In your study you will need to procure a few items to verify what I have said is true. You will need to purchase a Jewish Bible; I recommend the Stone's Edition Tanakh or the JPS Tanakh (www.artscroll.com). The Stone's Edition Tanakh is my favorite however. A Septuagint can be purchased as well if you so desire but you will be able to use a typical KJV Old Testament if you wish because the Old Testament in the KJV Bible is faithful to the Greek translation.
"Isa 28:10 "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"
Each Messianic passage must be examined and compared with the Jewish Masoretic Hebrew text, the Greek text in the Septuagint, the corresponding translation in the Christian's Old Testament, and the corresponding reference or quote in the New Testament. Only in so doing will you be able to see if the Jewish Scriptures that Jesus read have been altered as they "came down to you" through Gentile Christendom. I strongly suggest you follow the articles of Bet Emet Ministries as an outline for your own study. Only when you see these "changes in the texts" for yourself will the magnitude of the problem become apparent. Only then can you be convinced that what I say is true and that as believers in Jesus and followers of Jesus that we have been deceived by the antisemitism of the early Gentile Church that has caused us to depart from "the faith once given to the Saints." There has been a very good reason why the Jewish people have not accepted the Christian's testimony concerning Jesus for these two thousand years. It is time for the Christian to come to the truth concerning the religious texts which undergird his religious beliefs system. Many things a Christian believes about Jesus is true; many are not. Let us learn the difference and make adjustments and repentance in our beliefs concerning Jesus when shown our errors.
Deut 4:2 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (KJV)
God is not pleased than men have changed and altered His Word. The same could be said for Jesus as well. It is time for the Christian to come to the truth concerning Jesus and the true teachings of the Jewish Bible concerning "the" Messiah. The implications of what I am trying to convey will affect the whole gamut of a Christian's religious beliefs system involving such things as issues of Jesus and the Godhead, Messianic expectations and prophecy, the incarnation, atonement, etc. This is a study that a "believer" in Jesus must undertake if his relationship and love for God is paramount in his life.
