{"id":21715,"date":"2015-04-10T17:52:59","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T17:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/bishops-aramaic-and-the-lxx\/"},"modified":"2015-04-10T17:52:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T17:52:59","slug":"bishops-aramaic-and-the-lxx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/bishops-aramaic-and-the-lxx\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishops, Aramaic, and the LXX"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> This letter is part of a conversation that started with Henry Harbuck\u2019s article, \u201cWhat Bible Did Jesus Use?<\/a>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings from\u00a0AEGA,<\/p>\n

I have read the notes you sent me as well as those from Kevin Williams<\/a>. Though Mr. Williams made some excellent points, much of which I agree with, the majority of scholars who aren\u2019t Messianic Jews don\u2019t entirely agree. Many of them say that more than 250 quotations in the New Testament are from the LXX (septuaginta<\/em>). But in what language Jesus quoted some of these Scriptures is another story.<\/p>\n

As you said, Mr. Williams has a very conversational style, which I like. Notwithstanding, he is very balanced in his thinking and examines theological topics from many perspectives. He\u2019s a man after my own heart.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Torah exhibit at Big Synagogue Museum, Wlodawa, Poland. Image: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Concerning a similar matter, I am puzzled by a statement made by Craig S. Keener in his Bible Background Commentary<\/em> (NT \u2013 p. 102) at Matthew 21:15-17. He says: \u201cBecause the high priests spoke Greek as their first language, Jesus quotes to them from the Greek translation of Psalm 8:2, which reads \u2018praise,\u2019 rather than the Hebrew, which has \u2018strength\u2019 (slightly less appropriate).\u201d If Keener is correct, I must be wrong to have assumed for many years that the high priests spoke Aramaic. Concerning synagogue worship, I know that in the Jewish synagogues after the Jews returned from Babylonian Captivity, the presider or director read the scrolls (Scriptures) in Hebrew and the Targum paraphrased what was said in Aramaic. So I don\u2019t know what to make of what Dr. Keener has said. Would you ask Mr. Williams to comment on this for me?<\/p>\n

Lastly, I am confused by a statement made by Mr. Williams in his fifth paragraph<\/a>: \u201cIn the synagogues, the Hebrew would have been the preferred text. As I\u2019ve written elsewhere, there were offices such as the Overseer (Bishop) who made certain the text was read verbatim and the Targumim (translator), whose job it was to repeat the text in the local language for the sake of the non-Hebrew speaking Jewish population as well as the God-fearing gentiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Question:\u00a0Is Mr. Williams saying that the Overseer (Bishop) presided in the synagogue? Though it seems he is saying this, based on the sentence construction, surely he is saying otherwise. The title Overseer (Bishop) is an office of the New Testament Church, but I\u2019ve never heard it used in relation to the synagogue.<\/p>\n

Good-bye for now. Keep up the good work that you\u2019re doing for the sake of the\u00a0Kingdom\u00a0of\u00a0God.<\/p>\n

Sincerely, HIS servant,<\/p>\n

Bro. Harbuck<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Editor\u2019s Note: This letter is part of a conversation that started with Henry Harbuck\u2019s article, \u201cWhat Bible Did Jesus Use?\u201d   Greetings from\u00a0AEGA, I have read the notes you sent me as well as those from Kevin Williams. Though Mr. Williams made some excellent points, much of which I agree with, the majority of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2963,"featured_media":21716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3302],"tags":[5959,2863,5960],"ppma_author":[4567],"class_list":["post-21715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-studies","category-winter-2015","tag-aramaic","tag-bishops","tag-lxx","author-henryaharbuck"],"authors":[{"term_id":4567,"user_id":2963,"is_guest":0,"slug":"henryaharbuck","display_name":"Henry Harbuck","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/HenryHarbuck_1-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/HenryHarbuck_1-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2963"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21715"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=21715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}