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To: Claud
Let’s accept your premise that translations are not “canonical”. Even so, are translations made by Jews, such as the Septuagint, at all useful in uncovering the sense of the Hebrew? In other words, isn’t it a fragment of evidence that Jewish scholars picked X foreign word and not Y in translation?

Why not learn Hebrew and read the original? It's not that difficult. If it had been, I couldn't have done it. I couldn't even learn Greek! (Granted, Greek is harder.)

Anyway, there is a Midrash that Moses wrote the Torah in "seventy languages" (referring to the number of primary non-Jewish nations), and non-Jews may study the Torah in their own language. In fact, they may study a traditional rabbinic Biblical commentary that gives the peshat (plain sense).

But you must remember that the Torah and Na"KH weren't given to the world as a whole but to Israel. The appropriation of Israel's Holy Books by chr*stianity because they are now "universal" is a chr*stian distortion.

I am assuming the traditional account of the Septuagint’s authorship by Jewish scholars, which knowing you, is probably not a good assumption. But if you don’t like that particular example just address it in the theoretical. :)

One of the disasters mourned on the fast day of `Asarah BeTevet is the translation of the Jewish Scriptures into another language, opening the way for their appropriation and misuse by other religions. Yeah, this seems to somewhat contradict the "seventy languages" thing, but . . .

12 posted on 08/10/2009 6:02:10 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Re'eh, 'Anokhi noten lifneykhem hayom; berakhah uqelalah.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Oh, far from having any objection to reading it in the original, I encourage it. I'm just saying that old translations can often help settle points of interpretation. Regardless of whether the Septuagint was a disaster or not, it at least shows what Jews of the era thought was an appropriate translation in Greek. As you know, we adopt the same position with the NT and even ancient translations as the Vulgate.

Yeah, this seems to somewhat contradict the "seventy languages" thing, but . . .

Well, if there weren't a bit of contradiction, it wouldn't be the work of Jewish scholars! ;)

Could we say rather that the Torah was given to the world through Israel?

16 posted on 08/11/2009 5:48:19 AM PDT by Claud
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