For quite some time I have known about the translation difficulties involved in the very first part of the very first verse of the Hebrew Bible; however, until I recently revisited the Hebrew I had forgotten just how complicated things are. Here are three potential translations:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ...(NRSV)

When God began to create heaven and earth... (JPS, R. Alter)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (NASB; ESV)

Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Study

In case you missed it, I recently added a video lecture to the site featuring Robert Alter. He has written a considerable number of popular level books on reading the Bible as literature and is considered by many to be the premier scholar in this area. He is probably best know for his books the Art of Biblical Narrative and the Art of Biblical Poetry; however, his translations and commentaries have been growing in popularity. Read More...

Tags: Bible As Literature, Old Testament Study

In recent discussions and in looking at online forums, blogs, social networking sites, etc., I have encountered a lot of people talking about parallels between the Old Testament and other Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Some of these discussions are very helpful, for instance the blog post by G. Brooke Lester entitled Why Do They Have to Be All Wrong. However, in many areas, it seems that people have very little idea what they are actually talking about. This likely has to do with religious (or a-religious) sentiment.
Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Parallels, Old Testament Study

In this post and in a few future posts, I will be giving some advice for those who may wish to learn Biblical Hebrew through self study. One of the most important decisions you will need to make is which grammar to use when studying Biblical Hebrew. For me, there is no question currently about which grammar beginners should use. I recommend that students start with John Dobson's Learn Biblical Hebrew. Read More...

Tags: Learning Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew

In the previous post, I discussed how the manuscripts of Jeremiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls can aid us in taking a more moderate approach to the reliability of the Old Testament documents. And, in this post, I will discuss the fact that even information from the Great Isaiah Scroll, which is often used to "prove" the reliability of Old Testament documents, might also lead to a more moderate approach. It is often cited that the Great Isaiah Scroll (which you can get a very good look at on the Dorot Foundation site) is 95% the same as the Masoretic Text (MT) with this statistic being astounding since over 1,000 years separate the MT from the Great Isaiah Scroll. In addition, it is often pointed out that differences are primarily in spelling and in individual words. It is the second part of this assertion that I wish to deal with here, namely that differences in individual words can be extremely important and if individual words are not known for certain this should lead to moderation. Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Manuscripts, DeadSeaScrolls

I typically do not pay a great deal of attention to Christian apologetic literature because I realize that it routinely oversimplifies matters. However, I had recently finished an audio course on the Dead Sea Scrolls when I came across a video on the reliability of Old Testament documents. According to the video, the Great Isaiah Scroll that was found among the texts at Qumran demonstrates the reliability of Old Testament documents. In other words, the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the Masoretic Text (the text used for modern English translations of the Bible) is reliable in the sense that it is extremely close to the original words that were written by Isaiah or any other Biblical author for that matter.

It was at this point that I thought this could be a useful teaching opportunity. The fact of the matter is Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Manuscripts, DeadSeaScrolls