Y Not I

I have wanted to write about this for awhile. Each week, First Fruits of Zion sends out an eDrash, a Midrash on the weekly Torah portion. Back in March the eDrash was titled, “The Church at Sinai” (You can sign up for the eDrash on the FFOZ site. You can receive them as an email or view them online).

The subject at hand is how words from the original Hebrew or Greek were rendered in English. The Scripture used for this is Exodus 35:1

Then Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said to them, �These are the words which the LORD has commanded you to do:

The first word used is the Hebrew word qahal is translated as “gathered” in other translations as “assembled”, also translated in the Scriptures as “the assembly”. In Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures the noun form of the word is typically translated as ekklesia. However in the Brit Hadashah (New Testament) the word ekklesia is usually translated as “church”. So, the title of the eDrash shows how by using the usual NT translation of ekklesia in the OT, you would have the Church at Sinai.

What this (and another post I found that covers the same subject) highlights is the bias used when translating the Bible. It is important to look at these things, to check out what the original words were in both the Greek and Hebrew and see how they are used throughout Scripture to come up with a better idea as to the true meaning of the Scripture.

In this case the translators looked to create a difference between “the Church” and “the assembly”. The word congregation in Exodus 35:1 is the Hebrew word eidah, which is usually translated into the Greek as sunagogay (this is where the word synagogue comes from). Sunagogay is found 57 times in the New Covenant Scriptures and is translated as synagogue 56 times and once as assembly. It refers to the place of Shabbat worship for Jews 55 times and once, in Revelation it is for the Synagogue of Satan. The only time it is not rendered as synagogue in English is in James 2:2

�For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,

Here James was writing about believers, and to translate the word sunagogay as synagogue would indicate that believers worshiped in synagogues. Even though the book of James was written to Jewish believers, translators seem to want to create a separation between Jewish places of worship and those of the new believers in Messiah, both Jew and Gentile.

I think understanding the roots of your faith you can better see the continuity of all Scripture and see a never-changing G-d who always made a way for all to come to Him, and who always justified us by faith. I think for the translators of Scripture and for many Christians today, they like to create a concept of separation, that the things of the Old Testament are Jewish things, when in reality they are G-d things, and even into the New Covenant G-d things have not changed. I think by seeing teachings like these and studying the original words for yourself, you are better equipped to understand the nature and plan of G-d.

How to study the Scriptures and find the Greek and Hebrew words used? I have found an excellent tool called eSword. The program is a bit quirky, but nonetheless, an outstanding tool in the study of Scripture. It includes many free translations of Scripture, others that can be purchased (including the Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern), and of the free translations, the tool that is helpful for finding the original Greek and Hebrew words is the King James Version with Strong’s numbers. This has a number next to each word and if you move the mouse over the word you see the Greek or Hebrew word that the English word is based on and a quick definition of the word.

If you right click on the number and choose “Quick Search on (the number)” you can search for when that word was used in that book or the entire Bible or just the Tanakh or Brit Hadashah.

Very powerful stuff. I used this when I was studying the word “fulfilled” in Matthew 5:17, and it certainly reinforced to me that the word does not mean that the Torah is done away with, as is so often inferred by many Christian commentators.

So keep in the Word and know the Word even down the language it was written in. Pray on these things.