Some Examples of Textual Change in the LXX From the Hebrew in Samuel

I have already written about the Septuagint, the ancient mistranslation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek, being corrupted and moved away from the original Hebrew meaning, although I have not gotten into much detail as of yet.^[1][2][3] It appears that there are many that seek to run to the LXX, as it is also known, in order to secure readings when the Hebrew is considered imperfect. A sad aspect is that the Hebrew is not always recognized as the perfect text that it is. Instead, the people who reject the Hebrew end up rushing towards imperfect texts.

Questioning the Claimed Septuagint-NT Connection

Many of the so-called scholars in the field of Textual Criticism think that it is a done deal to argue that the New Testament authors utilized the Septuagint, the supposed translation of the Old Testament into Greek, in their quotations of the Old Testament. Also known as the LXX, the Septuagint is held up by various scholars as being something which the apostles revered and held up as the Word of God. Usually, this follows by encouraging people not to disparage the LXX, which then generally requires people to bash the Hebrew of the Old Testament, known today as the Masoretic Text, or MT, as being imperfect.

One problem is, there is no definitive evidence for this assertion that the apostles quoted and used the LXX. In fact, most of the supposed evidence is actually either misinterpretation of facts or blatant assumptions. It’s way passed the time that people reconsider the quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament. From where did the apostles get these quotes of the Old Testament? Why do some of these quotes appear to match the Septuagint?

An Older Questioning of Vaticanus

Vaticanus is held up by many of today’s so-called textual scholars as being an example of an ancient text, truer to the original than many of our current texts. The first problem comes with the attitude that we have lost the readings of the originals, which is impossible.^[1] Another problem is that Vaticanus is a complete mess, with renderings that could not have been in the originals. Of interest, it was even identified to contain an error by a scribe of some sort who had access to it.

An Encounter with Subjective Morality

Earlier this week, I found a blog in which a person asserted that he believed that literal reading of the Bible could not be defended.^[1] As a result he challenged anyone to take him up on the offer to defend a portion of the Bible that gave rules pertaining to slavery. I was about to respond, and even typed up a short response, but decided against it. After all, I didn’t think he was personally worth my time.

Later on, he saw a comment I made pertaining to the Bible on someone else’s blog, and added his own comment, expressly inviting me to respond to that same challenge I had read earlier. Taking advantage of this invitation, I wrote a response, simple and to the point, declaring slavery, in the context that the Bible sanctioned it, to be correct. In response, he further questioned me about other things from the Bible, to which I replied in the same vein. He was so upset over my answers, that he wrote an entire blog post analyzing my thought process, declaring me to be “some sort of moral retard”^[2], although he claims he meant it “in a good natured way.”^[3]

It seems someone got a little angry.

AspectJ and Aspect Oriented Programming

I spent some time looking over AspectJ recently, and I’m somewhat impressed. Granted, I wasn’t actually doing anything serious with it, but what I did was enough to give me a taste of the language. Furthermore, I’m actually thinking about moving a specific project over to it.

Transcript of an Impromptu Debate: The Sabbath and the Epistle to the Hebrews

I was reminded today of an impromptu online debate that I had with an individual on the subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the sabbath. For whatever reasons, I had forgotten how harsh and direct the conversation was. What I mainly remembered was that I had said his viewpoint was “carnal.” I thought saying that was harsh enough. I had completely forgotten that the debating ended up being so much more intense with such strong language. (And no, I don’t mean loads of profanity or anything of that nature.) Thankfully, I still have the logs, which I believe are worth publishing.

Textual Criticism and the Originals

If you ever listen to various, supposed scholars who do not believe in Bible preservation talk about the subject, you’ll probably hear many of them try to maintain that they believe in the perfection of the original manuscripts only, but not in any of the copies of today. Some of them don’t bother to stop and think about how stupid this point of view really is. I’d like to deal with this subject with some level of detail from the perspective of the theological implications of such a view.

First of all, we know that the originals were given properly.^[1] Secondly, we know that God demanded perfection in his prophets.^[2] Thirdly, we know that God told the children of Israel not to question the presence of his Word.^[3] Fourthly, we know that God’s Word stands forever.^[4] Fifthly, we know that Christ said that not one jot or tittle would pass from the Law until all was fulfilled.^[5] Sixthly, we know that the Word of God is not bound.^[6]

We know then that we must have valid copies somewhere in the world. To say otherwise is rather obtuse. Nevertheless, this lack of belief in a preserved Word of God is promoted as the modern scholarly opinion of the times.

Government and Appropriate Disobedience

I ended up getting into something resembling a debate with a Bible hater who goes by the ironic online name of Truelogic. His ridiculous argument was that the Bible teaches that men must be completely subservient to government at all times, that they can never oppose what their leaders do, and that they must always be kind and never point out a fault. Obviously this is not what the Bible says, but this is what he preaches as a non-Christian regarding the Bible. While I don’t think he needs much of a counter, I figured it is worth writing something regarding the appropriate Christian response to government, although this is somewhat basic knowledge.

Modern Scholars and Textual Criticism

There are many things to say regarding the field of Textual Criticism, much of it negative. After all, it would appear that most of the work in this field does nothing really to help people obtain understanding about the Word of God, but, instead, does the exact opposite; many people walk away from hearing various supposed scholars talk about the Bible, only to have heard the speaker tell them that God’s Word is not complete in the world.

As an example, I was watching, on youtube, what someone said was a part of one of his seminary lectures on the Bible. With a title of “Errors in the King James Version,” I figured on this being an attack on the KJV. What it turned out to be was a slam, not as much on the King James Bible, but on the Hebrew of the Old Testament. This guy was trying to prove that the Hebrew that we have is corrupt.

Christian Publishers

I have been looking for Christian publishers this year, since an eventual goal of mine is to get a number of books published.  I’m currently trying to get one on the Mosaic Law published.  My search has led me to believe that the realm of real Christian publishers appears very small and almost non-existent.