"Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood" (Jer.8:8, NKJV).

In what must be a bitter twist of irony for Hebrew primacists the situation is probably the complete reverse when it comes to the Tanakh or Old Testament - as I hope to show, we are often forced to turn to the Greek Septuagint (LXX) for accuracy of the texts. How could this possibly be? The reason is that the Synagogue of Satan (Rev.2:9; 3:9) has been busy altering Tanakh texts that not only clearly identify Yah'shua (Jesus) as the Messiah but also mutilating those that show that Yahweh does not endorse chauvanistic racial supremacy. Thus not only have many Jews been robbed of salvation but have been deceived into believing that they are some sort of master race.

What this means for English readers is, unfortunately, that nearly every single English translation - based as they are on the mutilated Masoretic text - are not completely reliable. This is, however, good news for talmidim (disciples) of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and bad news for the Talmudic Rabbis who since the days of the Master have lacked integrity, displayed blatant immmorality and sought to make their own and other peoples talmidim (disciples) of the devil:

"Woe to you, Torah-teachers (scribes) and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves" (Matt.23:15, NKJV).

"Before the days of print, Bibles were copied in handwriting by scribes. They were organized in a guild that in the centuries before Yah'shua (Jesus) became part of a well known political party: the Pharisees. Eventually, they became the Talmudic rabbis we see today. This method was not only cumbersome and expensive, but it also created room for errors; actually all modern Hebrew Bibles carry with them unfixed errors. Typographical errors which couldn't be validated with an older version were left as they were, testimony to the care of the scribes. However, this method also allowed creating intentional manipulations of the text for political reasons. The old copies would eventually deteriorate beyond recognition and the new ones would carry the desired changes to posterity. It could be almost a perfect system for the Pharisees, however, at certain point they committed an error and today we can see clear signs of their alterations.

"The Septuagint, also known as the LXX, is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated between the 3rd and 2nd century BC in Alexandria. Finished in 132 BC, it contains only books from the Old Testament, the New Testament was still in the future. Oddly, the event was recorded in the Talmud (Megilah):

'King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: 'Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher.' Elohim (God) put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.'

Later, during the First Century AD, the writing of the New Testament began...While writing it, citations from the Old Testament were taken from the Septuagint. In parallel, Pharisees began changing the Old Testament so that certain prophecies regarding Yah'shua (Jesus) won't hold. The result is that by comparing the citations in the New Testament to the surviving texts from the Old Testament, we can see the work of the eternal saboteurs." [1]

"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith Yahweh that doeth this" (Amos 9:11-12, KJV).

"After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after Yahweh, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith Yahweh, who doeth all these things. Known unto Elohim (God) are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:16-18, KJV).

"The two texts are very different. The one in Acts talks about the redemption of all people, regardless their ethnicity; all would be reached by Elohim (God). However, the text in Amos tells a very different story, claiming the tabernacle (i.e. the Jewish holiest place, and by association the Jewish people) would be risen and would possess - i.e. enslave - all Edom and other surviving people.

"The source of the discrepancy is clear. The apostles kept faithful to the Septuagint, which the Talmud rates as [an] 'exact translation.' Yet, later handwritten copies of the Hebrew Bible show a radically changed text that rejects Yah'shua (Jesus) and brings a racist, enslaving text which has nothing to do with Elohim (God). That means the scribes were caught here (and in many other places) red-handed." (Ibid.).

As one who has preached Hebrew Primacy for many years I am forced to the conclusion that in spite of the importance of going back to Hebraic source we must also recognise that the apostles were faithful to the Greek Septuagint (LXX). This does not mean that Greek is a better or more reliable language - that is not my point at all. Rather, it means that as far as the Tanakh (Old Testament) is concerned, the Septuagint is more reliable than the mutilated Hebrew Masoretic text. In consequence of this, we can no longer rest in knowing Hebrew and Aramaic alone - we also need to know koine Greek.

I'm grateful I bought a copy of the LXX back in 1977 in Oxford - I find myself comparing my English Old Testament translations now as a matter of habit. I dare not do otherwise. And because of it, I believe I have managed to avoid many of the Talmudic pitfalls and traps bequeathed to us in our English Old Testaments. And, yes, even the dear old King James version is a victim. This means that if we are going to be good scriptorians we need to avail ourselves of the best Hebrew and Greek scholarship...even when it comes to the Tanakh (Old Testament).

This will upset a lot of ultra-messianics - but better to be upset than sorry.

As we have seen, the Septuagint was translated under the supervision of Yahweh Himself, a record even the King James Version cannot boast, whose translators worked in consulting teams. And yet, despite the fact that the Talmud claims the Septuagint is a good translation, most Orthodox Jews reject it as 'pagan' and 'unreliable' simply because it is in Greek. 'Mityaven' and 'meshumad', which mean, 'Becomes a Greek' and 'Utterly Destroyed', are words used in Hebrew to describe converts to Christianity. Accordingly a Greek translation is not viewed highly among Jews. This hysterically racist and chauvanistic attitude toward Greek and Greeks not only infects the Jewish mind but also, alas, the minds of many biased and intolerant messianics too. Yet Yahweh has providentially given us this Greek translation of the Tanakh (Old Testament) so that the Emet (Truth) might be preserved! How ironic, and what a beautiful blow to pride.

"The Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible was consolidated in Tiberias in the 10th century and codified by Aaron Ben Asher. Its important characteristics are the diacritical marks (vocalization and other punctuation), and the cantillation marks for chanting. This text was authorized by Maimonides, who in the Mishneh Torah certified that 'the codex that we used in these works is known in Egypt ... and was edited by Ben Asher, who studied it carefully for many years and edited it many times.' However, it is unsure to which specific manuscript he referred to and then there is an embarrassing fact: he says 'edited it many times.' That means 'made unspecified changes.' The Masoretic text formed the basis of the most important printed version of the Bible, which was edited by Jacob ben Hayyim ben Isaac ibn Adonijah, and printed in Venice between 1516 and 1518. This version is the basis of most printed copies of the Bible up to the present day. During the 20th century, other editions of the Bible were printed, including the Biblia Hebraica editions and the Aron Dotan edition, both based on the St. Petersburg manuscript of the Bible, which is the oldest entire Bible ever found and is just a thousand years old. Despite minor differences in these editions, all are named 'Masoretic.'

"How loyal is the Masoretic text to the oldest known version of the Bible? There are two types of earlier versions of the Bible: ancient translations, and Hebrew versions that predate the Masoretic text. Three vital examples of translations are the above-mentioned Greek Septuagint translation, the Onkelos Aramaic translation and the Vulgate Latin Bible ... The most famous historic Hebrew text is known as the Dead Sea Scrolls; many would rejoice to find all the books of the Old Testament appear there, except the odd Book of Esther. And then, there is the Samaritan Torah." (Ibid.)

"But then you took up with the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Raiphan...and images of them you made for yourselves" (Amos 5:26, LXX).

"Rather, you took images that you made for worship to the tent of Moloch and to the star god Rephan" (Acts 7:43, KJV).

"And I will actually carry Sukkuth your king, and Kaiwan, your images, the star of your god, whom you made for yourselves" (Amos 5:26, Masoretic MS, KJV).

But I think in order to convince you absolutely of these things, it is important that we determine Yah'shua's (Jesus') own attitude to the LXX. Let's go to the Psalms of David:

"In that mighty day you will be the sovereign, and in the brightness of your holy ones you will shine. For, since the time that you came from the womb, I made you to be the morning star" (Ps.110:3, LXX).

"I Yah'shua (Jesus) have sent mine malak (angel) to testify unto you these things for the congregations (churches). I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star" (Rev.22:16, ASV)

"Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth" (Ps.110:3, Masoretic, NKJV).

Satan has sought to destroy the Scriptures from the beginning - for obvious reasons. One incident is recorded in the Tanakh (Old Testament) whereby prophecies that had been delivered a king by Jeremiah were intentionally destroyed...as if Yahweh's word can be 'disposed of' in such a way. What follows is an assurance that there is always a reliable copy of the Scriptures somewhere for Yahweh never permits His Word to be extinguished:

"So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but Yahweh hid them.

"Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying: 'Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, 'Thus says Yahweh: 'You have burned this scroll, saying, 'Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?' Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed'''.

"Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words" (Jer.36:21-32, NKJV).

Now I know now much we all want there to be one Bible translation with the uncorrupt emet (truth) in it. I have sought this for years and people keep on asking me to point them to one (see Bible Versions). Yahweh's word exists and whilst you can find most of it in extant translations - maybe 97%+ - you have to search hard for the remainder. Gathering up the remainder is part of the calling and responsibility of end-time teachers like myself. It is not an easy task given the effort the Enemy puts into his work of destruction. There are even multiple versions of the Septuagint! However, I promise that it is all out there! Not only that, but Yahweh is raising up prophets in our time to restore by direct revelation that which has sometimes been lost or is for now hidden from view. And the beauty of such revelation is that it is always corroborated by rediscovered, unmutilated texts.

So do not be intimidated by the 'proofs' of the atheists and non-Messianic Jews against the B'rit Chadashah Scriptures (New Testament) - it's actually very reliable, in spite of the controversies concerning the Textus Receptus and the Alexandrian versions. Yahweh's Word has NOT been lost - it just isn't all in one place...yet! And people are being saved in spite of the corruptions, to the glory of Yahweh.

Comments from Readers

[1] "If I may be able to comment, I would state the following: for the most part this essay communicates exceptionally well that which I myself have been equivocating for many years now. Although the writer does not cover all the bases, about 97% (since he uses that number himself) of what he stated, I would tend to agree with.. But many do not understand or have knowledge about is the fact that Justin Martyr the great apologist as early as the first century wrote extensively about the attack of the Judaizers and as the writer calls it, synagogue of Satan against the Old Testament in particular, the Septuagint by bastardizing and altering the text in various places to achieve their means to an end. I could elaborate much more on the matter, but I do not believe that is necessary. I will forward this article to others in order that they may profit from it.. Thank you for this excellent post" (NIA, USA, 15 May 2016)

Footnotes

[1] Ro'i Tov, Jewish Biblical Manipulations