WHAT IS THE MASORETIC TEXT AND IS IT IN THE CHRISTIAN'S BIBLE?

YES AND NO! This needs explanation.

The term “Masoretic Text” is the name for the Hebrew text handed down from the Jews since the Babylonian captivity. The word “Masoretic” comes from “masor,” a Hebrew word meaning “traditional.” It means to hand down from person to person. The Masoretes handed down this text from generation to generation, guarded it and kept it well. There were families of Hebrew scholars in Babylon, in Palestine, and in Tiberius. According to most students of these matters, these Masoretes safeguarded the consonantal text of the Jewish Scriptures.

"The Masoretes flourished from about 500 to 1000 A.D. They were supposed to have standardized the Hebrew O.T. in about 600-700 A.D. by putting in the vowel pointings to aid in the pronunciation of the consonantal text. Their text is called the Masoretic Text or M.T. if you want to abbreviate it. Many assume that these Jewish Scriptures, as preserved by these Masoretes, are the "same" Jewish Scriptures contained in their Christian Bibles today. Nothing could be further from the truth!

DOES THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE CONTAIN THE JEWISH MASORETIC TEXT.....OR HAS IT BEEN ALTERED?

It would be a wonderful thing if in the Christian Bible we had a faithful replication of the Jewish Palestinian Masoretic text but we do not. Therefore the need for ministries like Bet Emet to bring this sad fact to your attention in hopes that your recognition of such a problem will lead to your own investigation into the matter to not only confirm what we have said, but also lead you in repentance of many false religious beliefs you hold as a traditional "Christian."

In looking over the introductory notes of several of the Bibles I posses I was struck by the statements by several Bible committees guarantying that within their “translations” we have the Jewish Scriptures. One hardly ever approaches one's Christian Bible thinking it could be wrong and thus we, by default, are led astray.

If you open the beginnings of your Christian Bibles you often find in the preface to the Old Testament a commentary detailing how your Christian Old Testament was put together. Granted this is just a collection of summary statements but you can get the drift. Let me give you an example.

The Oxford Study Edition of The New English Bible with Apocrypha states on page xix: “the earliest known Hebrew manuscripts containing any parts of the Old Testament are among the Scrolls (commonly called the Dead Sea Scrolls) found in the caves of Qumran near the north-western end of the Dead Sea; they may be dated in the last two centuries B.C., though some may be a little earlier and others somewhat later.”

So far so good. But watch what they say later:

“The text which they present is to a large extent identical with that in our Hebrew Bibles.”

THAT STATEMENT IS SIMPLY JUST NOT TRUE AND I CAN PROVE IT TO YOU IF YOU WILL LISTEN!

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU

Most of you would read such a comment “large extent identical with that in our Hebrew Bibles” and be reassured that your Christian Old Testament is a faithful representation of the Old Testament in the Jewish Hebrew Bible.

Answer for yourself: What about those portions that do not fall within the above “To a large extent”? Do these portions make a major theological difference? Are these differences the reason why the Jews do not accept the Christian's Old Testament and much that is taught about Jesus by the Christian church and their texts?

Answer for yourself: What if I could show you that the above statement as representative of most Christian Old Testaments was a lie?

Over my dedicated fifteen plus years as a serious Bible researcher I have heard it all. The only way to know the truth for yourself is to find it yourself. I set out to do that and I have. And it is this truth I share with you. So many today have “holes” in their beliefs; holes when filled would alter their perspectives. But most study to a superficial level it seems and end up accepting and promoting the “party line” or “denominational position” for acceptability within the fraternity, or being preconditioned to a particular “belief” then when challenged they dismiss their opponents challenges.

What you just read above “that the Christian Old Testament in your Bibles is to a 'large extent identical' with the Hebrew Bible” is a lie spread by those of a particular religious position that produced that particular Bible. I have invested great time and finances to find out what the facts are concerning the changes and differences in the Jewish Hebrew Bible that are “NOT to a large extent” the same as the Christian Old Testament.

I have been humbled to say the least by my research and these comparisons and this led directly to my resignation as a Christian Pastor. As my studies progressed during the eight years of my pastorate I came to a place finally where I could no longer continue the charade. I had to resign. Simply said, based on what I discovered the facts were as plain as the nose on my face; I had not been preaching the truth as taught by the Bible Jesus used and read. Then why continue.

SO WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE CHRISTIAN OLD TESTAMENT IN MOST CHRISTIAN BIBLES?

There are basically two major problems with the Christian Old Testament: Doctrine and Prophecy.

The Christian Old Testament is not a faithful representation of the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures in multiple places. Simply said, many DOCTRINES as recorded and taught about Jesus in the New Testament come directly from what is recorded in the Christian's Old Testament. If these doctrines find their origin in a falsified and corrupted Old Testament which the Christian Bibles use, then understand such doctrines in the New Testament are false! That means the quotes in the New Testament are wrong if the sources for them can be shown to be wrong! A simple comparison between the Christian's Old Testament, along with the Septuagint (the corrupted Greek translation of these Jewish Scriptures) against these Jewish Scriptures in the Jewish Tankah will convince even a blind man! You just need to know they exist and that your investigation into the matter will reveal it beyond any doubt.

What I am saying is that what are supposedly “fulfilled prophecies” from the Old Testament in our Christian Bibles, seen as quotes in the New Testament, are in reality quotes of forgeries in many places because the Christian's Old Testament come from texts which were altered and falsified in the Greek translation of them 200 years before Jesus. Therefore the New Testament's reference to these as "fulfillments," upon examination with the real Jewish Masoretic text, can be shown to but gross falsifications and purposeful mistranslations in many instances. Understand I am not saying "all Messianic prophecy" is corrupted, but much is and you should know about it. There is a big difference when reading the Old Testament and believing what you are reading came from God or from men with a theological agenda. Many of these "doctrines" and "prophecies" were literally “created” by the Pythagorean-Greek Jews of Alexandria which they translated the Jewish Scriptures into Greek.

THE TERRIBLE IRONY OF THIS

Answer for yourself: Have you ever confused "Messianic prophecy" with "Sun-worship" and the prophecy concerning the coming of sun-god redeemers?

Before you say "no" you need to listen to this. These Pythagorean-Greek Jews of Alexandria (the Essenes) had long since separated from conservative Judaism. Study will reveal this to you. Just because Jews lived in Alexandria does not mean they were not Hellenized and had been influenced by the religious climate that existed in Alexandria, Egypt.

These Greek-Jews (Essenes) of Alexandria were the translators of the Jewish Scriptures and were responsible for the Greek translation of the Old Testament which would later find its way into the Christian Bible. In other words, many religious teachings of these Pythagorean-Buddhist Essenes, as taken from Pythagorean and Buddhist religious beliefs, as well as Iranian sun-worship, were "added" into their Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures in order to enhance the religious authority of their sect. This is a fact! They made it look as if God had sanctioned them as "His people" instead of Israel! Besides that they altered what the Tanakh said concerning the "anointed one to come" and patterned the Messiah after sun-gods.

These Pythagorean-Buddhist Greek-Jews looked toward a cosmic sun-god incarnated man. This man will be "crucified" and killed in the heavens. These concepts were later personified as if this man was real. The stories and legends grew (http://paganizingfaithofyeshua.netfirms.com). The irony is that when Jesus was "crucified," this large group of Essene believers, in the turbulent Messianic confusion of the first century, looked to the "crucified Jesus" as the one they had been waiting for, but admittedly missed identifying him as such while he was alive. So, if you followed, these pagan beliefs as held by these Pythagorean-Buddhist Essenes, which originated from sun-worship, the same "pagan religious beliefs" which had been "added" to the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, were now applied to Jesus after his crucifixion. Jesus became the "fulfillment" of them only because these Essenes identified him after he was crucified with their crucified theological heroes.

So what was never Messianic prophecy in the Greek translation and alteration of the Jewish Scriptures, now becomes "Messianic prophecy" to these Essenes in the first century. Religious concepts held by these Essenes which they applied to their incarnated sun-god redeemer Angel-Messiah were now applied to Jesus. These Essenes literally convert as a large group to the Jesus' movement in the first century and almost totally vanish. They become the first Christians. Now within the synagogues in the latter part of the first century and later we have two Messianic beliefs jockeying for mastery: one Davidic, and one Cosmic; one from the Tanakh and one from a synthesis of Pythagorean-Indian-Buddhist belief which trace their origin to astrology and sun-worship and which were recorded in a falsified translation of the Jewish Scriptures by prior Essenes in Alexandria in order to bolster the authority of their sect by promoting the sect and their religious views as if given by God in the Bible. No wonder the Jews down through history, as well as today, don't accept much what is taught by the Christian church about Jesus and the Messiah; their Bibles never had such stuff in it!

The problem for the Christian is that the Tanakh never said such things about the Davidic Messiah. Many of these concepts as held by these Essenes which were applied by them from the corrupted Greek Old Testament to Jesus, their acclaimed Angel-Messiah, never could be found in the Jewish Tanakh. Their beliefs about Messiah were not to be found in the Tanakh, but only in their own writings to which they exalted above the writings of Moses and the prophets.

The same passages that these Essenes yielded to in the Greek Old Testament for their beliefs concerning their godman, when examined in the Jewish Scriptures and rightly understood and interpreted by conservative Rabbis, never were intended to be of a Messianic nature in the first place.

Answer for yourself: Do you want to believe the truth about Jesus and the Messiah, or will fantasy and pagan beliefs, long ago added to the Word of God and undetected by most today, suffice for your religious beliefs as far as your concerned?

Tragically, we read these "added" religious doctrines in our Christian Old Testament, and read the "quotes in the New Testament as taken from the same source" as if given by God. We read them as if this were the truth about the Messiah and Jesus. We never had a reason to doubt our Christian Old Testament or its quotes in the New Testament. Just a cursory reading of these documents will not reveal what I have said in this article to hardly anyone. Only serious study and comparative study of the documents will do this. We choose to believe like "good and faithful" Christians and like sheep we were led astray and never knew it. And we never knew, that is up till now! God knows we have believed a lie even if we don't, and I thank Him that is love is not contingent on us being "right." But if we can learn the truth and alter our worship whereby we remove ourselves, based on what we learn, from idolatry, then our love for God should demand we study to find the truth and not die as idolators.

The Christian Old Testaments might read as if came from God, because most of it did, and the New Testament’s quotes of these falsified passages might seem reassuring, but if you took the time to compare these problem passages with the Jewish Bibles today you would see for yourself the prophets never said such things as recorded in many places in the Christian Old Testaments. Besides that, the quotes in the New Testament, when taken from these problem passages, are completely wrong and misleading as well.

There exists today the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament and they are not the same in very important places affecting both doctrines and prophecies. As a Christian you will never know that until someone first tells you and then you go look for yourself to see if this be true. When I was confronted with such information I, as a Pastor, had to know. What if I had been wrong? What if I had the wrong book? What if 2000 years ago things were changed and I don't know it and believe what I have been told and taught by others who don't know as well?

As stated above, but its importance requires its restatement. Many quotes from this altered Christian Old Testament were again included in the New Testament and you read them as if they are again true and given by God. All you are reading are the accepted traditions of those who came before you who either never knew how to read Hebrew, knew of this deception or willfully added to it.

The New English Bible goes on to say:

“In the second century A.D. or even earlier the Rabbis, the Jewish religious leaders, compiled a text from such manuscripts as had survived the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and on this basis was established the traditional or Massoretic text, so called from the Hebrew word “massorah” or “tradition”. The earliest surviving manuscripts of this text date from the ninth to eleventh centuries A.D.; and it is this text, as printed in R. Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (3rd edition, 1937), which has been used for the present translation".

Let me tell you what you just read....Another lie!

The text in the Oxford’s New English Bible, like all Christian Old Testaments, is NOT the text that is used, or has been used, by the Jewish Rabbis and people since long before Jesus! That's right. The text you are reading is the one handed down by the Alexandrian translators which forged many of their sects Pythagorean-Buddhist and Essene doctrines into their translations. You are reading the evolution of their Greek translation and not the Hebrew Masoretic text in all instances. In the majority of the passages we find agreement between the Greek and the Hebrew, and any differences are minor to say the least. Yet, it not these passages that trouble us, but the one which make for theological and doctrinal diversity.

This is the purpose of the Web Site and the many articles listed; to reveal this problem to all those who show interest. On this site I have provided for you what I believe to be overwhelming evidence to not only the falsification and purposeful mistranslation of the Jewish Scriptures, but hundreds of examples of these divergent doctrines and religious beliefs which influenced many in the early years of the early church. Some never deterred from the faith of Jesus; but many did. Many were influenced by this Greek adulteration of the Jewish Bible, and forthcoming were doctrines taken from this Greek text along with variant readings which ended up in your Christian Bibles. We go to church and "hear" these falsehoods taught and "amended" but never take the time to compare. I have don't that for you. The evidence is not pretty, but repentance is. With every lie exposed, with every false doctrine crushed, and with every step toward truth and obedience, then God is closer.

Not only did you not know of these things before now, but those who published this Oxford Bible did not know as well; at least hopefully for it would be a terrible thing to think that such deception was done on purpose. To list all the Christian Bibles which have fallen to this same deceptions would take forever.

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIAN’S OLD TESTAMENT TEXT

"What about the Hebrew text used by the KJV translators? Here is some background on it. The Daniel Bomberg edition, 1516-17, was called the "First Rabbinic Bible." That's a joke. This text, in many places, was derived from the Septuagint instead of the Palestinian Masoretic text, which I will show you in the following pages on this web site, is but an altered and poorly constructed falsification of the Jewish Scriptures in many places. Again, I must be fair. Much confirms the Jewish Masoretic text, but there are instances where it does not and these are theological and doctrinal problems for the Christian if he only knew.

Then in 1524-25, Bomberg published a second edition edited by Abraham Ben Chayyim (or Ben Hayyim) iben Adonijah. This is called the Ben Chayyim edition of the Hebrew text. Daniel Bomberg's edition, on which the KJV is based, was the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text. This was called the Second Great Rabbinic Bible. This became the standard Masoretic text for the next 400 years. All along you need to understand this is a fraudulent text and now the people, uneducated, never knew. Sounds a lot like today. They accepted what they had been handed just like you and me. Bomberg never knew himself for the adulteration of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek was clouded in embellished legends (the letter of Aristeas) which had grown around the importance and divine creation of the Greek translation which scholars today recognize as lies told to increase the importance and acceptance of this falsified text by the Gentiles as against the Jewish Bible. You need to realize when one begins with a misrepresented text, and when quotes are taken from these falsified, perverted, twisted, and adulterated passages, then the quotes are just a wrong as its parent document!

"The Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text was used even in the first two editions of Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel. The dates on those first two editions were 1906 and 1912. He used the same Hebrew text as the KJV translators (it is already corrupted). Now the KJV has this same falsified and corrupted Old Testament as the Septuagint and few know today; except the Rabbis who both know and read Hebrew.

Answer for yourself: Have you ever wondered why the Rabbis don't use the Christian Bible's Old Testament? Could it be that they know it is theologically mutant in many places? Why not use it if it is accurate?

SO WHY HAS CHRISTIANS REJECTED THE JEWISH BIBLE JESUS USED? IS "OLDEST" REALLY THE "BEST"?

Today, the reason that most of the Hebrew departments, in colleges, universities, and seminaries who teach Hebrew, use Septuagint and Christian Old Testaments instead of the Palestinian Masoretic text is the same reason they use the critical Greek text in the N.T. They believe the "oldest" texts, either in Hebrew or in Greek, must always be the best.Not necessarily. Since no copies of the Masoretic text could be found till the 9th century A.D. these “differences” of what I spoke were assumed to be nothing more than a Jewish reaction to Christianity. Christian writers and scholars of their day assumed that the variant readings were because the Jewish Rabbis removed the “prophecies” in reaction to Christianity and Jesus. Without sufficient knowledge and on the surface this makes all the sense. We have two Old Testaments. One is made to be a constant prophecy about the Messiah or Jesus. The other is not. The Greek manuscripts of the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures were older than any existing Jewish Masoretic texts by a thousand years, and following the rule "oldest is best" preference was given by most to the Greek translation over the Hebrew Masoretic text. Not all agreed however. I find it rather startling that Clement of Rome, the first Bishop of Rome, referenced in all his writings the Jewish Masoretic Palestinian text and never quoted from the Greek. Check me out and see if I am right. The first Church father beyond Paul did not use the Greek Scriptures and he was the Bishop of Rome.

Answer for yourself: What did he know that we don't? Could he possibly have known that the Greek translation had been perverted and misrepresented the Messiah so badly that he could not use it?

So, logically following the “oldest is best” rule the Christians paid little attention the the Jewish Bible and their Jewish texts which were definitely “not Christianized (in the form of promotion of the Essene Angel-Messiah).” What you need to understand is that even though these Greek translations might be the oldest, they were doctored by Essene heretics and therefore are not the "best" regardless that they are the oldest. Oldest never means most accurate or truthful.

Answer for yourself: But how can we know for sure? How can we know the Rabbis' Old Testaments today are true and the Christian Old Testament falsified? Until the last 50 years it has been one camp vs the other camp; opinion vs opinion. Nothing was settled.

THE ROCKS CRY OUT

Then God did something wonderful.

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls came evidence to the existence of this Jewish Masoretic text just as old or older then the Septuagint (Greek translations of the Old Testament). The identical similarity of a texts separated by over a thousand years was infinitesimal. The accuracy was astonishing and almost beyond belief. No longer could Christians say the Jews changed their Old Testaments after Jesus as a sour-grapes reaction to Christianity! Since the discovery of the manuscripts at Qumran we now have copies of the same texts reading identical which are separated by more than one thousand years. This exactness in the comparison of the 900 A.D. texts with the 200 B.C.E. texts has convinced textual scholars, both Jews and Christians, that such uniformness can be applied safely to all of the Masoretic texts. It must not be forgotten that we now have in our possession Masoretic texts as old or order than the Septuagint which contradict and correct the deviant readings which were added to the Greek mistranslation of the Hebrew texts by the Alexandrian Greek-Jews and Essenes. We now know the Septuagint is the errant text and one needs to begin to examine the origin of this translation in order to come to an understanding who it was that was behind the translation, and the existing religious beliefs of the sect that translated it, and their reasons for doing so.

The discovery at Qumran revealed that the Masoretic text we have today as preserved and used by Rabbis all over the world, is the same Masoretic text unaltered for the most part that existed long before the time of Jesus. It is this Masoretic text which should have been used in all readings of the Christian's Old Testament and it was not! And again let us not forget that this Jewish Masoretic text, as found at Qumran, differs considerably with the Greek translations found there also. If this more accurate Masoretic text had been used for the Christian's Old Testament instead of the corrupted Essene one, then the lies told about Jesus in the New Testament would not have existed, or at least been promulgated as if were Divine fiat.

What should concern you now is whether you want to read the real Word of God before you die or not. What should concern you is that you have a choice before you: you can obtain an "accurate" translation of the Jewish Scriptures in English by accepting the Jewish Tanakh, or you can continue to read your contemporary Christian Old Testament and its fables concerning a godman Angel-Messiah. A "translation" is what you were expecting when you bought your Christian Bible; you got a purposeful mistranslation in many places, and not possessing the knowledge, you are forced to read it not discerning the meat from the bones.

Answer for yourself: Don't you want a faithful translation? If it could be proven to you that the Greek translation was falsified over two thousand years ago would you not want to know? It it could be shown that those who did this translation were not the Rabbis as attested by legend as you have been told... would you want to know? Do you want to get behind the legends and get the facts and the truth?

DID JESUS LEAVE US ANY CLUES?

Not only was the Jewish Scripture preserved by the Jews in Palestine, but it was authorized by Jesus. Understand that in Jesus’ day the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures existed and had for almost two hundred years. It can be shown that Jesus authorized the traditional Masoretic Hebrew O.T. text and not the Greek translation of these Jewish Scriptures:

Matt 4:4

4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matt 5:17-18

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (referencing the Hebrew text and not the Greek).

Luke 24:44

44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Jesus never refuted any text, any word, or any letter in the Hebrew O.T. He didn't say, “Now Moses was misquoted here, it should have been this...” Jesus neve said: "We need to get the Greek translation because the Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew have been altered and I have been taken out of them." He never said: "The doctrines as taught in the Hebrew texts have passed away and the newer ones in the Greek is what God really intended to say." THINK!

He offered no textual criticism whatever. Had there been any changes, I'm sure he would have at least mentioned it somewhere in his teaching and preaching or at least corrected it if it had been in error. If he had then we would have some record of it, but in all that is recorded of his life and his sayings there is not one instance of him ever correcting “the text” or telling us that the existing Greek translation is the true Word of God and should be heeded over the Palestinian Masoretic text. Jesus was quick to correct sin and error in behavior of the people, and the source for his authority and truth which was the standard for all mankind's conduct was the Hebrew texts. It would seem that if such beliefs and dogmas in the Hebrew Masoretic text had been wrong and different ones and changes in the Greek translation had been right, then Jesus would have been a hypocrite to teach from and correct others from a Hebrew Masoretic text which was not authoritative or Divine. Jesus, if from God, would have been obligated to teach from the new improved Greek Bible. He did not!

Jesus never alluded to the Greek Bible once, but always referred to the Jewish Masoretic text as it existed in his day! Understand the Greek texts and translation of the Jewish Scriptures existed in his day and this Greek Bible had 4 divisions and not 3 like the Jewish Bible. Again, he tells us in Luke 24:44 that it is the: 1) Law of Moses, 2) prophets, and 3) psalms where all is to be fulfilled. (3 divisions and not 4). Jesus alludes directly to the Jewish Bible and not the Greek Bible.

Answer for yourself: Don't you think Jesus knew of the alterations and corruptions of the Greek translation and could this be the reason both he and the Jewish religious leaders in Palestine refused to use it?

Jesus’ stamp of approval is on the Masoretic Hebrew text, and yours needs to be as well.

Shalom.