THE MESSIAH’S MISSION TO THE GENTILES — HIDDEN IN THE MASORETIC TEXT (AND THE KING JAMES BIBLE)

Summary:There are many passages in the Hebrew Masoretic Text that do not reflect the original Hebrew which has been demonstrated to be the Vorlage of the Septuagint (from which the Greek Bible was copied) and the most ancient copies of the Hebrew. The passages in question number several dozen – not counting the Genesis 5 and 11 chronologies that also were changed to hide the timing of the Messiah’s coming. The primary emphasis in these targeted passages relate to prophecies about the Messiah, His nature and His mission. In this article, we look at six pivotal passages comparing the Septuagint (LXX) and Masoretic Text (MT) where this intentional corruption occurred. All six deal with the Messiah’s mission to redeem the elect among the Gentiles and a remnant of the House of Israel.

SIX PASSAGES WHICH DECLARE THE MESSIAH’S MISSION

In Rebooting the Bible, Part One, the focus on the book asserts that the evidence is plain: The Rabbis, newly formed as the successors to the Pharisees, sought to obscure the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah. One of the primary themes we see in the alterations made by the rabbis, is the mission of the Messiah.  Whereas the Septuagint, cited by the Christian New Testament, portrays the Messiah as come to same a remnant of Israel and to bring the Gentiles into the Kingdom, the Masoretic Text – the Hebrew Bible utilized by the King James and virtually all Protestant Bibles, does not declare the Messiah to come with this dual purpose.  There are six passages which I cite in this article to point out the difference between the more ancient Hebrew source used for translating the Septuagint – LXX (the Old Greek Old Testament translated in Alexandria circa 285 B.C.), and the Hebrew Masoretic Text – MT, which I assert was intentionally corrupted by the rabbis between sometime between 85 and 110 A.D.

The alterations illustrate the differences are not subtle. Indeed, we are not dealing with a mere variation in words used in the translation. We encounter here a premeditated act to change the written Word of God as originally recorded by the ancient authors of Genesis, Amos, and Isaiah.

In the following six passages drawn from chapter four of Rebooting the Bible(there are 27 total passages presented in the book), the pattern is to present the New Testament quotation of the Old Testament, present the Septuagint’s rendering as taken from Breton’s Septuagint, juxtapose the King James Version (generally based on the Hebrew Masoretic), and provide my commentary to draw out the distinction between the LXX and the MT. The exception is passage number five, Genesis 49:10, which illustrates the distinction in translation between the LXX and the MT.

As I have argued previously in numerous articles on this website, it is clear that the King James New Testament and King James Old Testament do not agree when an Old Testament verse is cited. This is because the New Testament writers used the LXX approximately 90% of the time. Consequently, merely comparing the Old and New Testament as presented by the King James Bible, shows that someone changed the wording. There are varying texts that present the Hebrew Bible as the Dead Sea Scrolls illustrated. In other words, there are several “textual traditions” which show variation in the words of the Hebrew Bible. The rabbis sought to eliminate all textual families but the sole textual tradition they utilized. They made changes to the text. This Hebrew Text was then used by three new Greek translations all created in the second century A.D. (400 years after the Old Greek Septuagint was translated in Alexandria). These new Greek texts were created by Greeks who had converted to Judaism or were Greek in custom if not in race: Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. The strategy was to undermine the Old Greek LXX with the new “corrected” Greek versions. These were supplied to synagogues in the Diaspora to replace the now declared Old Greek Septuagint (as “the Christian Bible”) with Greek “Jewish” Bibles… that hid the fact that Jesus was the Messiah.

REVIEWING THE SIX PASSAGES

CONCLUSION

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ came to redeem the Gentiles, not just the Jews. While a remnant of Jews was saved, the emphasis of His mission would soon be evident: The Gentiles would be more impacted by the Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, than were the children of Israel. Many Jews became Christians and formed the new people of God – the Church.  This new people did not replace the former Children of God.  They were “grafted in.” One day all of God’s children will dwell together in the eternal Kingdom of David – the Kingdom of Christ – whose capital will be Jerusalem and after the Millennium, the New Heaven and New Earth.

For those who elect to defend the King James Version as error-free, there is an insurmountable contradiction between what the Old Testament of the KJV says, and what the New Testament of the KJV says.  Both can’t be right. Only a limited series of passages are corrupted in the Old Testament (Masoretic Text); however, these passages are enormously important. The rabbis of the first century wanted to “lock out” the Gentiles. They believed that the Chosen, the Elect, were those who were by race, the Children of Abraham. Paul the Apostle taught differently. The two will be joined together.

To defend the inerrancy of the KJV is to deny the mission of the Messiah. The Masoretic Text denies the mission of the Messiah. To defend the Masoretic and KJV is to agree with the rabbis rather than the Apostles of Jesus.

The rabbis twisted the words of scripture to emphasize salvation comes by being born of Abraham and through keeping the Law of Moses. The Messiah contradicted this exclusiveness. He opened the door for all the world to come into the Kingdom of God.

The good news of the Gospel is that Christians are not bound to the old covenant with circumcision and living out the dictates of the Levitical laws. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is this: He came that we who were outside the Kingdom could be made partakers also. We might be grafted into the Olive Tree. (Romans 11:17-18) Both wild olive branches and natural olive branches would comprise the one tree. Likewise, there is one seed, and that seed is Christ. (Galatians 3:16) Unlike the twisted words of the Masoretic Text, the integration of the two peoples into one is the testimony of the Septuagint.  The Masoretic Testimony is obscured by the changes made in the key passages defining the mission of the Messiah.  Can anything be more crucial to those who were not born Jewish than affirming this distinction. Recognizing this reality, secondarily, points out plainly to us that the early Christian Bible, the Septuagint, is a worthy source for doctrine and in many cases, superior to the Hebrew text for conveying the message of Christ to His Church.