Re: "The 9 Questions" part 1
Helen Willis (hhiwater@BRIGHT.NET)
Sun, 06 Jul 1997 22:55:10 -0700
Michael P. Hughes wrote:
>
> > "...It appears from Galatians 3:10 that he derived it from a mistaken
> > reading of ....Deuteronomy 27:26. The eleven verses before it...list eleven
> > basic ethical obligations....and declare the transgressor of any of them
> > cursed by the Jews and Moses (not by God). At the conclusion of these
> > verses the Bible says, "Cursed be he who does not maintain all the words of
> > this Torah to do them.."-"this Torah (Teaching)" referring to the eleven
> > laws just listed. However Paul understood this verse to mean, "Cursed be
> > everyone who does not perserve in observing everything prescribed in the
> > book of the Law" (as it is translated in Galatians 3:10). Paul
> > misunderstood (or intentionally changed) the verse to mean that anyone who
> > violates any law in the entire Torah.....is eternally cursed, a
> > mistranlation which remains in the New Testament".
> >
> > I think Till has made this argument before, but it hit me when reading this
> > that if Paul did mistranslate Deuteronomy 27:26, then all of Christianity is
> > proven false. Are there any Christian replies to these claims?
> > I will post more from this essay in future post,
> > Helen Willis
> > hhiwater@bright.net
>
> Helen, I leave for camp tomorrow and will be gone for a week. I
> have been thinking about this since you posted it and hope to reply
> when I return. Thought I would let you know that it is not being
> ignored. Haven't noticed any other responses yet.
>
>
> Michael P. Hughes
> http://www.odd.net/ozarks/churches/cchrist/camdenton/index.htm
Michael:
I think this is a very important issue, because I think we may be able to
reduce all the diferences between Christians and Jews to this one biblical
verse and somehow, I think then, there is less room for ugly name calling,
hate crimes, and such when it becomes a simply intellectual problem. There
was a footnote to the above quote. I think I should give it to you.
Footnote:
Anyone familiar with Hebrew will immediately perceive the mistranslation.
But one need not know Hebrew to understand Paul's error; a simple reading of
Deuteronomy 27:15-26 makes it clear, since, among other reasons, (a) there
would have been no need to relist eleven commandments if Deuteronomy 26:26
referred to every law in the Torah, and (b) the Hebrew Bible frequently uses
the words "Torah" and "the Torah" in reference to a specific group of laws
(for the term "Torah", see Leviticus 6:2, 6:18, 7:37, 11:46, 13:59, 14:2,
15:32, and Numbers, 6:21; for the expression "this Torah" see Deuteronomy
1:5, 4:8, 28:61; 31:9, 11)