#HowJesusBecameGod In his book, Ehrman tries to use several examples from the Old Testament to suggest that there was room in Jewish thought for bending the rules on monotheism. I think he is really stretching it here. The disappointing thing is these are arguments commonly used by Christians to justify their non-monotheistic beliefs in Jesus as divine or in the Trinity. The one, though, that I felt I really had to mention, is Isaiah 9:6. Its a really well known verse among Christians because it is taken as a prophecy of the Messiah. The standard wording is as follows: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So you can see why he, and Christians, might cite this verse. But heres something I discovered years ago in regards to this verse. The Hebrew Bible today was standardized later than you might think, between 700 and 1000 CE, almost 1000 years after Jesus (as)! This standard Jewish bible, from which the modern Christian Old Testament is based (except among Greek Orthodox), is called the Masoretic text. However, there was a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek, written in Alexandria Egypt by Jewish Scholars around 200 BCE. This text still exists today, and it is called the Septuagint. While we no longer have the Hebrew originals from which it was translated, we can see there are inconstancies between the two. Even though the Septuagint is not in the original language (Hebrew), it is 1000 years older, so it should be taken quite seriously. Heres the Septuagint version of Isaiah 9:6... For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him. Pretty significant difference, wouldnt you say?
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 20:43:34 +0000