Page 99 - Yahwehs Book

(Psa. 123:2)
[Hebraic Roots Bible]

The word “Levitical” is inserted here to make it appear that Paul is speaking of something different
than the entirety of the Law delivered to Moses for all the people of God. Some groups that advocate
the continuance of the authority of the Law in the life of the Christian divide the Law into various
divisions, such as the moral law, the law for the Levitical priesthood, and the Law of sacrifices. They
then contend that Paul had only that portion of the Law relating to the Levitical priesthood and
sacrifices in mind when he spoke of the Christian no longer being under the law. They declare that
the moral Law continues to exert authority over the believer. Such a suggestion is readily refuted
from a careful examination of Paul’s writings.

Romans 7:6-8
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that
we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law
sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law;
for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet."

The part of the Law that says, “Thou shalt not covet” is neither the Levitical law, nor the law of
sacrifices. It is the moral portion of the law. Indeed, these words are found in the Ten
Commandments. It is this moral Law of which Paul declares, “But now we have been released from
the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

Brothers and sisters, these Bible translations ought to come with warning labels such as I have shown
in the image at the head of this writing. The naive reader, or the Christian who will not stir himself
up to examine all things carefully, will easily be led astray to embrace false doctrine by being
unaware of the translation bias that is present.

Translation bias is not a new phenomenon. It has been present for thousands of years. In an earlier
post I mentioned a Greek version of the Bible created by Theodotion that Origen included in the
Hexapla. Theodotion was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar. He produced a Greek version of the Hebrew
Scriptures around the year 150 A.D.. When Jerome, the translator of the Latin Vulgate, discoursed
with Augustine about the Septuagint, he referred to Theodotion in very unflattering terms. Jerome
stated, “Origen borrowed the things which he has added from the edition of a man who, after the
passion of Christ, was a Jew and a blasphemer.” It is Theodotion whom Jerome describes as “a Jew
and a blasphemer,” for Theodotion denied that Yahshua was the Messiah. Theodotion was also
accused of translating the Hebrew into Greek in such a way as to obscure the prophecies of the
Messiah that seemed most to speak of Yahshua as the promised one. That is serious, and
reprehensible, translation bias.