In these trying economic times donations are way down while prices are all way up! We need your help today!
What other ministry puts out this kind of material…. free!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org
Paul and Women’s Head Coverings: Oral Law Again By James Scott Trimm
Paul writes:
5 But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is one and the same as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman is not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. (1Cor. 11:5-6)
It is very interesting that Paul directs women not to pray or prophecy with their heads uncovered (unveiled), because there is no such commandment in the written Torah. Moreover Paul is prohibited by Torah, from adding commandments to the Torah (Deut. 4:2; 12:32 (13:1)). So from where does Paul derive a commandment about women wearing head coverings? The answer is to be found, not in the written Torah, but in the Oral Torah.
We read in the Mishnah:
These are the women who may be divorced and not given their marriage settlement [as promised in their Ketuvah]: She who transgresses the Law of Moshe and the Jewish law:… And what is the Jewish law? If she goes out [in public] with her hair flowing loose, or spins cloth in the street [so that her arms are exposed] or spends time talking loosely [flirting] with all kinds of men. (m.Ketuvot 7:6)
Here Paul is not referring to a commandment in the written Torah and he is not creating a new commandment, he is referring to a custom from the Oral Law which can be found in the Mishnah.
In these trying economic times donations are way down while prices are all way up! We need your help today!
What other ministry puts out this kind of material…. free!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org
Our Rent must clear the account tonight and we are still $830 short! Any donation you can make today will help!
What other ministry puts out this kind of material…. free!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers fr our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org
Original Hebrew Reading Found in Hebrew Manuscript of Mark! By James Scott Trimm
Several weeks ago I told you I had received a thumb drive (from Dr. Albert Garza) containing some 4,000 pages of Hebrew manuscripts of “New Testament” books. As time has allowed, i have been slowly wading thru these manuscripts. I am pleased to announce that I have discovered in one of these many mss., what is clearly the original Hebrew reading of a passage in Mark, which is mistranslated in all known ancient manuscript versions of Mark in Aramaic, Greek, Latin etc.
Just about two years ago, I wrote a blog titled Did Yeshua Say Everyone is Salted with Fire? In which I reconstructed the original Hebrew reading of Mark 9:49/ Om that blog I wrote:
The original Hebrew of the original phrase in Mark 9:49 must have been כי כל באש ימלח
The Aramaic translator must have read this כִּי כֹּל בָּאֵשׁ יִמְלַח “for everyone with fire, shall be salted” which is rendered in the Old Syriac with the words כול אנש גיר בנורא נתמלח “for every man with fire will be salted” and in the Greek with Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται “for everyone with fire will be salted”. The references to “fire” in the previous verses of Mark 9 probably contributed to the translator taking באש to mean “with fire”.
However the original Hebrew of Mark 9:49 is correctly understood to read as כִּי כֹּל בָּאַשׁ יִמְלַח “For everything decaying is salted”. The original Hebrew word was בָּאַשׁ (Strong’s 887) “decaying, spoiling” (1).
This leads us into the next phrase in Mark 9:50 = Luke 14:34 “salt is good”. This fits perfectly because the word בָּאַשׁ can also mean to become evil, and באש can actually mean “bad” or “evil” so that that which decays contrasts with salt which is “good”.
All of this leads into the parallel to Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth” meaning that without the influence of those identified with the “salt of the earth” the earth, or the “world” in the parallel in Matthew 5:14 “you are the light of the world”, the world decays and becomes evil.
[End quote from my previous blog]
Recently, while working on an English translation from various Hebrew mss. of Mark, I discovered exactly this predicted original reading in a Hebrew ms. of Mark, which is actually part of a Hebrew manuscript of the entire “New Testament”, found in the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris France (Hebrew Ms. No. 131).
This manuscript of Mark includes written vowels, but to my pleasant surprise the vowels for באש were not בָּאֵשׁ (with fire) but בָּאַשׁ (decaying)! This Hebrew manuscript of Mark contained the lost original Hebrew reading of this passage!
In the reading in question, the scribe seems to have written a patach under the aleph, creating the reading “spoiling”, before later “correcting” it to agree with the traditional reading “with fire” by adding a dot to the right of the patach (the reading “with fire” would have a tzere under the aleph, which is written with two dots. ) The Hebrew word for “fire” can actually be seen on the line above (around the middle) with a tzere (two dots) under the alef.
The dot written to the right appear to be an attempt at a scribal “correction” though the original reading is actually the correct one.
The reading in question is the middle row above, the first word on the right.
How the scribe came to write the original reading us unclear. The original Hebrew of Mark would have been written without vowels (which contributed to the mistranslation in our received versions of Mark). The manuscript itself (Biblioteque Nationale Paris 131) appears to be a Hebrew translation of the Latin Vulgate New Testament, or at least is has a very strong tendency to follow the readings of the Latin Vulgate (with the present example being a clear exception). The scribe may have been familiar with a manuscript tradition that contained the original reading, and then “corrected” his copy when he realized that what he had initially written was not the reading in the manuscript from which he was actually copying. He may also have been creating a translation of the Latin Vulgate, working from a Hebrew copy of Mark that descended from the original Hebrew of Mark (possibly not realizing this) and revising it to agree with the Vulgate as he went. However this original reading ended up in this Hebrew manuscript of Mark, it did end up there, and it is quite obviously the original reading.
Here we now have actual manuscript evidence for the reading בָּאַשׁ
Our rent was due on the first, and we still do not have it! We need your help today!
What other ministry puts out this kind of material…. free!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org
In all four (five counting the Gospel according to the Hebrew) accounts of Yochanan’s ministry, we find that Yochanan is in the wilderness calling Pharisees and Sadducees to be “baptized for the remission of sins”. What many Christians do not know, is that Yochanan did not institute the practice of baptism. Baptism (ritual immersion) was a Jewish practice of the Oral Law, was commonly practiced in Judaism long before Yochanan, and is still practiced in Rabbinic Judaism today.
Terminology
Before we get started, we should clarify some terminology. The English word “baptism” is from the Greek word meaning “immersion” which appears in the Greek versions of the “New Testament”. The Hebrew word for this practice is “T’villah” (the Hebrew word for immersion). Another term often used in “Jewish English” is “Mikveh” however “Mikveh” is actually a Hebrew noun referring to the water itself used for this ritual.
Washings in the Written Torah
While the practice of ritual immersion (Baptism/T’villah) is not found in the written Torah, there are several rituals that involved “washings”.
In Exodus 19:10 the people washed their clothes before receiving Torah.
In Leviticus 8:6 Aharon and his sons were washed as part of their ordination as priests.
In Leviticus 16:4 Aharon was to wash himself before and after performing the Yom Kippur rituals.
In Numbers 19:7f there is a commandment to be washed for ritual purity after coming into contact with a dead body.
In Numbers 31:21-24 we read of water of sprinkling being used to purify Israelites and their plunder after their battle with Midianites.
In Leviticus chapters 13-15 we read of ritual purification via “washing” for men and women who have become ritually impure for various reasons.
The Hebrew word used in these passages in רחץ which simply means “to wash, or bathe” and does not necessarily involve complete “immersion” (T’villah, Baptism).
The Jewish Practice of T’villah
While the written Torah only has commandments that involve washings, the Oral Law requires many of these “washings” to involve complete immersion. There are three general reasons for T’villah in Rabbinic Judaism:
1. Purification for ritual impurity.
2. Initiation of a Priest of Rabbi.
3. Conversion to Judaism.
While the first two of these are extensions of written Torah, the third, T’villah for conversion, is purely a practice of the Oral Law, as we read in the Talmud:
As soon as he is healed (from his circumcision) arrangements are made for his immediate immersion, when two learned men must stand by his side and acquaint him with some of the minor commandments and with some of the major ones. When he comes up after his immersion he is deemed to be an Israelite in all respects. (b.Yebamot 47b)
An entire tractate of the Mishnah (Tractate Mikvaot) is dedicated to the various matters of Oral Law surrounding T’villah and specifications for what constitutes an acceptable Mikveh.
T’villah in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Baptisms played an important part in the lives of the Qurman Community, for whom ritual purity was very important. Archaeologists have even uncovered several of the actual Mikvaot used at Qumran, cisterns with steps leading down into them. These mikvaot meet the same specifications laid out in the Mishnah.
A Mikveh excavated at Qumran
The Dead Sea Scrolls speak several times of these baptisms. The Manual of Discipline (1QS) says of those who refuse to enter their community:
Ceremonies of atonement cannot restore his innocence, neither cultic waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual bathing. Unclean, unclean shall he be all the days that he rejects the laws of God, refusing to be disciplined in the Yahad of His society. (1QS 3,4-6)
None of the perverse men is to enter purifying waters used by the Men of Holiness and so contract their purity. (Indeed, it is impossible to be purified without first repenting of evil, inasmuch as impurity adheres to all who transgress His word. (1QS 5,13-14)
Other scrolls tell us that these mikvaot required at least enough water to form ripples (Damascus Document 10, 10-13) and that the individual was to bathe his entire body in living water (The Temple Scroll 11Q19 XLV 15–16) and in 4Q274 the verb yitbôl is used, telling us that these ritual bathings definitely involved complete immersion (T’villah).
Josephus on Yochanan
This brings us to Josephus’ description of the ministry of Yochanan. Josephus states that Yochanan:
...commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism [immersion] for that the washing would be acceptable… (Jospehus; Ant. 18:5:2)
Baptism in the “New Testament”
Yochanan the immerser’s Baptism for the remission of sins (Matt. 3:6, 11; Mk. 1:4-5; Luke 3:2-3, 7; Acts 19:3-4) certainly recalls the Qumran immersions to purify one from the ” impurity [that] adheres to all who transgress His word.” (1QS 5,13-14)
Later in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Baptism being clearly used as a ritual for conversion, when Yeshua sends out his Talmidim in the “Great Commission” saying:
19 Go you therefore, and teach all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Ruach HaKodesh: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Yocahnan’s Baptism for the remission of sins comes directly from the Essene practice of Baptism for purification from the impurity that adheres to all who transgress the Torah (sin), and Yeshua’s Baptism for conversion echos the ritual immersion for conversion to Judaism found in the Talmud.
The doctrine of ritual immersion rather than mere “washings” which would not necessarily involve actual immersion, and the use of these immersions for “remission of sins” and for conversion, are traditions taken from Essene and Pharisaic Judaism, and which originated in the Oral Law.
Baptism is Oral Law.
Our rent was due yesterday, and we still do not have it! We need your help today!
What other ministry puts out this kind of material…. free!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org
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