Bible the penultimate Revelations before Quran: Formalization & authenticity of the scripture

Dr. P.R.Palodhi

Early perspective: In post Flood world successive Revelations came from God to the Prophets chosen from within among Semitic lineage (descending from Noahs son Shem). Early post-Flood Prophets are Hud and Salih from ancient Arabs whom Bible abstains from mentioning; and thereafter came Prophet Abraham the patriarch of new worlds prophetic generation. Amidst rampant paganism, deep down a reshaping of a newer world began especially after arrival of Prophet Abraham; and then religious authority was handed down through his descendants issuing from Sarah, Hagar and Keturah (the three consorts of Abraham). Thus successive missions of the Abrahamic monotheism began to orient the newer world. The Quran informed that: as former people declined to obey the early Prophets like Hud, Salih, later generations also denied Prophet Shueyb of the Midians and eventually God transferred the authority on Moses and Aaron (Quran, 10: 76 & 11: 89-96). If Shueyb is indeed Jethro, the Quran is explaining further the transfer of authority of the Scriptures to Israel through Moses and Aaron (descendants of Sarah); and the tribe of Midian (descendants of Keturah) was used for activating that process through Moses sojourn in Midian and the preparation for the Exodus. Meanwhile from ancient pictorial mode development of alphabetic languages took place around 2000 BC; as a result of which we have received the new worlds scriptures of Revelation: Bible, Zoroastrian Gatha and Quran. All these are scriptures of Abrahamic religions because they are inherently based upon monotheistic principles revealed earlier to the patriarch Abraham. The Biblical Revelations have begun from the period of picture writings (mentioned Zubur in Arabic) and continued up to development of Semitic alphabets. The earliest evidence for Semitic tongue comes from Akkadian of 3rd millennia BC. Then we find Egyptian Hamito-Semitic family consisting of proto-Hamitic and proto-Semitic. The south-east Semitic language was Akkadian (divide into dialects of Babylonians and Assyrians), while north-west Semitic branch was Ugarite, Moabite, Hebrew and Aramaic. Aramaic gradually became the major spoken and written language of near east until the rise of Islam when Arabic replaces it. Different Semitic languages bear a general similarity with each other. As for instance with the word for Sun: in Akkadian it is Shamash, in Hebrew it is Shemesh and in present Arabic it is Shams. What is Ruuh (spirit) in Arabic, it is Ruach in Hebrew; Arabic Nafsun (soul) in Hebrew tongue is Nephesh. We may have some insight about how the early Hebrew alphabets develop from the sacred pictorial symbols of the past. Let us look into some inscriptions of picture writings (Zubur) that have survived from a Hebrew tradition devoted to God. Vestiges of early symbols that over one hundred corpus of proto-Sinaitic El-Yah have been uncovered in old Negev dating between 17th to 15th centuries BC [1]. Incidentally, Negev is the mentioned place of Bible where Abrahams second wife Hagar was intercepted by an Angel, as she stopped at a spring near Kadesh in the Negev while distancing herself from Sarah. Negev turned into a religious place. Most of the inscriptions of these ancient religious dwellers of Negev were carrier of sacred knowledge in a language that has a conservative preference for retaining the archaic forms, i.e. Gods name should be written in the form used since beginning. Such a form was carried down by Moses from the mountain of God.

Hebrew:

= El (God) Hebrew: =Yah}

{Old Negev:

(Har Karkom, Harris/Hone, 1997)

Old Negev: Hebrew:

Translation: My mountain (refuge is) El (God)-deliverance for the Jew. (Har Karkom, Harris/Hone 4/22/1997)

The Bible from archaic Hebrew down to the Old and New Testament: The earlier versions of Biblical writings were known as Ketav Ashurit and Ketav Ivri). The words like Ivri (i.e Hebrews) and Ashurit (i.e Ashurians) point to the early Semite heritages. Before the classical Hebrew script used for writing Tora scrolls was an older script similar to ancient Phoenician. Our known Old Testament is a collection (now in 39 volumes) of revealed guidance to successive Prophets of Semite heritage which the tradition has memorized by heart, meditated and observed by day and night. This has come down to us as works of many different genres; written in several languages over a period of more than nine hundred years. There is good reason to believe that after Jewish settled in Canaan (end of 13th century BC) writing was used to preserve and hand down the tradition. Most scholars agree that the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) was composed and compiled from around 12th century to 2nd century BC. Eventually from southern kingdom of Judah came the Yahvist (i.e. God is called Yahweh) that deals with the origins of the world up to death of Jacob. After 900 BC the Prophetic influence of Elias and Elisha took shape, and this is the time for Elohist (God is called Elohim) texts that limits mostly to facts relating Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph (the books of Joshua and Judges date from this time). However, we do not know the exact authors of Yahvist and Elohist texts. Dr. Bucaille [2] has pointed that: the eight century BC saw the appearance of the writerProphets: Amos and Hosea in Israel, and Michah in Judah. In 721 BC the fall of Samaria put an

end to the Kingdom of Israel. The Kingdom of Judah took over its religious heritage. The collection of Proverbs dates from this period. This period is distinguished in particular by the fusion of Yahvist and Elohist texts of the Pentateuch into single text TORAH (origin of worlds until death of Moses). Indications of fusion between two versions are clear via duplication of statements in several places. For example, Exo: 3:2 & Exo: 3:6; two versions express differently on the context of Moses meeting with God: Yahvist version writes: And the angel of Lord (Yahweh) appeared unto him in a flame of fire.. (Exo, 3:2) Elohist version writes: Moreover, He said, I am the God (Elohim) of thy father, the God (Elohim) of Abraham, the God (Elohim) of Isaac (Exo, 3:6) In this way Torah was constituted and Deuteronomy was written in this time. The Deuteronomy fragments were written in archaic script. Before the first deportation to Babylon in 598 BC there appeared the Books of Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk. Ezekiel was already prophesying during this first deportation. The fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC marked the beginning of second deportation which lasted until 538 BC. The Book of Ezekiel, the last great Prophet and the Prophet of exile, was not arranged into its present form until after his death by the scribes that were to become his spiritual inheritors. The same scribes were to resume Genesis in a third version, the so called Sacerdotal version, for the section going from the Creation to the death of Jacob. From scholars we come to know that the Torah had already been canonized in some form possibly as early as 622 BC (when the true Torah was discovered and ceremoniously declared official by King Josiah, according to the Bible itself), most likely though it was significantly edited after the Babylonian Exile in the time of Ezra just before 500 BC. On the order of king Cyrus of Persia, the deportation to Babylon came to an end in 538 BC. The Jews returned to Palestine and the Temple at Jerusalem was rebuilt. During the seventy years of captivity in Babylon (604 586 BC), the Jews lost the knowledge of their original Hebrew tongue that has its origin from Heber (descending from Arpachshad lineage). When Zoroastrian King Cyrus allowed them to return to Palestine (536-538 BC), the few men like Ezra (Esdras) understood Hebrew. Here history goes to reveal: how God, on the one hand, so disposed the hearts of the Zoroastrian kings of Persia, the then rulers of the world, that in spite of all the machinations of the enemies of Gods people, they promoted the building of His Temple in Jerusalem, and the maintenance of His worship therein; and on the other, raised up for His people, when delivered from Babylon, men like Zerubbabel their governor, Joshua the high priest, and Ezra (Uzair in Islam) the scribe, who, supported by the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, undertook the work to which they were called, with hearty resolution, and carried it out with a powerful hand. Ezra (480-458 BC) revised the first five books of the Scriptures, known as the Pentateuch. The Prophets activities began again, resulting in the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and the third book of Isaiah, Malachi, Daniel and Baruch (the last being in Greek). The period of deportation is also the period of the Book of Wisdom: Proverbs was written definitely around 480 BC, Job in the middle of 5 th century BC, Ecclesiastes or Koheleth dates from 3rd century BC, as do Songs of Songs, Chronicles I &II, Ezra and Nehemiah; Ecclesiasticus or Sirah appeared in the 2nd century BC; the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Maccabees I & II were written one century before Christ. The Books of Ruth, Esther and Jonah are not easily datable. The same is true for Tobit and Judith. The Pentateuch was translated about 250 BC and the entire OT about a hundred years later. Most of the OT was written in Hebrew, but after the return from exile, Hebrew gave way to Aramaic which can be seen in the OT (Ezra 4:8-7:18; 7:12-26 written in the Syrian tongue; Dan. 2:47:28). The Hebrew text thus came after Babylonian captivity in the time of Ezra when alphabet was changing from Old Hebrew to Aramaic square script in which all copies of OT (except

Samaritan Pentateuch) were written. Thus writings of Old-Testament have undergone phases of alphabet change from the old Hebrew characters to another Semitic language the newer squire Aramaic script. Aramaic was a major Semitic language of the ancient Near East used by the neo-Babylonians of the time (6th century BC) of Nebuchadnezzar II (cf. Book of Daniel), and in fact was the language that Jesus himself spoke.

11 century manuscript of Bible

th

Alphabetic changes in OT writing: The Tetragrammaton (YHWH) in Phoenician, Aramaic, and modern Hebrew scripts.

After a long obscurity, the Masoretes i.e., Jewish rabbis between 6th and 10th centuries AD in Babylonia and Palestine worked diligently with their resources to reproduce, as far as possible, the original texts of the Old Testament. Since the early texts traditionally omitted vowels in writing, Masoretes introduced vowel signs to guarantee correct pronunciation. Masoretic text is not a single unbroken thread, but rather a river of manuscripts, with both western and eastern branch. Here we must take a note that among these rabbis were the devout followers of the Pharisees (who turned out to be the worst enemies of Jesus Christ); it goes without saying that the Massoretes are not to be trusted whole heartedly. A decision was made back in the 2nd century BC when the Septuagint, an official Greek translation, was made of it by a council of seventy Jewish scholars in Alexandria. Thus three main lines of transmission used in Judea by which the OT has come down to us. The foremost is the Masoretic Hebrew text of the eighth and ninth century AD. Second is the Greek Septuagint. And third is the Samaritan Pentateuch notorious for deliberate alteration to legitimize the Samaritan place of worship on Mt. Gerizim (cf. John 4:20). However, since the Samaritan Pentateuch is in the old cursive script, the square letters must not have been used until after the schism between Judea and Samaria about 432 BC (Neh. 13:28). Hebrew and other versions of Biblical Manuscripts [3]: The largest complete copy of the masoretic manuscript of the Old Testament is the St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) Codex, 1008 AD. Other Hebrew manuscripts are the Aleppo Codex, 930 AD (partially destroyed); the British Museum Codex, 950 AD (incomplete copy of Pentateuch); the Cairo Codex, 895 AD a copy of former and latter Prophets (Joshua, Judges, I & 2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel etc); the Cairo Geniza fragments, 6th to 9th century AD, Reuchlin Codex of Prophets, 1105 AD; and a papyrus of Ten Commandments (200 AD). Besides there are sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls (from caves around the Wadi Qumran, found in AD 1947) comprised of four scrolls, one of the first documents was a copy of the Book of Isaiah in Hebrew, and two chapters of the book of Habakkuk in Hebrew. Dead Sea Scrolls were written between 200 BC to 100 AD in Hebrew (>90%), Aramaic and few in Greek, which includes: Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Testament of Levis, Isaiah Scrolls, Damascus Documents and Copper Scrolls etc. The most important translations of OT other than the Hebrew language are: the Greek Septuagint, the

Aramaic Targums, the Syriac Peshitta in Aramaic during 75-200 AD, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Vulgate the Latin translation of OT & NT made by Jerome about 400 AD. Septuagint was probably the first translation of Hebrew text into Greek which was popular in Jesus time. Septuagint is a Latin word for Seventy (LXX), representing the seventy-two rabbis who translated it. It was on this text that the New Testament was based. It remained authoritative until the 700 AD. The basic Greek texts in general use in the Christian world are from the manuscripts catalogued under the title Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican City and the Codex Sinaiticus at the British Museum in London. They both date from 400 AD. By the fifth century AD the Greek Church fathers applied the term biblia to the whole Christian Scriptures. The words biblion and biblia are used in the OT (LXX) and the Apocrypha for the Scriptures (Dan. 9:2 books; 1 Macc. 1:56; 3:48; 12:9). Later the word passed into the western church, for its use in the Latin, thus The Books became The Book. The names OLD TESTAMENT and NEW TESTAMENT have been used since the close of the second century AD to distinguish the Jewish (Gods covenant with Israel) and Christian (Gods new covenant people) Scriptures. Testament was a translation of the Hebrew word berith (a covenant) to render the Greek word diatheke (Latin testamentum) first occurring in Tertullian (190-220 AD). The oldest Hebrew version of the Bible texts probably dates back from 900 AD. The New Testament: The New Testament deals with life of Prophet Jesus and his teachings in 27 chapters; NT has clear accord with the Old Testament, referring to them as the law of Moses the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Scriptures (Luke 24: 44-45). The document of New Testament was not settled until the Council of Hippo and Carthage in AD 393 and 397 i.e. over 360 years after the Events they refer to. Thus the text of NT is a product of Council decision based more on hearsay rather than hearing of Jesus message. The earliest fragment of any part of New Testament we have is the part of Johns Gospel written about 125 AD in Egypt. Although, Aramaic was the spoken in Israel in Jesus day and it was the language of Jesus, but the New Testament came out in Greek firstly, because it was the language of eastern half of Roman Empire where especially the Jews lived; and secondly, their aim was the widest possible readership. In this pursuit, unfortunately only few snatches of original Jesus words in Aramaic words or phrases (viz. Matt, 27:33, 46; Mark, 5:41, 15: 22, 34; and John, 19:17) have been recorded in the New Testament. Formalization of NT and eventual intrusion of Paganism in Christianity: Paul played an enormous role in formulation of New Testament. After conversion Paul began to dominate Christianity with his personal opinions and interpreting Christ more like pagans than that of the esoteric Jewish. Barnabas and other personal disciples of Jesus disagreed with Paul and rift between them was obvious: When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question (Acts 14:1 &2). After this rift, there was parting of Jews. According to the Acts, Barnabas disappears from scene after the rift, because the recording of the Acts of the Apostles was done by the followers of Paul. The Canon of the New Testament, like that of the Old, was the result of debate, disputes, and research, not reaching its final term until the dogmatic definition of the Council of Trent [4]. Writings attributed to the Apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century AD [5] and memoirs of the apostles as being read on Sunday alongside the writings of the Prophets (cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology 67.3.). A four Gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was

asserted by Irenaeus (c. 180), who refers to it directly (cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.11.8). In the one-hundred-year period extending roughly from AD 50 to 150 a number of documents began to circulate among the Churches, including epistles, Gospels, memoirs, apocalypses, homilies, and collections of teachings. During 2nd century AD there had been available records on very wide range of memoirs of Jesus from some original and valid compilations of his sayings. Helmut Koestner (in Ancient Christian Gospels) analyzed several archives like: The Gospel of Peter, The Gospel of Thomas, The Sacred Gospel of Mark, the Gospel according to the Egyptians, the letters of Clements, Bishop of Rome, Apocryphon of James, the dialogue of the Savior, the Egerton Papyrus No. 2 and so on. But many of the invaluable records were jettisoned, and The Pauline heresy became the foundation of Christian orthodoxy and the legitimate Church was disowned as heretical (The Jesus Report, Lehmann, p.128) [6]. By the early 200s, Origen may have been using the same twenty-seven books as in the Catholic New Testament canon, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation [7], known as the Antilegomena. The Christian Church was enticed by the Roman Caesar Constantine early in the 4th Century. He called them to meet with him at the Council of Nicea. Then the first council that accepted the present canon of the New Testament may have been the Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa (AD 393); the acts of this council, however, are lost. A brief summary of the acts was read at and accepted by the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419 [8]. These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed (cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 22.8). Nonetheless, full dogmatic articulations of the canon were not made until the Canon of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism, the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox. From (http://endtimepilgrim.org/gnostic.htm): History of Pagan intrusion of Christianity goes back to the past when Greece and Rome were the superpowers. The Gnostic twist (early Christian heretic claiming mystical knowledge) began to cloak the real meaning and intent of Gods Word. In 325 AD the Nicene Council was held, where it was ordered that all original Gospels in Hebrew script should be destroyed. The established Church ever since the Council of Nicene has gone on to receive the political protection of the sword offered by a continuing procession of other secular gentile rulers. They knew that they had to get a handle on the church by something more than politics. They knew Christianity would have to be compromised spiritually, and that by religion. Nicaea was certainly the turning point and the taking of the low road. But not all Christians were beguiled, there were some who actually knew their God personally; their hearts set on the inward Kingdom of Christ in the heart and a future Kingdom of Messiah on this earth. During the third century the religious game of using allegory to interpret the Holy Scriptures had already begun. This Hellenizing of Gods Word had started with neo-Platonism and the teachings Origen of Alexandria down south of the Med in Egypt. Medieval Christianity was heavily laced with ritualistic paganism. The poor peasants were cut off from the Bible. And in their deep spiritual darkness they knew nothing better. The common man in Europe was forbidden access to the Holy Scriptures. He could not read the Gospel story in his own language. All he got was the wafer on the tongue. Many pagan priests came over to Christianity at Nicaea. They did not know the God of the Bible. No, they were in the Church leadership for the wealth and power over others they could amass by exploiting an ignorant Christian laity. This was the Nicolaitan takeover, the conquest of the laity Jesus had warned about in His letter to the seven Churches in the Book of Revelation. The spiriting away of the Holy Scriptures at Nicaea was a terrible loss. The Hebrews discussed the Torah and taught it to their children. And after around 650 AD the Muslims had their Quran which they also taught to their children. But

the European masses had practically nothing. The sacred Word of God was cloistered away in the monasteries, imprisoned in the Latin, for one thousand years. The spirit of Gnosticism was at work here. As usual, it was seeking to cast up a deep impenetrable gulf between heaven and earth and particularly between God and man. This Gnostic religion of hidden knowledge with a priest-craft acting as intermediaries and promising to contact God for us on our behalf is so far from true Christian faith. This is not the God we see in Holy Scripture. And Jesus Himself said that He was the only intermediary, we would ever need to come into the Presence of God. Moses was told that we should not be asking for someone to go up to heaven for us and bring God down to us. God was very near to us, as close as the mention of His Name (See Deut. 30:11-14). Concluding remark: The Bible is the most extensive collection of Revealed Knowledge in post Flood world with accounts of successive Prophets, geographical details, pertinent events and bygone realities of the ancient past without knowledge of these penultimate Revelations Truth-seekers cannot conceive what God reveals in the ultimate Revelation. Unlike 23 years spell of Final Revelation in Quran, the tenure of Biblical Revelations outstretched for a period over millennium. Hence the original language of periodical Revelations are not predisposed us except some early recensions and scanty vestiges in archaeological relics while tertiary or quaternary generation of scriptures are wide open to us. History of Biblical texts clearly shows that their present versions in Aryan languages are transliterations from the archaic Semitic originals - the sole legacies of Prophetic tradition of God. This apparently has posed some problem: in translation works, there is no one to one correspondence between languages, because the word order, the nature of grammar and the very senses of the word with respect to wide or narrow coverage differ in former and latter developments of languages. Moreover, reflection to Gods Revelation demands attention especially when it comes in Aryan languages; firstly because they have inherited dictions primarily from the pagan ancestors; and secondly, non-Semitic languages lack basic accord with linguistic values of Prophetic tradition. But all such problems disappear when penchant for Truth seeking is REAL and vested interests for sectarian / personal ascendancy are not more vital than serving the cause of Divine Truth emanating from One God. In reflecting to present OT and NT texts, any misrepresentation gets exposed by comparing modern translations against the yet extant Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions. Even inaccessibility of ancient manuscript does not preclude true seekers from gravitating towards Truth - because, after devolution of Biblical authenticity All-knowing God has sent the most authentic words of Revelation in Arabic Quran. Now any translation in English (or other) could be judged by the original sense that God has revealed in Arabic. Thus authentic language of Revelation came to rectify the accrued misrepresentations in past scriptures so that spirits of human enquiry could reflect upon past and present Divine Writs and evolve by grasping Divine Truths in its essential completeness. [Republished from my publication: http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/bible-thepenultimate-revelations-before-quran-formalization-authenticity-of-the-scripture-6017033.html]

References: 1. [In 1990 the Archaeological Survey of Israel, project of the Israel Antiquities Authority, under the direction of Yeshuayahu Lender, published a two volume series on the findings of their survey. The first Volume was titled, Map of Har Nafha (196), and Vol. 2, titled, ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS, SUPPLEMENT TO MAP OF HAR NAFHA (196) 12-01]

2. Dr. Maurice Bucaille, (1976), The Bible, the Quran and Science, (Amer. Trust Publications, USA) 3. Christianity? We Believe [www. Theology.edu] School Church Publishing Writers Christianity. The Journal Areopagus (Copyright: Quartz Hill School of Theology) 4. "Canon of the New Testament". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 5. The Canon Debate, chapter 18, p. 300, note 21, attributed to Harry Y. Gamble 6. Lehmann Johannes, (1970). Jesus-Report, Protokoll einer Verfalschung, Dusseldorf 7. Mark A. Noll, (1997). Turning Points, pp 3637, (Baker Academic) 8. McDonald & Sanders' The Canon Debate, Appendix D-2, note 19: "Revelation was added later in 419 at the subsequent synod of Carthage." 9. http://endtimepilgrim.org/gnostic.htm