Proof Positive That Victor Alexander's Ancient Aramaic Text of the N.T. Predates the Greek Translation
I was reading the Aramaic New Testament: Translation of the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures directly into English by Victor Alexander (see v-a.com/bible), when I noticed an interesting phrase in Hebrews which offers proof that, as Alexander asserts, the Aramaic text he uses predates the Greek translation of the New Testament.
Verse 20 of Hebrews 10 says, "And the road for life eternal that has been renewed by the entry through the two-sided door, which is his flesh." The expression which caught my eye was "the two-sided door."
Two-sided door? I am fairly familiar with the scriptures, and I could not remember ever hearing of a two-sided door with regards to the tabernacle of Moses, the temple, or anywhere else for that matter. Hebrews 9: 3 also alludes to this "two-sided door": "The inner chamber, inside the two-sided entrance" (emphasis mine).
The term we are familiar with for this entrance is 'veil': "By a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." 'Veil' is also the term used in Hebrews 6: 19; 9: 3; and Matthew 27: 51: "And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." The Greek word for veil here is katapetasma, that which is spread out downward, or that which hangs down (noted by Bullinger, The Companion Bible).
Certainly, the author of Hebrews was creating a word-picture from his familiarity with the temple and Exodus 26: 15-20: "And make side panels for the tabernacle, from acacia wood, to make it stand. Ten arm-lengths is the length of one panel, and one and a half arm-length is the width of it. And two pegs in each panel--make them fit into the opposite panel; that is how you shall make all the panels of the tabernacle. Thus you shall make panels for the tabernacle, twenty panels to the side facing the Spirit of the South. And forty holders of silver you shall make beneath the twenty panels, two holders under each panel, to couple with the two fasteners, so as to fit the holders of the other two fasteners [of the other panel.] And the other side of the tabernacle facing the Spirit of the North, [make that] twenty panels" (Alexander, emphasis mine).
Moses was instructed to build the structure of the tabernacle which housed the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies as two walls of panels or "ribs" with a tapestry "door" between their eastern ends. Hence, a door with two "sides" formed the tabernacle, a path unto the Holy of Holies at the far western end. It is the picture of man: you start at the feet, the door with two sides, and work your way up, as it were, to the head. At the top is the Holy of Holies: the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat--the human imagination--"his flesh." There the Cherubim of God are tabernacled to keep the path to the tree of life, which is now ours through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
Bullinger notes in Hebrews 9: 2 that the Greek word skene, tent, is used here and in the Septuagint for the tabernacle, "to render the Hebrew mishkan (the structure) and 'ohel (the tent that covered it).
The Book of Hebrews, therefore, must have authored in Aramaic or Hebrew, because while you can get the Greek 'veil' as a translation for the two-sided entrance, you cannot possibly get 'two-sided entrance' as an Aramaic translation from any of the Greek words used. Therefore, the Aramaic text that Alexander translated for the Book of Hebrews MUST be the closer of the two to the original scripture.
Verse 20 of Hebrews 10 says, "And the road for life eternal that has been renewed by the entry through the two-sided door, which is his flesh." The expression which caught my eye was "the two-sided door."
Two-sided door? I am fairly familiar with the scriptures, and I could not remember ever hearing of a two-sided door with regards to the tabernacle of Moses, the temple, or anywhere else for that matter. Hebrews 9: 3 also alludes to this "two-sided door": "The inner chamber, inside the two-sided entrance" (emphasis mine).
The term we are familiar with for this entrance is 'veil': "By a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." 'Veil' is also the term used in Hebrews 6: 19; 9: 3; and Matthew 27: 51: "And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." The Greek word for veil here is katapetasma, that which is spread out downward, or that which hangs down (noted by Bullinger, The Companion Bible).
Certainly, the author of Hebrews was creating a word-picture from his familiarity with the temple and Exodus 26: 15-20: "And make side panels for the tabernacle, from acacia wood, to make it stand. Ten arm-lengths is the length of one panel, and one and a half arm-length is the width of it. And two pegs in each panel--make them fit into the opposite panel; that is how you shall make all the panels of the tabernacle. Thus you shall make panels for the tabernacle, twenty panels to the side facing the Spirit of the South. And forty holders of silver you shall make beneath the twenty panels, two holders under each panel, to couple with the two fasteners, so as to fit the holders of the other two fasteners [of the other panel.] And the other side of the tabernacle facing the Spirit of the North, [make that] twenty panels" (Alexander, emphasis mine).
Moses was instructed to build the structure of the tabernacle which housed the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies as two walls of panels or "ribs" with a tapestry "door" between their eastern ends. Hence, a door with two "sides" formed the tabernacle, a path unto the Holy of Holies at the far western end. It is the picture of man: you start at the feet, the door with two sides, and work your way up, as it were, to the head. At the top is the Holy of Holies: the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat--the human imagination--"his flesh." There the Cherubim of God are tabernacled to keep the path to the tree of life, which is now ours through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
Bullinger notes in Hebrews 9: 2 that the Greek word skene, tent, is used here and in the Septuagint for the tabernacle, "to render the Hebrew mishkan (the structure) and 'ohel (the tent that covered it).
The Book of Hebrews, therefore, must have authored in Aramaic or Hebrew, because while you can get the Greek 'veil' as a translation for the two-sided entrance, you cannot possibly get 'two-sided entrance' as an Aramaic translation from any of the Greek words used. Therefore, the Aramaic text that Alexander translated for the Book of Hebrews MUST be the closer of the two to the original scripture.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
10:30 AM
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