The Becoming God

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Victor N. Alexander is Alive

Vic Alexander, a native Aramaic-language speaker who undertook to translate the entire New Testament and a large portion of the Old Testament from the ancient Aramaic into English, is alive and living in Glendale, California.

Vic's website, v-a.com, went offline years ago, and e-mails to vic@v-a.com went unanswered. As I often use Vic's translations, I received a number of inquiries as to whether Vic had passed. Even his residence in Burbank changed hands. It turns out Vic had health issues, moved closer to his treatment center, and that treatment made it impossible for him to continue his web site and translation work.

I recently re-established communication with Vic at vicalexander37@gmail.com. This information, copied (and corrected--his zip is 91201) from his linkedin.com page, is accurate as of the 29th of December, 2019:

"Investor
Billionaire
Jun 2017 – May 2018 1 year
1129 Linden Avenue #2, Glendale, CA 91201
I found out that I'm the sole heir of Nimrud Alexander, first CIA Director who placed money under my name since 1906 and was assassinated by foreign enemies leaving me a fortunate which cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. I have converted that fortune to the benefit of all those who want to make the world a better place. Contact me at vicalexander37@gmail.com"

Yes, it seems Vic might have some residual cognitive effects from his treatment (he ain't no billionaire). Please do not judge him for that. Instead, please respond to this: I informed Vic that "Duke" had left a message offering support on Vic's Story of Jesus From His Own Words Amazon page. Vic responded:

"Thanks, Dan. Can you encourage these people to make a small contribution directly to me?

"Thanks,
Vic Alexander
1129 Linden Ave #2
Glendale, CA 91201"

Later Vic responded with this:

"Thanks, Dan. I will send you the book as as I receive your order. I have to help Liv with some money. My son-in-law Donald Trump has prevent everyone from sending one cent.

"God bless,
Victor Isaac Alexander
(v-a.com has been removed from my pair.com account by US Govt. hacker, so as to starve me and Liv financially.)"

Another comment was:

"I don't have any money to use a new hosting account. My Bible translation has been shut down by the order of President Trump, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, Pope Francis I, and the US Government."

And one last response for today:

"Hi Dan,
Yes, people can order directly from me. My v-a.com has been stolen but if you send me about $100 I can repost my Bible page from another web-hosting company."

Clearly, Vic has been affected cognitively by his medical treatments. I can't hold it against him, and his prior work of translation is unaffected. So if you have profited from Vic’s many years effort of translating the ancient Aramaic scriptures into English and would like to help him out now, please consider sending a contribution directly to him at:

Vic Alexander
1129 Linden Ave #2
Glendale, CA 91201

You can also contact Vic directly via vicalexander37@gmail.com

I have asked Vic to lower his prices to sell many more of his books, as I believe he has priced himself out of the market. He deserves to be compensated for his efforts, but I think he could get it by selling massively at a lower prices than he is currently asking. That is just my opinion. Buy his books through Amazon.com -- it will be as a contribution to him. Of course, direct small contributions would help Vic and Liv.

I am asked, "Why, Dan, do you promote Vic Alexander's translations? He is a solo worker, and by your own account the translations are full of typos."

Because he is approaching the writings of Aramaic speaking authors as an educated Aramaic speaker. The whole kit-and-caboodle of the Scriptures was Aramaic-speaking agents acting in an Aramaic world. They had an Aramaic world view, Aramaic thoughts, ideas, and expressions. I do not give a hoot if a period is on the wrong side of a quotation mark, or if a word is obviously misspelled. Vic's idiomatic phrasing of Aramaic ideas has been invaluable to me. Line after line I see that this and that passage have been mistranslated and misunderstood, and that I have misread this or that passage for decades. Whole basic doctrines I held had been based on false assumptions and misunderstandings, which I would never have known were false if I had not read the Aramaic point of view from Vic. GOD IS DOING A DIFFERENT THING THAN I HAD EVER KNOWN OR ASSUMED. VICTOR ALEXANDER HAS TURNED MY WHOLE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, AND THAT IS A GOOD THING (thanks, Vic). Finally, I have some direction as to what it is that is really going on.

I do not know if Vic will ever lower his prices on his translations and Story of Jesus From His Own Words (which I also highly recommend), but I am exceedingly glad to have them, minor errors and all. I have never asked for a dime on my blog, and have never received anything from Vic or anyone else. I act solely for the Lord and the Ancient Aramaic Church, the Congregation of His Brethren which exists solely in having the ancient Aramaic worldview. For it, I humbly ask you to support Vic.

posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at 6:17 PM

18 Comments:

  • Huh? No disrespect but the correspondences you have posted here make him sound delusional. How can you trust any of his translations at all?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:25 PM  

  • I can read. Delusional? Now, yes. Then? No. He did invaluable translation work BEFORE medical treatments incapacitated him. Why do you think Satan attacked him? Principle: look at what ignorance is attacking, THAT’s what you want. Look at the lies and slander poured upon the Pentecostals. Yeah, there are horrible attacks going on within and without the house. SO GLAD I’M IN IT!! If Satan is so against me, I must be doing something right.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 2:29 PM  

  • I'm confused further. Your reply speaks of Satan in the traditional religious sense - an evil force that "attacks." But Neville equated Satan with one's own doubt.

    What treatments did he have?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:11 AM  

  • Neville encountered God’s Power, and it was a man. He was embraced by God’s Love, and it was a man. Satan may be God’s doubt, I consider it our ignorance, but it is a man. Really? Of course not. That’s just how we deal with such things.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 10:45 AM  

  • Can you help me locate a complete Bible translated from Aramaic? Did Victor trsnslate old and new testaments or just the new? That is all I seem to be able to find when searching book outlets.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:22 AM  

  • I have referred your question to Andrew Chapman in Oxford, UK. Here are some of his posts:

    https://theriveroflife.com/2017/03/29/brian-simmons-and-his-passion-anti-translation-what-text-is-victor-alexander-translating-from-part-1/

    https://theriveroflife.com/2017/04/06/brian-simmons-and-his-passion-anti-translation-what-text-is-victor-alexander-translating-from-2/

    https://theriveroflife.com/2017/04/16/brian-simmons-and-his-passion-anti-translation-what-text-is-victor-alexander-translating-from-3/

    I have asked him for a recommendation. Check back later, okay?

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 5:48 PM  

  • Dan, thank you. I will bookmark this post and check back.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:06 PM  

  • Later Vic responded with this:

    "Thanks, Dan. I will send you the book as as I receive your order. I have to help Liv with some money. My son-in-law Donald Trump has prevent everyone from sending one cent.ha ha ha! really?
    I smell a rat!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:29 AM  

  • Dear Anonymous at 2:29 AM,

    I hope you will learn how to read. The most valuable part of my time in seminary was that I learned, at long last, how to read -- I had to wrestle through a lot of thick, heavy books to get to what the authors really meant by what they were saying. There will be no more rewarding talent than learning how to read. Seriously. If you could read, and you had read, you would understand that what you "smell" is more likely entrance into dementia. Vic spent more than twenty years in an individual effort to translate the New Testament and much of the Old according to a native Aramaic speaker's understanding of the ancient language. I find in his a perspective not found in other translations from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, or paraphrases. He has looked at the dictionaries and in many cases said, "Yeah, but it doesn't mean that when we speak it." When I catch those, it's like explosions of revelation in my mind as illumination comes in rewriting everything I thought I knew. But only because I learned how to read. We will not find the Truth on any written page; only in the Man they are written about.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 12:20 PM  

  • Thank you for sharing about Vic. Vic's work is stunning -typos and all- studded with foot notes- this was a labor of great love. from a mystical perspective it captures the very heart of Jesus' mystical teachings, where slight word changes bring to life the essence of the guidance he offers in a New Testament for the transcendence of the ego/consciousness through forgiveness- to be in the world and not of it. And Vic's translation of the first paragraph of Genesis contains the key word "Son" that is essential to the understanding of the Bible yet missing from most editions: "The Son of God created..." This is also what A Course in Miracles teaches.

    The power carried by the translation of Jesus' last words on the Cross is unmistakable- rather than the usual "why have you forsaken me?" which Jesus would not have said this, for he knew he could not be forsaken by the Father, vic translates: "For this I am granted or bestowed"- Jesus followed the Father's will to demonstrate that death has no power over the Son of God. This is a declaration of Unity with Absolute Reality, beyond "I and the Father are One." This is profound and helpful for anyone seeking to follow in Jesus' footsteps to recognize and celebrate unity with God.

    at one time you could find Vic's web site archived on the wayback machine, but I can't find it now... it does indeed look like it might have been coopted by a Rumanian group?? someone with greater skill than I might be able to find it...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:33 PM  

  • Thank you for sharing about Vic. Vic's work is stunning -typos and all- studded with foot notes- this was a labor of great love. from a mystical perspective it captures the very heart of Jesus' mystical teachings, where slight word changes bring to life the essence of the guidance he offers in a New Testament for the transcendence of the ego/consciousness through forgiveness- to be in the world and not of it. And Vic's translation of the first paragraph of Genesis contains the key word "Son" that is essential to the understanding of the Bible yet missing from most editions: "The Son of God created..." This is also what A Course in Miracles teaches.

    The power carried by the translation of Jesus' last words on the Cross is unmistakable- rather than the usual "why have you forsaken me?" which Jesus would not have said this, for he knew he could not be forsaken by the Father, vic translates: "For this I am granted or bestowed"- Jesus followed the Father's will to demonstrate that death has no power over the Son of God. This is a declaration of Unity with Absolute Reality, beyond "I and the Father are One." This is profound and helpful for anyone seeking to follow in Jesus' footsteps to recognize and celebrate unity with God.

    at one time you could find Vic's web site archived on the wayback machine, but I can't find it now... it does indeed look like it might have been coopted by a Rumanian group?? someone with greater skill than I might be able to find it...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:35 PM  

  • I wished Vic and Liv a happy Easter on April 4, 2021. He said he had gone to the church across the street from where he lives.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 6:17 PM  

  • Hi, Thank you for your blog about Victor N. Alexander. I agree whole heartedly with you as my feelings and realisations are much the same. I am grateful for Victor's work in ways mere words don't express. I just finished reading Hebrews ch 1 and was moved to find out what's happening in his life and publications and found your blog. Thank you so much for this information and most of all your kindness toward him. I look forward to meeting up in the Awengalyon (sp) where we will just love on him, big time... for now I'm glad Amazon is selling for him. I haven't looked yet at the prices. I'm pretty pleased, fortunate and fully blessed I managed to get my paperback NT.
    I'm sorry he has troubles. We can pray for him and safe deliverance for him and his family in the closing hours of their lives what with all the carry on... I don't know what else to say. I'm just renting, not employed, making a dollar go further... but when I study from the translation Victor achieved I know no bounds . It's so good. I also compare and contrast w other versions I've been able to collect over the years. Victor's is the rare fine wine. Cheers to you and yours from me, Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺

    By Blogger Hillary Here, at 5:14 PM  

  • Just a side note....you know there is no such thing as "original aramaic text" . The most respected texts are translations from greek texts called peshitta. Back translating it into Aramaic would produce a new "imaginative guess" work translation as there is nobody alive that speaks Jesus time aramaic. I have also heard that Viktor abandoned his original translation from the Peshitta and continued from "misterious original araimaic text" he received from someone as the true text and he wont show it to anyone So you can evaluate Viktor's translation from that perspective.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:24 AM  

  • Dear Anonymous 2:24,

    I am not 100% convinced that there is not an original Aramaic text. We have to grant that the original EVENTS and COMMUNICATION of the New Testament were LIVED in Aramaic. The Jewish personally-knew-the-guy Church that Paul and his ilk persecuted spoke Jesus'-time Aramaic as their mother tongue. Their traditions went towards the East as the Greek translation of their lives went to the West. There might be something to their "imaginative guess work." Speaking of persecution, Paul also testifies that he and his ilk who didn't know the guy did everything they could to destroy the church who did. Add the Arab/Islamic efforts to do the same and you have a ecclesia who has squirreled away their most cherished texts. And those guys were reputed to have very good memories. Did Victor get hold of some mysterious original Aramaic text? I probably should go over and ask him personally. In the meantime, we've got a guy who has got a pretty good handle on what the ancient Aramaic text MEANS by what it says, and--surprise, surprise--it often doesn't mean what we THOUGHT it means. Personally, I value Victor's perspective and sensitivity to the Church of the East's point of view. There is something there for us to learn.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 1:51 PM  

  • This is true about Paul. It took me a long time to figure this out and now that I did (2015) it’s glaringly obvious. People don’t seek and therefore they don’t find.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:05 PM  

  • With you I am working out why in the West we find thousands of very ancient Greek New Testament fragments, scrolls and parchments, vellums, codices scattered throughout the place; and in the East there is nada, zero, zilch, zippo Aramaic scripture evidences (even though much of the Quran may be Arab version of Aramaic hymns, praise and worship of Jesus [see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UPloJW0Oo4]). It strikes me that the East already enjoyed the theology and perspective of their native milieu. Their information did not need explanation. The West, however, needed the stories and explanations of the New Testament to counter Mithraism, Egyptian, Greek, and Romanish religions. The West needed formulations unnecessary in the East, so they got books, while the East got edification of things that had been taught. The packages were different for the different needs of the parties involved. The first church SPOKE Aramaic, preached and lived it. The second church needed EXPLANATIONS of that life, and preached and lived them.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 1:17 AM  

  • If you were in a war and found the body of a great fighter riddled with dozens of enemy arrows, would you think less of him because the enemy had attacked him? Or would you think, "He must have been a real pain in the neck of our enemy for them to attack him so viciously." I am humbled to have any of Vic Alexander's translations from the Ancient Aramaic in my hands. He was just about to translate Joel chapter 2 when Satan struck him. I wonder why.

    By Blogger Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 1:27 AM  

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