We had a presentation at RCIA last night about the history of the Bible, and the presenter made the comment that recent scholarship has found that it's possible that some of the Deuterocanonical books may have actually been originally written in Hebrew/Aramaic. Unforutnately, I'm not sure which he mentioned, although I am thinking that 1 Maccabees and possibly Baruch (and about two others). I'm just wondering if anyone else has heard this? I had not heard it, but then again, this isn't something I keep tabs on either.
Hebrew Deuterocanonicals?
Discussion in 'Free-For-All Archives' started by GraceSaves, Oct 2, 2003.
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I have never looked at this either. I would be interested as well if anyone knows. For some reason, which very well could be wrong, I thought they were written in Greek. But that may be just a random association in my mind that is absolutely untrue.
In Christ,
Neal -
Neal,
It has always been said that the originals were in Greek, so you heard "correctly." This is the first time I'd heard about them (or, some of them) being written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Again, I have no facts to support this, other than this man's testimony, but that doesn't really make it true nor false. He's a very reliable person, and so I'm sure he did his research, but I just don't know where he got it from. I will try to ask him after Mass tomorrow morning, but until then, I was just seeing if anyone else had heard of this. -
I believe some fragments of some of the "deuteros" in Hebrew and/or Aramaic were found at Qumran. (For what it's worth -- I don't imagine those were fragments of the "original originals").
Mark -
The Septuagint was supposedly a translation from the Hebrew to the Greek, for the Greek Jews in Alexandra, I understand, so the strong implication is, yes, the deuterocanonicals were in the Hebrew at one time.
And even then, if they find Hebrew fragments that date very old, they are still most probably copies of copies...of the original Hebrew.
This is an interesting topic...
God bless,
PAX
Bill+†+
Forgive us Lord,
when in longing to defend what is right,
when in trying to support the truth
we do what is hurtful and mean,
forgetting to take out
whatever logs are in our own eyes
to take the speck out of the eye of our fellows,
forgetting to work all things in love.
Lord, forgive us
when hurt by our fellow man,
we complain, and strike back.
Heal us Lord,
and give us strength to offer you
our hurts and sadnesses,
to offer you the pain of being corrected,
rather rightly or not.
If it is our job to correct,
help us learn to do it in ways that heal,
not hurt,
And whatever we do in your name,
may we always do it for your glory,
without hate, anger,
or the taint of self-righteousness.
May we learn to be quiet
in our longing and respect for you,
rather than speak words
that would drive any away from you,
or harm those who love you.
And when we speak,
may it always be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Amen. -
Carson Weber <img src="http://www.boerne.com/temp/bb_pic2.jpg">
Yes, this is true.
For example, among the Essene community at Qumran, we have discovered Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sirach or Ecclesiasticus in 1952 at Cave 2 & in 1963 at Cave 4. -
What would be some of the implications.
Of a separate, yet vaguely applicable sense, I saw something of interest recently in the Baptist only section of the board here. If I remember correctly it was about a particular Septuagint text being proven by the Dead Sea scrolls to be more accurate than the older Hebrew Masoretic text generally accepted by English translators.
Let me see if I can reference the thread:
http://www.baptistboard.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=001038;p=1#000004
Hope it works. -
Sorry, the above post should have noted the Dead Sea Scroll fragment as being older than the Masoretic text generally accepted by English translators.