Names

Joseph Herrin (02-27-2017)

It would be nice if such news were the truth. Not that I am having too much trouble determining what the proper names of God are. The above story is a satirical piece placed to fool the slumbering masses, and some Christians that do not check out their sources.

In the effort to provide meanings for the names of all the historical figures in the Bible, I am finding that with most cases, the best that people have been able to give us are their guesses. We can list the guesses of the most renowned sources and very often not come away with any agreement. The list of books to check that offer such meaning are HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, NOBSE Study Bible Name List, Brown Driver Briggs Theological Lexicon, and Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names. On very many of the names in question the source is silent. Others are bold enough to make guesses on the most untraceable names.

After spending a week trying to piece together the meanings of names, I have decided to leave blank all of those upon which the Scriptures remain silent. The book of Genesis is filled with such lists. There are relatively few names whose meaning is given in the text. An example would be Eve (Hava) whose name is given the following testimony.

Genesis 3:20

Adam called his wife Hava [life giver], because she was the mother of all living.

A good way to check out the meanings of names is to look at the other words describing them and check for their roots. This was easily enough done in this case. The word translated “living” is a partial of the name Hava meaning “alive,” or “living thing.” There are a large number of names that are given with no explanation or meaning. All names meant something in the Old Testament, unlike names today. People today are accustomed to naming their children whatever sounds good. There are still some people who give their children names according to the meaning, but it is not like it once was. When Hava experienced the murder of one son by another, she gave a good deal of thought to what the next one would be named.

Genesis 4:25

Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Sheth [appointed], “for Elohim has appointed me another child instead of Hebel, for Kayin killed him.”

When names are given, or are known, I have decided to list their meanings in the Bible. I could find a meaning for every name, but they would not be right. The reason for creating this Bible is to clarify the truth. Truth would not be helped by adding name meanings that are wrong. Instead, I would leave it to the individual to seek out the meaning.

The names of man are much more confused than the names of Yahweh. Even here there is some room for sorting, or fixing, wrong names. El Shaddai is one such case. No one knows certainly what the name meant. Most of the Bibles have translated it as “God Almighty.” When one looks at the Scriptures in which it appears, a much more likely meaning comes forth.

Genesis 17:1-2

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am El Shaddai [Possibly “The Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts”]. Walk before me, and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

Genesis 28:3

May El Shaddai [the Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts] bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which Elohim gave to Abraham.”

Genesis 35:11

Elohim said to him, “I am El Shaddai [the Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts]. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.

  

Genesis 43:14

May El Shaddai [the Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts] give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benyamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

Genesis 48:3-4

Yacob said to Yoseph, “El Shaddai [the Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.’”

These are five of the six El Shaddai appearances in the book of Genesis. By examining the name, and the things which follow, it is clear that the name was intended to mean [the Mighty One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts]. Wikipedia has an interesting article on this entry.

Shaddai meaning fertility

An alternative view proposed by Albright is that the name is connected to shadayim which means "pair of breasts" in Hebrew (from shad breast and ai-im, an ending signifying a dual noun. It may thus be connected to the notion of God’s fertility and blessings to humanity. In several instances it is connected with fruitfulness: "May God Almighty [El Shaddai] bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers…" (Gen. 28:3). "I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]: be fruitful and increase in number" (Gen. 35:11). "By the Almighty [Shaddai] who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb" (birkhōt shādayim wārāħam)(Gen. 49:25).

[Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai]

The last Scripture cited in the passage above is Genesis 49:25. In it there seems a sure sign of the meaning of El Shaddai.

Genesis 49:24-25

The arms of his hands were made strong,

by the hands of the Mighty of Jacob,

(from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

even by the El [the Mighty] of your father, who will help you;

by the Shaddai [One Who Gives Blessings of the Breasts], who will bless you,

with blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that lies below,

blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

The word “shad” means breasts. It is plain from all of these passages that Shaddai has to do with fertility. It is not a word that tells people that Yahweh is Almighty. Somewhere in time past someone made this very bad guess, and all of the English Bibles have followed suit. This is the reason for bringing out this Bible. It is the intent to give names their right place, knowing that a person’s or beings name meant a great deal.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

The Aleph Tav Scriptures

Joseph Herrin (02-22-2017)

I have had about six people write and tell me that I should include something about the Aleph and the Tav in scriptures. The picture above is the Aleph Tav in the Hebrew Script. They read right to left in Hebrew, so the characters are in that order. There is a reason that people ask about the Aleph Tav. It occurs in the very first sentence in the Bible.

You will note, however, that there is no word given for it. Is this some secret cypher that is hidden in plain sight. Many people suggest that it is. They relate it to the Alpha and Omega of Revelations.

Revelation 22:13
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

A distinction is made in this verse. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. The Aleph and the Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet. Some people maintain that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew, despite the lack of evidence. The original church was Hebrew, and remained so for a few years. It really did not get a good start in Greek until Paul began to share the gospel with the Greeks during his missionary journeys. Then far more Greeks joined the church than did Hebrews. How long was this after the initial church was born?

Paul/Saul became converted on the road to Damascus following the stoning of the first martyr Stephen. He then went and spent a number of years in Tarsus. At the end of this period he went to Antioch where he spent a year until the Spirit of Yahweh called him and Barnabas to the mission field. Consequently, it was 15 or 20 years before the first Greek mission operations were started.

We must ask then, “When did the first books of the New Testament get written?” The New Testament was not written for several decades after the church had been around. Some of it was written fifty or sixty years after the church was born. There was plenty of time for Greek speaking disciples to be saved. On top of this there were many Hellenistic Jews who spoke Greek. In order to get the Bible into the most hands it would need to be written in Greek.

The vast majority of early manuscripts of the New Testament are written in Greek. There simply isn’t evidence that the original New Testament was written in Hebrew. This leads us to a further question. Did the disciples “hear” the New Testament in Greek or Hebrew? The Scriptures give us an indication of which one it was.

Acts 26:14
And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

This was Paul telling King Agrippa about his conversion experience. He is saying the Yahshua spoke to him in Hebrew. This would have been common for Messiah to use when He spoke with men who understood Hebrew. It was the language He spoke while carrying forth His ministry in Israel. There were portions of the New Testament that were fulfilled in Greek, however. The letter to Acts is one of these books. The speaker had to break from his Greek speaking to King Agrippa to say that he was spoken to in Hebrew. The book of Acts was written to Theophilus, a Greek name or word meaning “lover of God.”

It is quite possible that Revelation was understood in Hebrew before it was written in Greek. Portions of the book are Messiah speaking, and other parts are angels speaking. It is probable that when Yahshua spoke to John that He did so in Hebrew. Why would He speak Greek to him? Messiah had spoken to him in Hebrew during His years in ministry. It makes sense that He would have continued speaking the same language.

There is no doubt that Messiah knows every language, even those that were not understood 2,000 years ago. I have heard the Messiah speak to me in my own language. Just because He can speak every language doesn’t mean the Scriptures were communicated in that language. All of the New Testament writers were Hebrew speakers, even as all of the Old Testament writers were Hebrew speakers. But the Hebrew that Moses understood would have been non-understandable to the Hebrew of the New Testament. That is why copies were continually made.

Since Yahshua most likely spoke to John in Hebrew when he was given the book of Revelation, when John heard Revelation 22:13 he would have heard it in Hebrew. Following are the words modified to show the first and last letter of Hebrew.

Revelation 22:13
"I am the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

I have shared this to reveal to you one of the reasons people give for the Aleph and the Tav being in Scripture. This symbol occurs in Scripture 7,339 times, and an additional 2,251 times as Vav Aleph Tav. The Vav Aleph Tav occurs similarly in the first sentence in the Bible.

The underlined Vav Aleph Tav is translated as “and,” but it only takes one character to spell “and.” That character is the Vav. This word included more than 2,000 times in the Old Testament is “and Aleph Tav.” Understanding that this word signifies something about Messiah, we could gain a lot of insight from this verse. However, this verse isn’t the only one in the Bible. There are literally thousands of these verses. Following are a couple examples.

Notice each place that there is a red line. The Strong’s number 853 stands for Aleph Tav. Here it is pointing to Jezebel, Baal, a grove, and the Lord God of Israel (Yahweh Elohim). That is quite a mixed bag. We can see that it doesn’t signify Yahshua the Messiah. This two letter word is actually a pointer to direct objects. In English we do not need a pointer to direct objects. English and Hebrew are very different. English is more akin to Greek than it is to Hebrew. There is no word that you can translate into English the same way as the Aleph Tav is into Hebrew.

Here is a second illustration from Leviticus. The Aleph Tav is directly pointing to Israel, the Lord (Yahweh), the priest, and sacrifices. It is not indicating anything about Yahshua. The people who have argued for some meaning have therefore looked to other meanings. In the Paleo Hebrew the Aleph and the Tav were drawn differently. They were pictograms. The Paleo Hebrew is the oldest Hebrew. The Aleph resembled the head of an ox and was noteworthy of “Strength.” The Tav was an X as seen on a contract and symbolized a covenant.

Above is a book that was written to show the Aleph Tav in its native language and writing, right next to the English. The purpose of this book is erroneous. The author has created 11 of these books with different editions of Scripture in them.

It must be said that all of the identifications for how these letters spell words are guesses only. There have been no dictionaries of Paleo Hebrew which have come down to us.

In looking at this report of significance in the Aleph Tav, I have run across different proofs of its intended meaning. Some have mentioned Esau as an example. If you remember the story of Esau, it had a low point when his father Isaac asked him to shoot and cook him some game that he might speak a blessing on him. As we know, Jacob got the blessing by tricking his nearly blind father. In the numerous times Esau is mentioned before this event he has an Aleph Tav associated with his name. In the more than seventy times he is mentioned after this event he no longer has the Aleph Tav associated.

Another example is Ruth. Her name is mentioned 12 times in the book of Ruth. The first 10 times there is no Aleph Tav associated with her name. In the last two times, which are both after Boaz has acted as a kinsman redeemer, she does have the Aleph Tav with her name. Some people take these examples and show how they reveal the strength of covenant with them. Esau lost the covenant and is no longer marked by the Aleph Tav. Ruth receives the covenant signature and has the covenant signature from that time forward. We could say these examples are credible and persuasive if they were consistent with every other example in Scripture. However, they are not. Why do Ahab and Jezebel have their names associated with this symbol? What about a grove that was planted to worship idols? Why is it associated with sacrifices to devils? It seems more likely that this is a pointer to direct objects, either good or bad, than it is significant of the Messiah or shows the strength of the covenant.

Should anyone have questions about this, I encourage you to take merely the first 100 of the more than 9,000 examples and see what they are pointing to. You will find that it points to Cain and all the men of his line as equally as it points to Seth. I can see no distinction between good and evil, between cursed and blessed, no matter how much I look. In the end I have to agree with the translators of our common Bibles. This is simply a direct object pointer and in English it has no direct counterpart.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

A Better Computer

Joseph Herrin (02-16-2017)

Three years ago I purchased a new laptop that was perfect for my needs. This past year I purchased a desktop system that was a couple years old that I thought would do the job as I needed a desktop system and no longer a laptop. It worked okay at the beginning, but has had difficulty with the different things I have added to it. The processor and other things with the system are too slow. Over the weekend, and during this past week, I have been trying to figure out what has happened with my spreadsheet that I use to manage the prison newsletters. It is giving me a (Not Responding) message after printing only the first 5 newsletters. I have tried rebuilding the spreadsheet from one that is a month old that I know is good, and it gives me the same error. The gentleman that created the spreadsheet for me tells me that it is running fine all the way through on his computer. He has asked for my newsletter that it is switching to after printing the first one, and it is still printing fine.

I have been trying everything I could think of. I even ordered a new release of the spreadsheet and tried it again. Once more I got the (Not Responding) message. I know it has something to do with my system and changes I have made to it recently. I changed the video card to one that would work well with two monitors. I asked the local computer tech whether it would work well with my system. His reply was “Yes,” though he would not recommend one more powerful than the one I had chosen. He said my computer was not built for it.

I had thought when I ordered my computer that it was fine, even for a used one. It is not. Fortunately I have some parts that I can sell or reuse. A Sound Blaster ZxR sound card will carry over, as well as a video card.

My two desktop monitors will also make the cut. I have also had a reader who thought of a way I could work around my atrocious hand writing at this time, since it is quite bad. She bought me a printer for labels that prints addresses for me. I have been giving the printer quite a workout. I have had it more than a month and it is not the cause of my spreadsheet timing out.

I noticed when I replaced my laptop computer that my system was slower. It took longer to boot up. It took remarkably longer to load a program even though I put Solid State Drives in it (they too are salvageable). What I am going to have to do is replace my computer with a faster model made for the desktop. Besides fixing the spreadsheet it should cause my programs to load faster. Until then I cannot print any newsletters. I can still work on my Bible translation for it works properly. In fact, everything is working apart from the spreadsheet. It is just working slowly.

I am hoping the men in prison will not be bothered by a temporary delay. I will be able to print the newsletters as soon as I have my new PC and it is set-up. I have some of the money on hand to purchase a new PC, and I anticipate that the remainder will be forthcoming. Until then I will devote myself full-time to translation.

Words on Translation

I have had the translation for Genesis partially done for about a week now. I am wondering whether I should change the names of people to make them more authentic. I see a problem with this in that most people will not recognize the names. Other than changing Jesus and Joshua to Yahshua, James to Jacob, and other similar names that were translated poorly, I am considering whether to give all the people their own names. Using English names for people who were not English is a problem. Many of the names, particularly of the Hebrew people, are significant. Many of them had Yah or El as part of their names. Without being able to see that a person is unlikely to draw a definition from the name.

Of paramount importance are names of people who had their names changed by rulers. Examples are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah being given the names Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. Each of these peoples names are significant in Hebrew as well as in the Babylonian language. We could go even further back to Joseph whose name was changed to Zaphenath-Paneah. The Hebrews did not have a letter that sounded like a “J.” Joseph should have been Yoseph. His name’s meaning is related in Genesis 30:24.

She named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”

My leaning right now is to make the changes to the names so that people could see them and to indicate the meaning of the name the first time it occurs.

She named him Yoseph (increase, addition), saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”

I would be interested in knowing your thoughts on this.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

The Beginning

Joseph Herrin (02-09-2017)

I finally settled on the basics I will use in creating the Bible translation I am working on. It may seem that this was a large part of the decision, and you are right. I had to look into the various translations that were available today and choose one for my starting point. In order to pick a starting point I needed a translation that was not copyrighted and that offered fairly good English. This allowed me to do what the translators of the King James Version did with their translation. They said they wanted to create a better translation than they had, though they did not strive for perfection. They basically took the Bishops Bible and some others and made a better one.

Some may ask, “Why do you need a translation as a starting point?” The reason is that much has been done already. The Holy Scriptures have been put into English according to men’s understanding, or the biases they labored under. My aim is to simply make a good translation better, as the King James Version translators said of themselves. In accordance with this I have chosen the American Standard Version of 1901 as my starting point.

There are still many changes to be made. I am correcting the stilted form of expression by using more up to date language. One thing man rarely concerns himself with is how different a tongue is from generation to generation. Yet if we try to read an old book written in the style of writing that was part of the period out of which it was birthed, we will find ourselves with many objections. Not only will the common words have changed, but the style of writing will no longer be what is used today. We can therefore try for one of two things. We can aim for the type of writing that was used when the document was originally created, or we can shoot for the type of writing that is used today.

Even the King James Version of 1611 is too far out of touch with its antiquated language to appeal to the masses. We must remember the Hebrew and Greek Bibles were written in the common language of the people. Much of them are quoting the language that people spoke. This is why many people use the 1769 KJV translation which has replaced many of the spellings of words, and has exchanged some words for more recent alterations. Of course, we are talking about 1769 here, and it did use the much older “thee”s and “thou”s. People no longer talk this way. It also had some words that were wrong, such as “unicorn,” “satyr,” and “Easter.”

I am going through the book of Genesis at this time, making various changes. I am including all the names or titles for deity. Some of them are unknown. The translators of our Bibles have merely taken their best guess, or held to some basic error in the names. In Genesis 22:14 it says,


Genesis 22:14
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
KJV

Genesis 22:14
Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it will be provided."
NASU

I have researched this verse and came across the following regarding the name for Yahweh here, which is El Shaddai.

Shaddai meaning fertility
An alternative view proposed by Albright is that the name is connected to shadayim which means "pair of breasts" in Hebrew (from shad breast and ai-im, an ending signifying a dual noun. It may thus be connected to the notion of God’s fertility and blessings to humanity. In several instances it is connected with fruitfulness: "May God Almighty [El Shaddai] bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers…" (Gen. 28:3). "I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]: be fruitful and increase in number" (Gen. 35:11). "By the Almighty [Shaddai] who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb" (birkhōt shādayim wārāħam)(Gen. 49:25).
[Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai]

The report on Wikipedia also list several other possible definitions, but this one seems the most plausible. This is the first appearing of this name in Scripture. It is also only used in a couple of translations. I have treated it as the following:

Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Yireh (Yahweh Makes Fruitful). As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be made fruitful.”
Heart of David Bible

The following verses bring out this name even more.

The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Heart of David Bible

Fruitfulness is certainly what Yahweh had in mind. Consider for a moment that this is a foreshadowing of the Lamb of Yahweh being given for mankind. Truly it is wonderful.

I am also correctly translating asah and bara. These are very distinct words that have different meanings. Asah is translated “made” and bara means “create.” These words are used in great distinction to demonstrate what was made and what was created. The things that were (asah) made were refashioned out of things that formerly existed in the first chapter of Genesis. Bara indicates those things that were created from nothing. Also, there is the Hebrew word “male” which means “replenish,” or “refill.” This word is used in Genesis chapter 1 where Elohim blesses the creatures of the sea, for they are “refilling” it. He again uses the word to “refill” the earth when speaking to Noah and his sons after the flood - Genesis 9:1. It is necessary to make these words agree with one another in order to understand creation.

http://www.heart4god.ws/index_htm_files/Foundations.pdf

I have had some periods of weeping as I’ve worked on the book. I want to tell myself this is the result of having a stroke. My emotions seem much closer to the surface, though the one I know the best is laughter. I know this is not completely true however. I used to weep over certain passages when I would read them. Some passages I see myself in. As I read about Abraham taking his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice I see a reflection of my life. Yahweh took me through a very painful experience with my son about 14 years ago. I will not go into it here, but those who are not familiar with it can read a chapter from my autobiography. The chapter is called My Son, My Son.

Evidence of Things Unseen

I wept again when I reached the part of Abraham charging his servant with going back to his homeland to get his son Isaac a bride. The tears flowed as I read of Rebekah meeting the servant out where the camels are watered. They were unrestrained as I read of Rebekah running home with the bracelets on her arms and the ring in her nose. I wept again as I read of Laban running out to where the servant was standing by the camels, telling him that he should come to their home for all had been made ready. I had to get up and get a washcloth out of the bathroom to dry my tears.

This story has always gotten to me, but I cried harder than ever as I read it this time. I don’t know why this account of Yahweh showing favor to Abraham touches me so profoundly. I guess it is because of the goodness of Yahweh that has been poured out on my life. Life is not a drudgery. It is impossibly good. Even living here in my bus is beyond my expectation. When I started trusting Yahweh with all my heart 18 years ago, He made something beautiful out of it. It is especially precious in looking back at the times I have had to suffer for Yahweh and Yahshua. My life would be that much less precious if I had never suffered for them. I know there will be other stories in Genesis that result in weeping. Some things can’t be helped.

I would be remiss if I did not ask for help in this translation. If you know of any Scriptures that need correcting, then I would like to take a look at them. Right now I am working on Genesis, so I would like to keep your thoughts focused on what is at hand. I am not promising that I will make the exact changes to the Scriptures that you want, but I will take a look at all of your suggestions.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

Time

Joseph Herrin (02-02-2017)

Time. It’s a requirement for what I have proposed to do. Translating a new Bible with all of the changes I have set forth is a time intensive task. I have been taking some steps to begin this task already. I have been checking out software, both Bible software and editing software. I have ordered some which has added a delay to the task, and I have downloaded some onto my PC direct from the Internet.

Beyond this, I have hooked a second monitor up to my PC to give me the workspace I desired. My efforts have led to an expense as my first video set-up with dual monitors was causing my computer to occasionally crash. I was afraid that it would crash at a point where I would not like to lose the labor I have done on the Bible translation, so I ordered a new video card to hook both of my monitors to a HDMI connection. That has now been taken care of.

On top of this, my Internet access has been down for portions of 4 days recently. Problems and advancements on the local DSL network have taken a toll on the Internet’s uptime. Today it is out, also. This too has caused me some delays, but during all of it I have been making progress. Following is a photo of my computer with dual monitors hooked up.

During my time I have made some decisions regarding aspects of the Scripture translation job I am going to work on. I have decided to forego chapters and verses. This, I have learned, is a type of book called a “Readers Bible.” Some popular ones are the English Standard Version Reader’s Bible, and the Bibliotheca. Also, the New American Standard Bible has a version without chapters and verses on Kindle. There is a copy of the New King James Version and the King James Version also. Likewise the World English Bible is available in various formats without chapters and verses. I am sure there are more, but those are the ones that stand out to me. Seeing that the invention of chapters and verses in the Bible is only about 500 years old, I am in favor of putting it back to its original character as a group of books.

Looking at the Bibliotheca (www.bibliotheca.co) I was surprised to learn that it was a Kickstarter funded project. The creator of the project expected 500 would be necessary to pay for it, at a cost of $37,000. He was blown away when he was able to raise $1,440,385 on Kickstarter. Since then he continues to sell them via his webpage. The Bibliotheca is basically an American Standard Version from 1901. This book was chosen because it is now in the public domain. Also, it was chosen for its literal accuracy.

Unfortunately this Bible is not that literally accurate, not having the names of Yahweh and Yahshua, and including the myths and fables of an eternal hell and Sunday worship. I have in the time allotted been able to view many videos on the Sabbath, and even in the New Testament the saints were meeting on Saturday. It is a shame that Christianity today knows nothing of the Sun worship that went on back then, and how the Roman Emperors forbade the saints from worshiping on any day but Sunday. If you look at any of the 8 accounts in the New Testament that speak of the saints meeting that are translated something akin to “On the first day of the week”you will see that they all included the word Sabbath. It was literally, “one one of the Sabbaths.” Furthermore, there were other words for “week” that the Greeks used. These are but a few of the inaccuracies of the Bible.

It should not surprise people that if Yahweh allowed the Church to be so deceived in her doctrines today, that the Bible has not escaped either. The inaccuracy need not be in the original languages. It is enough to put them in the translations. The translations have very much copied one another for the past 500 years that the printing press has been in use. That is not to say that the men were all corrupt at heart who translated the Scriptures. It just means that error was in force for so long that it was believed by them as well.

I do like the way in which the man has made 4 books out of the Bibliotheca.

Bibliotheca Video
https://vimeo.com/9941811

As we learned in Yahweh’s Book it was a common practice of the Jews to separate the Old Testament up into 3 groups, the Torah, the Neviim, the Kethubim, or TaNaKh. The New Testament follows as a 4th book. Whether I will set forth the Scriptures as 4 books, I am not sure at this time, but I would like to have the 4 sections marked out.

Another reason for the exclusion of chapters and verses is to instill the original thought of the book. For example, the book of Acts has 6 sections that each end with some form of the phrase “and the word of the Lord continued to spread and flourish.”

These are a few of the things I have been thinking about. May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
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Montezuma, GA 31063