Transcript: Episode 0104

This transcript:
  1. Was machine generated.
  2. Has not been checked for errors.
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Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.

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I am Corey J.

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Mahler.

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And I'm still, whoa.

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On today's Stone Choir, we are continuing our series on the Septuagint with a discussion of some alterations to content of a couple of key books in the Old Testament, as well as alterations to the timelines of really the history of humanity and particularly the history of the Old Testament chronology, which alters things including the beginning of time itself.

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So we'll talk about that a little bit.

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Before we get into the content, I want to just give a brief recap of where we have been, including where we've been for last month.

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I'm very sorry that we haven't had an episode for a while.

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Something blows up every time we try to record the day that we are going to record whatever day that happens to be.

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It's pretty much the worst day of my life.

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So I'm not going to wind up being a podcaster because it's the easiest job in the world, but it's embarrassing that I still can't get it done.

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I lost my voice 15 minutes into recording last week.

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My voice is still weak, which stinks because I have no margin of error.

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Even my voice is strong, it's not strong.

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So I'm probably going to sort of peter out towards the end of this, but we're going to get this done no matter what.

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The Septuagint framework that we eventually evolved as we were looking at this mass of content, we've been looking at for now the last 18 months.

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We began in episode 99 with introducing the concept of the context window.

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Basically say there's going to be so much here you can't keep it all in your head.

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That's nothing to be ashamed of or worried about, but there's a lot going on here beyond just how a couple of verses changed.

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And so we can fix those in our Bibles and we don't have to worry about it.

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A Septuagint thing is irrelevant.

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In episode 101, we went over the Near Eastern chronology of the use and then disuse of the Septuagint.

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And then in 101, we talked about what happened in the early Church in the West up through the Reformation.

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Why did we stop even talking about it?

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Because the whole reason that we're here talking about today is that for 1100 years, it just kind of vanished and no one gave it any thought at all.

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And we had to explain why it just went away because that was never a conscious decision, which is a big problem.

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That would be one thing if the Church had decided the Septuagint is garbage, it's not authentic, we don't want anything to do with it.

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That would have been wrong, but at least it would have been an active decision.

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Instead, you have Jerome just sort of casually deciding unilaterally, I'm going to use what the Rabbinic text says.

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And because Greek had been lost mostly at that point, and Latin was necessary for the Church in the West, everyone just went along with it because they just needed a Latin Bible.

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And he produced one.

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He was generally respected as a scholar, so we explained how that happened.

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It was carelessness on the part of the Church, and it was nasty on the part of Jerome, if not outright evil.

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And then we're concluding our three-part, middle-part series of the Septuagint this week in the Old Testament section where we began with the Christological passages in the Old Testament that were changed, some added, some removed, some altered, and talked about how important it is that these things are being messed with.

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Whether the Septuagint is fake, whether it's wrong, or whether the Rabbinic text is fake and wrong, these things are different enough that we have to really take seriously.

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When you're messing with Christology, you're going for the family jewels.

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This is not peripheral stuff.

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So we began there, and we began explicitly with Isaiah 714, because that verse about the Virgin Birth is the one that everyone wants to get tunnel vision on.

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And pretend that's a big change.

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And so if you clean that up and you can explain that, you have to worry about the rest of the Septuagint stuff.

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We've done the episode on a whole bunch of Christology.

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We did the previous episode talking about wisdom literature.

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And because we covered a lot of Psalms in the Christology episode, we mostly focused on Proverbs in the wisdom literature episode the last time.

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And this week, we're going to be concluding the Old Testament changes, focusing on Esther and Job, two books which have been changed so radically, either in their content or in their framing within the broader context of Scripture, that they're not even the same book in the Septuagint versus the Rabbinic text that we're all familiar with.

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So we're going to spend a good amount of time today talking about the differences there.

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As I said, the last portion, which is where we're going to begin this week, is on changes in the timelines, because the big change in Job in terms of context is the timeline, which is completely stripped out of it.

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If you've read Job, he's just floating in space and the olden times, this man who is Christians we believe was a mythical, but we have no idea who he was, why did he have all this money?

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He must have been pretty important, but we don't know anything about him.

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What was deleted by the rabbis explains quite clearly who Job was.

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To begin talking about timelines, I want to point out something that will be the case as we're going throughout this episode.

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There's a difference between accuracy and precision.

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Accuracy means getting something right.

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For example, the year of Jesus' birth.

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Some people believe it was AD 1 as it was calculated and we were using it as a calendar, really for only about the last 800 years, incidentally.

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The early Christian Church had no notion of this BCAD thing that was invented in the 6th century.

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And it was surprise, surprise, Alcantara of York and Charlemagne that normalized in the West the use of the year of Jesus' birth as year 1 for us counting forward.

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It wasn't until the 1700s when Russia began to move away from the Byzantine Count and the calendar and adopt the calendar the rest of Europe uses that the last vestiges of Christianity using a calendar based on the creation of the world was in general use.

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We're not going to talk too much about different calendaring systems this week.

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That will be a significant portion of the bonus episode we're going to do when we're talking about how to fix the Septuagint translation problem that is ahead of the church.

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We're also going to talk about the calendar problem because it's not a trivial one.

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But I bring it up now because it illustrates that as long as everyone's on the same page, you're going to be able to be precise.

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So when we talk about the current calendar, we all know what day we're talking about.

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When you go back in time, if you start looking at historical records, you will very quickly run into all sorts of problems where if someone hasn't come along and reconciled the calendar system we use today with one they were using at the time, you can be off by months or years, centuries in some cases, just depending on which calendaring system was being used by whoever is recording.

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Now, the important thing to understand about time, this isn't too philosophical, is that it's a dimension.

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It's a part of creation and it's always relative.

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So, for example, I live in the Northeast.

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In North America, if you live in North America, I am almost certainly to the northeast of you.

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But northeast is only a relative comment.

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I'm not northeast of any of you who are listening from Europe.

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I'm southwest, because Europe is further north even than where I am.

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It's kind of weird if you ever look at the latitudes, Europe is a lot further north than North America relative to the weather that we have.

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It's remarkable how much the oceans change things.

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So, in space, we understand perfectly well what relativity means when it comes to a fixed reference point.

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It's always relative to someone else.

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That's why something like the North Pole is valuable.

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But even then, are you talking about the Magnetic North Pole, or are you talking about Geographic North Pole?

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Because they're two different things, and one of them is moving.

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It may flip, actually.

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That would be pretty exciting if that happens in our lifetimes.

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Time works the same way.

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Time is fixed, it doesn't vary.

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Well, that's a physics problem.

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We'll say for the sake of argument, it doesn't vary.

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In terms of, you know, a day is a day, a year is a year.

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And for human purposes, that is not going to be changing.

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So whether Jesus was born in 1 AD, as some say, maybe he was born in 3 BC, which others say, some of you probably have strongly held opinions.

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I honestly don't know.

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I've looked at the arguments for both and they seem convincing.

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I have yet to either spend or waste the time trying to reconcile them and figure out which one I prefer or make up my own or whatever.

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I don't really care.

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Because as long as we're all on the same page, we can be precise about our comparisons, even if the accuracy of the claim that Jesus was born in AD 1 may or may not be true.

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What is important about the birth of Jesus in terms of timelines is that we are 2,000 years in change away from Jesus' birth, which means that around about 20, 30, five years from now, we're going to be at the 2,000th anniversary of either the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, or if he was born prior to 1 AD, possibly his death, resurrection and ascension, both of which I think could potentially have significance.

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Not because man imbues significance to round numbers, but God does.

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God likes round numbers a whole lot.

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So, not one iota of my faith hinges upon something happening in 2030 or 33 or thereabout.

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Don't know.

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Don't care.

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But I'm paying attention.

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If things get a hundred times worse between now and 2030, I'm really going to be paying attention.

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I would hope that you would too.

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But who knows?

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It doesn't matter about the accuracy of what God has not predicted specifically is going to happen, but we are told to watch.

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And time does matter.

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One of the things that we've said in the past, I'm really glad we did.

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In the episode on evolution, we titled that 6,000 years and counting.

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And we mentioned in that episode that there are a couple of different competing timelines, which we are going to talk about here today.

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There is the Rabbinic timeline, which we based the name of the episode on, where the creation of the earth was about 6,000 years ago.

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If you use the Septuagint numbering instead, which the early church did, everybody did.

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It wasn't just a Bible thing.

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It was the general use of the calendar, counting back to about 7,500 years ago.

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So about 5,500 would be the beginning of the universe.

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We mentioned in the 6,000 years and counting episode that those two competing timelines existed.

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And I'm really glad that we chose the wrong one to title it, because it's an example of one of the things that we as a church are going to have to deal with in the future.

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We will have made mistakes about things.

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When we have relied on the Rabbinic text, there are going to be cases where we've made mistakes.

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We cannot have any ego bound up.

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And, well, I was wrong.

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Now, it's important to know that there are sometimes the mistakes are incidental, as in the case of us naming it 6,000 years and counting, instead of 7,500.

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But in other cases, the mistakes can be material, which was not there.

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So we don't need to go back and, we're not going to change the show notes for that episode, because there's nothing to retract.

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Because the argument that we made against evolution, we very specifically said, it doesn't matter if it was 6,000 years ago or 7,500 years ago.

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Either way, Adam was the first man.

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There was zero evolution because there was zero death.

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So if nothing is dying, nothing is evolving.

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Adam was created from dust, and every man alive since then is descended from him, period.

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No monkeys, no whales, no fish, no amoeba, no soup, nothing.

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So the entire argument that we made in the 6,000 years and counting episode against evolution, would have worked identically if we had used the Septuagint numbering.

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And had we been making an argument at that time, the hinged on the 1500 year difference, we wouldn't have done the episode until we figured out which one was right.

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But because it was a material, we didn't really look into it.

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It would have been a different timeline for everything about Stone Choir, because if we dug into the Septuagint when we did, I think we probably would have been doing this series of laws sooner, because the changes, the errors, the mistakes are obvious and they're huge.

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But sometimes your arguments are going to have been made in good faith, but not predicated on something that you have to give up.

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So evolution is still false, regardless of which timeline we're using.

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It's okay to have made mistakes.

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It's important to understand the nature and the character of your mistakes.

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We will, as a church, be getting into the future places where we find that certain aspects of what we believe doesn't actually hold up relative to the Septuagint.

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Are we going to be bound up in our egos to say, no, I'm a Christian, I would never make a mistake?

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Or are we going to accept the simple fact, the simple argument?

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We weren't actually looking at scripture when we made those conclusions.

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What is our duty to as Christians?

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It's to the Word of God, which then raises the question, which is the Word of God?

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And so it's not a circular argument, but you can beg the question, if you assume that what you were previously using was the pure Word of God, and it turns out it wasn't, which is what we're demonstrating here.

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As Corey will get into later on, our Bibles are littered with places where, despite claiming to have used the Rabbinic text, they ignored entirely and used the Septuagint.

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All over the place.

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We confess the Septuagint left and right today as Christians.

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God has preserved our faith by the Septuagint, even while post-Reformation everyone was pretending to ignore it.

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The importance of acknowledging that we made mistakes is necessary because otherwise, repentance isn't possible.

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If you go back and listen to the entire episode on repentance, that's the point.

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You have to realize you did something wrong.

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Repentance is not simply a question of sin.

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It's a question of error.

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It's a question of mistake.

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If you've ever accidentally driven down the wrong side of a divided street, I did this once in Madison.

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It was scary.

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It was late at night, so it didn't matter.

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It was a very wide intersection.

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I was making a left turn.

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It was confusing the way it was laid out.

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I accidentally went down the wrong way for 10 feet.

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I realized my error as I was turning in, and I had to back up and then go through another.

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No one else was around, so no one got hurt.

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But I repented of my wrong left turn.

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That's repentance.

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You back up, you fix it.

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It's embarrassing.

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It's potentially dangerous, but you gotta do it.

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The alternative, the egoistic approach to making a wrong left turn and ending up on the wrong side of a street, you just keep going.

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I'm an excellent driver.

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I don't make mistakes when I'm driving.

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And you drive down the wrong side and you hit somebody head on.

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We're in that position as a church where we have relied in good conscience on things that we are going to realize are not reliable, and we're going to be covering some of those today.

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But just keep in mind that as you realize these things, don't be embarrassed.

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That's not the important part.

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The important part is not that you were wrong about anything or whatever.

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The important part is not that you were embarrassed by a mistake.

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The important part is to be in accord with God, whatever God's word is.

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Even if you totally reject everything that we say about the Septuagint and you triple down on the Rabbinic text, well, like I just said, you're going to have to burn your Bible that's based on the Rabbinic text, because it's not really.

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Your Old Testament is full of Septuagint.

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If you actually reject the Septuagint, you have to get rid of every Bible you have and fix the ones that rely on the Rabbinic text where frequently the Hebrew is unclear.

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Corey and I were joking earlier, the footnote is so frequently used that the Hebrew is unclear, that we wish that we could title one of these episodes with that.

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That footnote, the Hebrew is unclear, is basically where the church has been.

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But those decisions have been left to these translators and translation committees.

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Usually, they don't even footnote the stuff.

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So use a reader just plowing through scripture, I have no idea.

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You don't know when you're reading the Old Testament over and over again.

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You've been reading the Septuagint, just in bits and pieces.

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Places where the rabbi is either corrupted or just lost or confused things to the point that, or in some cases, Hebrew is just so worthless as a so-called language, you can't actually use it.

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God has preserved the church through the Septuagint, even while we've been wandering through the wilderness here with this Hebrew crap.

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When we come back, we're going to be a little bit embarrassed.

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We're going to realize that we have to put some footnotes in some of our own comments in the past and realize the things that we said before we can't say again because they don't hold up.

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Repentance means accepting that and doing it humbly and willfully and with full knowledge that God forgives our errors, but He will not forgive those who cling to their error in the face of rebuke.

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The timelines that we're going to be talking about here are not new in the Septuagint either.

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Going back to about 220 BC, the timelines that we're going to be discussing, where the genealogies, as is principally where the alterations have occurred in the Rabbinic text, and the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11, the patriarchs have had their generations altered radically and very ham-fistedly in a fashion that is novel to the church.

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Going back to about 220 BC, Demetrius, the chronographer, and in 150 BC roughly, a man named Oipolemus, both of whom were cited by Eusebius in 325 AD, attest to the Septuagint chronologies that we're going to talk about.

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And in the first century of both Philo of Alexandria, the Jewish convert into Judaism we've talked about previously, and Josephus, both used the Septuagint chronologies as factual.

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So the first time in the church that the Rabbinic timelines that we're all used to today, the ones that I mentioned in the evolution episode, the one thing that I couldn't reconcile about the Rabbinic timeline of, you know, the flood being about 4,500 years ago, was that there are pyramids that are 4,700 years old.

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That's a fact.

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It's not ambiguous.

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There are unambiguously pyramids that can be proven to be 200 years older than the date in the Rabbinic text says the flood occurred.

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I'm pretty sure I acknowledged in that episode.

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I don't know what to think.

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It's one of those cases where I believe my lying eyes and I believe the Word of God.

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And I couldn't reconcile the two.

00:19:41.372 --> 00:19:45.852
And so I just basically threw it on the altar of Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

00:19:45.852 --> 00:19:48.472
Which is often where some of these things come down to.

00:19:48.472 --> 00:19:51.452
We have to be humble enough to say, I'm not smart enough.

00:19:51.452 --> 00:19:53.112
I don't have the reason.

00:19:53.112 --> 00:19:56.352
I don't have the facts to be able to figure this out.

00:19:56.352 --> 00:19:59.232
And I believe scripture and I'm going to trust God.

00:19:59.232 --> 00:20:00.772
Even when I don't understand.

00:20:00.772 --> 00:20:06.152
There's no man in the universe who's so smart that he will not at some point run into that.

00:20:06.152 --> 00:20:09.892
Because some of God's mysteries, that's the only way to deal with it.

00:20:10.452 --> 00:20:22.252
We've talked about before, when you talk about communion, when you talk about the hypostatic union of Christ, there is no rational explanation for what's going on because those are supernatural.

00:20:22.252 --> 00:20:25.132
The difference is that time is real.

00:20:25.132 --> 00:20:26.952
Time is part of creation.

00:20:26.952 --> 00:20:30.832
It's not supernaturally moving around.

00:20:30.832 --> 00:20:38.492
So the Rabbinic timeline that says the flood was 4500 years ago does not jive with archaeological evidence.

00:20:39.072 --> 00:20:43.152
A pyramid could not exist given the description of the flood.

00:20:43.152 --> 00:20:44.172
It just wouldn't be there.

00:20:44.412 --> 00:20:47.672
It wouldn't have been buried under miles of silt and mud.

00:20:47.672 --> 00:20:50.212
It certainly would have been destroyed.

00:20:50.212 --> 00:20:53.012
And so when we did that episode, I don't know.

00:20:53.012 --> 00:20:56.152
I believe 4500 years because it's what the Bible says.

00:20:56.152 --> 00:20:59.892
And I believe there's definitely a pyramid sitting here that's 4700 years old.

00:20:59.892 --> 00:21:00.412
I don't know.

00:21:00.432 --> 00:21:01.872
I don't know what to make of it.

00:21:01.872 --> 00:21:05.692
But it made me uncomfortable because it didn't seem to add up.

00:21:05.692 --> 00:21:08.672
And we're dealing with a pyramid and we're dealing with years.

00:21:08.672 --> 00:21:11.012
Those are not supernatural things.

00:21:11.012 --> 00:21:12.392
So trust God.

00:21:12.392 --> 00:21:14.992
But, you know, I don't know what do you do.

00:21:14.992 --> 00:21:18.792
All you can do is believe God and not worry about it too much.

00:21:18.792 --> 00:21:23.172
However, when you look at the Septuagint timeline, makes perfect sense.

00:21:23.172 --> 00:21:26.872
The flood was much before the construction of those pyramids.

00:21:26.872 --> 00:21:29.212
They could absolutely exist with the timeline.

00:21:29.212 --> 00:21:34.092
It was in use in 220 BC and in the first century, in the fourth century.

00:21:35.032 --> 00:21:40.732
The problem was created by the rabbis to cover up some of the other things that they were up to.

00:21:40.732 --> 00:21:51.812
So just remember that as we're going through these timelines, no Christian before Jerome ever engaged in the sort of nonsense that we've been subjected to, particularly since the Reformation.

00:21:52.832 --> 00:22:07.212
I do want to note that there's a single source in antiquity that does represent the rabbinic timelines, something that's older than the thousand-year-old Masoretic texts that we're stuck with today.

00:22:07.212 --> 00:22:15.732
There are examples from roughly 161-150 BC from the Qumran caves of the Book of Jubilees, and there are a number of copies of that.

00:22:15.732 --> 00:22:26.612
And the Book of Jubilees, which was an apocryphal book, it's not canonical, I think, in anyone's estimation, but it was written record, does include at least some of these changes to the genealogies.

00:22:27.532 --> 00:22:35.332
So when Jerome imported the Rabbinic changes in the fourth century, it wasn't brand new at the time.

00:22:35.332 --> 00:22:40.692
It was something that had been around at least as long as about 150 BC.

00:22:40.692 --> 00:22:47.272
But crucially, that's still newer than the evidence that we have of the Septuagint timeline.

00:22:47.272 --> 00:22:52.332
So as we're going through the dates today, sometimes we're going to talk about 80 BC.

00:22:52.332 --> 00:23:00.712
I'm not going to try to stick to the point of the origin date of the earth because we don't know accurately, but we know it's in the ballpark of 7500 years ago.

00:23:00.712 --> 00:23:04.572
Some of the accounts say 7511, some say 7533.

00:23:05.692 --> 00:23:08.772
One of the links will be in the show notes says, I believe, 7558.

00:23:10.132 --> 00:23:14.932
We'll link that and I want to include that in the show notes.

00:23:14.932 --> 00:23:16.252
It's worth looking at.

00:23:16.252 --> 00:23:24.672
We're not vouching for his conclusions, all of them, but it's a very excellent summation of just how complicated timelines have always been.

00:23:25.292 --> 00:23:34.452
So this guy who's trying to reconcile the Septuagint, trying to make the same kind of cleanup that we are, lays out some of the fights and some of the inconsistencies that occur.

00:23:34.452 --> 00:23:37.332
So you can understand how complicated it is.

00:23:37.332 --> 00:23:43.212
When we're doing some of the dates in this episode, we're just going to use relative dates.

00:23:43.212 --> 00:23:47.012
So we're going to begin later on, and we're talking about Job's timeline.

00:23:47.012 --> 00:23:50.292
We're going to talk about Abraham's birth is basically year one.

00:23:50.292 --> 00:23:52.972
And instead of AD, it's going to be the birth of Abraham.

00:23:53.972 --> 00:23:57.052
If that is year one, that is a fixed point in time.

00:23:57.052 --> 00:23:58.392
It's a real point.

00:23:58.392 --> 00:24:09.572
So within the text of scripture, we can make precise measurements from the date of Abraham's birth in terms of years, and we can be consistent from that point forward.

00:24:09.572 --> 00:24:17.452
That precision is going to hold in everything that we say today, even if there's ambiguity about the accuracy of the year in which Abraham is born.

00:24:17.452 --> 00:24:19.572
So I hope you can track with this.

00:24:19.572 --> 00:24:27.112
The accuracy of a particular date in the past is not going to be relevant to any of the arguments that we're making.

00:24:27.112 --> 00:24:37.012
The relative precision within the text itself does matter, because you can move Abraham's birth around a couple hundred years, even with some of these timeline things.

00:24:37.012 --> 00:24:44.132
As long as the text itself is internally consistent, you're not going to be falling into error with the conclusions that you make.

00:24:44.132 --> 00:24:55.232
Because it doesn't matter to me personally or you personally, whether the flood was 4,500 years ago, or 5,300 years ago, what difference does it make?

00:24:55.232 --> 00:25:02.192
It only makes difference relative to whatever other events would have occurred before or after that.

00:25:02.192 --> 00:25:04.712
But being specific doesn't really matter.

00:25:04.712 --> 00:25:20.612
So, I hope that you can come along with that and not get too hung up on, well, if I don't believe 75 11 versus 75 33, that doesn't mean that the ballpark figure isn't true.

00:25:20.612 --> 00:25:30.072
It's okay to be off by a little bit, but you can't be off by a lot, just like with Jesus' birth, whether it was 81 or BC 3 or some other number, it's really close to that.

00:25:30.072 --> 00:25:31.992
We definitely know it's really close to that.

00:25:31.992 --> 00:25:42.412
It can only be a couple of those years because of historical records we have from Judea and Rome, and from celestial records that we have.

00:25:42.412 --> 00:25:47.172
We have a very good idea that it's right close to the number we have.

00:25:47.172 --> 00:25:47.972
That's good enough.

00:25:47.972 --> 00:25:49.032
It's good enough for government work.

00:25:49.032 --> 00:25:50.892
It's good enough for being a Christian.

00:25:50.892 --> 00:25:55.672
What I don't want is for anyone's faith to be undermined by, I don't know, so I'm just going to give up on the whole thing.

00:25:55.672 --> 00:25:57.812
That's not a Christian conclusion.

00:25:57.812 --> 00:25:58.972
We try to get this stuff right.

00:25:58.972 --> 00:26:06.992
And if you can't figure it out, just leave it alone, just like I did with the pyramids before, before I knew that the Septuagint timeline was accurate.

00:26:07.272 --> 00:26:08.592
Like, I don't have to do it with the pyramids.

00:26:08.592 --> 00:26:09.732
Don't worry about it.

00:26:09.732 --> 00:26:15.812
I've never lost a like a sleep over the fact that my lying eyes and the chronology and the Rabbinic text didn't match.

00:26:15.812 --> 00:26:17.712
Like, I don't know, whatever.

00:26:17.712 --> 00:26:19.292
Doesn't hurt me either way.

00:26:19.292 --> 00:26:22.232
But I'm not going to lose faith in the text.

00:26:22.232 --> 00:26:28.312
The good news is that the more we use the Septuagint for these things, the more we find those problems just vanish.

00:26:28.312 --> 00:26:36.872
There are far fewer questions of accuracy and precision of timelines with the Septuagint than there are with the Rabbinic text.

00:26:36.972 --> 00:26:38.652
There's a reason for that.

00:26:40.032 --> 00:26:52.032
So when Woe said that it is ham-fisted, the way they went about making these changes and the changes themselves in these genealogies, it is almost an understatement.

00:26:52.032 --> 00:26:59.892
They basically just deleted a century in terms of the begetting ages of the patriarchs.

00:26:59.892 --> 00:27:12.112
But they were not entirely consistent in doing so, because it would have created problems for them down the line, had they simply deleted a century from each of the patriarchs.

00:27:12.112 --> 00:27:28.012
And so, for instance, if you look at this, you actually have a very clear trajectory in terms of the age of begetting children, from Adam straight through Noah, essentially, Noah being a rather extreme outlier.

00:27:28.012 --> 00:27:47.052
But for Adam, you have his age of begetting is 230, and then Seth at 205, Enosh at 190, Kenan at 170, Mahalalel at 165, Jared 162, Enoch 165, Methuselah 187, bumps up a little bit there, Lamech 188, Noah at 500.

00:27:47.052 --> 00:27:49.952
Those are the ages from the Septuagint.

00:27:49.952 --> 00:27:54.132
You have a little more of a roller coaster going on over in the Masoretic land.

00:27:54.132 --> 00:28:01.892
You have 130, 105, 90, 70, 65, 162, incidentally, matches the Septuagint for that one.

00:28:01.892 --> 00:28:05.752
65, 187, again, matches the Septuagint.

00:28:05.772 --> 00:28:11.912
182, they just deleted six years, and then 500 for Noah.

00:28:11.912 --> 00:28:25.052
Now one thing they did do when they were playing this little game, and perhaps it hints at the fact that they were in fact fiddling with the timeline, if you use the Masoretic, then Methuselah dies the year of the flood.

00:28:25.112 --> 00:28:40.952
Rather convenient, that's how it happens, and they actually do comment on that in the Talmud, saying that God had Methuselah die six days, or seven days, depending on how you read that, before the flood in order to provide for a period of mourning, and then the flood came.

00:28:40.952 --> 00:28:45.772
And so they wrote a commentary on their edits to scripture, perhaps unsurprisingly.

00:28:47.532 --> 00:28:55.552
However, if you look at the actual timeline in the Septuagint, Methuselah dies six years before the flood.

00:28:55.552 --> 00:28:57.632
There's no potential conflict there.

00:28:57.632 --> 00:29:10.212
Some people will attempt to point out that there is a typographical, or really a scribal error in this case, in Alexandrinus, in that particular codex, because it has 167.

00:29:10.212 --> 00:29:14.512
But clearly that is 187, which is what we have in Vaticanus.

00:29:14.512 --> 00:29:18.172
So that is the age, the beginning age for Methuselah.

00:29:19.752 --> 00:29:28.692
But more important really than just these individual changes is the overall change, what they did overall to this.

00:29:28.692 --> 00:29:31.972
And we will get into this a little bit more later on as well.

00:29:31.972 --> 00:29:35.712
I will be commenting on this again in my closing for this episode.

00:29:35.712 --> 00:29:39.972
But you have basically a thousand year difference here.

00:29:39.972 --> 00:29:42.532
This is a significant change.

00:29:42.532 --> 00:29:51.932
So if you are looking at the Septuagint and you calculate these years, what you wind up with is 1,662 up to Noah.

00:29:51.932 --> 00:29:56.472
Whereas if you are looking instead at the Masoretic, you have 1,056.

00:29:58.352 --> 00:30:01.872
That's a rather significant gap, a rather significant edit.

00:30:01.872 --> 00:30:08.952
And as Woe pointed out, this starts to make things not align with what we actually know from archaeology of human history.

00:30:08.952 --> 00:30:13.292
You don't have this problem if you're dealing with the Septuagint timeline.

00:30:13.292 --> 00:30:15.612
You have this problem if you're dealing with the Masoretic.

00:30:16.192 --> 00:30:18.172
They created this problem.

00:30:18.172 --> 00:30:23.812
Now, for them, they didn't realize it was a problem because they didn't have the archaeological records we have today.

00:30:23.812 --> 00:30:28.412
They did not understand they were creating this problem in the timeline.

00:30:28.412 --> 00:30:32.652
They thought they were just editing these dates and changing things around.

00:30:32.652 --> 00:30:49.672
Part of the reason for that, and I will get into this more in the conclusion, but part of the reason for that is because they wanted to downplay the fact that Christ appeared at a point in time that more or less aligned with what the Jews thought was going to happen.

00:30:49.672 --> 00:30:56.992
Now scripture doesn't actually tell us that the Christ is going to appear in the sixth age, which is what the Jews happen to think.

00:30:56.992 --> 00:31:03.292
They thought 6,000 years after the creation is when the Christ would appear.

00:31:03.292 --> 00:31:09.772
Turns out that if you actually run the numbers and look at the Septuagint, it's about 5,500 years.

00:31:09.772 --> 00:31:11.312
It basically matches what they believe.

00:31:11.792 --> 00:31:21.572
Again, scripture doesn't tell us this, so Christians aren't bound to believe that Christ had to appear at some particular point in time in history.

00:31:21.572 --> 00:31:28.612
But it was very inconvenient for the Jews at the time, particularly these things happening after the destruction of the temple.

00:31:28.612 --> 00:31:38.872
It's very inconvenient for them to have this long-standing tradition of saying the Christ is going to appear in the sixth age and then lo and behold Jesus Christ appears in the sixth age.

00:31:39.812 --> 00:31:49.332
That looks bad for the Jews and was undoubtedly used in order to convert some of the Jews into Christians because they would have looked at it.

00:31:49.332 --> 00:31:59.592
Our tradition has been saying for however long they happen to be passing this down orally that the Christ is going to appear and then he appeared at the time we thought he would appear.

00:31:59.592 --> 00:32:02.492
That's a pretty strong argument in their context.

00:32:02.492 --> 00:32:07.712
Again, in our context, neither here nor there because we're not bound to believe one way or the other on that.

00:32:07.712 --> 00:32:11.632
But if you add up those numbers, it is about the year 5500 again.

00:32:11.632 --> 00:32:19.032
As Woe said, there's some leeway as it were there, you know, plus or minus 60 years, give or take.

00:32:19.032 --> 00:32:22.232
It doesn't matter the exact date of creation.

00:32:22.232 --> 00:32:31.092
And so if you happen to be someone who's very attached to, say, Usher's chronology and you like that number 4004 BC, too bad.

00:32:31.092 --> 00:32:34.432
The Septuagint very clearly gives us a different date for that.

00:32:35.112 --> 00:32:37.732
I kind of like 4004 BC.

00:32:37.732 --> 00:32:39.292
But that's not the issue.

00:32:39.292 --> 00:32:48.072
The issue is not whether or not we know specifically the day, in some cases, some of these men try to calculate the exact day of creation.

00:32:48.072 --> 00:33:01.632
Rather, the point is we have these genealogies, we have a chronology that scripture gives us, and the one in the Masoretic text does not match the Septuagint, and it also does not match what we know from history to be true.

00:33:02.892 --> 00:33:12.932
If you have things in scripture, supposed scripture, that do not match facts that you know, you only have two resolutions to that possible.

00:33:12.932 --> 00:33:20.232
One, the fact you thought you knew is not in fact a fact, but we do know the age of the pyramids.

00:33:20.232 --> 00:33:22.592
For instance, there are other things as well.

00:33:22.592 --> 00:33:27.292
Or the other option, what you have is not in fact true to scripture.

00:33:27.292 --> 00:33:28.592
It is not in fact God's word.

00:33:28.592 --> 00:33:30.132
It has been edited in some way.

00:33:30.192 --> 00:33:33.872
There is a scribal error, whatever it happens to be.

00:33:33.872 --> 00:33:40.712
In our case, we don't have the problem of trying to explain away a scribal error, because there is no scribal error.

00:33:40.712 --> 00:33:43.252
There were edits made by the Jews.

00:33:43.252 --> 00:33:45.632
And this is something that early Christians recognize.

00:33:45.632 --> 00:33:52.552
This is not something that we are pulling out of thin air, or we have created this, or we are the first men to notice.

00:33:52.552 --> 00:33:58.312
No, this was recognized early on in the churches, in the very early Christian church.

00:33:58.792 --> 00:34:09.332
And, for instance, we have Eusebius saying, Therefore we suspect that this was something which the Jews did, of the changes to the timeline versus the Septuagint.

00:34:09.332 --> 00:34:11.972
This is something that has been recognized by Christians.

00:34:11.972 --> 00:34:15.852
We just simply forgot it over the ensuing centuries.

00:34:15.852 --> 00:34:21.292
And we have accepted from the hand of the Jews this timeline that does not match.

00:34:21.292 --> 00:34:29.432
And there are other wicked things that they do with this, because as soon as you start tweaking the timeline, there are other things that you can do downstream.

00:34:29.432 --> 00:34:32.872
It's not just a matter of minimizing Christ, which of course they did.

00:34:32.872 --> 00:34:43.312
And there were many of the Church Fathers who commented on that as well, saying that the Jews fiddled with verses about the Messiah, about the Christ, and we went over that in a previous episode.

00:34:43.312 --> 00:34:50.752
But when you start fiddling with the timeline, it opens up the possibility of doing other things downstream.

00:34:50.752 --> 00:35:05.072
And even if you step back and ignore the wickedness of doing it itself, and you ignore what they can do downstream, you should want to have the actual Word of God, not something that has been edited by the Rabbis.

00:35:05.072 --> 00:35:13.192
Even if there were no importance outside of simply being accurate numbers, you should want to have the accurate numbers.

00:35:13.192 --> 00:35:23.852
You should want to have what God gave to Moses to record for his Church, instead of what the Rabbis have decided they would rather have.

00:35:27.172 --> 00:35:32.852
When you look at the changes to Genesis 11's chronology, it becomes even more blatant.

00:35:32.852 --> 00:35:40.032
In Genesis 11, we have about 780 years that are deleted, and they're not deleted haphazardly.

00:35:40.032 --> 00:35:44.712
They're deleted on precise century marks.

00:35:44.712 --> 00:35:58.412
So Shem is about 100 when his son is born, and then his son, when his beginning age, instead of being 135, as it is in the Septuagint, in the Rabbinic text, it's 35.

00:35:58.412 --> 00:36:00.632
So we go from 100 to 35.

00:36:00.632 --> 00:36:11.352
And then continuously, from Shem through Torah, we see, I'm just going to give you the dates from the Septuagint, and these are a bunch of numbers, but they're all basically the same.

00:36:11.412 --> 00:36:18.992
100, 135, 130, another 130, 134, 130, 132, 130, 79, 130.

00:36:20.232 --> 00:36:27.212
So, in the Septuagint, they all had their son at about the same time, virtually the same age, every time.

00:36:27.212 --> 00:36:31.532
There's complete consistency, with the one exception of Nahor.

00:36:31.532 --> 00:36:47.492
In the Rabbinic text, you have 100 for Shem, and then Torah has 130, and all of them in between have a century deleted, except for Shem's grandson Canaan, who is deleted entirely.

00:36:48.092 --> 00:36:51.392
So, an entire man is deleted from scripture.

00:36:51.392 --> 00:37:00.452
And then Nahor, who was last before Torah, because he only lived to be 79 years, they didn't delete 100 years, they deleted 50.

00:37:00.452 --> 00:37:03.072
So, he went from 79 to 29.

00:37:03.072 --> 00:37:08.272
Now, some of you have probably heard of forensic accounting.

00:37:08.272 --> 00:37:21.652
There are certain tells when someone has been messing with numbers in a spreadsheet, in some of these books for finances, that makes it very clear that human hands were involved.

00:37:21.652 --> 00:37:31.652
There are certain patterns that to us seem random, and we think, oh, I'm doing something very random when I change this value to that value, that are not remotely random.

00:37:31.652 --> 00:37:37.112
And when a forensic accountant applies statistical analysis, they stick out like a sore thumb.

00:37:37.112 --> 00:37:44.012
You can prove in court that someone has manipulated a spreadsheet by the numbers that certain columns end in.

00:37:44.492 --> 00:37:54.452
That will hold up in court, because it's provable science that when men go into something that's natural and alter it, they produce something that's detectably unnatural.

00:37:54.452 --> 00:37:56.952
Now, you don't need a forensic accountant at all here.

00:37:56.952 --> 00:38:19.252
When you see going from 100 to a bunch of guys in their 30s to back to 130, and again, as Corey said, the previous timeline, it drifted, it came down, but it shifted from the earliest begetting age of 130 for Adam, or sorry, 230 for Adam, 130 incidentally, was the same one that we see in the Rabbinic text.

00:38:19.252 --> 00:38:27.112
Septuagint said Adam beget at 230, and then they diminish slightly, but they never go below about 162.

00:38:28.172 --> 00:38:37.232
Suddenly, after Shem, it falls off a cliff, and we lose an entire century for seven centuries, and we lose an entire man.

00:38:37.232 --> 00:39:00.972
This is so blatant in its manipulation that you can only possibly conclude that either the Septuagint was manipulated to come up with numbers that are entirely consistent, both with history and with the way numbers behave, or that the Rabbinic text was radically altered by people who were, as I said, ham-fisted.

00:39:00.972 --> 00:39:03.592
Like, this is not subtle.

00:39:03.592 --> 00:39:20.052
Chopping off a one, literally removing a digit from every number, except for the man you delete entirely, or, you know, because Nahor only begat at 79, they had to switch out to 29, because if they deleted a century from him, he would have been begetting before he was himself born.

00:39:20.052 --> 00:39:21.552
That's how blatant it is.

00:39:21.552 --> 00:39:24.252
It's not believable.

00:39:24.252 --> 00:39:29.352
And this is important because this is a timeline that goes directly to the flood chronology.

00:39:29.352 --> 00:39:31.452
The previous one doesn't matter so much.

00:39:31.452 --> 00:39:34.052
This one matters a great deal.

00:39:34.052 --> 00:39:38.192
We have lost almost 800 years here in Genesis 11.

00:39:39.032 --> 00:39:46.192
It was deliberately removed and, as Corey said, it doesn't even matter what their purpose was.

00:39:46.192 --> 00:39:49.992
And it also doesn't matter particularly which numbers you use.

00:39:49.992 --> 00:39:55.792
If we're just making up numbers, one's as good as another, except we're talking about scripture.

00:39:55.792 --> 00:39:58.252
If God said it, that means it's true.

00:39:58.252 --> 00:40:08.052
And as I said, I think in the last episode, the way revelation ends should terrorize anyone who would take lightly altering scripture.

00:40:08.052 --> 00:40:16.892
God promises that every curse, every plague in this book will be brought upon any man who changes a single thing about it.

00:40:16.892 --> 00:40:22.892
The changes here are not subtle, they're not small, and they're not insignificant.

00:40:22.892 --> 00:40:24.772
That's a big deal.

00:40:24.772 --> 00:40:25.912
All by itself, it's a big deal.

00:40:25.912 --> 00:40:28.752
Even if it didn't change anything, as Corey said, it still matters.

00:40:28.752 --> 00:40:30.472
We should still care about getting it right.

00:40:31.092 --> 00:40:37.172
And when you actually look, we'll provide, I said, both these tables will be in the link that I provide again.

00:40:37.172 --> 00:40:43.832
We're not vouching for the link to, I think it's Bible.ca, has a very exhaustive examination.

00:40:43.832 --> 00:40:47.512
These numbers won't exactly align with the numbers that Corey mentioned.

00:40:47.512 --> 00:40:52.632
He said, the 188 for Lamech, this table says 162, doesn't matter.

00:40:52.632 --> 00:40:55.072
And there's a footnote there on the table, so you can read.

00:40:55.072 --> 00:40:57.792
We're not vouching for those numbers and saying, you have to believe this.

00:40:57.792 --> 00:41:07.932
So the reason I keep pointing this out is, if you were to write down every single date and time that we're going to mention here and try to reconcile all of them, it's entirely possible they won't line up.

00:41:07.932 --> 00:41:08.912
That's okay.

00:41:08.912 --> 00:41:13.572
When we're looking at different points of reference, something's going to move.

00:41:13.572 --> 00:41:29.932
I can tell you from experience, having spent a lot of time doing my own investigation of some other timelines, whenever you pick a point as a reference point and start counting forward from it, you can have something that seems very consistent, makes perfect sense.

00:41:29.932 --> 00:41:35.872
But then you take a different point somewhere in the future in Scripture and try to count backwards from there.

00:41:35.872 --> 00:41:40.872
It's frequently the case that you've made some mistake that will cause them not to line up.

00:41:40.872 --> 00:41:44.772
So there's no precision alignment in the different dates.

00:41:44.772 --> 00:41:47.352
That's certainly been going to be the case with the numbers we're using here.

00:41:47.352 --> 00:41:52.972
So don't hold us to the specifics of claims of 188 versus 182.

00:41:52.972 --> 00:41:54.112
It doesn't matter.

00:41:54.112 --> 00:41:55.032
One of them is right.

00:41:55.732 --> 00:42:04.352
But I only highlight it because if someone wants to play gotcha, they say, well, this is six years different, therefore it's all fake.

00:42:04.352 --> 00:42:05.432
Don't be like that.

00:42:05.432 --> 00:42:07.892
That's Reddit tier theology.

00:42:07.892 --> 00:42:09.232
That's what Redditors do.

00:42:09.232 --> 00:42:11.532
Atheists do when they look at scripture.

00:42:11.532 --> 00:42:14.172
They play those games of gotcha.

00:42:14.172 --> 00:42:20.972
It's really important when we're looking at this stuff to try to understand it, to try to reconcile it as men have been doing for 2,000 years.

00:42:20.972 --> 00:42:22.252
This work is nothing new.

00:42:22.892 --> 00:42:25.472
The website is from 2017.

00:42:25.472 --> 00:42:29.772
For 2,000 years, Christian men have been trying to figure this stuff out.

00:42:29.772 --> 00:42:30.952
It's a salutary endeavor.

00:42:30.952 --> 00:42:39.112
It's one I have no personal interest in, which is why I don't personally have strongly held beliefs one way or another about which is exactly accurate.

00:42:39.112 --> 00:42:44.392
What I do care about is that internally, scripture adds up with itself.

00:42:44.492 --> 00:42:46.492
There are places where there's wiggle room.

00:42:46.492 --> 00:42:56.172
As Corey and I were talking about this last week before we began recording our aborted attempt, we don't know how long it was between the creation of Adam and the fall.

00:42:56.172 --> 00:42:57.472
Personally, I think it's less than a year.

00:42:57.472 --> 00:42:58.752
I think it's probably a lot less.

00:42:58.752 --> 00:42:59.612
Does scripture say that?

00:42:59.612 --> 00:43:00.312
No.

00:43:00.312 --> 00:43:01.172
Could it have been longer?

00:43:01.172 --> 00:43:02.472
Absolutely.

00:43:03.972 --> 00:43:09.932
We can make assumptions, but we can't hold them as religious beliefs.

00:43:09.932 --> 00:43:11.432
We can't get wild about it.

00:43:11.432 --> 00:43:25.032
We can't be absurd because if Adam's first beginning date was 230 years, Genesis is simply silent about how long they were in the garden, how long after they were out of the garden, was the child born?

00:43:25.032 --> 00:43:26.472
We don't know.

00:43:26.472 --> 00:43:33.732
You can piously speculate, but what you can do is draw firm conclusions from your speculation and then extrapolate from those.

00:43:33.732 --> 00:43:38.872
Because what you're going to end up doing with any of these timelines is making a mess somewhere else.

00:43:38.872 --> 00:43:43.372
That's precisely what the rabbis did here when they messed with Genesis 5 and with Genesis 11.

00:43:44.012 --> 00:43:50.752
They made these changes to solve a problem that they had, and they created a much bigger mess that is very easy for us to clean up.

00:43:50.752 --> 00:43:53.272
We just have to go back to what the early church confessed.

00:43:53.272 --> 00:44:00.352
The early church used the Septuagint and frequently quoted the timeline that actually makes sense, that looks sane.

00:44:00.352 --> 00:44:02.732
When you look at the table, you'll laugh.

00:44:02.732 --> 00:44:06.932
Visually, it's absurd, especially the Genesis 11 table.

00:44:06.932 --> 00:44:09.812
It's absurd how blatant the changes are.

00:44:09.812 --> 00:44:17.552
You can decide for yourself which one you find to be credible, but just keep in mind, someone was messing with something here and that's a big deal.

00:44:17.552 --> 00:44:36.972
Our contention, and as we've said repeatedly, the closing argument for all of this is going to be the last couple of episodes, where we just go through and quote the places where the New Testament quotes the Septuagint, opposed to the Rabbinic text, where it says things that are not found in the Rabbinic text at all, but are found in the Septuagint.

00:44:36.972 --> 00:44:39.832
The New Testament validates the Septuagint as scripture.

00:44:40.512 --> 00:44:46.052
So when we are treating it as scripture here, it is not personal hubris or ego.

00:44:46.052 --> 00:44:52.492
It is with full confidence that Christ and his apostles were not wrong when they called it scripture.

00:44:52.492 --> 00:44:58.572
One last minor point that doesn't tie directly to any of this, but it's a chronological point that's really important.

00:44:58.572 --> 00:45:09.772
And the reason I came to mind is that a couple of weeks ago, in part in preparation for this episode, I rewatched the Darren Aronofsky movie called Noah, which is an abomination.

00:45:09.772 --> 00:45:15.612
He's a horrible Jewish director who made hideous blasphemous changes.

00:45:15.612 --> 00:45:26.012
The reason I watched it is that I wanted to know what sort of pop culture influences were kind of floating around, because that's where we get most of our theology now.

00:45:26.012 --> 00:45:32.072
People think that when you die, you get a harp and wings and become an angel in heaven because of Hallmark greeting cards.

00:45:32.072 --> 00:45:35.152
That's pretty much a level of theology inside the church most of the time.

00:45:35.832 --> 00:45:44.892
So you may think it's silly that someone would derive their knowledge of scripture from a Hollywood movie called Noah.

00:45:44.892 --> 00:45:48.032
I promise you there are people who believe that stuff is real.

00:45:48.032 --> 00:45:52.012
Even if they don't do so consciously, they just internalize it.

00:45:52.012 --> 00:46:02.512
One of the crucial things that stood out in that movie, and as you frequently find it in discourse, was the claim that Shem was the oldest.

00:46:03.412 --> 00:46:08.252
We frequently see this made, that Japheth was younger and Shem was older.

00:46:08.252 --> 00:46:15.152
There's potentially some ambiguity in the Rabbinic text in Genesis when it describes this.

00:46:15.152 --> 00:46:19.832
I think that you can make a clear argument that it's not ambiguous, but that's a problem with ambiguity.

00:46:19.832 --> 00:46:22.592
As soon as somebody's like, I don't think that's clear at all.

00:46:22.592 --> 00:46:23.672
What are you going to do?

00:46:23.672 --> 00:46:31.272
If you think it's clear and they think it's not clear, even if they're being stupid and recalcitrant, to some degree it may not be clear.

00:46:31.632 --> 00:46:52.352
If they're not being completely irrational, there's an important note to be made here that when we're looking at the Septuagint verses that discuss Noah and Shem and Japheth, Septuagint Genesis 11.10 states clearly that Shem fathered Arphaxad two years after the flood.

00:46:52.352 --> 00:46:57.292
And Genesis 532 notes that Noah began fathering at 500.

00:46:57.292 --> 00:47:10.472
And in Genesis 1021, it says very directly, and to Shem himself also were sons born, the father of all the sons, Heber, the brother of Japheth the elder.

00:47:10.472 --> 00:47:19.152
So the phrasing in the Greek is similar somewhat to the phrasing in the Hebrew, referring to brother Japheth the elder.

00:47:19.152 --> 00:47:24.232
The difference is the Hebrew is a sloppy, fake, messed up language, and Greek is not.

00:47:24.232 --> 00:47:26.472
Greek is very meticulous about this stuff.

00:47:26.472 --> 00:47:37.372
So in the Greek, when it says the brother of Japheth the elder, there can be no ambiguity that the elder is modifying Japheth, which is in perfect accord with Genesis 532 and 1110.

00:47:39.572 --> 00:47:49.252
Genesis 1110 is very clear that Shem first gave birth when he was 100, two years after the flood.

00:47:49.252 --> 00:48:00.952
So the only way that makes sense is if Japheth is the oldest, which makes perfect sense when you're looking at the blessing given to Shem above Japheth.

00:48:00.952 --> 00:48:11.272
So the fact that Shem is younger and that he was given a different kind of blessing than Japheth, and that Japheth was older when he was given a double blessing, but not all the blessings.

00:48:11.272 --> 00:48:22.892
Shem was given a very particular blessing that only applied to Japheth by him dwelling in his tents later on, referring to his progeny being the church.

00:48:22.892 --> 00:48:30.652
It makes perfect sense that Shem is younger and that Shem was the father of those who begat Jesus.

00:48:30.652 --> 00:48:32.312
That's how God does stuff.

00:48:32.312 --> 00:48:33.632
It happened with Jacob and Esau.

00:48:34.052 --> 00:48:35.552
It happens all the time.

00:48:35.552 --> 00:48:39.452
So it's not necessary also for Shem to be the oldest.

00:48:39.452 --> 00:48:55.332
Again, it's one of these places where it's absurd some of the changes that are made to try to seem as though the stories that the Jews tell have a greater degree of primacy than they need because the truth is very favorable.

00:48:55.332 --> 00:49:02.512
We're going to get at the end to some of the prayers and some of the things that are removed from Esther that make the Jews look great and they still deleted them.

00:49:03.352 --> 00:49:05.272
It's absurd some of the changes that were made.

00:49:05.272 --> 00:49:13.992
They're not only deleting stuff that makes them look bad, they're deleting stuff that makes them look good, but they did it for related reasons that were worse.

00:49:13.992 --> 00:49:24.692
It was enough for them to manipulate the text to delete things that actually make the lineage of Jacob look good because they wanted to do other harm.

00:49:24.692 --> 00:49:25.832
It's unbelievable.

00:49:25.832 --> 00:49:32.932
But when you look internally at the text, you don't need to refer to early church fathers or heaven forbid podcasters to reach the same conclusions.

00:49:32.932 --> 00:49:38.132
When you look at the Septuagint text and you compare it, you can only reach these conclusions.

00:49:39.152 --> 00:49:44.572
And I was thinking earlier today that we've highlighted a number of different things in the Septuagint.

00:49:44.572 --> 00:49:45.692
It's like, oh, this is really important.

00:49:45.692 --> 00:49:47.072
This is really interesting.

00:49:47.072 --> 00:49:56.092
I don't want anyone to get the impression that anything that we highlight in this series is the most interesting or the most important thing that you're going to find in the Septuagint.

00:49:56.092 --> 00:49:57.572
I have no idea what that's going to be.

00:49:58.232 --> 00:50:01.192
Every time choir I look, we find more.

00:50:01.192 --> 00:50:03.452
We find a greater depth of alteration.

00:50:03.452 --> 00:50:07.852
We find a greater depth of wisdom and consistency with the rest of scripture.

00:50:07.852 --> 00:50:10.292
It's a delight to be reading the Septuagint.

00:50:10.292 --> 00:50:13.212
I have no idea what the juiciest thing in here is.

00:50:13.212 --> 00:50:18.832
As we've said repeatedly, there are centuries of Christian theology ahead of us.

00:50:18.832 --> 00:50:25.532
The scholarship that has yet to be done by the Christian church, especially in English, has never been done in English.

00:50:25.692 --> 00:50:26.712
Not once.

00:50:26.712 --> 00:50:35.212
There has not been any theology done in English about the Septuagint that was not in view of listening to the rabbi's lies.

00:50:35.212 --> 00:50:49.412
This is the very most exciting time we've had in church history, to be in a place where we can actually fix these problems and be faithful in a way that our fathers failed to be, in a way that's consistent with the New Testament, consistent with scripture itself.

00:50:49.412 --> 00:50:56.892
As I said earlier, even consistent with your rabbinic text Bible, which repeatedly throws out what the rabbi said because it didn't make any sense.

00:50:56.892 --> 00:50:58.712
So why do they resort to the Greek?

00:50:58.712 --> 00:51:01.452
Let's just resort to the Greek 100 percent.

00:51:01.452 --> 00:51:04.172
It's going to clear everything up.

00:51:04.172 --> 00:51:16.132
Before we move on to the next part of this episode, there is one minor chronological or timeline point that we need to address because undoubtedly it will come up in the future.

00:51:16.312 --> 00:51:23.172
It is a relevant difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.

00:51:23.172 --> 00:51:32.652
And that is the timeline of the Exodus, which is to say, does it include the time in Canaan or does it exclude the time in Canaan?

00:51:32.652 --> 00:51:38.132
And you'll see exactly why that is a question when I read a few passages from Scripture here.

00:51:38.892 --> 00:51:46.332
I am going to read from Exodus 12, Galatians 3, Acts 7, and Acts 13.

00:51:46.332 --> 00:51:55.552
There are a handful of specific verses that are relevant, but I am also going to read some context because it is generally important to have context in these things.

00:51:55.552 --> 00:52:04.732
And so, starting with Exodus 12, I will read first from the Masoretic text, the ESV, of course, and then I will read from the Lexim.

00:52:04.732 --> 00:52:09.472
The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.

00:52:09.472 --> 00:52:17.172
At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

00:52:17.172 --> 00:52:19.692
And now from the Septuagint.

00:52:19.692 --> 00:52:28.392
Now the sojourn of the sons of Israel, during which they lived in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years.

00:52:28.392 --> 00:52:36.572
And it happened after the 430 years, all the hosts of the Lord went forth from the land of Egypt by night.

00:52:36.572 --> 00:52:48.772
You can see the salient difference between these two, of course, and that is the phrase that is included in the Septuagint, and in the land of Canaan, that is absent from the Rabbinic text.

00:52:48.772 --> 00:52:55.872
And so the question is, was there a short sojourn in Egypt, or was there a long sojourn in Egypt?

00:52:56.532 --> 00:53:05.892
Was it 430 years in Egypt alone, or was it 430 years, part of that being in Canaan?

00:53:05.892 --> 00:53:23.552
Traditionally, a number of Christian exegetes, particularly in the early church, when they were indeed using the Septuagint as their Bible, basically divided it into a period of 215 years in Canaan, and 215 years in Egypt, giving the short sojourn in Egypt.

00:53:24.272 --> 00:53:36.232
It is worth noting here in passing, there are some manuscripts of the Septuagint that have what appears to be a scribal error, adding a five at the end of 430, yielding 435.

00:53:36.232 --> 00:53:41.412
However, the majority position, as it were, of all the manuscripts is 430.

00:53:41.412 --> 00:53:47.472
So that does happen to agree with the total given in the Rabbinic text.

00:53:47.472 --> 00:53:53.532
The difference is where those years of sojourning took place, is Canaan included.

00:53:53.532 --> 00:53:59.252
And so I will also read from Galatians 3 and Acts 7 now.

00:54:00.632 --> 00:54:08.012
To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.

00:54:08.012 --> 00:54:11.312
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

00:54:11.312 --> 00:54:18.852
It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.

00:54:18.852 --> 00:54:19.852
This is what I mean.

00:54:20.412 --> 00:54:29.112
The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.

00:54:29.112 --> 00:54:36.732
For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

00:54:38.932 --> 00:54:41.992
And the high priest said, Are these things so?

00:54:41.992 --> 00:54:45.412
And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.

00:54:45.412 --> 00:54:58.212
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred, and go into the land that I will show you.

00:54:58.212 --> 00:55:01.912
Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.

00:55:01.912 --> 00:55:07.672
And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

00:55:07.672 --> 00:55:16.552
Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

00:55:17.152 --> 00:55:25.912
And God spoke to this effect, that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them for hundred years.

00:55:25.912 --> 00:55:28.912
But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God.

00:55:28.912 --> 00:55:32.792
And after that, they will come out and worship me in this place.

00:55:34.352 --> 00:55:44.172
Some will read these two passages and try to raise an additional question about the period in Canaan and Egypt, about the sojourning period.

00:55:45.272 --> 00:55:52.672
And they will try to say, well, one says four hundred years, Stephen, and one says four hundred and thirty years, Paul.

00:55:52.672 --> 00:56:01.992
And so the question is, is it four hundred and thirty years, as the lines, incidentally, with Exodus, or is it four hundred years?

00:56:01.992 --> 00:56:05.732
I personally do not take this particular contention very seriously.

00:56:05.732 --> 00:56:10.852
I simply agree with Augustine and other church fathers who said, Stephen is rounding.

00:56:10.852 --> 00:56:11.912
We do this all the time.

00:56:12.072 --> 00:56:22.052
We don't often speak of the exact number of years of an event, unless it's a relatively trivial number of years, which basically means under twenty or so.

00:56:22.052 --> 00:56:28.352
If an event took three hundred and eighty seven years, we're probably just going to say it took four centuries.

00:56:28.352 --> 00:56:33.232
If it took four hundred and thirteen years, we're probably going to say it took four hundred years.

00:56:33.232 --> 00:56:35.472
This is simply how human beings speak.

00:56:35.472 --> 00:56:38.172
Stephen is giving a speech here, so he simply rounded.

00:56:38.252 --> 00:56:42.092
I think this is a fairly easy one to resolve.

00:56:42.092 --> 00:56:45.452
The final section I am going to read is from Acts 13.

00:56:46.912 --> 00:56:53.552
So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

00:56:53.552 --> 00:56:59.872
The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

00:56:59.872 --> 00:57:02.852
And with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

00:57:02.852 --> 00:57:11.612
And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

00:57:11.612 --> 00:57:18.292
All this took about four hundred and fifty years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

00:57:19.612 --> 00:57:25.372
Now there are those, of course, who will look at this and say, Well, now we have a third number, four hundred and fifty years.

00:57:25.372 --> 00:57:32.952
But they'll ignore what came directly before that, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

00:57:34.132 --> 00:57:39.572
Paul is talking about a period here that includes other things than just the sojourn.

00:57:39.572 --> 00:57:45.052
It includes the destruction of those seven nations, as it literally says there in the preceding verse.

00:57:45.052 --> 00:57:51.452
And so, the four hundred and fifty year period does align with the four hundred and thirty year period.

00:57:51.452 --> 00:57:55.112
Paul is simply including something additional.

00:57:55.112 --> 00:57:57.352
And so, what are we to make of this?

00:57:57.352 --> 00:58:01.812
I think the best way to look at this is we look at what Paul says in Galatians.

00:58:02.312 --> 00:58:04.692
And in Galatians, he gives the number four hundred and thirty.

00:58:04.692 --> 00:58:06.552
He's giving a literal number.

00:58:06.552 --> 00:58:13.452
Because, incidentally, when we look at how human beings speak about numbers like this, typically we round.

00:58:13.452 --> 00:58:21.012
But if we give a number that is not rounded, four hundred and thirty is not rounded, then we're probably speaking precisely.

00:58:21.012 --> 00:58:23.312
Paul here is speaking precisely.

00:58:23.312 --> 00:58:27.332
And the number that he gives aligns perfectly with the number given in Exodus.

00:58:28.912 --> 00:58:40.192
And so the only question that remains is whether or not the sojourn in Canaan is included, which is to say, is the sojourn in Egypt short or long?

00:58:40.192 --> 00:58:44.952
I am inclined to agree with the early church, and I think that is the correct position on this.

00:58:44.952 --> 00:59:02.572
The early church, looking at the Septuagint, believed that the sojourn in Egypt was short, about 215 years, and then to get to that 430 year number, you have 215 years of Abram's, or Abraham's, sojourn in the land of Canaan.

00:59:02.572 --> 00:59:05.212
This is what many of the church fathers believed.

00:59:05.212 --> 00:59:14.432
This is what they argued over against the Jews, who sometimes would argue for the longer period from whatever text they happened to be using at the time.

00:59:15.852 --> 00:59:25.512
The short Egyptian sojourn happens to harmonize with the genealogies and again with the words of Paul, and so I think that is the clear choice here.

00:59:25.512 --> 00:59:42.292
It is worth noting before we move on to the rest of the episode, simply because there are always going to be those who attempt to find supposed discrepancies, seeming inconsistencies in scripture and try to discredit the Word of God on the basis of those seeming inconsistencies.

00:59:43.872 --> 00:59:54.052
Typically what it comes down to is the inability of those who are advancing these supposed or seeming inconsistencies to actually read the text.

00:59:54.052 --> 01:00:05.832
In the case of Paul's speech in Acts, we will have those who try to argue that he says 450, so it must be inconsistent, but literally the previous verse explains the additional 20 years.

01:00:05.832 --> 01:00:10.732
This is simply a matter of reading the text carefully and believing what it says.

01:00:10.732 --> 01:00:20.912
There are things where we are going to have to map out exactly what happened on the timeline, what happened when, which periods took place, where, things like that.

01:00:20.912 --> 01:00:25.672
But that doesn't mean the text is inconsistent or that the text is wrong.

01:00:25.672 --> 01:00:41.412
What it means is that we have to read carefully, and some of our preconceived notions or our previous beliefs on the basis of the Masoretic, on the basis of the Rabbinic text, they are simply going to be wrong in light of what we clearly see in the Septuagint.

01:00:41.952 --> 01:00:50.252
And what the Septuagint says here is that they lived in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan during this sojourn.

01:00:50.252 --> 01:00:54.372
And so, simply speaking, that is what we as Christians believe.

01:00:56.912 --> 01:01:03.752
The bulk of this episode is undoubtedly going to be going over the differences in Esther.

01:01:03.752 --> 01:01:07.912
But before we get to Esther, we want to spend some time in Job.

01:01:07.912 --> 01:01:09.472
Both of us like the Book of Job.

01:01:09.712 --> 01:01:12.392
We know that many of you also like the Book.

01:01:12.392 --> 01:01:21.292
There are significant differences, pervasive differences between what the rabbis gave us and the Book of Job.

01:01:21.292 --> 01:01:28.532
We are not going to go over them exhaustively in this episode because that would take significantly longer than an entire episode.

01:01:28.532 --> 01:01:32.672
It would have to be a series unto itself and probably a long one.

01:01:32.672 --> 01:01:39.792
But sort of by way of introduction, I'm going to read a quote for you from Origen, written to Africanus.

01:01:41.532 --> 01:01:47.672
Again, through the whole of Job, there are many passages in the Hebrew which are wanting in our copies.

01:01:47.672 --> 01:01:53.772
Generally four or five verses, but sometimes, however, even 14 and 19 and 16.

01:01:53.772 --> 01:01:58.012
But why should I enumerate all the instances I collected with so much labor?

01:01:58.012 --> 01:02:02.392
To prove that the difference between our copies and those of the Jews did not escape me.

01:02:03.252 --> 01:02:12.012
In Jeremiah, I noticed many instances, and indeed, in that book, I found much transposition and variation in the readings of the prophecies.

01:02:12.012 --> 01:02:19.092
Again, in Genesis, the words, God saw that it was good, when the firmament was made, are not found in the Hebrew.

01:02:19.092 --> 01:02:22.252
And there is no small dispute among them about this.

01:02:22.252 --> 01:02:29.312
And other instances are to be found in Genesis, which I marked for the sake of distinction, with the sign the Greeks call an obelisk.

01:02:29.312 --> 01:02:35.512
As on the other hand, I marked with an asterisk those passages in our copies, which are not found in the Hebrew.

01:02:35.512 --> 01:02:48.332
What needs there to speak of Exodus, where there is such diversity in what is said about the tabernacle and its court, and the ark, and the garments of the high priest and the priests, that sometimes the meaning even does not seem to be akin?

01:02:48.332 --> 01:03:06.172
And forsooth, when we notice such things, we are immediately to reject as spurious the copies in use in our churches, and enjoin the brotherhood to put away the sacred books current among them, and to coax the Jews, and persuade them to give us copies, which shall be untampered with and free from forgery.

01:03:06.172 --> 01:03:25.972
Are we to suppose that that providence, which in the sacred scriptures has ministered to the edification of all the churches of Christ, had no thought for those bought with a price, for whom Christ died, whom although his son, God, who was love, spared not, but gave him up for us all, that with him he might freely give us all things?

01:03:25.972 --> 01:03:30.312
In all these cases, consider whether it would not be well to remember the words.

01:03:30.312 --> 01:03:34.732
You shall not remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set.

01:03:36.692 --> 01:03:42.032
And you can go ahead and find that in your English copies of scripture that are based on the Masoretic text.

01:03:42.032 --> 01:03:48.392
You can compare the things said in that quote in particular about the firmament, and God saw that it was good.

01:03:48.392 --> 01:03:50.792
And you will notice that they are absent.

01:03:50.792 --> 01:03:56.232
And if they are not absent, they are footnoted because they are included from indeed the Septuagint.

01:03:58.032 --> 01:04:08.172
But to give some examples of the differences in Job, and again we won't be going through exhaustive examples because there are so many of them, but starting with Job 1, verse 5.

01:04:08.172 --> 01:04:11.592
First from the Masoretic, then I'll read from the Septuagint.

01:04:11.592 --> 01:04:20.932
And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

01:04:20.932 --> 01:04:26.432
For Job said, It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

01:04:26.432 --> 01:04:28.792
Thus Job did continually.

01:04:28.792 --> 01:04:30.772
And now from the Septuagint.

01:04:30.772 --> 01:04:41.492
And when the days of the banquet were finished, Job sent and purified them, rising up each morning and offering for them a sacrifice according to their number, one calf for a sin offering for their lives.

01:04:41.992 --> 01:04:47.192
For Job said, In case my sons have thought evil things in their minds toward God.

01:04:47.192 --> 01:04:49.312
So Job acted all the days.

01:04:50.612 --> 01:04:58.752
It is a little different to think something evil or inappropriate toward God in one's mind and to curse God in your heart.

01:04:58.752 --> 01:05:04.172
That is a significant change that the rabbis introduced into Job.

01:05:04.172 --> 01:05:06.252
And from the very next verse.

01:05:06.252 --> 01:05:13.152
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

01:05:13.152 --> 01:05:14.772
Now from the Septuagint.

01:05:14.772 --> 01:05:22.232
And it happened that one day and behold, the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came among them.

01:05:22.232 --> 01:05:26.212
Now we could quibble over the difference between the devil and Satan.

01:05:26.212 --> 01:05:27.372
That's neither here nor there.

01:05:27.372 --> 01:05:32.172
And in fact, it is the same individual, of course, the same actor as present.

01:05:32.172 --> 01:05:36.312
But there is a difference here between the sons of God and the angels of God.

01:05:37.032 --> 01:05:44.672
We could argue about what that difference means, and how it aligns with other verses in scripture, and whether the same language is used.

01:05:44.672 --> 01:05:46.732
But the change is significant.

01:05:46.732 --> 01:05:51.252
They change the angels of God to the sons of God.

01:05:51.252 --> 01:05:54.812
They are trying to teach something different.

01:05:54.812 --> 01:06:02.412
As we said earlier about the genealogies, just because something may seem innocuous on the surface, doesn't necessarily mean that it is.

01:06:02.552 --> 01:06:07.452
Because there is undoubtedly ulterior motives in play here.

01:06:07.452 --> 01:06:11.932
They have something in mind they are trying to accomplish down the line.

01:06:11.932 --> 01:06:21.272
And notably with the genealogies again, that is going to come back in my conclusion for this episode, because it actually plays a key part in things that are happening today.

01:06:21.272 --> 01:06:24.512
These are not issues that we left in the past.

01:06:24.512 --> 01:06:26.412
These are things that are ongoing.

01:06:27.892 --> 01:06:29.392
The next example from Job 2.

01:06:30.252 --> 01:06:38.352
And you will note that, sort of, not bearing the lead, but you will note the version in scripture in the Septuagint is actually significantly longer.

01:06:38.352 --> 01:06:43.692
This is one of those cases where they simply deleted a bunch of verses because they felt like it.

01:06:43.692 --> 01:06:46.452
So first from the Masoretic text.

01:06:46.452 --> 01:06:50.752
Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity?

01:06:50.752 --> 01:06:52.632
Curse God and die.

01:06:52.632 --> 01:06:57.172
But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

01:06:57.172 --> 01:06:58.772
Shall we receive good from God?

01:06:59.172 --> 01:07:01.012
And shall we not receive evil?

01:07:01.012 --> 01:07:04.872
In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

01:07:04.872 --> 01:07:06.812
And now from the Septuagint.

01:07:06.812 --> 01:07:17.112
And after much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long will you wait, saying, Behold, I wait for just a little time to receive the hope of my deliverance.

01:07:17.112 --> 01:07:25.652
For behold, your memory has been removed from the earth, Sons and daughters of my belly, Pengs and labors that I labored with hardship pointlessly.

01:07:25.652 --> 01:07:31.352
And you, you seat yourself among the decay of worms, To pass the night in the open air.

01:07:31.352 --> 01:07:42.852
And I am being led astray, And am a servant wandering from place to place, And from house to house, Welcoming the sun when it sets in order, That I might stop my labors and pains, That now come to me.

01:07:42.852 --> 01:07:45.952
Now say some word to the Lord and die.

01:07:45.952 --> 01:07:50.032
But looking up, he said to her, You speak like one of the foolish women.

01:07:50.032 --> 01:07:54.972
If we accept good things from the hand of the Lord, Shall we not endure evil things?

01:07:54.972 --> 01:08:00.832
In all these things that happened to him, In no way did Job sin by his speaking before God.

01:08:02.592 --> 01:08:12.372
There is a fairly significant difference between saying say some word to the Lord and die and curse God and die.

01:08:12.372 --> 01:08:17.812
Job's wife here is just lamenting what has happened to Job and what has happened to her.

01:08:17.812 --> 01:08:27.532
She is not telling Job to curse God, and yet the rabbis have changed it so that she instructs her husband to curse God and die.

01:08:29.212 --> 01:08:43.472
One of the other things to note in the text of Job, which is universal in the Septuagint, is that you will find that Job is one of the Bible books that uses the words Lord and God more than probably almost any other.

01:08:43.472 --> 01:08:46.412
They are talking about or to God the entire time.

01:08:46.412 --> 01:08:48.652
Where God is speaking, God is acting.

01:08:48.652 --> 01:08:56.412
So Lord and God appear a whole bunch, which means in the Rabbinic text, you're going to have the Tetragrammaton.

01:08:56.412 --> 01:09:00.892
You're going to have YHWH showing up over and over and over again.

01:09:00.892 --> 01:09:09.912
We talked, I think, in the Judaizing heresy episode about the blasphemy of so-called Yahweh.

01:09:09.912 --> 01:09:18.772
There is no Christian nexus to the use of the word Yahweh or even to the use of the Tetragrammaton itself.

01:09:18.772 --> 01:09:22.932
This is fundamentally Babylonian black magic named magic.

01:09:23.852 --> 01:09:29.192
This is a black magic practice that the Hebrews brought with them from Babylonia.

01:09:29.192 --> 01:09:32.452
Practicing name magic is wicked and damnable.

01:09:32.452 --> 01:09:37.872
What they have done is taken Lord and God that are used throughout scripture.

01:09:37.872 --> 01:09:41.072
The same words are used in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

01:09:41.072 --> 01:09:43.012
Kyrios and Theos.

01:09:43.072 --> 01:09:47.552
Lord and God, like Kyrie and Theology.

01:09:47.552 --> 01:09:52.092
These words are familiar to us from the liturgy and from just being Christians.

01:09:52.092 --> 01:09:53.932
They're based in the Greek.

01:09:53.932 --> 01:10:01.152
The Septuagint doesn't have any Tetragrammaton, doesn't have any special magic words or letters or anything.

01:10:01.152 --> 01:10:02.892
There's no special symbol.

01:10:02.892 --> 01:10:06.252
It's literally God and Lord.

01:10:06.252 --> 01:10:07.332
That's crucial.

01:10:07.332 --> 01:10:17.052
That's crucial today in a way that was never crucial before, because the Judaizing that has taken over the entire church is novel.

01:10:17.052 --> 01:10:25.132
The fact that we have theology published and pastors referencing Yahweh is though they're doing something sacred.

01:10:25.132 --> 01:10:28.132
It's profane and it's blasphemous.

01:10:28.132 --> 01:10:29.972
You will not find it in the Septuagint.

01:10:29.972 --> 01:10:32.632
You will not find it in the early Church Fathers.

01:10:32.672 --> 01:10:35.312
No one who used the Greek never would have occurred to them.

01:10:35.312 --> 01:10:39.212
And to the extent that they commented on it, they disregarded it.

01:10:39.212 --> 01:10:42.872
Theos, God, Kyrios, Lord.

01:10:44.292 --> 01:10:56.892
It boggles the mind how much of the modern heresies, both politically and theologically that we are beset by, are originated with these sorts of small textual changes.

01:10:56.892 --> 01:10:59.472
It's the smallest reframe in the world.

01:10:59.472 --> 01:11:00.372
Because what does it do?

01:11:01.112 --> 01:11:04.492
Suddenly, it makes the Rabbinic text paramount.

01:11:04.492 --> 01:11:09.472
You can't have the authentic God if you don't have the Rabbinic text.

01:11:09.472 --> 01:11:14.352
If you're not looking at Hebrew letters, you're not looking at anything that God breathed out.

01:11:14.352 --> 01:11:16.792
And what do we find when we look at God's name?

01:11:16.792 --> 01:11:19.332
We don't find Lord, we don't find God.

01:11:19.332 --> 01:11:30.752
We find special magical symbols with a special magical secret word that was so sacred that they wouldn't even write down the full thing because it was too powerful.

01:11:30.752 --> 01:11:32.332
That's a magic incantation.

01:11:32.332 --> 01:11:33.472
That's demon summoning.

01:11:33.472 --> 01:11:36.392
That has nothing to do with the Lord God.

01:11:36.392 --> 01:11:47.652
There are archaeological examples going back nearly a thousand years before the birth of Christ to a Yah and a Yahweh appearing in the Near East.

01:11:47.652 --> 01:11:49.632
And they're always demon gods.

01:11:49.632 --> 01:11:52.792
There was a demon god by that name that was worshipped.

01:11:52.792 --> 01:11:54.952
And we do have archaeological evidence of it.

01:11:55.452 --> 01:12:02.272
And what we find is has nothing whatsoever to do with the true Israelite religion.

01:12:02.272 --> 01:12:10.692
Those who actually practiced and preserved Christianity as God had instructed and intended for them didn't engage in that.

01:12:10.692 --> 01:12:11.812
You find it with their neighbors.

01:12:11.812 --> 01:12:16.252
And so there were others among the Hebrews who pulled that stuff in and adopted it.

01:12:16.252 --> 01:12:19.532
And the rabbis continued it for 3000 years.

01:12:19.532 --> 01:12:24.152
But when we see it and hear it today, we are not hearing anything Christian.

01:12:24.752 --> 01:12:27.592
It dies with the Septuagint.

01:12:27.592 --> 01:12:35.072
There are just a few other notes I want to make about changes to Job before we get into the chronological changes.

01:12:35.072 --> 01:12:43.272
Because the timeline alterations through changes in facts in Job are really the most important thing about what was done to it.

01:12:43.272 --> 01:12:49.232
All in all, the Rabbinic text is about one-sixth longer than what is in the Septuagint.

01:12:49.232 --> 01:12:51.012
It's mostly poetic repetitions.

01:12:51.452 --> 01:12:57.072
It includes a big chunk of Elihu's speech from chapters 32 through 37.

01:12:57.072 --> 01:13:00.392
Job's wife's speech is omitted entirely.

01:13:00.392 --> 01:13:05.812
The next thing that happens after her diatribe is that Job's friends show up.

01:13:05.812 --> 01:13:21.432
Now, Cory and I pointed out in the past, even before we understood the Septuagint, Cory had made the point that when you look at Job and you look at the wealth that he lost and then what was regained, he had to be one of the richest men on the planet.

01:13:21.432 --> 01:13:26.312
It was not just, oh, this guy has a lot of money, this guy has a lot of wealth.

01:13:26.312 --> 01:13:30.092
His riches were off the charts.

01:13:30.092 --> 01:13:36.832
The only reasonable conclusion in this era was that the man with that much money has to be a king.

01:13:36.832 --> 01:13:41.292
Because in all of human history, the richest guy in the country is the king.

01:13:41.292 --> 01:13:43.672
Whoever has the most money is in charge.

01:13:43.672 --> 01:13:45.072
And you know what, that's still true today.

01:13:45.752 --> 01:13:49.352
We paper it over with this fake democracy crap.

01:13:49.352 --> 01:13:52.372
The richest guy is the most powerful guy.

01:13:52.372 --> 01:13:58.412
Now, it only falls apart to the extent that a lot of modern wealth is digital.

01:13:58.412 --> 01:14:00.912
It's notional in nature.

01:14:00.912 --> 01:14:03.432
Such that these guys had wealth.

01:14:03.432 --> 01:14:04.192
They had camels.

01:14:04.192 --> 01:14:05.392
They had armies.

01:14:05.392 --> 01:14:06.532
They had land.

01:14:06.532 --> 01:14:07.632
They had stuff.

01:14:07.632 --> 01:14:09.512
They had real goods.

01:14:09.512 --> 01:14:13.172
That is somewhat different than having extra zeros in your bank account.

01:14:13.732 --> 01:14:23.032
If you get to 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 zeros, you're at a level that virtually none of us, probably nobody listening, can understand.

01:14:23.032 --> 01:14:28.532
Nevertheless, until you deploy that capital, it really just impresses people.

01:14:28.532 --> 01:14:29.792
And people are very impressed by it.

01:14:29.792 --> 01:14:30.872
It opens doors.

01:14:30.872 --> 01:14:33.252
You have friends that others would not.

01:14:33.252 --> 01:14:39.312
But the power incumbent doesn't necessarily scale as it did at the time.

01:14:39.312 --> 01:14:48.932
So for Job to have all this stuff, not merely gold, not merely a spreadsheet with wealth, he actually had the stuff, made him one of the richest men.

01:14:48.932 --> 01:14:55.172
And what is clear in Job, both the first and the last chapters, is he was a king.

01:14:55.172 --> 01:14:59.292
His friends, his three friends are described when they showed up.

01:14:59.292 --> 01:15:01.672
I'll just read what Brenton says here.

01:15:01.672 --> 01:15:07.192
Now his three friends, having heard all the evil that was come upon him, came to him each from his own country.

01:15:07.192 --> 01:15:17.612
Eliphaz, the king of the Thamans, Baldad, Sovereign of the Salchians, so far king of the Manaeans, and they came to him with one accord, to comfort and to visit him.

01:15:17.612 --> 01:15:23.552
So Job makes very clear, the text of Job makes clear, that his three friends are also kings.

01:15:23.552 --> 01:15:28.232
Which makes sense, because rich people have rich, powerful friends, that's just how it works.

01:15:28.232 --> 01:15:34.992
You very rarely, at any place and time in history, see substantial crossing of boundaries of class lines.

01:15:34.992 --> 01:15:36.032
That's normal, that's fine.

01:15:36.552 --> 01:15:42.032
Who better to commiserate with a king who's lost everything than another king?

01:15:42.032 --> 01:15:56.072
I could try to commiserate with Job and try to give him a good advice, but I wouldn't actually know what it's like to lose a king's ransom, to lose a king's kingdom, to lose all of his goods, children are children and they're the most precious thing.

01:15:56.072 --> 01:16:00.692
But to lose a bunch of stuff, you have to have it to know how much it would hurt to lose it.

01:16:00.692 --> 01:16:04.512
A poor person can't possibly identify in the same way.

01:16:05.332 --> 01:16:11.052
So, it makes a lot more sense when you know that Job is a king to know that his three friends are kings too.

01:16:11.052 --> 01:16:18.052
And that by itself is contextual, but it doesn't still really play into the timeline of things.

01:16:19.352 --> 01:16:28.072
Before I give you Job's actual genealogy at the end of Job in Chapter 42, this is a portion that's completely deleted from the Rabbinic text.

01:16:28.072 --> 01:16:30.192
We'll talk about why.

01:16:30.192 --> 01:16:38.532
The very last line of the same Job that we've all read together in the Rabbinic text said, And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

01:16:38.532 --> 01:16:39.912
Okay, great.

01:16:39.912 --> 01:16:41.532
Happy ending.

01:16:41.532 --> 01:16:43.272
But it's not a Christian ending.

01:16:43.272 --> 01:16:46.292
It's a good ending, but it's not the Christian ending.

01:16:46.292 --> 01:16:47.312
Here's the Christian ending.

01:16:47.312 --> 01:16:49.652
Here's what the Septuagint says.

01:16:49.652 --> 01:16:56.772
And Job died, an old man, and full of days, and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up.

01:16:58.092 --> 01:16:59.132
Boy howdy.

01:16:59.132 --> 01:17:01.132
That is a radical difference, isn't it?

01:17:01.792 --> 01:17:12.152
It harkens back to the comments that Job made earlier, where he said that he knew that he would rise bodily, and he would see the Lord with his own eyes, even though he died.

01:17:12.152 --> 01:17:18.652
So the confession that Job makes of the resurrection of the dead is left intact in the Rabbinic text.

01:17:18.652 --> 01:17:25.052
But at the end, Chapter 42, where he describes his death, it recapitulates that.

01:17:25.052 --> 01:17:28.192
It is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up.

01:17:28.192 --> 01:17:28.852
That's the Gospel.

01:17:29.712 --> 01:17:33.352
Job ends with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

01:17:33.352 --> 01:17:39.672
And then the portion which is deleted entirely from the Rabbinic text.

01:17:39.672 --> 01:17:40.492
I'm going to read all of it.

01:17:40.492 --> 01:17:42.352
It's only about a paragraph.

01:17:42.352 --> 01:17:53.492
But it repeats that his friends who came to him were Dalfaz of the Children of Esau, King of the Thebanites, Baldad, Sovereign of the Saukians, so far King of the Manaeans.

01:17:53.492 --> 01:18:04.752
And it also says Job's own genealogy, which is crucial, because the problem that we have with Job the Book in the Rabbinic text is it's just some guy floating in space.

01:18:04.752 --> 01:18:05.412
We don't know.

01:18:05.412 --> 01:18:06.632
We don't know when.

01:18:06.632 --> 01:18:08.372
He's in the Near East.

01:18:08.372 --> 01:18:15.472
We can tell that he's somewhere around that time, but we don't know any specifics.

01:18:15.472 --> 01:18:19.572
The specifics provided in Job 42 in the Septuagint.

01:18:19.572 --> 01:18:21.372
Well, actually, we'll read the rest of it.

01:18:21.372 --> 01:18:30.252
This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Asus on the borders of Udemea and Arabia, and his name before was Jobab.

01:18:30.252 --> 01:18:42.752
And having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Enon, and he himself was the son of his father, Zer, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother, Borsorah.

01:18:42.752 --> 01:18:45.532
So that he was the fifth from Abram.

01:18:45.532 --> 01:18:51.532
And then it goes on to list the kings who reigned in Edom, and it includes Job.

01:18:51.532 --> 01:18:52.872
Jobab was a king of Edom.

01:18:53.832 --> 01:18:57.552
So it makes clear the reason his friends were kings was that he was a king.

01:18:59.192 --> 01:19:13.312
Once you know that Job has a genealogy, and in fact is a descendant of Esau, a descendant of Abram, now we can plug it in to the timeline, which is why we're going to finish up the timeline stuff talking about Job himself.

01:19:13.312 --> 01:19:15.112
This is a really big deal.

01:19:15.112 --> 01:19:17.372
This honestly blew me away.

01:19:18.452 --> 01:19:26.132
The chronology that's provided in Job 42 is mirrored in Genesis 36, which we all have.

01:19:26.132 --> 01:19:33.312
In Genesis 36, it says, Jobab son of Zarah, Zerah son of Ragul, and Esau.

01:19:33.312 --> 01:19:39.812
And in speaking of the kings, it says, and Balak died, and Jobab son of Zarah from Borsoba reigned in his stead.

01:19:39.812 --> 01:19:51.412
So Genesis 36 confirms that there was a king Jobab, a king of Edom, tells when he reigned, tells who his parents were, and it matches up with Job 42.

01:19:51.412 --> 01:19:54.252
Now, it doesn't match up identically.

01:19:54.252 --> 01:20:03.272
This is one of those cases where when you're looking at genealogy, there are always issues, there are always seeming inconsistencies in all of these genealogies.

01:20:03.272 --> 01:20:14.752
I want to highlight the specific inconsistency in the Septuagint, because it's important to acknowledge it, and it's important as the admonishment that I gave earlier about not being a redditeer atheist.

01:20:14.752 --> 01:20:22.432
Do not come up with some rule that you're going to disqualify the Septuagint because of this sort of inconsistency.

01:20:22.432 --> 01:20:32.792
Do not come up with a rule that would also nullify the genealogies in Matthew and Luke of Jesus Christ, because they also require reconciliation.

01:20:32.792 --> 01:20:34.592
They don't line up perfectly.

01:20:34.592 --> 01:20:37.052
And we've explained why that is as a church.

01:20:37.052 --> 01:20:38.632
Oops, Stone Choir, we don't need to do this work.

01:20:38.632 --> 01:20:39.572
There's nothing novel there.

01:20:40.592 --> 01:20:46.252
The church has always contended with the fact that God tells the same story repeatedly in slightly different ways.

01:20:46.252 --> 01:20:48.032
God loves to do that for some reason.

01:20:48.032 --> 01:20:49.252
Don't know why.

01:20:49.252 --> 01:20:58.632
You know, we kind of do too, but when he does it in scripture and gives us parallax, we don't get to just throw out the one that we don't like, even if we can't exactly reconcile them.

01:20:58.632 --> 01:21:07.692
And this is very much a case where, unlike the pyramids in the timeline of the flood, we have to simply say, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

01:21:08.232 --> 01:21:12.472
If we can't reconcile them, we say, it's all true and I don't know why.

01:21:12.472 --> 01:21:15.132
I think that's the most Christian response we can have.

01:21:15.132 --> 01:21:18.632
There are times where that is going to apply.

01:21:18.632 --> 01:21:20.852
And it applies to things in the New Testament.

01:21:20.852 --> 01:21:27.192
The Septuagint does not create any problem here that the Church has not contended with for a long time.

01:21:27.192 --> 01:21:40.632
So when Job 42 says that Job himself was the fifth from Abram, that is not consistent with Genesis 36, which in effect says that he was the great-grandson of Esau rather than his grandson.

01:21:40.632 --> 01:21:54.352
So what we have here is what is commonly referred to as a telescoping generation, where one man in the case of Jobab's chronology in Genesis 36, Ragul, is omitted in Job 42.

01:21:54.352 --> 01:21:57.932
There are cases where God omits men from genealogies.

01:21:58.972 --> 01:22:00.652
It's something we've always had to deal with.

01:22:00.652 --> 01:22:01.912
We just have to take it.

01:22:01.912 --> 01:22:06.852
Now, having looked at this for quite some time, I'm trying to reconcile it myself.

01:22:06.852 --> 01:22:24.232
My personal conclusion, and I think the safe Christian conclusion, is that we should view the inconsistency in Job 42, where it says fifth from Abram, where Ragul is omitted, as for some reason Ragul was simply omitted by God.

01:22:24.232 --> 01:22:25.452
We don't know why.

01:22:25.452 --> 01:22:27.532
We know that he was not king.

01:22:27.532 --> 01:22:31.312
His sons were made powerful, but he himself was not.

01:22:31.312 --> 01:22:33.112
That's something that's told in Genesis 36.

01:22:34.192 --> 01:22:37.192
But we don't know what happened to him, but we do know that he was a real man.

01:22:37.192 --> 01:22:49.552
So I think that it's the far greater error to go into Genesis 36 and delete Ragul than to infer his existence in Job 42.

01:22:49.552 --> 01:23:03.792
Another thing that's a small detail here, but if you want to look at these texts yourself, you want to be really meticulous, you will find that in Genesis, it will say Zara and then it will say Zar, Z-A-R-A versus Z-A-R-E.

01:23:03.792 --> 01:23:16.512
And the name for the wife for the land in Genesis 36 is Borsoba, whereas in Genesis 42, it's Borsoha, so an H-A versus a B-A.

01:23:16.512 --> 01:23:23.392
By itself, if just one of the names were different, you could say, well, maybe that's slightly, it's an inconsistency, I'm not sure if the same person.

01:23:23.392 --> 01:23:29.292
When both the father and the mother are off by only one character, it's absolutely the same person.

01:23:29.292 --> 01:23:31.732
And this is not just a Bible problem.

01:23:31.732 --> 01:23:44.312
About 10 years ago, I took a road trip around the country, and I had the privilege to visit family graveyard on my mom's side in western North Carolina in Ashe County.

01:23:44.312 --> 01:23:47.532
Metro 4 is one of the places flooded out.

01:23:47.532 --> 01:23:56.032
The family plot is up on top of a hillside, and I found it online on Findgrave and made sure that was one of the waypoints that I visited.

01:23:56.032 --> 01:23:59.772
Because my grandfather, who's buried there actually, helped build the Blue Ridge Parkway.

01:23:59.772 --> 01:24:01.012
Yeah, my grandfather helped build it.

01:24:01.012 --> 01:24:04.272
If you look that up, he was born in 1897.

01:24:04.272 --> 01:24:06.532
My grandpa was 82 when I was born.

01:24:06.532 --> 01:24:07.652
He was really old.

01:24:07.652 --> 01:24:10.712
It's like there's, you know, talk about generational compression and sliding.

01:24:10.712 --> 01:24:12.752
That still happens today too.

01:24:12.752 --> 01:24:17.892
My grandma was about 20 years younger than him, and my mom was the third youngest of nine brothers and sisters.

01:24:18.012 --> 01:24:24.072
So, you know, things can start to stretch even in modern days.

01:24:24.072 --> 01:24:37.572
The reason I mention the family plot is that in that graveyard, with graves going back about 150 years, the surname of my mom is spelled three different ways.

01:24:37.572 --> 01:24:42.532
So within living memory, the same people were spelling the same surname in different ways.

01:24:42.532 --> 01:24:45.792
So if you've never done genealogy before, you probably haven't run into that.

01:24:46.032 --> 01:25:00.972
But when you look at the Old Testament, when you look at scripture and you find these minor inconsistencies in spelling, it's important to verify, is it the same person as somebody with a similar name or a different person with an approximate name?

01:25:00.972 --> 01:25:04.592
Or is it the same person with the same name just being recorded in a different way?

01:25:04.592 --> 01:25:11.772
Because if it could happen to people who were my ancestors 75 years ago, it can absolutely happen 4,000 years ago.

01:25:11.772 --> 01:25:12.572
It's nothing new.

01:25:13.652 --> 01:25:22.712
Prior to basically universal literacy and even with universal literacy, people have not always been completely consistent about even spelling their own names.

01:25:22.712 --> 01:25:25.312
And sometimes they'll diverge and then get locked in.

01:25:25.312 --> 01:25:32.112
So in that family plot, a couple of generations back, people were spelling them inconsistently.

01:25:32.112 --> 01:25:36.712
At some point, one of those inconsistencies got locked in in a couple of different ways.

01:25:36.712 --> 01:25:39.012
Genealogy looks kind of weird sometimes.

01:25:39.012 --> 01:25:49.692
If you are going to be autistic and you're going to be meticulous about precision, it's really frustrating because you can't necessarily get exact perfect matchups of everything.

01:25:49.692 --> 01:25:57.652
But what you can rest assured is that regardless of whether or not you know your great-grandparent's name, you know that you had to have a great-grandparent.

01:25:57.652 --> 01:26:06.312
Even if you were adopted or was lost for whatever reason, that person had to exist or you wouldn't be here as an absolute biological mathematical certainty.

01:26:07.132 --> 01:26:11.712
So it's absolutely a certainty that Job had parents and grandparents and so forth.

01:26:11.712 --> 01:26:22.192
And when we look at Job 42 and reconcile with Genesis 36, the only thing we have to contend with is this telescoping generation where Ragul is eliminated.

01:26:22.192 --> 01:26:29.952
And Job is in effect called a grandson of Esau rather than a great-grandson, which even today is not strange.

01:26:29.952 --> 01:26:40.192
You know, if you're a northwestern European man, you would call Charlemagne your grandfather, or you could, because virtually all of us are going to have been descended from him.

01:26:40.192 --> 01:26:46.292
It's not abnormal to skip the 40 generations between here and there to say, Charlemagne is my grandfather.

01:26:47.732 --> 01:26:50.072
Scripture itself does this as well.

01:26:50.072 --> 01:26:57.312
God said to Jacob, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac, even though that was skipping a generation.

01:26:57.312 --> 01:27:00.352
Jacob also asked, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?

01:27:00.352 --> 01:27:05.172
However, Genesis makes clear that Laban is the son of Bethuel, the grandson of Nahor.

01:27:05.172 --> 01:27:12.592
So regardless whether you're using Septuagint or the Rabbinic text, there are cases where men are called sons or actually grandsons and so forth.

01:27:12.592 --> 01:27:15.832
That sort of lineal descent, we're all sons of Adam.

01:27:15.832 --> 01:27:17.932
It's normal to talk that way.

01:27:17.932 --> 01:27:25.332
When you're getting into the specificity of exactly which generation it is, there are sometimes ambiguities.

01:27:25.352 --> 01:27:28.572
That's particularly the case in these cultures in this day.

01:27:28.572 --> 01:27:32.512
So I pointed out because if you dig into it, all this doesn't match.

01:27:32.512 --> 01:27:33.892
This can't be the same.

01:27:33.892 --> 01:27:35.192
Therefore, what are you going to do?

01:27:35.192 --> 01:27:37.192
Are you going to throw it all out?

01:27:37.192 --> 01:27:42.872
If that's your conclusion, just know you're going to be throwing out Matthew and Luke and a whole bunch of other stuff.

01:27:42.872 --> 01:27:44.832
Because these problems are nothing new.

01:27:44.832 --> 01:27:48.692
They're nothing that should concern anyone with strong and mature faith.

01:27:48.692 --> 01:27:51.272
If you're new to the faith, don't worry about it all.

01:27:51.272 --> 01:27:55.092
Don't get tied up in genealogies and worry about this stuff.

01:27:55.092 --> 01:27:57.612
It's not the crucial part of the faith.

01:27:57.612 --> 01:27:59.952
But what is crucial is not lying about God.

01:28:00.372 --> 01:28:04.552
If it turns out that there's been a mistake in error and omission, we try to do better.

01:28:04.552 --> 01:28:20.212
And in the case of the Septuagint, what we find is that the removal of this detail, that Job was actually the king of Edom and that he was descended from Esau by a couple generations, is profoundly important.

01:28:20.212 --> 01:28:33.932
Because what has just happened by that one fact in Job 42 is that Job the man is ripped out of mythology and placed directly in a timeline that's in the Bible.

01:28:33.932 --> 01:28:43.912
This appears in two parallel paces in the first five books of the Bible, in Numbers 20 and in Deuteronomy 2, where the same story is basically retold.

01:28:43.912 --> 01:28:47.892
Like I said, God likes to repeat himself and tell the story in slightly different ways.

01:28:47.892 --> 01:29:03.672
And it's really important to look at both of them together, because when you plug in the fact that Job was somewhere in the neighborhood, somewhere around this time, and he was the king of Edom, it radically reframes the end of the Exodus.

01:29:03.672 --> 01:29:08.052
I'm just going to briefly summarize the key events in Numbers 20 here.

01:29:09.632 --> 01:29:12.992
The Israelites revile Moses and God.

01:29:12.992 --> 01:29:17.072
God tells Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock and to provide water.

01:29:17.072 --> 01:29:19.652
Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it.

01:29:20.432 --> 01:29:26.072
God immediately pronounces death upon both Aaron and Moses for their disobedience.

01:29:26.072 --> 01:29:28.852
So that's one paragraph in Numbers 20.

01:29:28.852 --> 01:29:31.412
The next paragraph in Numbers 20 is this.

01:29:31.412 --> 01:29:37.372
The king of Edom, who is unnamed, says he'll kill the Israelites if they set one foot in his land.

01:29:37.372 --> 01:29:41.252
He says, he's going to send his army out, you're not crossing our border at all.

01:29:41.252 --> 01:29:46.852
And there's no moral commentary whatsoever in the text against the king of Edom for doing so.

01:29:47.832 --> 01:29:56.692
And then the next paragraph, concluding Numbers 20, God told Aaron to give his son his priestly garments and go up on a mountain and God killed him on the spot.

01:29:56.692 --> 01:29:58.652
Aaron didn't die of natural causes.

01:29:58.652 --> 01:30:00.752
Aaron didn't die of old age.

01:30:00.752 --> 01:30:04.472
Aaron died because God said, now it's your time to die.

01:30:04.472 --> 01:30:11.152
And while that is true for all of us, it is seldom true in such an immediate fashion.

01:30:11.152 --> 01:30:17.792
And I think it's notable just looking at Numbers 20 as a story in general that Aaron wasn't the one who struck the rock.

01:30:17.792 --> 01:30:19.432
Moses struck the rock.

01:30:19.432 --> 01:30:20.352
But they were brothers.

01:30:20.352 --> 01:30:24.292
They were there together as leaders.

01:30:24.292 --> 01:30:25.632
Aaron did nothing.

01:30:25.632 --> 01:30:27.812
I'm sure it makes perfect sense.

01:30:27.812 --> 01:30:35.092
When you read the story, how much the Israelites have been haranguing Moses, it makes perfect sense that he got angry.

01:30:35.092 --> 01:30:38.352
And God said there's going to be water coming out of this rock.

01:30:38.352 --> 01:30:41.952
He probably took his staff and struck it with both hands as hard as he could.

01:30:41.952 --> 01:30:42.892
He was pissed.

01:30:43.352 --> 01:30:47.132
He was angry and that was sin.

01:30:47.132 --> 01:30:57.172
Undoubtedly, Aaron shared his frustration, which boiled over into anger at the Israelites and their grumbling, the fact they were reviling him and reviling God by extension.

01:30:57.172 --> 01:31:00.732
Because God had placed them there as their leaders.

01:31:00.732 --> 01:31:05.272
That one act of disobedience, in the case of Aaron, God struck him dead almost immediately.

01:31:05.272 --> 01:31:07.372
He's dead by the end of the chapter.

01:31:07.372 --> 01:31:24.892
So this came up earlier today, it's unrelated, but there's a blow up on X recently, once again, about the sinful paths of girls and what obligations men have to take a girl as a wife who may have been acting up in horrible ways.

01:31:24.892 --> 01:31:37.232
Some, I think, has protested, published an article saying that if an OnlyFans model, in quotes, if an OnlyFans prostitute becomes a Christian and stops doing that, you have a Christian obligation to marry her.

01:31:38.272 --> 01:31:48.692
And all of those claims are always predicated on the notion that once someone is forgiven by God, all the consequences are wiped away in this life.

01:31:48.692 --> 01:31:53.332
You can never have any consequences applied to you once Jesus forgives you.

01:31:53.332 --> 01:32:07.352
If that were true, either Aaron is burning in hell, or as God sinned, because Aaron was a godly man, it was this one sin that condemned him to physical death.

01:32:07.352 --> 01:32:09.692
It did not condemn him to eternal death.

01:32:09.692 --> 01:32:18.112
He was properly mourned immediately by Israelites for the appropriate period of time, because he was a great patriarch.

01:32:18.112 --> 01:32:20.852
All of his sons became the priesthood.

01:32:20.852 --> 01:32:22.112
He was a great man.

01:32:22.112 --> 01:32:28.592
He died in the Lord, and yet it was immediately the Lord who struck him dead for his sin.

01:32:28.592 --> 01:32:39.192
The consequences of Moses and Aaron sinning, and again, Aaron's sin was certainly lesser than Moses's, and Aaron died first.

01:32:39.192 --> 01:32:40.632
God killed him almost to me.

01:32:40.632 --> 01:32:44.232
They said, go up on the hill, take off your clothes, give him to your son, and you die.

01:32:44.232 --> 01:32:45.992
And that's exactly what happened.

01:32:45.992 --> 01:32:48.372
That was temporal consequences for sin.

01:32:48.372 --> 01:32:49.212
This is our God.

01:32:50.192 --> 01:33:12.092
And one of the overarching problems that we have, one of the reasons that Stone Choir exists, one of the reasons we're doing the Septuagint series at all, is that because post-Reformation, certainly this reframing of the Jews as being central to everything, as being the key that unlocks all of human history, certainly Adam was a Jew, right?

01:33:12.092 --> 01:33:12.852
Had to be.

01:33:12.852 --> 01:33:13.932
Noah was a Jew, right?

01:33:13.932 --> 01:33:17.892
Because that was just, you know, they have the lineage and they can name them.

01:33:17.992 --> 01:33:19.672
So obviously, they're all Jews.

01:33:19.672 --> 01:33:23.832
We've demonstrated the absurdity of that in the Hebrews Israelite and Jews episode.

01:33:23.832 --> 01:33:45.452
But these notions have become pervasive, particularly in American Protestantism today, and they have suffused every aspect of how we view everything, such that when you see things like God striking Aaron dead for his sin, for Moses' sin and his participation in it as a lesser participant, we don't see anything at all.

01:33:46.452 --> 01:33:48.712
Because what's Numbers 20 to us?

01:33:48.712 --> 01:33:57.712
If we have a Jew-focused view of the Old Testament, well, you know, it's just a story about what the Hebrews are doing out in the desert, and it's got nothing to do with us.

01:33:57.712 --> 01:34:00.232
There's no moral conclusion to be drawn, is there?

01:34:00.232 --> 01:34:14.212
Whereas if you look at Aaron being a Christian, being a believer who died in the Lord and God killing him for his sin, it can be unambiguous that there are temporal consequences for sin, even when that sin is forgiven in eternity.

01:34:15.272 --> 01:34:20.192
It's not the subject of today's episode, but it's an ongoing battle in the church.

01:34:20.192 --> 01:34:30.732
And what is lost by despising what's actually in the Old Testament is the fact that God is not the God that we're often told he is.

01:34:30.732 --> 01:34:33.272
God killed Aaron on the spot for what he did.

01:34:33.272 --> 01:34:36.992
So that's an aside, but it's a crucial one because this is a live issue.

01:34:37.072 --> 01:34:44.472
The whole reason we're spending all this time talking about some translation is not because it's a fiddly detail of history.

01:34:44.472 --> 01:34:46.612
This is not textual criticism.

01:34:46.612 --> 01:34:51.392
This is about whether or not we believe God in everything that he says and take it seriously and act like it.

01:34:51.392 --> 01:34:55.132
And right now we're not doing a very good job of that at all.

01:34:55.132 --> 01:34:59.732
In the middle paragraph where it says that the king of Edom refused entry.

01:34:59.732 --> 01:35:03.272
When you read Edom, you think, oh man, those Edomites, they were terrible.

01:35:03.272 --> 01:35:05.052
Later on, they absolutely were.

01:35:05.052 --> 01:35:06.432
They were malicious.

01:35:06.432 --> 01:35:07.912
They were despicable.

01:35:07.912 --> 01:35:09.252
They were truly wicked people.

01:35:10.172 --> 01:35:14.372
They were not those wicked Edomites in this day.

01:35:14.372 --> 01:35:17.392
They were, in fact, god-fearers.

01:35:17.392 --> 01:35:20.832
Now, here's where the timeline comes in.

01:35:20.832 --> 01:35:23.732
And these are some numbers that I produced myself.

01:35:23.732 --> 01:35:29.012
I'm not going to publish them, certainly at this time, because I'm not the guy.

01:35:29.012 --> 01:35:35.332
I'm not fiddly or patient enough to try to line up every single thing to make sure that it precisely works.

01:35:35.332 --> 01:35:41.992
But I'm going to give you a timeline here that's going to be anchored with Abraham's birth, basically, at year one.

01:35:41.992 --> 01:35:46.452
It's just like we have AD year of our Lord, one with Jesus' birth, ostensibly.

01:35:46.452 --> 01:35:52.012
AD., you know, birth of Abraham, year one here for this timeline.

01:35:52.012 --> 01:35:55.592
These numbers are absolutely internally consistent.

01:35:55.592 --> 01:35:57.912
Abraham is born 75 years later.

01:35:57.912 --> 01:36:01.492
He's given the promise and he enters into Canaan.

01:36:01.492 --> 01:36:03.312
At 100, Isaac is born.

01:36:04.252 --> 01:36:10.652
At 160, years after Abraham's birth, Esau and Jacob are born.

01:36:10.652 --> 01:36:13.452
And we often say Jacob and Esau, but Esau was the first born.

01:36:13.452 --> 01:36:17.572
So again, don't freak out when the second born has a greater blessing.

01:36:17.572 --> 01:36:19.692
That's something God likes to do.

01:36:19.692 --> 01:36:21.432
But it's always in punishment.

01:36:21.432 --> 01:36:24.412
It's always because something has happened.

01:36:24.412 --> 01:36:28.792
And then 15 years after the birth of Esau and Jacob, Abraham dies at age 175.

01:36:30.072 --> 01:36:33.352
76 years after Abraham dies, Joseph is born.

01:36:33.352 --> 01:36:36.712
So we're now at year 251 on our timeline.

01:36:36.712 --> 01:36:38.572
Joseph is born at 251.

01:36:38.572 --> 01:36:42.472
Joseph is appointed overseer in Egypt at about 281.

01:36:42.472 --> 01:36:45.532
And that's the beginning of the years of Plenty.

01:36:45.532 --> 01:36:50.792
And then the famine begins in about 288 years after Abraham's birth.

01:36:50.792 --> 01:36:52.932
We get to about 300 years.

01:36:52.932 --> 01:36:56.412
I'm going to round a little bit here because it's not crucial to get fiddly.

01:36:57.092 --> 01:37:01.932
About 300 years after Abraham's birth, Kohath is born.

01:37:01.932 --> 01:37:04.912
Kohath is the father of Amram.

01:37:04.912 --> 01:37:07.672
Amram is the father of Job.

01:37:07.672 --> 01:37:24.912
So the reason that I've included these additional names after Jacob is that with the birth of Kohath, the birth of Amram, and then the birth of Moses, we've established typical generational intervals at that time in that place for those sons.

01:37:25.552 --> 01:37:30.952
Just like we were talking about the Genesis 5 and the Genesis 11 intervals, they were all quite consistent.

01:37:30.952 --> 01:37:37.692
Now, we don't know to what degree that was typical at the time or to what degree God supernaturally intervened.

01:37:37.692 --> 01:37:46.172
There's no reason to believe it wasn't typical, but in the particulars of any given man, you can't extrapolate, but you can average.

01:37:46.172 --> 01:37:50.672
On average, it was about 130 years in the Genesis 11 chronologies.

01:37:50.672 --> 01:37:51.612
That's perfectly fine.

01:37:53.132 --> 01:38:08.992
So, since we know for a fact from the genealogies that give specific begetting dates exactly how much time passed from Jacob through Moses, we can assume that other men would have had similar generational intervals.

01:38:08.992 --> 01:38:12.692
Not identical, but similar, certainly in the ballpark.

01:38:12.692 --> 01:38:20.812
So, what I have done privately, and I'm not going to publish this, but I'm just making the case for why these numbers, I think, are absolutely plausible.

01:38:21.612 --> 01:38:27.332
And, in fact, they're so plausible that concluding that this is not true becomes implausible.

01:38:27.332 --> 01:38:31.772
You'd have to shift the timelines radically to dismiss what I'm saying here.

01:38:31.772 --> 01:38:43.312
Assuming, and this is the one big assumption in all of this, this is the one thing that is not established in Scripture, we're not given the begetting dates of Esau's sons, certainly through Job.

01:38:43.312 --> 01:38:47.232
We're not told in Job 42 or in Genesis 36 what the intervals were.

01:38:47.872 --> 01:39:02.052
But if we assume that they're comparable to the generations through Moses, then we would have Job being born in Edom 352 years after Abraham's death.

01:39:02.052 --> 01:39:06.512
That is the same year as Amram is born, which is the assumption.

01:39:06.512 --> 01:39:09.892
So again, that's where the generational intervals are the same.

01:39:09.892 --> 01:39:13.632
That's a complete assumption, but it's going to be within a few years.

01:39:13.632 --> 01:39:17.072
Even if it's off by 10 years, it doesn't change the conclusion of the argument.

01:39:17.572 --> 01:39:18.812
I'll be making here.

01:39:18.812 --> 01:39:22.132
But I'm acknowledging this is the one place where we don't know.

01:39:22.132 --> 01:39:26.292
This is the one place where we cannot say this is accurate.

01:39:26.292 --> 01:39:32.412
But everything predicated on the assumption is going to be precise because we have all the rest of the dates in scripture.

01:39:32.412 --> 01:39:42.212
So if we assume the intervals were the same for Job, then, and this is also using the sixth generation timeline for Job, not the five.

01:39:42.212 --> 01:39:56.372
As I mentioned a minute ago, I think that the telescoping past reguul we have to treat as something that's being alighted, but that man also existed, and therefore would have a similar generational interval.

01:39:56.372 --> 01:40:01.832
So I'm using the sixth generations and not the five that are attested to in Job 42.

01:40:01.832 --> 01:40:06.932
But I reran the numbers both ways and they work out pretty much either way.

01:40:06.932 --> 01:40:25.492
Assuming that there were six generations, which is from scripture with a minor caveat, and assuming that the generations through Job from Esau were about the same, he's being born about the same time as Amram, which means that Job was born just before Joseph dies.

01:40:25.492 --> 01:40:31.392
This would put Job's trials beginning almost the same year that Moses is born.

01:40:31.392 --> 01:40:42.772
Assuming identical durations for Job and Amram, Job's trials would begin 422 years after Abraham, and Moses is born 425 years after Abraham.

01:40:42.772 --> 01:40:44.392
So virtually the same time.

01:40:44.392 --> 01:40:50.612
So when Job's trials begin, he has been king for some time, like all this wealth.

01:40:50.612 --> 01:40:51.292
He's the king.

01:40:51.292 --> 01:40:52.612
His friends are kings.

01:40:52.612 --> 01:40:54.432
He's not a prince at this point.

01:40:54.432 --> 01:40:56.292
He's been in charge of Edom.

01:40:56.292 --> 01:40:58.852
He's been the king of Edom for some time.

01:40:58.852 --> 01:41:09.812
And remember the context from the beginning of Job, the discourse that occurs in the heavenly council, God holds Job forth as one of the most faithful men on the planet.

01:41:09.812 --> 01:41:12.072
He says there's none like him.

01:41:12.072 --> 01:41:15.672
And Job lived at the same time as Moses.

01:41:15.672 --> 01:41:33.052
While Moses was doing his thing in Egypt in slavery, along with all of the Hebrews, while they were all beleaguered and being beaten and forced to do manual labor and killed unjustly and cruelly by the Egyptians, Job was blessed immeasurably by God.

01:41:33.792 --> 01:41:40.152
And Job was the subject of discussion where the devil said, well, of course, he gives you glory.

01:41:40.152 --> 01:41:41.532
You've erected a hedge around him.

01:41:41.532 --> 01:41:44.272
Nothing bad happens to him.

01:41:44.272 --> 01:41:45.392
This is the context.

01:41:45.392 --> 01:41:46.992
This is what matters.

01:41:46.992 --> 01:41:54.852
Even if we're off by a few years of Job's birth, because Job was a great grandson of Esau, he lived about the same time.

01:41:54.852 --> 01:41:57.732
He lived a couple of countries over.

01:41:57.732 --> 01:42:00.232
Edom wasn't far away from Egypt at that time.

01:42:00.772 --> 01:42:04.312
They're not exactly neighbors, but it's not distant.

01:42:04.312 --> 01:42:05.252
Job was blessed.

01:42:05.252 --> 01:42:06.872
Job was a powerful king.

01:42:06.872 --> 01:42:09.032
The Hebrews are in captivity.

01:42:09.032 --> 01:42:10.192
They're being tormented.

01:42:10.192 --> 01:42:11.052
They're being abused.

01:42:11.052 --> 01:42:13.452
They're being killed unjustly.

01:42:13.452 --> 01:42:18.932
That's a problem if you have a Jewish-centric view of the Old Testament.

01:42:18.932 --> 01:42:26.972
The deletion of Job existing at this time made it possible for us to forget that not only was Job a king, he was a specific king.

01:42:26.972 --> 01:42:27.912
He was a king of Edom.

01:42:28.552 --> 01:42:29.572
But when did he live?

01:42:29.572 --> 01:42:32.992
He lived at the same time as the Hebrews were being tormented.

01:42:34.332 --> 01:42:42.012
So moving ahead in this timeline that relates to Job, this is an absolute fact born out from Scripture to zero speculation here.

01:42:42.012 --> 01:42:47.692
Exodus began 505 years after Abraham's birth.

01:42:47.692 --> 01:42:58.472
And then Israel attempts to pass through Edom, remember in Numbers 20 and Deuteronomy 2, about 39 to 40 years later.

01:42:58.472 --> 01:43:03.092
Not sure precisely, I don't think, but it's at the very end of the Exodus.

01:43:03.092 --> 01:43:05.952
So this would either be 544 or 545.

01:43:05.952 --> 01:43:09.372
We'll call 545 for the sake of roundness.

01:43:09.372 --> 01:43:25.472
So 545 years after Abraham was born, in the year of Abraham, we have Moses going to the King of Edom, unnamed in both the Septuagint and the Rabbinic text.

01:43:25.472 --> 01:43:31.032
We have the King of Edom saying, you're not coming in, if you try, we're going to kill you.

01:43:31.032 --> 01:43:33.332
And it's described in a couple of different ways.

01:43:33.332 --> 01:43:37.932
I gave the paraphrase, the numbers 20 description of the event.

01:43:37.932 --> 01:43:42.492
Now I'm going to read you the paragraph from Deuteronomy 2.

01:43:42.492 --> 01:43:49.612
And we turned and departed into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea as the Lord spoke to me, and we compassed Mount Seir many days.

01:43:49.612 --> 01:43:52.572
And the Lord said to me, You have compassed this mount long enough.

01:43:52.572 --> 01:44:01.232
Turn therefore toward the north, and charge the people, saying, You are going through the borders of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir.

01:44:01.232 --> 01:44:04.432
And they shall fear you and dread you greatly.

01:44:04.432 --> 01:44:11.652
Do not engage in war against them, for I will not give you of their land, even to set your foot upon.

01:44:11.652 --> 01:44:15.732
For I have given Mount Seir to the children of Esau as an inheritance.

01:44:17.292 --> 01:44:21.252
So, this is a small bit of context that is missing from Numbers 20, but it's crucial.

01:44:21.272 --> 01:44:24.352
One, God said go over there.

01:44:24.352 --> 01:44:30.732
And God said chronologically go over there right after Moses struck the rock.

01:44:30.732 --> 01:44:34.872
So, you know, Moses leaves us out of the retelling in Deuteronomy 2.

01:44:34.872 --> 01:44:38.772
But he does say, God says go through there, go over there.

01:44:38.772 --> 01:44:47.252
And he says something that needs to be treated carefully, because the text is obvious, but only if you're not being nitpicky.

01:44:47.252 --> 01:44:59.892
God says you are going through the borders of your brothers, the children of Esau, which to us sounds like, okay, going through the borders, it means you're crossing the border, you're entering the country.

01:44:59.892 --> 01:45:13.252
In the original Greek text that's being translated by Brenton as through, that could just easily say you are passing by, you are going alongside, or you are skirting the borders of your brothers.

01:45:13.252 --> 01:45:15.172
Any of those would be accurate.

01:45:15.172 --> 01:45:21.612
And through is also fine as long as you understand what's said just, I think, two verses later.

01:45:21.612 --> 01:45:26.612
I will not give you of their land even enough to set your foot upon.

01:45:26.612 --> 01:45:45.492
So again, the text itself makes clear that they didn't go into the land of Edom, but you just can't be lazy with the through the borders and think, well, they entered into it because Numbers 20 says the same thing, it says they didn't go in, because the army was amassed in Deuteronomy 2, says because they were terrified.

01:45:45.492 --> 01:45:58.392
Edom was terrified of this giant mass of, you know, probably a couple million people, because remember 600,000 men had of households, that's women and children and slaves, whatever they brought with them, probably a couple million people came out of Egypt.

01:45:58.392 --> 01:46:14.752
That's a lot of people in any place at any time, certainly no small matter in this time, especially when these people are desperate, and particularly when Job undoubtedly was familiar with what was going on among the Hebrews when they were in Egypt.

01:46:14.752 --> 01:46:32.252
So as I said, Scripture does not say that the King of Edom who denies the Israelites entry into Edom doesn't say he's Job, but the Septuagint, which was deleted from the Rabbinic text, says Job was a King of Edom at about this time.

01:46:32.252 --> 01:46:46.592
So the reason that I did all that timeline work that I'm describing here is that assuming the generations of Job were similar to those of Moses, Job died nearly 40 years after this.

01:46:46.592 --> 01:46:58.312
So it's basically impossible for the things to move around far enough, even assuming that my assumptions are not accurate, that I don't have the date pinpoint precisely.

01:46:58.312 --> 01:47:09.912
They would have to move so far in terms of generations by decades that it would cease to be plausible relative to the consistency that we've seen in the other places where we are given generational intervals.

01:47:09.912 --> 01:47:14.452
Remember the Genesis 11 intervals were very consistently 130 years.

01:47:14.452 --> 01:47:17.852
That's not to say the interval I'm using here is not exactly 130 years.

01:47:17.852 --> 01:47:22.772
The interval I'm using is approximately the same that it was through of Moses.

01:47:22.772 --> 01:47:25.452
So why would they edit Job?

01:47:25.452 --> 01:47:30.992
Why would they remove these small details on top of all the massive changes that Corey mentioned earlier?

01:47:31.532 --> 01:47:44.832
The small detail of all his friends being kings, of him being a king, because if he's a king of Edom and he is descended from Esau, which you'd expect as a king of Edom, like Edomites, those of Esau's grandkids.

01:47:44.832 --> 01:47:47.852
So that's a foregone conclusion.

01:47:47.852 --> 01:48:03.172
But Job being a believer, being the most blessed man on the planet, above every living Hebrew, above Moses himself, above Moses and Aaron, whom God struck dead because of their disobedience, Job was not struck dead.

01:48:03.172 --> 01:48:12.272
He was given a double portion of what he had lost, including as many children again, because in the resurrection, he would have doubled the number of children.

01:48:12.272 --> 01:48:16.592
But livestock and all the things that aren't promised to be resurrected, it was doubled.

01:48:16.592 --> 01:48:28.612
He became twice as wealthy after his trials as before, because he was blessed by God, because he was, I don't think it's unreasonable to say, uniquely faithful.

01:48:28.612 --> 01:48:33.672
This was occurring while the Hebrews were slaves to the Egyptians.

01:48:33.672 --> 01:48:38.652
If you were a God-hating rabbi, is this something you might omit?

01:48:38.652 --> 01:48:42.472
To make a non-Hebrew look better than you?

01:48:42.472 --> 01:48:51.572
More blessings, more wealth, greater accolades from God in the very moment of their destitution and their humiliation?

01:48:51.572 --> 01:48:53.132
This is not a small matter.

01:48:53.892 --> 01:49:00.652
And so as I said, I'm not publishing the chart that I came up with because I don't stand by it 100% in terms of its accuracy.

01:49:00.652 --> 01:49:02.532
It could be off by a few years.

01:49:02.532 --> 01:49:06.692
I absolutely stand by the precision of the internal workings.

01:49:06.692 --> 01:49:15.532
You have to come up with a preposterous interval for Job's generations after Esau, for him not to be this king.

01:49:15.532 --> 01:49:17.452
In fact, I actually ran the numbers twice.

01:49:18.012 --> 01:49:27.092
I also ran them with the five-generation interval, where we have Job 42 saying that he was five from Abram.

01:49:27.092 --> 01:49:40.912
Even though I don't believe that that is precise because I think that that's skipping raguul and I think that's a very Christian conclusion to reach, even if we assume for the sake of argument that it's not six, it's actually five, how do the numbers work out?

01:49:40.912 --> 01:49:48.392
Assuming identical generations, Job would be dying just three years before the end of the exodus.

01:49:48.392 --> 01:50:11.592
So assuming exactly the same years between multiple generations of grandfathers, Job would have been just shortly dead, which I think makes it entirely believable that even in that scenario, which I don't agree with, I don't think it's realistic to delete raguul, even in that scenario, if you move the generations by just one year each, Job is the king again.

01:50:11.592 --> 01:50:15.452
That's how much of a margin of error there is for the assumptions I'm making.

01:50:15.452 --> 01:50:20.712
I'm not publishing it because I don't think it's accurate, but it's probably pretty close.

01:50:20.712 --> 01:50:24.912
I do believe that there is no other reasonable conclusion.

01:50:24.912 --> 01:50:40.332
It's an inference, but I think it's a conclusion that any rational Christian who reads and can do math would reach the same conclusion, that Job was alive during the Exodus, he was alive during most of Moses' life, in fact, all of Moses' life.

01:50:40.732 --> 01:50:44.172
He lived longer as born before and he died after.

01:50:44.172 --> 01:50:47.132
So his life entirely compass Moses' life.

01:50:47.132 --> 01:50:48.132
He was more blessed.

01:50:48.132 --> 01:50:54.692
He was a more holy man and he was not a descendant of Jacob, which means he wasn't an Israelite.

01:50:54.692 --> 01:51:06.612
This is a big problem if you have a Jewish supremacist view of the Old Testament, which is part of what dies when we re-adopt the Septuagint as the early church held.

01:51:06.612 --> 01:51:21.012
Another small detail, but I think one that's potentially interesting, because of Moses' position in Egypt being very high up, and because Job was a neighboring king, this is complete speculation.

01:51:21.012 --> 01:51:28.212
This may not be true at all, but it's entirely reasonable to speculate that Moses and Job may have met politically.

01:51:28.212 --> 01:51:36.112
It may well have been the case that they would have been in the same place at the same time, probably Moses being sent to Job, being sent to Edom as an emissary.

01:51:36.652 --> 01:51:43.732
That's completely speculative, but given the overlap of their lives, it's entirely possible it happened for political reasons.

01:51:43.732 --> 01:51:51.632
Totally unrelated to anything in Scripture, but just because of Moses' placement in Egyptian life, it could have been the case.

01:51:51.632 --> 01:51:53.432
That is how much overlap there is.

01:51:53.432 --> 01:51:56.952
So please don't quote me on that, because it may or may not be true.

01:51:56.952 --> 01:52:04.812
We have no possible way to know, but they certainly lived at the same time, and they absolutely lived at the same time.

01:52:05.032 --> 01:52:07.072
That's beyond any shadow of a doubt.

01:52:07.072 --> 01:52:15.172
And it's almost certain that Job had to be the king in Numbers 20 and in Deuteronomy 2.

01:52:15.172 --> 01:52:21.192
That is a radical retelling of those stories by the omission that was made from the Greek.

01:52:21.192 --> 01:52:25.992
So this is the reason we're including this in the timeline episode here.

01:52:25.992 --> 01:52:27.992
Think about how wild that is.

01:52:27.992 --> 01:52:36.092
To have this man suddenly have a place and a purpose, and have land given to him is the last thing they'll draw from this text.

01:52:36.092 --> 01:52:39.932
I don't think we've really ever taken seriously before.

01:52:39.932 --> 01:52:46.012
Listen again to what God said of Job, of the Edomites in Deuteronomy 2.

01:52:46.012 --> 01:52:51.932
Do not engage in war against them, for I will not give you of their land, even to set your foot upon.

01:52:51.932 --> 01:52:56.532
For I have given Mount Seir to the children of Esau as an inheritance.

01:52:56.532 --> 01:53:11.872
And then in verse 9, shortly thereafter, God says again, Do not quarrel with the Moabites, and do not engage in war with them, for I will not give you of their land for an inheritance, for I have given Error to the children of Lot to inherit.

01:53:11.872 --> 01:53:21.092
The reason that these two throwaway verses matter so much is that this is exactly what Acts 17 26 says.

01:53:21.152 --> 01:53:40.332
How often Coria and I have we mentioned where God says, and he made from one man and every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him.

01:53:40.332 --> 01:53:42.672
God gave the Moabites their land.

01:53:42.672 --> 01:53:45.332
God gave the Edomites their land.

01:53:45.332 --> 01:53:47.692
God spoke to Job.

01:53:47.692 --> 01:53:56.792
Job was a Christian, and given the conduct of Job's friends, the kings of the neighboring countries, we have every reason to believe that they were Christians too.

01:53:56.792 --> 01:53:59.832
They were poor, certainly theologically.

01:53:59.832 --> 01:54:10.512
The conclusion of Job is that God required a sacrifice and prayer from Job so that he would not kill his friends because of their sin against him.

01:54:10.512 --> 01:54:15.732
But while they were speaking, they were not speaking pagan blasphemies against God.

01:54:15.732 --> 01:54:17.492
They were spouting bad theology.

01:54:18.492 --> 01:54:21.072
Better theology than most of our pastors today.

01:54:21.172 --> 01:54:24.372
Less blasphemous things than you hear from most pulpits today.

01:54:24.372 --> 01:54:27.112
Nevertheless, warranting death from God.

01:54:27.112 --> 01:54:30.912
Yet, for the sake of Job's prayer, God forgave them.

01:54:30.912 --> 01:54:34.052
That means that all those neighboring countries were Christian too for a time.

01:54:34.052 --> 01:54:35.292
It was all lost.

01:54:35.292 --> 01:54:38.192
All those countries eventually apostatized.

01:54:38.192 --> 01:54:50.392
Edom certainly, if not chiefly, as bad as any, because what we see from Edom later, by the time, the first time they had malicious conflict, is in the days of the kings of Israel.

01:54:50.392 --> 01:54:53.932
By then, the Edomites were truly wicked and depraved.

01:54:53.932 --> 01:54:56.272
They had lost the faith of their fathers.

01:54:56.272 --> 01:54:59.832
But crucially, their fathers had the faith of Abraham.

01:54:59.832 --> 01:55:02.472
Their fathers had the Christian faith.

01:55:02.472 --> 01:55:04.752
Job's in heaven because he's a Christian.

01:55:04.752 --> 01:55:06.692
Job was never a Jew.

01:55:09.532 --> 01:55:20.672
As we've been going through these different sections of the Old Testament, you may have noticed that there is a theme to some of the edits that the rabbis made to the text.

01:55:20.672 --> 01:55:27.472
And I will get into this more with three main types of edits they made, changes they made to the text.

01:55:27.472 --> 01:55:35.272
In my conclusion, there's one salient one here in Job that I want to cover before we move on to Esther.

01:55:35.272 --> 01:55:38.712
And that is from back in Job chapter 2 verse 3.

01:55:38.712 --> 01:55:42.732
I'll read first from the Masoretic text and then from the Septuagint.

01:55:44.272 --> 01:55:54.352
And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?

01:55:54.352 --> 01:56:01.432
He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.

01:56:02.492 --> 01:56:04.892
And then from the Septuagint.

01:56:04.892 --> 01:56:23.332
And the Lord said to the devil, Have you given heed then to my servant Job, that there is no one like him upon the earth, a man who is innocent, truthful, blameless, God-fearing, keeping far from every evil, and still he has his integrity, though you sought to destroy his possessions to no purpose?

01:56:25.552 --> 01:56:33.232
This is one of the changes, one of the types of changes we see so often in the Masoretic text, in the Rabbinic text.

01:56:33.232 --> 01:56:38.272
They diminish the role of God and even go so far as to make God seem capricious.

01:56:39.792 --> 01:56:44.812
You may remember some instances of that from the episode we did on the wisdom literature.

01:56:44.812 --> 01:56:46.252
This is just another one of those.

01:56:46.252 --> 01:56:53.292
There is a difference between God saying that Satan sought to destroy Job and of course God permitted it.

01:56:53.292 --> 01:57:01.452
We don't deny that because everything is in God's hands and any evil that occurs, God has permitted it by not stopping it.

01:57:01.452 --> 01:57:07.412
But there is a difference between that and saying you incited me.

01:57:07.412 --> 01:57:15.752
The Rabbinic text gives to Satan a power he does not have and diminishes God in a way that is utterly impermissible.

01:57:15.752 --> 01:57:25.932
This is one of those verses that causes many Christians to struggle because it seems like Satan almost manipulated God into doing something.

01:57:25.932 --> 01:57:31.512
That problem simply evaporates when you read the actual text of Job because it's not there.

01:57:31.592 --> 01:57:37.192
It's something that was added impermissibly, wickedly by the rabbis.

01:57:39.052 --> 01:57:47.812
And so for the final section of this episode, we will be going over, in fairly large part, actually, the Book of Esther.

01:57:47.812 --> 01:57:57.772
This episode, as you may have guessed, or if you actually looked at the runtime, is going to be a little bit long, perhaps making up for some past episodes we skipped.

01:57:57.772 --> 01:58:12.192
But this is just one of those episodes where there's a great deal to cover, and I can already say that what we're going to cover in Esther is not trivial, either in terms of the content or in terms of the volume of it.

01:58:12.192 --> 01:58:24.332
Because the Book of Esther, as it is in the Masoretic text, is simply a fundamentally different work from the Book of Esther in the actual Old Testament.

01:58:25.532 --> 01:58:35.472
The Book of Esther in the Masoretic text is a book that has caused many Christians to wrestle, to struggle, down through the centuries.

01:58:35.472 --> 01:58:39.192
Luther did not like the Book of Esther.

01:58:39.192 --> 01:58:45.112
Now, it's worth noting that some of the quotes attributed to Luther come from his table talks.

01:58:45.112 --> 01:58:46.512
Those are unreliable.

01:58:46.512 --> 01:58:54.372
And there are others where Latin translators confuse the Book Esdras with the Book Esther, which is scripture.

01:58:55.812 --> 01:59:00.752
But, even setting those aside, Luther was not fond of Esther.

01:59:00.752 --> 01:59:04.992
The great irony is that Luther was right and wrong simultaneously.

01:59:04.992 --> 01:59:09.612
He was right because he was reading the Rabbinic text.

01:59:09.612 --> 01:59:14.512
And he couldn't find God, because the rabbis removed God.

01:59:15.672 --> 01:59:19.472
But he also could have just read the Greek.

01:59:19.472 --> 01:59:23.232
He could have read the Septuagint, and then all of those problems would have been resolved.

01:59:23.972 --> 01:59:30.632
Because in the Septuagint, the Book of Esther is a thoroughly Christian book.

01:59:30.632 --> 01:59:36.752
And as we'll mention, one of the great ironies is that the Jews actually look pretty good in the Book of Esther.

01:59:36.752 --> 01:59:42.772
They don't look so good in the Rabbinic text, because the Rabbinic text is basically a revenge fantasy of the Jews.

01:59:42.772 --> 01:59:43.372
That's what they did.

01:59:43.372 --> 01:59:47.432
They took scripture and turned it into a revenge fantasy.

01:59:48.512 --> 01:59:53.732
Even the best construction of Esther in the Masoretic text, it is a secular book.

01:59:53.732 --> 01:59:55.972
It is a book about court intrigue.

01:59:55.972 --> 02:00:04.252
It is a book about international, incidentally, politics, slightly less international than in the correct reading in the Septuagint.

02:00:04.252 --> 02:00:05.852
We'll get into that.

02:00:05.852 --> 02:00:06.932
But it is a different thing.

02:00:06.932 --> 02:00:09.552
It is not a spiritual book.

02:00:09.552 --> 02:00:11.412
It is not a Christian book.

02:00:11.412 --> 02:00:18.632
And so, our ancestors, back through the ages in the church, were right to question, why is this in scripture?

02:00:19.632 --> 02:00:20.932
Should this be in scripture?

02:00:20.932 --> 02:00:22.352
Is this scripture?

02:00:23.432 --> 02:00:27.812
The answer is, assuredly, yes.

02:00:27.812 --> 02:00:39.592
When you actually read the text of scripture, when you pay attention to what God has actually preserved in his word, instead of reading the text of scripture, you should be reading the text of scripture.

02:00:39.612 --> 02:00:39.992
Instead of what the rabbis edited and handed to us.

02:00:40.052 --> 02:00:42.912
Because God is all over the Septuagint version.

02:00:42.912 --> 02:00:49.712
There are prayers to God, the name of God is there, which is something that is notably absent from the Masoretic text.

02:00:49.712 --> 02:00:53.892
There are explanations of what's going on in this book.

02:00:53.892 --> 02:01:01.552
The letters that are referenced in certain places in the Masoretic text are actually present, preserved for us in the Greek text.

02:01:02.972 --> 02:01:06.432
This is a fundamentally different book.

02:01:06.432 --> 02:01:08.252
They are not comparable between the two.

02:01:08.252 --> 02:01:14.212
There are places in the Old Testament and elsewhere where the differences aren't that great.

02:01:14.212 --> 02:01:27.232
There are some places where the Rabbinic text and the Greek text are identical, just different languages, and you have to read the Rabbinic text in the right way, add in those vowels.

02:01:28.312 --> 02:01:29.432
This is not one of those.

02:01:30.472 --> 02:01:38.112
This is, again, a wholly different book in the Greek versus the so-called Hebrew.

02:01:38.112 --> 02:01:48.652
And we are poorer in the church for the fact that we have been using the edited, to be charitable, Rabbinic text for so long.

02:01:51.212 --> 02:01:57.172
There are a number of main differences, which is to say, there are sections which the rabbis just deleted.

02:01:57.252 --> 02:02:09.792
This is one of the cases in which they were certainly a little bit more blunt with their use of their instruments because there are six sections that are simply absent.

02:02:09.792 --> 02:02:15.592
They deleted them wholesale from the Greek when they were creating the Rabbinic text.

02:02:15.592 --> 02:02:16.692
We will go over those.

02:02:16.692 --> 02:02:22.532
In part, we're not going to read them in whole because we'd basically be reading almost the entire Book of Esther if we did that.

02:02:24.952 --> 02:02:33.032
As Corey mentioned about Luther and I mentioned in I think the last episode, one of the recent episodes, I made a comment that I want to withdraw.

02:02:33.032 --> 02:02:39.612
I said that Luther did not want to translate it at all because he didn't believe that it should be in the Bible.

02:02:39.612 --> 02:02:47.992
He was not a fan, but the thing that I said is a story that I've heard my whole life, well before the Internet.

02:02:47.992 --> 02:02:51.672
But as I was doing some more research, I found a page.

02:02:51.672 --> 02:02:54.892
There's a guy, his blog is called Beggars All Reformation.

02:02:54.892 --> 02:03:02.732
He's some reformed guy that for whatever reason has been meticulously documenting stuff said about Luther for decades now.

02:03:02.732 --> 02:03:11.052
He's very good at digging up original sources, finding the genealogies of every single claim that have ever been made about Luther and a number of other guys.

02:03:11.052 --> 02:03:18.292
He goes into great detail in the origins of the story of the claim that Luther wanted to remove Esther from the Bible.

02:03:18.292 --> 02:03:26.272
I don't remember the specifics of how far back it went, but what he wrote changed my mind to the point that I can't say confidently what I said previously.

02:03:26.272 --> 02:03:29.512
So consider this a retraction of my claim.

02:03:29.512 --> 02:03:32.712
I don't want someone to go around repeating it because of what I said.

02:03:32.712 --> 02:03:37.792
It could still be right and maybe this blogger is wrong, but he's very good at looking this stuff up.

02:03:37.792 --> 02:03:42.172
I can't cite it truthfully anymore, even if it is still accurate.

02:03:43.132 --> 02:03:54.652
I think it's important to note that even if it's fake, even if that's an apocryphal story, which it may or may not be, it's entirely believable because Esther is so bad.

02:03:54.652 --> 02:03:58.712
There is not a single mention of God in the entire book.

02:03:58.712 --> 02:04:02.292
It is literally a godless book in our Bibles.

02:04:02.292 --> 02:04:10.152
So this has long been observed and that was part of the perhaps, perhaps not apocryphal claims about Luther's view of it.

02:04:11.252 --> 02:04:25.472
But I think the fact that there is such a radical difference between the Septuagint and what the rabbis did to Esther, that the fact that such a claim is believable is a big part of the story.

02:04:25.472 --> 02:04:29.632
If Luther said and did that, he would have been entirely justified in doing so.

02:04:29.632 --> 02:04:32.572
But I can't stand by the claim that that occurred.

02:04:32.572 --> 02:04:34.292
So maybe it did, maybe it doesn't.

02:04:34.292 --> 02:04:38.172
We'll put a link in the show notes to that, so you can have that referred to as well.

02:04:39.092 --> 02:04:43.432
One other thing that I'll note before we get into the textual differences themselves.

02:04:43.432 --> 02:04:49.592
The three great Anciels that we've talked about earlier, the Greek codices of the entire Bible.

02:04:49.592 --> 02:04:51.772
The so-called B text.

02:04:51.772 --> 02:04:59.072
They call it the B text because they think it's probably a little bit newer in terms of when it was actually recorded physically.

02:04:59.072 --> 02:05:02.592
Those are Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.

02:05:02.592 --> 02:05:10.252
The B text of Esther, which also includes Papyrus 967, which is dates from the late second century.

02:05:10.252 --> 02:05:13.572
So a couple of years older than the Anciels.

02:05:13.572 --> 02:05:22.192
Then we have the so-called A text, which is now Exandrinus, that's slightly shorter, but not remotely to the same degree as the Rabbinic changes.

02:05:22.192 --> 02:05:26.752
It has the same content that we're going to talk about here.

02:05:27.172 --> 02:05:35.072
In effect, all three, actually four versions of the Greek text that we can refer to have what we're talking about here.

02:05:35.572 --> 02:05:39.272
They are attested to for 1,800 years.

02:05:39.292 --> 02:05:49.152
Esther, interestingly, if you care about the Qumran Caves, which we said previously you shouldn't, but it's notable that Esther is not in there at all.

02:05:49.152 --> 02:05:52.252
One way or another, the book literally isn't present.

02:05:52.252 --> 02:05:59.232
Both Josephus and Jerome attest to the Rabbinic form of Esther.

02:05:59.232 --> 02:06:06.312
So what we find in the Masoretic text in 1000 AD was not brand new a thousand years ago.

02:06:06.312 --> 02:06:11.772
It was in use at the time of Josephus Soap 2000 years ago.

02:06:11.772 --> 02:06:35.992
What is interesting about Jerome is that despite how much he despised the Septuagint and had to go all this extra work to learn Hebrew and talk to rabbis, because he already knew Greek, to do all this extra work just to throw out the Greek, he still was basically forced to include these so-called additions to Esther in the Vulgate.

02:06:35.992 --> 02:06:48.972
Now, what Jerome did that's been repeated since Jerome by some but not all Roman Catholic Bibles was what we're going to talk about here, the so-called additions up here at the end.

02:06:48.972 --> 02:07:02.492
If you're looking at one of the Roman Catholic Bibles in English that are based on the Vulgate and preserve Jerome's ordering, what you will find is the Protestant Rabbinic version of Esther that we're familiar with.

02:07:02.492 --> 02:07:04.072
It's totally godless.

02:07:04.072 --> 02:07:20.012
And then at the end of it, just tacked on to a very short chapter otherwise, incidentally, the so-called additions are just stuck there at the end, where they make no sense chronologically, like bits of the story appearing at the end as an appendix.

02:07:20.012 --> 02:07:23.292
And narrative-wise, it's totally nonsensical.

02:07:23.292 --> 02:07:26.352
But many Roman Catholic churches preserve what Jerome did.

02:07:26.632 --> 02:07:28.252
But even Jerome included them.

02:07:28.252 --> 02:07:31.412
Jerome did not delete them, even though the rabbis deleted them.

02:07:31.412 --> 02:07:33.952
He basically, his hand was forced, and he put them in there.

02:07:33.952 --> 02:07:35.412
But he stuck them at the end.

02:07:35.412 --> 02:07:45.272
There are actually, thankfully, some Roman Catholic Bibles that not only include the full text of Esther, but they put it in the correct places in the story.

02:07:45.312 --> 02:07:52.872
Because chapter one, verse one, is something that is only present in the Greek.

02:07:52.872 --> 02:07:56.752
Where Esther begins in our Bibles, if you're Protestants, is not where Esther begins.

02:07:56.752 --> 02:07:58.692
There's a bunch of stuff before that.

02:07:58.692 --> 02:08:02.412
Just like in Job, there's a bunch of stuff at the end that got chopped off.

02:08:02.412 --> 02:08:15.432
So, Esther, I think, is a particularly interesting case on top of all the changes we're going to get into, for the fact that Protestantism is uniquely positioned as rejecting entirely what is scriptural.

02:08:15.432 --> 02:08:18.172
We screwed up badly.

02:08:18.172 --> 02:08:21.212
We listened to rabbis when we should have listened to God.

02:08:21.212 --> 02:08:24.432
As a result, we ended up with a totally godless book in our Bibles.

02:08:24.432 --> 02:08:26.992
We'll put a link in the show notes to yet another blog post.

02:08:26.992 --> 02:08:29.872
This is probably going to have more show notes in a lot lately.

02:08:29.872 --> 02:08:37.792
The page dedicated to Esther that also goes through this stuff kind of line by line, showing you where stuff was removed and added with some commentaries.

02:08:37.792 --> 02:08:39.852
That'll be very helpful as you're trying to get your bearings.

02:08:39.852 --> 02:08:42.252
It's a link I've shared on X a number of times.

02:08:42.252 --> 02:08:43.372
And it's mind-blowing.

02:08:43.372 --> 02:08:49.492
Like what we're going to talk about here next is absolutely mind-blowing how it's not the same book.

02:08:49.492 --> 02:08:50.352
It's not the same book.

02:08:50.352 --> 02:08:52.172
It's not the same story.

02:08:52.172 --> 02:08:55.852
There's nothing about what we know about Esther that's true.

02:08:55.852 --> 02:09:00.412
Even some of the specific details were changed where the text is the same.

02:09:00.412 --> 02:09:04.912
There are changes made to the details that render it worse, less Christian.

02:09:05.572 --> 02:09:16.832
The way you will hear these things referred to in scholarship and we're going to mention it just so if you want to go Google this stuff, you can follow along with us, is a problem of framing.

02:09:16.832 --> 02:09:20.492
There are six so-called additions to Esther.

02:09:20.492 --> 02:09:22.832
There's additions A through F.

02:09:22.832 --> 02:09:25.072
These additions are present in the Septuagint.

02:09:25.072 --> 02:09:27.412
They're not present in the Rabbinic text.

02:09:27.412 --> 02:09:40.332
Now, of course, it's begging the question to call them additions because that assumes that they were added in the Greek and not that they were subtracted from the Rabbinic text, which is blatantly the case.

02:09:40.332 --> 02:09:42.512
The story changes, it finally makes sense.

02:09:42.512 --> 02:09:44.872
It's finally a godly Christian book.

02:09:44.872 --> 02:09:50.012
Once you see the intact Greek text translated in English, like, yeah, this is a great book.

02:09:50.012 --> 02:09:53.272
As we said, it actually makes the Jews look really good.

02:09:53.272 --> 02:09:59.012
If all we were trying to do is make Jews look bad, we would keep the version of Esther that they sold us.

02:09:59.012 --> 02:10:00.252
It's not a good book.

02:10:00.832 --> 02:10:10.952
And unfortunately, for five centuries, because Protestants listened to the rabbi's lies, they have been coming up with excuses for how vile Esther is.

02:10:10.952 --> 02:10:12.712
It's always rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

02:10:12.712 --> 02:10:13.692
Not everybody.

02:10:13.692 --> 02:10:14.772
Some people are like, oh, I love it.

02:10:15.192 --> 02:10:15.912
It's so great.

02:10:15.912 --> 02:10:17.492
It's totally godless and full of murder.

02:10:17.492 --> 02:10:19.052
It's great.

02:10:19.052 --> 02:10:23.072
That is Jews terraforming our souls.

02:10:23.072 --> 02:10:35.032
So contending with this is going to be contending with five centuries of Protestant theologians not listening to the voice of God and making profound errors downstream.

02:10:35.032 --> 02:10:42.792
They're going to make arguments that say things that were convincing enough for people that Esther was left in our Bibles to this day.

02:10:42.792 --> 02:10:46.612
Esther has a rifle in high place in the Old Testament.

02:10:46.612 --> 02:10:50.332
And when it's intact, it's right where it should be.

02:10:50.332 --> 02:10:52.972
Just want you to remember, we'll probably call these additions throughout.

02:10:52.972 --> 02:10:55.832
I will try to call them subtractions because that's where they are.

02:10:56.152 --> 02:10:58.632
These are deletions from God's Word.

02:10:58.632 --> 02:11:02.932
These are deletions that will incur the wrath of Revelation 22.

02:11:02.932 --> 02:11:07.412
But when we refer to addition A through F, just know that that's what's going on.

02:11:07.412 --> 02:11:08.312
They're chunks.

02:11:08.312 --> 02:11:10.172
Entire chunks are just deleted.

02:11:10.172 --> 02:11:11.232
Page is gone.

02:11:11.232 --> 02:11:13.192
Not like a couple sentences.

02:11:13.192 --> 02:11:16.472
Entire chapters effectively have been deleted from Esther.

02:11:17.672 --> 02:11:30.692
So, the what are usually called additions, but it should in fact be called subtractions, there are six of them, A through F, is how they are typically labeled in the Bibles that include them.

02:11:30.692 --> 02:11:35.612
A is Mordecai's dream, which is a foretelling of things to come.

02:11:35.612 --> 02:11:42.512
He doesn't necessarily understand all of it at the time, but he understands it later, which comes into a later subtraction.

02:11:43.772 --> 02:11:51.812
B is the full text of the king's decree pursuant to the request of Haman, Haman, however you want to pronounce his name, it hardly matters.

02:11:53.792 --> 02:12:11.032
Section C contains prayers, and this is a very key difference, a rather important difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint, because of course, there's no real prayer of any kind in the Masoretic text, in the Rabbinic text.

02:12:11.032 --> 02:12:15.952
It's just fasting, and it's a focus on this scheming in the court intrigue.

02:12:15.952 --> 02:12:23.212
But here you have Mordecai and Esther both calling on God, a fundamentally different thing from the Rabbinic text.

02:12:24.432 --> 02:12:31.672
Then you have a description in D of Esther's approach to the king, and you have the behavior of the king.

02:12:31.672 --> 02:12:42.612
These things are different from how they are portrayed in the Masoretic text, because of course, the rabbis wanted to minimize the role of the king, and also the piousness, the piety of the king.

02:12:43.172 --> 02:12:46.832
They wanted to make him seem like some foreign tyrant instead.

02:12:48.152 --> 02:12:59.812
And then in E, you have the full text of the second decree, which is overturning the one from Haman, and that is the one that goes out to all of the provinces, the leaders in the provinces.

02:12:59.812 --> 02:13:02.652
You have the full text of that in Septuagint.

02:13:02.652 --> 02:13:07.672
The Masoretic text just says that it exists, basically, summarizes it instead of giving the text of it.

02:13:07.672 --> 02:13:25.852
And then the final subtraction is Mordecai's interpretation as a sort of the conclusion to the book labeled F, attributing these things to God, praising God for what he has done, and again interpreting that dream that we see in A, which is a vision from God.

02:13:25.852 --> 02:13:29.832
Mordecai is essentially a very minor prophet in this sense.

02:13:29.832 --> 02:13:39.092
So those are the changes between the actual word of God, the Septuagint, the Greek of Esther, and the Masoretic text.

02:13:39.092 --> 02:13:40.732
These are the six things that they deleted.

02:13:41.252 --> 02:13:44.852
There are other changes as well, of course, because they couldn't help themselves.

02:13:44.852 --> 02:13:47.392
They made pervasive little changes to the text.

02:13:47.392 --> 02:13:49.052
But these are the big ones.

02:13:50.992 --> 02:13:58.412
Like I said before, we are not going to read all of these in their fullness, because it would basically be reading the entire Book of Esther to you.

02:13:58.412 --> 02:14:09.252
We will include links to these, and of course, you can find them in any Bible that includes the full Book of Esther, which would mean any translation of the Septuagint, a number of Roman Catholic Bibles, and some others as well.

02:14:09.992 --> 02:14:13.072
Because there are some Protestant Bibles to...

02:14:13.072 --> 02:14:22.832
There is no such thing really as a Roman Catholic versus Protestant Bible, but there are some Protestant Bibles that do include these subtractions, these things that should be there.

02:14:23.952 --> 02:14:34.012
But as I said, A is basically just his dream, his vision of what is going to come, and it sets up what actually happens in the Book of Esther.

02:14:34.012 --> 02:14:41.692
It helps to explain some of these things, and it also helps to place this firmly within scripture and under God's guidance.

02:14:41.692 --> 02:14:51.452
God is the one who is organizing, guiding the action in this book, just as he is down through the pages of history and in all the other books of scripture.

02:14:51.452 --> 02:14:57.452
We just don't have that in the Masoretic text because the rabbis decided they wanted to make it into something else.

02:14:57.452 --> 02:15:02.792
And as Woe said, with great irony, made themselves look worse in the process.

02:15:02.792 --> 02:15:06.732
But beginning then with chapter one, I will read a couple of verses.

02:15:06.732 --> 02:15:08.512
I'm just going to read them from the Septuagint.

02:15:08.612 --> 02:15:11.072
I'm not going to bother with the Masoretic version.

02:15:11.072 --> 02:15:14.432
I will compare it in my commentary instead.

02:15:14.432 --> 02:15:16.752
And so, starting with verse 17.

02:15:16.752 --> 02:15:21.812
In fact, he detailed for them the words of the queen and how she had opposed the king.

02:15:21.812 --> 02:15:35.012
Therefore, as she had opposed King Asuerus, so today the rest of the princesses, of the rulers, of the Persians and the Medes, having heard the things that were said by her before the king, will dare likewise to dishonor their husbands.

02:15:35.012 --> 02:15:52.632
Of course, this is subsequent to, if you're familiar with the Book of Esther, you'll know immediately, but this is subsequent to the king during his great feast, his great banquet, requesting that Queen Vashti come and basically present herself before the nobles, and she refuses him, and she actually denigrates the king.

02:15:52.632 --> 02:15:59.912
So it goes above and beyond what is contained in the Masoretic, because the Masoretic basically just says that she snubbed him.

02:15:59.992 --> 02:16:09.072
He or she actually does things that are completely impermissible, obviously, in this cultural context and almost any cultural context with regard to a king.

02:16:09.072 --> 02:16:18.872
But the reason for that removal, because she is, of course, removed as the queen, that's how Esther winds up being the queen, the reason for the removal isn't given in the Masoretic text.

02:16:18.872 --> 02:16:25.752
You just sort of have this summary description of affairs, and then suddenly the king is looking for a new queen.

02:16:25.752 --> 02:16:31.712
In the Septuagint, it gives us the reason that Vashti is removed, because she snubs and insults the king.

02:16:31.712 --> 02:16:33.512
She's basically inviting this.

02:16:33.512 --> 02:16:37.552
It's essentially treason, and in some ancient cultures, it would in fact be treason.

02:16:38.852 --> 02:16:50.612
The concern here in the Septuagint, the way that this is worded, is it primarily about rulers and their wives, because the queen will be seen as an example for other wives to rebel.

02:16:50.612 --> 02:17:05.612
The Masoretic text changes this and makes it so that it's with regard to all women and their husbands, for the queen's behavior will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, is how that's worded in the Rabbinic text.

02:17:05.612 --> 02:17:13.092
Now, notably, this is, of course, expanded later in the same chapter in verse 20, because in the Septuagint, it says, all the women will show honor to their men.

02:17:13.092 --> 02:17:15.692
So there is that concern there as well.

02:17:15.692 --> 02:17:22.592
But this is just another case where the rabbis have made a tweak to the text in addition to all those subtractions we already mentioned.

02:17:25.112 --> 02:17:33.692
So for me, subtraction A is really a big deal, because it completely frames, in a Christian way, what book we're dealing with here.

02:17:33.692 --> 02:17:37.932
The book opens with a dream of Mordecai or Mordecai.

02:17:37.932 --> 02:17:41.552
In the second year of the king, I'm going to say Artaxerxes.

02:17:41.552 --> 02:18:02.192
Yeah, I'm going to say Artaxerxes because I can't pronounce the other one, even though it's like, it's important because there is actually a king, Artaxerxes, and we're not going to get into the historical context of whether it's Xerxes or Artaxerxes because it sort of changes what else is going on in the world when this specifically is happening, but it is material.

02:18:02.192 --> 02:18:06.112
It's like you said, this could be a six-hour episode by itself.

02:18:06.112 --> 02:18:14.452
The dream that Mordecai has includes two great dragons emerging and their cries summoning nations for battle against the nation of righteousness.

02:18:15.592 --> 02:18:22.032
So this nation cries out to God and is saved by a small spring that becomes a great river.

02:18:22.032 --> 02:18:31.352
The subtraction here also places Mordecai in the king's court from the beginning and has him uncover a plot against the king by the two eunuchs before Esther becomes queen.

02:18:31.352 --> 02:18:36.412
This is crucial because this is part of Amon's motive against the Jews.

02:18:36.412 --> 02:18:47.912
When you look at the Rabbinic texts later on, when Amon comes after them, he seems to just be really mean and spiteful and he wants to kill them, but there's not a clear motive apart from him just being terrible.

02:18:47.912 --> 02:18:58.692
What is made clear by the subtraction A is that Mordecaius interrupted by God's vision, a plot that Amon had against Artaxerxes.

02:18:58.692 --> 02:19:03.332
So as Cory said, there's a lot of political intrigue here, but it's not the main story.

02:19:03.332 --> 02:19:04.912
It's the framework.

02:19:04.912 --> 02:19:17.972
And the crucial thing about subtraction A is that with this vision in these events, it reframes the entire story as being part of a fulfillment of divine prophecy, which is incidentally where it ends up.

02:19:17.972 --> 02:19:25.032
The book ends with a subtraction of Mordecaius' prayer describing what happened.

02:19:25.032 --> 02:19:30.412
Once we know what has happened, it bookends perfectly that God was in control the whole time.

02:19:30.412 --> 02:19:36.892
So we go from a book where God is not mentioned once, where there's not a single prayer, to God's direct intervention.

02:19:37.652 --> 02:19:50.112
Incidentally, in what we're told is a pagan kingdom, Artaxerxes undoubtedly had idolatry and all sorts of things going on, just as incidentally King Josiah did when he was a godly king.

02:19:50.112 --> 02:19:54.972
That sort of syncretism and polytheism is not uncommon.

02:19:54.972 --> 02:19:55.992
This doesn't justify it.

02:19:55.992 --> 02:19:59.912
I'm not by any stretch saying it's okay to be a polytheist.

02:19:59.912 --> 02:20:01.992
Anyone who doesn't hate me knows that.

02:20:01.992 --> 02:20:10.672
But when we look at the actual text of Esther, what we find is that our deserts, he says a whole bunch of stuff that's Christian.

02:20:10.672 --> 02:20:20.692
Now, I don't know if that means he's in heaven, but in this moment, in this story in contact with God's people, and these were A, called Jews at this time.

02:20:20.692 --> 02:20:23.992
The word that's used in the Greek text calls them Jews.

02:20:23.992 --> 02:20:25.752
They were godly people.

02:20:25.752 --> 02:20:26.812
They look good.

02:20:26.812 --> 02:20:28.292
They were blameless.

02:20:28.292 --> 02:20:31.032
We as Christians have to love and embrace that.

02:20:31.032 --> 02:20:37.012
So the fact that it's totally gutted, I mean, it's darkly ironic, and it's evil, because they're messing with scripture.

02:20:37.012 --> 02:20:44.452
But when you're dealing with these subjects where they're accusations of racism and all this stuff, well, let's just let God talk.

02:20:44.452 --> 02:20:46.992
If God says something good about some people, it's true.

02:20:46.992 --> 02:20:48.992
If He says something bad, it's true.

02:20:48.992 --> 02:21:03.392
In this case, from the very beginning, God is in control, protecting His people while also working with whom we're told are pagans, as we're told Job should have been a pagan, his friends should have been pagans, except somehow they knew God.

02:21:03.492 --> 02:21:06.832
Well, turns out that they knew God because they spoke to Him.

02:21:07.892 --> 02:21:11.632
It's worth making a minor note here.

02:21:11.632 --> 02:21:17.152
The word that is used in the Greek is the one that we've, of course, been using all along for Judean.

02:21:17.152 --> 02:21:23.092
It can rightly be translated Jew as well, as we went over in the episode on that specific issue.

02:21:23.092 --> 02:21:31.972
But of course, part of the reason for this is because of the timeline and where we're dealing with expulsions and dispersions of the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

02:21:32.592 --> 02:21:38.332
And so, of course, here we're dealing with those who were taken from the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

02:21:38.332 --> 02:21:45.812
That's why they're present in this court, because they've been expelled from the land because of the wickedness of their forefathers.

02:21:45.812 --> 02:22:03.632
The next example then of some changes here, I'll skip over to five, because that's the one that essentially highlights the difference here between the ESV and others, which always translate this as Jew, and the literal word in the Greek, which perhaps could more properly be Judean.

02:22:03.632 --> 02:22:08.252
But moving on to verse 7 of Still chapter 2.

02:22:08.252 --> 02:22:13.812
And he had a foster child, the daughter of Abihal, the brother of his father, and her name was Esther.

02:22:13.812 --> 02:22:20.012
Now when her parents died, he raised her for himself as a wife, and the maiden was beautiful.

02:22:20.012 --> 02:22:48.632
This one's perhaps somewhat of an odd change the rabbis decided to make, but the fact that Esther is being raised by Mordecai to be his wife is simply dropped from the Rabbinic text, which isn't necessarily a major change, but it certainly is a change in the nuance and the nature of the story, because Mordecai, who is raising Esther to be his future wife, gives her up to the king to be his wife.

02:22:48.632 --> 02:22:50.172
That changes the story to some degree.

02:22:50.252 --> 02:22:54.692
Again, not a major change, but it is a change the rabbis decided to make.

02:22:54.692 --> 02:23:05.872
And as we said earlier in the episode, just because something is not a major change or doesn't seem like a major change doesn't mean that it is something we can just accept.

02:23:05.872 --> 02:23:10.072
The next example is verse 20 from Still in chapter 2.

02:23:10.072 --> 02:23:16.752
This is a great example, another great example, of the Jews, the rabbis, simply removing God from the Book of Esther.

02:23:17.772 --> 02:23:24.152
And so, I will read first from the rabbinic text in this case, and then second from the Septuagint.

02:23:24.152 --> 02:23:32.892
Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.

02:23:32.892 --> 02:23:34.632
And now from the Septuagint.

02:23:34.632 --> 02:23:44.552
And Esther had not revealed her country, for Mordecai had commanded her to fear God and to keep his commandments, as when she was with him, and Esther did not change her way of life.

02:23:47.232 --> 02:23:52.692
Esther and Mordecai are both shown here to be righteous, to be pious.

02:23:52.692 --> 02:23:55.652
They fear God and keep his commandments.

02:23:55.652 --> 02:23:57.172
Mordecai teaches her to do that.

02:23:57.172 --> 02:24:02.212
She continues to do that despite now being in the King's harem.

02:24:02.212 --> 02:24:03.372
That's simply removed.

02:24:03.372 --> 02:24:10.152
The rabbis just removed the fact that both of these key players in this story are faithful.

02:24:10.152 --> 02:24:11.052
They're both Christians.

02:24:12.112 --> 02:24:24.932
This is one of those cases where the rabbis made themselves look worse, made the Jews look worse by removing this, because ultimately their goal wasn't necessarily to make the Jews look good.

02:24:24.932 --> 02:24:27.912
They were doing something fundamentally different with this book.

02:24:27.912 --> 02:24:32.592
Again, part of it is they just wanted to make this into a revenge fantasy.

02:24:32.592 --> 02:24:36.512
The Jews get to destroy those who don't like them, which you may have noticed.

02:24:37.292 --> 02:24:48.212
One of the things that they removed is there's some irony here, of course, because of the way that the characters work in this particular story, but they remove the reason that Haman hates them.

02:24:49.352 --> 02:24:52.332
You may be thinking of a Russian proverb right now.

02:24:53.372 --> 02:24:58.872
I don't even need to say it, and if you don't know what it is, you can go and look it up, a little Easter egg hunt for some of you.

02:24:58.872 --> 02:25:01.752
But that's exactly what's happening here.

02:25:01.752 --> 02:25:04.712
The Jews have removed the reason this man does not like them.

02:25:04.772 --> 02:25:13.612
Now, it happens to be in this case, he hates them for a reason that is a bad reason, but they did the same thing that they do in so many other cases.

02:25:13.612 --> 02:25:15.892
It's almost as if they can't help themselves.

02:25:15.892 --> 02:25:28.552
They are compelled to do it, despite the fact that in this case it makes them look worse, because the reason that he hated them was because Mordecai had done something good.

02:25:28.552 --> 02:25:31.172
Mordecai had been faithful to his king.

02:25:31.172 --> 02:25:36.812
He had actually been a faithful advisor, a faithful member of the king's court.

02:25:36.812 --> 02:25:47.812
They still removed that in order to make it seem like Haman just hated them because they were Judeans, because they were Israelites, and so he wanted to destroy them because of that.

02:25:47.812 --> 02:25:58.532
And of course, we all recognize the reason they would want to make that edit, because then they can say, look at this, all these non-Jews have always hated us and wanted to destroy us simply because we're Jews.

02:25:59.592 --> 02:26:05.312
In this case, if they just left in the reason, everyone would say, yeah, of course, that's a bad thing, they want to destroy you.

02:26:05.312 --> 02:26:12.092
But it would be because they were Christian, because they were faithful, not because they were Jews.

02:26:13.632 --> 02:26:19.272
And crucially, because God gave a vision to Mardichaeus in order to protect our desertsies.

02:26:19.272 --> 02:26:23.972
Remember, this was a coup against our desertsies that was deleted from the beginning.

02:26:23.972 --> 02:26:29.192
God protected this pagan king through Mardichaeus.

02:26:29.192 --> 02:26:30.672
That's, I think, the real reason.

02:26:31.292 --> 02:26:34.212
It wasn't simply that he was doing something good and godly.

02:26:34.212 --> 02:26:37.132
It's that God was intervening in this other kingdom.

02:26:37.132 --> 02:26:40.652
God intervenes in the kingdoms of the world.

02:26:40.652 --> 02:26:44.672
They're not always going to be the ones that we think of as being believers.

02:26:44.672 --> 02:26:53.632
And for whatever reason, we don't have to introspect God's reasons to believe the fact that he said to Mardichaeus, Here's a vision.

02:26:53.632 --> 02:26:57.772
You're going to protect this king for his purposes, for God's purposes.

02:26:57.772 --> 02:26:59.012
That was too much for them to bear.

02:27:00.292 --> 02:27:13.372
In Subtraction B, which is after the Rabbinic, Chapter 3, verse 13, this section provides the full text of the Royal Edict that Artaxerxes send out, commanding the destruction of the Jews.

02:27:13.372 --> 02:27:24.192
Now, in the Rabbinic text, this letter which was drafted by Amon is described, and yet in the Septuagint, the letter is quoted in full.

02:27:24.192 --> 02:27:33.892
We're not going to read the whole thing for time, but I want to read an excerpt from the middle of it, because it slapped me in the face when I read it, particularly for its deletion.

02:27:33.892 --> 02:27:40.412
This was a letter written by Artaxerxes the King, sent out to all 127 satraps and whatever.

02:27:40.412 --> 02:28:07.012
Amon, who excels in soundness of judgment among us and has been manifestly well inclined without wavering and with unshaken fidelity, and has obtained a second post in the kingdom, informed us that a certain ill-disposed people is mixed up with all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their law to every other nation, and continually neglecting the commands of the king, so that the united government blamelessly administered by us is not quietly established.

02:28:07.012 --> 02:28:23.592
Having then conceived that this nation alone of all others is continually set in opposition to every man, introducing as a change a foreign code of laws, and injuriously plotting to accomplish the worst of evils against our interests, and against the happy establishment of the monarchy.

02:28:23.592 --> 02:28:29.132
That's right in the middle, but it's a portion that's specifically describing the nature and the conduct of the Jews.

02:28:29.132 --> 02:28:31.832
Now, I highlight this for a couple of reasons.

02:28:31.852 --> 02:28:42.072
One, at the end of the section that was deleted by the rabbis, Mardichaius cries out with a loud voice, a nation that has done no wrong is going to be destroyed.

02:28:42.072 --> 02:28:52.432
So it is scriptural that the accusations of Haman or Haman against the Jews were categorically false in this place and time.

02:28:52.432 --> 02:28:54.352
So isn't it weird that that would be deleted?

02:28:54.352 --> 02:29:03.232
If Mardichaius is telling the truth that a nation that has done no wrong is going to be destroyed, well, I mean, that's consistent with the text we were left with.

02:29:03.232 --> 02:29:10.992
So why not leave in all these terrible things that Haman said about them, that are deserts he set out, because he believed what his advisor said?

02:29:10.992 --> 02:29:30.992
Well, remember what's said in 1 Thessalonians 2, For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen, as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus Christ and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased God and oppose all mankind, by hindering us from speaking to the nations, so that they might be saved.

02:29:30.992 --> 02:29:38.292
That's not an exact parallel, but it immediately came to mind, because what Haman describes is what the Jews do almost everywhere.

02:29:38.292 --> 02:29:40.912
It's certainly what they've been doing for the last 2000 years.

02:29:40.912 --> 02:29:46.512
In every country they've gone to, Haman's description of them was absolutely true.

02:29:46.512 --> 02:29:57.012
So I think that's probably the reason that the rabbis deleted it, even though Mardacheus said, we're not guilty of anything, and I believe that as a Christian completely.

02:29:57.012 --> 02:30:06.152
They were not guilty of undermining King Artaxerxes, which tells us something also about the kingdom in which they lived.

02:30:06.152 --> 02:30:14.092
If God was commending them for upholding that nation rather than subverting it, that tells us something about their hosts.

02:30:14.092 --> 02:30:17.132
They weren't quite as awful as we're told they were.

02:30:17.132 --> 02:30:18.472
And not as awful.

02:30:18.472 --> 02:30:21.972
Again, I'm not blessing him in saying the entire country is Christian at this point.

02:30:21.972 --> 02:30:26.912
I'm simply saying that if you look at the Rabbinic text of Esther, you think those were monsters.

02:30:26.912 --> 02:30:30.732
As Artaxerxes is a complete jerk, just murdering everyone.

02:30:30.732 --> 02:30:33.352
Jews were all on their own.

02:30:33.352 --> 02:30:39.352
When the reality is that I think what Amon said of them was well known.

02:30:39.532 --> 02:30:43.052
I don't think he was lying except in this moment.

02:30:43.052 --> 02:30:53.392
I think we have every reason to believe, based on the entirety of human history, that the description of Amon here that was deleted is true, except for this one time.

02:30:53.392 --> 02:30:56.512
In this place, they were not doing these things.

02:30:56.512 --> 02:30:58.792
And so their murder was in fact murder.

02:30:58.792 --> 02:31:01.432
It wasn't just killing of rebels.

02:31:01.432 --> 02:31:05.732
It was unjust killing of God's people who were blameless.

02:31:05.732 --> 02:31:10.352
This of all the deletions, I think, probably struck me the most simply for that.

02:31:10.532 --> 02:31:14.752
The one time that something terrible is said about them isn't true.

02:31:14.752 --> 02:31:16.412
They couldn't bear to leave it in.

02:31:16.412 --> 02:31:28.212
Because at any other point in human history, if you read that, if it had been read later on when they delete it, because remember, we only have this preserved because it's in the Septuagint, the rabbis had to come along later and delete it.

02:31:28.212 --> 02:31:29.752
When would they have deleted it?

02:31:29.752 --> 02:31:32.832
When their people were doing these very things in other nations?

02:31:32.832 --> 02:31:48.512
It would have been a double indictment of them to read Amon's words and not only would it throw in a question the god, the true god of Esther, but it would be a reminder that, yeah, these people are up to no good in all times, in all places, except for this once.

02:31:48.512 --> 02:31:52.032
Esther is a beautiful book because the Jews were actually doing good things.

02:31:52.032 --> 02:32:02.112
I agree with Corey, the word is fraught, but Jews, Judeans, these were God's people, they're Israelites, they're part of Israel at this point, they're part of the Hebrew lineage.

02:32:02.112 --> 02:32:10.712
I think it's fine to call them Jews, particularly in this case where they were in captivity, which was their state for the rest of time.

02:32:10.712 --> 02:32:18.232
Okay, then if they did something good, we give them credit for it, and yet the rabbis deprived us of that opportunity.

02:32:18.232 --> 02:32:21.892
Because in every other place and time, Amon's words were true.

02:32:23.232 --> 02:32:31.672
There is an interesting linguistic note in the Greek of chapter 3 verse 8.

02:32:32.812 --> 02:32:51.092
The word that is used there in the Greek that is generally translated scattered abroad or disperse something like that, could actually be translated diasporid, because the word there is diaspyro, which is the source from which we get diaspora.

02:32:51.092 --> 02:32:57.632
It is a description of the punishment the Jews have received for their faithlessness.

02:32:57.632 --> 02:33:02.532
The rabbis changed that in their version, and the word that they use is just scattered or disperse.

02:33:02.532 --> 02:33:04.532
It is not diaspora.

02:33:04.532 --> 02:33:08.832
It does not have that full sense that we have retained in the Greek.

02:33:08.832 --> 02:33:12.672
It makes some sense why they'd want to change that one.

02:33:12.672 --> 02:33:19.352
The next example is just another one of those examples where the rabbis simply deleted God.

02:33:19.392 --> 02:33:21.372
This is Chapter 4, Verse 8.

02:33:21.372 --> 02:33:24.772
Read first from the Rabbinic text.

02:33:24.772 --> 02:33:38.852
Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.

02:33:38.852 --> 02:33:40.772
And now from the Septuagint.

02:33:40.772 --> 02:34:06.712
He also gave him the copy of the letter that had been published in Susa concerning their destruction to show to Esther, and he told him to command her to go in and entreat the king, beg him for our people, remember your days of low estate, how you were sustained by my hand because Haman, who is second to the king, has spoken against us for death, call upon the Lord and speak to the king for us, to deliver us from death.

02:34:06.712 --> 02:34:24.212
The Rabbinic text simply deletes God, and the Septuagint includes it, in keeping with the fact that Mordecai is a righteous man, he instructs Esther to call upon the Lord, because he believes firmly that the deliverance for his people, if it should come, will be from the Lord.

02:34:25.252 --> 02:34:32.532
This section, this subtraction C, is one of the most religious sections of what they deleted.

02:34:32.532 --> 02:34:36.512
Mordecai's prayer, he explains his refusal to bow to Amon.

02:34:36.512 --> 02:34:38.152
It was not out of arrogance.

02:34:38.152 --> 02:34:42.392
It was because he wouldn't give glory to God due to God, to any mortal.

02:34:42.392 --> 02:34:48.312
So, Mordecai has prayed for God to remember God's covenant and to save his people.

02:34:48.312 --> 02:34:50.592
That's a Christian prayer.

02:34:50.592 --> 02:34:54.012
Remember, they were carrying the promise of the Christ.

02:34:54.012 --> 02:34:55.712
That was the point of the bloodline.

02:34:55.712 --> 02:35:03.212
That was the point of the preservation of scripture, was the promise made to Abraham was going to be fulfilled in the future.

02:35:03.212 --> 02:35:08.512
And so, Mordecai's prayer is, for the sake of the promise you made to Abraham, preserve your people now.

02:35:08.512 --> 02:35:13.332
Because if, you know, in effect, if we're finished off, then that means you haven't kept your promise.

02:35:13.932 --> 02:35:16.292
Do it because you're God.

02:35:16.292 --> 02:35:22.372
And I think Esther's prayer here in subtraction C dramatically alters her character.

02:35:22.372 --> 02:35:25.092
She expresses deep distress at her situation.

02:35:25.092 --> 02:35:34.732
She says she detests the bed of the uncircumcised and abhors the sign of her high rank, that is, her crown, which she wears only when necessary.

02:35:34.732 --> 02:35:39.292
She affirms her adherence to Jewish law, that is not eating at Amon's table.

02:35:39.292 --> 02:35:42.572
And she pleads with God to give her courage to save her people.

02:35:42.572 --> 02:35:49.032
And part of this prayer, I think, is crucial and probably one of the most important reasons why this whole thing was deleted.

02:35:49.032 --> 02:35:58.432
Esther prays in part, And now we have sinned before you, and you have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, because we honored their gods.

02:35:58.432 --> 02:36:00.612
You are righteous, O Lord.

02:36:00.612 --> 02:36:02.292
And so what just happened?

02:36:02.292 --> 02:36:04.132
Esther's admitting that they were idolaters.

02:36:04.852 --> 02:36:10.772
Which is why I said earlier, there's undoubtedly polytheism going on with our deserts, these lands.

02:36:10.772 --> 02:36:13.232
Then go figure, no surprise at all.

02:36:13.232 --> 02:36:15.252
The problem is that the Jews were participants.

02:36:15.252 --> 02:36:19.992
They were worshiping foreign gods here while they were ruled by our deserts.

02:36:19.992 --> 02:36:22.492
They were adopting the customs of the people there.

02:36:22.492 --> 02:36:23.792
Does this surprise any Christian?

02:36:23.792 --> 02:36:24.452
No.

02:36:24.452 --> 02:36:26.832
They did this every time they went anywhere.

02:36:26.832 --> 02:36:30.352
They adopted the demon gods of the local lands.

02:36:30.352 --> 02:36:34.512
They infuriated God, which here is why they're in captivity in the first place.

02:36:34.512 --> 02:36:37.192
They wouldn't be in captivity if they had still been obeying God.

02:36:37.192 --> 02:36:38.892
That never happened.

02:36:38.892 --> 02:36:46.172
The chastisement, the temporal punishment for the wickedness of apostasy shows up physically.

02:36:46.172 --> 02:36:51.512
They get carted off, they get sent to other lands, and yet even here God is still looking after them.

02:36:51.512 --> 02:36:54.372
But Esther acknowledges their idolatry.

02:36:54.372 --> 02:36:57.132
She acknowledges they've been worshiping foreign gods.

02:36:57.132 --> 02:36:58.372
They've been worshiping demons.

02:36:58.372 --> 02:36:59.812
The Jews were worshiping demons.

02:37:00.632 --> 02:37:03.172
So when I say they look good, I don't mean they look perfect.

02:37:03.172 --> 02:37:05.232
But what's the problem here?

02:37:05.232 --> 02:37:07.452
This makes Artaxerxes look bad, doesn't it?

02:37:07.452 --> 02:37:10.572
Like this is what I'm trying to highlight, like who looks good and who looks bad.

02:37:10.572 --> 02:37:18.032
When you change the content, when you change the text of a story, what conclusions are altered?

02:37:18.032 --> 02:37:23.772
Artaxerxes is overseeing a land that has pagans and has God's people.

02:37:23.772 --> 02:37:31.232
And God's people are saying, yeah, we stopped worshiping you, or we didn't exclusively worship you, God, which is effectively the same thing.

02:37:31.232 --> 02:37:36.372
And for that confession to come from Esther shapes the whole thing.

02:37:37.792 --> 02:38:06.552
And then subtraction D even doubles down, as it were, on Esther's faithfulness in this, because that one starts with, then it happened on the third day when she had ceased praying, she took off the garments of her service and put on her glorious clothes, and having become resplendent after she had called upon God, the Overseer and Savior of all, she took her two devoted slaves, and she leaned upon one, as though she were delicate, and the other one followed, bearing her train.

02:38:07.952 --> 02:38:20.132
We go from a book that in the Rabbinic text doesn't even mention God, to a book where we have the words, she called upon God, the Overseer and Savior of all.

02:38:22.492 --> 02:38:33.172
This is a thoroughly Christian book in the Septuagint, whereas again, it is just some sort of political revenge fantasy in the Masoretic text.

02:38:34.212 --> 02:38:49.972
You also have a change in sort of, if not necessarily the nature, then the overall character of the king in this case, and I would just recommend that you actually read the entirety of this book.

02:38:49.972 --> 02:38:52.132
Again, it will be linked in the show notes.

02:38:52.132 --> 02:39:06.792
You should read this and notice the difference in how the king is portrayed in the actual book versus what the rabbis did to his character and how he is portrayed and even slandered in the Masoretic text.

02:39:08.952 --> 02:39:12.252
There's one crucial detail that we do need to highlight.

02:39:12.252 --> 02:39:14.832
In the Rabbinic text, Esther is just standing.

02:39:14.892 --> 02:39:18.412
She stands in the court, she finds favor, and the king extends the scepter.

02:39:18.412 --> 02:39:20.212
It's much shorter.

02:39:20.212 --> 02:39:24.752
What we find in the Septuagint is that when she's accompanied by her two maids, she's overcome with terror.

02:39:24.752 --> 02:39:29.592
She sees the king and is intimidating royal splendor and she faints.

02:39:29.592 --> 02:39:43.212
Artaxerxes is initially enraged, and then this is a quote, But God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, In an intense feeling he sprang from off his throne And took her into his arms until she recovered.

02:39:44.292 --> 02:39:55.372
God caused Artaxerxes' heart to soften and engendered love for his queen in the moment when he'd been infuriated at her behavior, fainting, whatever.

02:39:55.372 --> 02:40:07.512
He was angry, she was terrified, and when he saw her swoon, he rushed to her and embraced her and basically nursed her back to consciousness, to having her wits about her.

02:40:07.512 --> 02:40:09.312
And God moved him to do that.

02:40:11.412 --> 02:40:16.952
What does it say about Artaxerxes if God is moving his heart to have love for Esther?

02:40:16.952 --> 02:40:20.852
Do you understand now why these things might be deleted by the rabbis?

02:40:20.852 --> 02:40:23.992
It fundamentally changes the nature of what's going on.

02:40:23.992 --> 02:40:34.712
If God is working to protect Artaxerxes in his kingdom, if God is working in his heart, that says something about the man and about his kingdom and about his nation.

02:40:35.812 --> 02:40:46.772
And just as we continue with the vision at the beginning, that they deleted, God's divine intervention is direct and explicit throughout this entire book.

02:40:47.832 --> 02:40:53.772
CB The next example we have is from chapter 7, this is verse 9.

02:40:53.772 --> 02:40:57.772
And I will just read that from the Septuagint.

02:40:59.412 --> 02:41:11.692
Then Bugatha, one of the eunuchs of the king, said, Behold, Haman prepared a pole for Mordecai, who spoke on behalf of the king, and a pole fifty cubits high has been set up at the house of Haman.

02:41:11.692 --> 02:41:15.692
And the king said, Let Haman be crucified upon it.

02:41:16.712 --> 02:41:26.832
This is an interesting note, because if you are familiar with Esther in the Rabbinic text, you will note there's a pretty significant change in verb here.

02:41:26.832 --> 02:41:31.952
The verb that is present in the Rabbinic text is hanged.

02:41:32.912 --> 02:41:37.992
Let Haman be hanged on this gallows that he has constructed.

02:41:37.992 --> 02:41:44.872
Here in the Greek, it says crucified, and this is in fact a punishment that was practiced by these people.

02:41:44.872 --> 02:41:46.792
Very clearly, it is the verb crucify.

02:41:46.792 --> 02:41:48.352
It is literally the verb for crucify.

02:41:48.352 --> 02:41:50.552
It's not an interpretation decision.

02:41:50.552 --> 02:41:53.052
It's not how we decide to exegete this.

02:41:53.052 --> 02:41:54.892
That is simply what it says.

02:41:55.972 --> 02:42:01.152
It is curious that the rabbis would go ahead and remove a reference to that.

02:42:01.972 --> 02:42:18.252
Now, perhaps it is not anything that is explicitly Christological here, because you are crucifying a wicked man, and the righteous man escapes in this case, which of course is the opposite of what happens in the case of Christ, because the murderer is let free and Christ is crucified.

02:42:18.252 --> 02:42:30.912
But the rabbis still felt compelled to remove this reference to a punishment that they knew had taken place, something that they had explicitly called for.

02:42:31.492 --> 02:42:35.972
And then called down the curse of that righteous man's blood on their heads.

02:42:35.972 --> 02:42:39.992
Just an interesting grammatical point, that they changed this one verb.

02:42:41.972 --> 02:42:53.892
The next subtraction is, subtraction E we mentioned, is the second decree from the king dealing with Haman's wickedness, and the actions that flowed from that.

02:42:53.892 --> 02:42:57.132
I'll read the first part of that because it contains a key point here.

02:42:58.512 --> 02:43:20.612
For when Haman the son of Hamadatha, a Macedonian, who was in truth a foreigner to Persian blood, and standing far apart from our kindness, though having been hospitable to us, obtained the benevolence that we hold for every nation to such degree, that he was publicly proclaimed as our father, and, continuing as the second face from the royal throne, he was worshipped by all.

02:43:20.612 --> 02:43:25.912
It goes on and so forth and explains his wickedness and his subversion and what he was attempting to do.

02:43:27.152 --> 02:43:37.932
And then that he asked with ingenious deceptions of stratagems, he asked for the destruction of the Jews, in order to transfer the dominion of the Persians to the Macedonians.

02:43:39.992 --> 02:43:50.792
This is fundamentally different from what we have in the Rabbinic text, because in the Rabbinic text, they call Haman an Agagite.

02:43:50.792 --> 02:43:54.872
And you may wonder what on earth is an Agagite.

02:43:55.552 --> 02:44:01.352
Well, an Agagite is one of the kings mentioned in the Old Testament.

02:44:01.352 --> 02:44:05.832
One of the kings that initially the people of Israel failed to destroy.

02:44:05.832 --> 02:44:10.352
And then later on, they go ahead and destroy him under Saul.

02:44:10.352 --> 02:44:12.932
It's actually Samuel who kills him.

02:44:12.932 --> 02:44:16.392
But nonetheless, that's under King Saul.

02:44:16.392 --> 02:44:25.792
Part of the reason that this is relevant is because the Jews still view this today as their conflict.

02:44:25.792 --> 02:44:43.412
They view themselves as attempting to destroy certain Old Testament figures, and they link those Old Testament figures usually to Christendom, usually explicitly to the Christian, the white Christian West.

02:44:43.412 --> 02:44:49.992
And this is one of those cases, because this is a king of those people that they view still today as their enemies.

02:44:50.592 --> 02:45:04.112
And so they changed what is very clearly calling this man a Macedonian, which is to say he's a Greek, attempting to transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Greeks, which of course later happens under Alexander.

02:45:04.112 --> 02:45:06.332
This is before that.

02:45:06.332 --> 02:45:07.472
So it doesn't occur here.

02:45:07.472 --> 02:45:11.952
They're trying to take this kingdom by deception that they will later take by force.

02:45:11.952 --> 02:45:22.012
They change the geopolitics of this in order to make it into their own sort of political diatribe against their enemies.

02:45:22.012 --> 02:45:47.552
And so they change him from a Macedonian to an Agagite in order to tie him into these people that they have sort of mythologized and turned into their enemies for all time, despite the fact that again, Agag and his people are destroyed under King Saul, Samuel being the one who actually takes the sword and kills Agag because he was taken prisoner instead of being devoted to destruction as Saul was commanded by God.

02:45:48.952 --> 02:45:53.232
They still view this as their battle to be waged.

02:45:53.232 --> 02:46:09.932
And in many of their writings, particularly Rabbinic writings, some things in the Talmud, they do not believe that their Messiah will appear and they will take possession of the world because of course that's what they view as being the role of the Messiah in their religion.

02:46:09.932 --> 02:46:20.412
They don't believe that will happen until Christendom is destroyed, until Europe is destroyed, until basically all of the sons of Japheth are destroyed.

02:46:20.412 --> 02:46:21.852
That is why they made this edit.

02:46:21.852 --> 02:46:25.932
That is what they are pushing here because that is their worldview.

02:46:25.932 --> 02:46:28.412
That is their religion.

02:46:29.952 --> 02:46:36.612
And yet again, we find that God has directly intervened to preserve the Persian kingdom in their rule.

02:46:36.612 --> 02:46:42.732
Artaxerxes' rule was preserved first by Mardiceus and then by Esther's actions.

02:46:43.692 --> 02:46:50.492
And Amon was executed, was crucified, as punishment for that plotting on behalf of Macedonia.

02:46:50.492 --> 02:46:54.912
I want to read just two more brief snippets from Artaxerxes' letter.

02:46:54.912 --> 02:46:58.652
Again, this letter went out to 127 provinces.

02:46:58.652 --> 02:47:28.172
Every corner of Persia received their king whom they viewed as a god saying this, but we find that the Jews who have been consigned to destruction by the most abominable of men are not malefactors but living according to the justice laws and being sons of the living god, the most high and mighty, who maintains the kingdom to us as well as to our forefathers, in the most excellent order.

02:47:28.172 --> 02:47:35.712
And then he concludes near the end, For in the place of the destruction of the chosen race, Almighty God has granted them this time of gladness.

02:47:37.372 --> 02:47:40.732
This is a profoundly Christian confession.

02:47:41.832 --> 02:47:45.792
I don't know if our deserts is in heaven, I have no idea and I'm not making that claim.

02:47:45.792 --> 02:47:49.792
Because undoubtedly there was other idolatry and wickedness going on.

02:47:49.792 --> 02:48:00.852
But in this moment, his confession, the Jews are the sons of the living god and the most high and mighty who maintains his kingdom and all of his forefathers.

02:48:00.852 --> 02:48:04.372
He's saying that there is a king of kings and it is not our deserts.

02:48:05.072 --> 02:48:15.512
He's saying that he has a head in heaven and he's confessing the true god who came to Mardichaeus in a vision and who worked through Esther to preserve his kingdom.

02:48:15.512 --> 02:48:18.252
He's giving god the glory, our god.

02:48:18.252 --> 02:48:20.412
You can see why they had to delete this.

02:48:20.412 --> 02:48:25.432
Like I said at the beginning, and I've been saying for a while elsewhere, Esther is not remotely the same book.

02:48:25.432 --> 02:48:33.732
You cannot possibly read what's in the Septuagint and have any of the same conclusions that you get from the version that you've read previously.

02:48:35.752 --> 02:48:43.132
I should add to my previous comments about Macedonian versus Agag and all of these various things.

02:48:43.132 --> 02:48:46.652
You've probably heard the Jews speak of Amalek.

02:48:47.692 --> 02:48:51.092
That is what they mean when these things are referenced.

02:48:51.092 --> 02:48:53.812
Because Agag was of course a king of the Amalekites.

02:48:53.812 --> 02:49:01.712
So when they speak of Amalek, they're talking about Christendom, they're talking about you, they're talking about your people, they're talking about Europe.

02:49:01.712 --> 02:49:10.472
And they believe that they are supposed to have perpetual war with Amalek until they have destroyed every single person connected to him.

02:49:10.472 --> 02:49:16.812
Now of course, they're entirely wrong about the genealogy because Amalek of course is not a son of Japheth.

02:49:16.812 --> 02:49:18.732
But it doesn't matter because this is their religion.

02:49:18.732 --> 02:49:20.412
That's what they actually believe.

02:49:22.112 --> 02:49:27.792
The final section then, the final subtraction is section F.

02:49:29.032 --> 02:49:33.912
This is sort of the true conclusion to the Book of Esther.

02:49:33.912 --> 02:49:44.592
It is Mordecai explaining what happened and interpreting the dream that he had earlier in light of everything that followed from it, the dream of course being a prophetic vision.

02:49:44.592 --> 02:49:48.732
And so I will simply read the entirety of this particular subtraction.

02:49:49.792 --> 02:49:53.432
And Mordecai said, These things have come from God.

02:49:53.432 --> 02:49:56.992
For I remembered about the dream that I saw concerning these things.

02:49:57.352 --> 02:49:59.652
For no item of them failed.

02:49:59.652 --> 02:50:05.392
There was the small fountain that became a river, and there was light, and the sun and much water.

02:50:05.392 --> 02:50:09.772
Esther is the river whom the king married, and he made her queen.

02:50:09.772 --> 02:50:17.772
In the two dragons are I myself and Haman, and the nations are those that have been gathered together to destroy the name of the Judeans.

02:50:17.772 --> 02:50:22.932
But my nation, this is Israel, the people who cried to God, and we were saved.

02:50:22.932 --> 02:50:33.332
And the Lord saved his people, and the Lord rescued us out of all these afflictions, and God performed signs and wonders, great things that have not been done among the nations.

02:50:33.332 --> 02:50:38.712
Therefore he made two lots, one for the people of God, and one for all the nations.

02:50:38.712 --> 02:50:46.072
And these two lots came for a season and a time, and for a day of judgment before God, and for all the nations.

02:50:46.072 --> 02:50:50.252
And God remembered his people, and justified his own inheritance.

02:50:50.252 --> 02:51:03.912
And these days in the month of Adar, the 14th and the 15th of the same month, shall be for them days with a gathering, and joy and merriment before God, throughout the generations, for eternity among his people Israel.

02:51:05.172 --> 02:51:23.072
In the fourth year, when Ptolemaeus and Cleopatra were reigning, Dosithius, who said he was a priest and a Levite, and Ptolemy his son, brought into Egypt the preceding letter concerning Purim, which they had affirmed had been translated by Lysimachus, the son of Ptolemaeus, one of those in Jerusalem.

02:51:23.072 --> 02:51:33.592
So we also happen to get in this particular book, a sort of colophon telling us the translation history of this and how we came into possession of the Book of Esther.

02:51:35.152 --> 02:51:37.852
So just briefly, as I said earlier, we'll have a link.

02:51:37.852 --> 02:51:41.592
There's a web page that lays all this stuff out, and you should just go read for yourself.

02:51:41.592 --> 02:51:44.632
Pick whatever Septuagint translation you want.

02:51:44.632 --> 02:51:48.312
I should actually warn you that this is one of the places where Bretons falls down.

02:51:49.292 --> 02:51:52.112
It is not a faithful translation of the Septuagint.

02:51:52.112 --> 02:51:54.912
It just kind of mashes everything together.

02:51:54.912 --> 02:52:01.012
This is true, I think, more so in Job than in Esther, but you have to keep continuously checking it.

02:52:01.012 --> 02:52:10.772
Lexham may be better in some regard there, but as we said earlier, there's no full solution to I want to read the Septuagint in English because it doesn't exist yet.

02:52:10.772 --> 02:52:15.432
Every single option you can put forward has serious deficiencies.

02:52:15.432 --> 02:52:24.792
It's worth trying, but just be aware that you're still going to have to muddle through and there are going to be things that you're going to have to get cleaned up later.

02:52:24.792 --> 02:52:29.032
I think it's important just to summarize what has happened in Esther.

02:52:29.032 --> 02:52:38.452
In the Rabbinic text, the deliverance comes through the courage of Esther, the political maneuvering of Mordecai, and just a series of convenient coincidences.

02:52:38.452 --> 02:52:42.972
Basically, the king's insomnia, Haman's ill-timed arrival, etc.

02:52:42.972 --> 02:52:44.832
are the only reason that everything worked out.

02:52:45.432 --> 02:52:48.612
Whereas, in the Septuagint, God is a primary actor.

02:52:48.612 --> 02:53:03.932
God sends Mordecai a prophetic dream, God changes the king's heart, and Subtraction D, Esther and Mordecai attribute all the success to God through prayer, and Subtraction C, and the salvation of the Judeans is not a happy accident at all.

02:53:03.932 --> 02:53:05.492
It's a divine act.

02:53:05.492 --> 02:53:15.312
God acted through them to preserve both the Judeans, the Jewish bloodline, and it preserved Artaxerxes kingdom.

02:53:15.312 --> 02:53:18.152
Artaxerxes remained king because God intervened.

02:53:18.152 --> 02:53:23.812
The Macedonians did not overthrow the Persians at this time because God did not permit it.

02:53:23.812 --> 02:53:25.792
Later on, he did permit it.

02:53:25.792 --> 02:53:30.992
Now, we don't know to what extent Artaxerxes preserved his confession here.

02:53:30.992 --> 02:53:36.812
I don't think there's any archeological record for it, so probably not a great personal track record for him.

02:53:36.812 --> 02:53:39.872
On the other hand, that would be the sort of thing that would get deleted.

02:53:40.712 --> 02:53:53.712
There are often cases, I'm not making the claim that this happened here, but you will find cases where entire portions of a dynasty get deleted because they crossed some future leader.

02:53:53.712 --> 02:53:57.252
So, the absence of evidence isn't evidence either way.

02:53:57.252 --> 02:54:00.632
We don't know, and I certainly wouldn't claim you shouldn't either.

02:54:00.632 --> 02:54:18.692
But Artaxerxes had a Christian confession at times, and I think that when you think back to that verse in 1 Thessalonians 2 that I quoted earlier, God desires all mankind to come to him, every nation, not individuals, nations, kings on down.

02:54:18.692 --> 02:54:20.772
There's no such thing as individuals.

02:54:20.772 --> 02:54:23.952
When a king is good, his people are good.

02:54:23.952 --> 02:54:28.372
When Job was king over Edom, Edom was a Christian land.

02:54:28.372 --> 02:54:30.812
They were a land of God-fearers.

02:54:30.812 --> 02:54:37.252
Do you think that this king who is so blessed by God and who is held up as blameless, do you think that he had people committing idolatry?

02:54:37.952 --> 02:54:40.752
The way the Jews are committing idolatry left and right?

02:54:40.752 --> 02:54:42.212
Absolutely not.

02:54:42.212 --> 02:54:46.432
God would not have called him blameless as a king because he would have been responsible.

02:54:46.432 --> 02:54:49.372
When you have a good ruler, you have good people.

02:54:49.372 --> 02:54:53.012
When you have a good husband, you have a good wife, you have good children.

02:54:53.012 --> 02:55:02.032
Now, it's imperfect when humans are doing this, but the influence of the man who's at the top shapes everything else.

02:55:02.032 --> 02:55:09.452
Every time Israel had a bad ruler, they fell away and God crushed them again.

02:55:09.452 --> 02:55:16.452
Repeatedly, they were punished, thrown into chains as they have been again here in Esther for punishment.

02:55:16.452 --> 02:55:17.972
Esther confessed that in her prayer.

02:55:17.972 --> 02:55:20.492
They deserved it because they were idolatrous.

02:55:20.492 --> 02:55:25.892
And Mardukais cried out to God, remember your covenant with your people.

02:55:25.892 --> 02:55:31.152
Remember the promise you made to Abraham because we're a part of it.

02:55:31.152 --> 02:55:35.732
For his sake, for your sake, keep your promise and it's going to save us in the process.

02:55:36.832 --> 02:55:42.072
The Christian conduct here falls to almost everybody except for Amon himself.

02:55:42.072 --> 02:55:44.992
It's a remarkable difference in books.

02:55:44.992 --> 02:55:46.552
And so it's well worth reading.

02:55:46.552 --> 02:55:47.652
Esther's a great book.

02:55:47.652 --> 02:55:48.972
I really like it now.

02:55:48.972 --> 02:55:58.192
I never did not like it at all for the historical reasons I've been told because it did not have the voice of God in it.

02:55:58.192 --> 02:56:09.052
We've said before, a lot of guys, random people, I don't know them, have said when I started reading the Septuagint, it had the same voice as the New Testament, and that is absolutely true.

02:56:09.052 --> 02:56:14.312
God promises that his sheep will recognize his voice, and that's what we have here in the Septuagint.

02:56:14.312 --> 02:56:16.352
Certainly what we have here in Esther.

02:56:17.892 --> 02:56:24.572
And so, this is the end of our Old Testament section of the ongoing Septuagint series.

02:56:24.572 --> 02:56:27.112
We will be doing two, we believe.

02:56:27.112 --> 02:56:30.832
There's always that possibility of a third, but we believe we can do it in two.

02:56:30.832 --> 02:56:37.352
We will be doing two episodes in the New Testament, and then the final episode on where do we go from here.

02:56:37.352 --> 02:56:56.372
But by way of sort of a section conclusion, I want to go over a few miscellaneous things that I just happened to have noticed, as it were, in my own reading, and then sort of close out this section of the Septuagint series.

02:56:56.372 --> 02:57:04.312
But in the Book of First Samuel, and it happens to be the example because it is the book through which I am reading right now for the Daily Devotions.

02:57:04.312 --> 02:57:07.992
And I've been looking at the footnotes as I've gone along.

02:57:07.992 --> 02:57:13.352
And in Chapter 20, which I read recently, one of the footnotes stood out to me, Footnote 6.

02:57:13.352 --> 02:57:27.052
These are going to all be footnotes from the ESV, and I'm making a point that Woe made earlier on, but I want you to pay close attention to some of these footnotes and something that you will hear consistently.

02:57:27.832 --> 02:57:34.452
And so, Footnote 6, which is in Chapter 20, verse, starting with verse 40.

02:57:34.452 --> 02:57:36.432
I'll read 40 and 41.

02:57:36.432 --> 02:57:41.292
And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, Go and carry them to the city.

02:57:41.292 --> 02:57:48.492
And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times.

02:57:48.492 --> 02:57:56.592
When you read that verse, you think that you're reading the Rabbinic text, because supposedly the ESV Old Testament is based on the Rabbinic text.

02:57:57.252 --> 02:58:04.992
But if you look at Footnote 6, it says, Septuagint, Hebrew, from beside the south.

02:58:04.992 --> 02:58:15.612
And so if we were to read this in the Hebrew instead of in the Greek, it would say, And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the south and fell on his face.

02:58:16.672 --> 02:58:24.492
This is one of those instances where they have used the Greek to correct the Hebrew, because the Hebrew is incoherent.

02:58:25.632 --> 02:58:31.392
Now, I'm just going to read straight through just the footnotes, not the accompanying verses.

02:58:31.392 --> 02:58:35.632
Footnotes 1 through 6 in verse Samuel, chapter 12.

02:58:35.632 --> 02:58:40.812
Number one, Septuagint, Hebrew lacks, testify against me.

02:58:40.812 --> 02:58:45.292
Number two, Septuagint, Hebrew lacks, is witness.

02:58:45.292 --> 02:58:50.292
Number three, Septuagint, Hebrew lacks, and the Egyptians oppress them.

02:58:50.292 --> 02:58:54.492
Number four, Septuagint, the army of Jabin, king of Hazor.

02:58:54.492 --> 02:59:00.292
Number five, Septuagint, Syriac, Hebrew has instead, Badan.

02:59:00.292 --> 02:59:05.072
Number six, Septuagint, Hebrew has fathers.

02:59:05.072 --> 02:59:09.112
In this one chapter, there are five instances.

02:59:09.112 --> 02:59:25.192
In the sixth one, they decided not to include what is in the Septuagint, but in each of the other cases, they included the language from the Septuagint in preference to the Hebrew.

02:59:25.192 --> 02:59:44.672
And so when Woe said earlier in the episode that when you read the Old Testament, in many places, you are in fact reading the Septuagint, that's very true, because there are many places where the translators have decided to clarify, to add to, to correct the Hebrew using the Greek.

02:59:44.672 --> 02:59:53.312
I will get back to that in a moment, but I want to go over a few footnotes from chapter 13, just to sort of drive home this point.

02:59:53.312 --> 03:00:07.992
In verse 1, chapter 13, you have, Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose three thousand men of Israel, and then it keeps going on, but there's a footnote there on Israel.

03:00:07.992 --> 03:00:16.672
That footnote, footnote 1, says, Hebrew, Saul was one year old when he became king, and he reigned two years over Israel.

03:00:18.272 --> 03:00:35.332
They used the Septuagint because the Hebrew is simply wrong, because Saul is, of course, not one year old at this point, and Saul did not become king when he was one year old, because he was anointed when he was already a full-grown man.

03:00:36.692 --> 03:00:46.312
And so this is another case where the Greek has been used not simply to add to the Hebrew, but to correct an error in the Hebrew.

03:00:47.952 --> 03:00:53.312
And then we have later on in verse 15, And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.

03:00:53.312 --> 03:00:56.892
The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army.

03:00:56.892 --> 03:01:00.072
They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin.

03:01:00.072 --> 03:01:03.052
Well, the footnote says, Septuagint.

03:01:03.052 --> 03:01:07.332
Hebrew lacks the rest of the people from Gilgal.

03:01:07.332 --> 03:01:11.272
We're just missing a bunch of that verse in the Rabbinic text.

03:01:11.272 --> 03:01:14.092
And they used the Greek to correct it.

03:01:15.372 --> 03:01:16.652
Footnote 4.

03:01:16.652 --> 03:01:23.092
This one simply says, Septuagint, Hebrew plowshare, because the Hebrew repeats a word from earlier in the verse.

03:01:23.092 --> 03:01:26.592
They used the Septuagint to correct that.

03:01:26.592 --> 03:01:29.952
And then the final example, footnote 7.

03:01:29.952 --> 03:01:37.132
Footnote 7, which is to chapter 21, simply says, the meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain.

03:01:37.132 --> 03:01:38.972
We don't know what it means.

03:01:38.972 --> 03:01:41.132
We just use the Septuagint to try to fix it.

03:01:43.472 --> 03:01:50.632
Now, if you're dealing with a human contract, there is going to be an official version of that contract.

03:01:50.632 --> 03:01:54.872
The official version is the version that is theoretically read by all parties.

03:01:54.872 --> 03:02:02.852
It is then signed by the relevant parties, usually certified in some way, maybe stamped, maybe you have a notary there.

03:02:02.852 --> 03:02:05.252
It is the official version of the document.

03:02:06.292 --> 03:02:09.372
It is, in fact, the only binding version of the document.

03:02:09.972 --> 03:02:17.852
Now, you can make conformed or certified copies, which are simply copies, exact copies, in the case of certified, of the original.

03:02:17.852 --> 03:02:20.812
But the original is binding because it is the original.

03:02:20.812 --> 03:02:24.172
It is the agreement of the parties.

03:02:24.172 --> 03:02:32.552
We have something similar when it comes to literature, and I will get to scripture in a minute here, because scripture is a type of literature, but there is a key difference.

03:02:33.812 --> 03:02:46.732
If you have fragments of some historical piece of literature, and say you're missing part of it, you can go to foreign language translations of it in order to fix what is missing.

03:02:46.732 --> 03:02:48.412
Now is it going to be perfect?

03:02:48.412 --> 03:02:50.652
Probably not.

03:02:50.652 --> 03:02:53.772
But is it going to be good enough for a secular work?

03:02:53.772 --> 03:03:03.252
The answer is of course it is, because you are going to be able to restore what was lost, corrupted, bugs ate it, the ink smeared, whatever it happens to be.

03:03:03.252 --> 03:03:06.492
Many things happen to documents down through the centuries.

03:03:07.732 --> 03:03:11.852
Is that acceptable when it comes to the Word of God?

03:03:12.892 --> 03:03:18.092
The answer is no, because God of course says, neither jot nor tittle.

03:03:18.092 --> 03:03:21.772
And for those who don't know, a jot and a tittle, look at the letter I.

03:03:21.772 --> 03:03:24.752
The line is a jot, the dot is a tittle.

03:03:24.752 --> 03:03:26.412
That's the English example.

03:03:26.412 --> 03:03:28.852
Neither jot nor tittle will pass away.

03:03:30.152 --> 03:03:39.992
The way that we have treated as the Christian Church, the Old Testament, God's Word, is utterly unacceptable.

03:03:39.992 --> 03:03:55.372
We have made this hodgepodge by using the text that the rabbis gave us and then fixing it with the Greek as best we can in places where it's broken or incomprehensible or missing, whatever it happens to be.

03:03:55.372 --> 03:04:02.812
But to return to the example of the contract, you can't fix the lesser unless you have the greater.

03:04:03.512 --> 03:04:05.352
And you can't fix the greater with the lesser.

03:04:05.352 --> 03:04:13.212
So, for instance, if you have a corrupted copy of something, you can't use that to fix that which is superior.

03:04:13.212 --> 03:04:18.932
What I'm saying more plainly is that we already admit the Greek is the word of God.

03:04:18.932 --> 03:04:26.652
Because if you are using the Greek to correct the Hebrew, you are saying the Greek is correct.

03:04:26.652 --> 03:04:30.312
The Greek is the word of God because otherwise you couldn't do that.

03:04:31.752 --> 03:04:36.052
If the Hebrew were the word of God, you could not use the Greek to correct it.

03:04:36.052 --> 03:04:39.432
You would have to be content with whatever the Hebrew has.

03:04:39.432 --> 03:04:40.692
Well, we haven't done that.

03:04:40.692 --> 03:04:45.452
We've already tacitly admitted that we believe the Greek is superior.

03:04:45.452 --> 03:04:50.052
What we're simply saying is we should go ahead and go forward with the Greek.

03:04:50.052 --> 03:04:56.672
There are other reasons for that, of course, and we'll make the full conclusion to the argument after the New Testament episodes at the end of the second one.

03:04:57.452 --> 03:05:16.432
But we can already see here very plainly we should simply be using the Greek, and we're already doing it just in a haphazard fashion instead of in a consistent fashion that honors God and properly pays attention to his Word and gives it its rightful place.

03:05:16.432 --> 03:05:23.552
Instead of simply turning to the Septuagint and using it to plug holes in the Hebrew, we should just use the Septuagint.

03:05:24.112 --> 03:05:27.792
It is the scripture of the ancient church.

03:05:27.792 --> 03:05:30.772
It is God's preserved Word.

03:05:30.772 --> 03:05:35.472
It is completely absurd that we have just accepted this state of affairs.

03:05:35.472 --> 03:05:37.892
We've just been fine with the way things have been done.

03:05:37.892 --> 03:05:44.792
Translation committees pick from here and there to plug holes and change things and interpret and deal with vague passages.

03:05:44.792 --> 03:05:51.472
We wouldn't even accept that with a translation of Shakespeare into French, and yet we accept it with the Word of God.

03:05:51.472 --> 03:05:53.272
It's completely and utterly ridiculous.

03:05:55.392 --> 03:05:58.812
It's worth repeating the quote from Eusebius that I quoted earlier.

03:05:58.812 --> 03:06:02.912
Therefore, we suspect that this was something which the Jews did.

03:06:02.912 --> 03:06:09.472
Or we could turn to Justin Martyr, who says that the Jews expunged Messianic passages from their text.

03:06:09.472 --> 03:06:13.832
We could heap up examples from the Church Fathers saying these things.

03:06:13.832 --> 03:06:21.772
We have known all along what the Jews did to the text of Scripture, and yet we accepted the Rabbinic text from their hands.

03:06:23.532 --> 03:06:26.752
And it's worth highlighting what the Jews actually believe.

03:06:26.752 --> 03:06:28.272
We've done this in previous episodes.

03:06:28.272 --> 03:06:31.152
We've done it in episodes outside this series.

03:06:31.152 --> 03:06:37.372
But it is worth repeating because it is vitally important to understanding what has happened and why.

03:06:37.372 --> 03:06:39.992
The Jews do not believe in Scripture.

03:06:39.992 --> 03:06:42.692
That is the fundamental point.

03:06:42.692 --> 03:06:47.312
That is why we brought up the saying, what Torah forbids, Talmud permits.

03:06:47.312 --> 03:06:48.772
But even the Talmud, they reinterpret.

03:06:49.352 --> 03:06:53.272
They don't even hold their own interpretation to be binding.

03:06:53.272 --> 03:06:57.392
And that is their own interpretation that reverses what Scripture says.

03:06:57.392 --> 03:06:59.992
Because their real religion is their race.

03:07:01.032 --> 03:07:15.612
And when I say their real religion is their race, I mean that in part as a condemnation of those who would try to stand up neo-paganism as an alternative for Christians, as an alternative for the white western world, for Europeans.

03:07:17.052 --> 03:07:19.512
Because that's a race religion.

03:07:19.512 --> 03:07:25.972
It's not quite the same of a race religion as what the Jews have built, but it's still turning into that.

03:07:25.972 --> 03:07:26.952
It's completely absurd.

03:07:26.952 --> 03:07:35.312
We don't want to be what they have become, what they have made themselves over many centuries of extreme wickedness.

03:07:37.252 --> 03:07:42.092
And so, the question is, why?

03:07:42.092 --> 03:07:45.512
Why would the Jews make these edits?

03:07:45.512 --> 03:07:48.472
I went over one of the reasons earlier in the episode.

03:07:49.792 --> 03:08:06.052
In addressing the prophecies about the Christ, their own personal interpretation of them, they had for a long time held that the Christ would appear at the end of or during the sixth age, and for them an age was basically a thousand years.

03:08:06.952 --> 03:08:21.012
The problem, of course, is, as I highlighted earlier with the genealogies, if you tabulate those genealogies, well, oops, Christ was born in about the year 5500, exactly when they thought he would be born.

03:08:21.012 --> 03:08:33.412
Now, we could say maybe their interpretation of whatever they were reading was right, or maybe it's incidentally right, or my personal preference, I think God was playing a little joke on them, but they couldn't have that.

03:08:34.312 --> 03:08:47.392
So, they went back in and edited the genealogies to remove somewhere between 1000 and 1500 years, right around there, because now in their reckoning, Christ is born in the year 4000.

03:08:47.392 --> 03:08:50.812
Well, he can't possibly be the Messiah.

03:08:50.812 --> 03:08:52.972
He's not born in the sixth age.

03:08:54.632 --> 03:08:57.372
We'll think about that for a minute.

03:08:57.372 --> 03:09:00.912
According to the Jewish reckoning, in what age are we currently?

03:09:02.332 --> 03:09:04.812
We're in the sixth age.

03:09:04.812 --> 03:09:17.172
That is why they are getting so amped up about their plans to build the temple, about their Messiah appearing, which if anyone like that appears, it is most certainly the Antichrist.

03:09:18.712 --> 03:09:28.852
But they have changed it so that their interpretations will match the tabulation, and their Messiah should appear pretty much any day now.

03:09:28.852 --> 03:09:29.592
That's what they believe.

03:09:29.672 --> 03:09:31.872
That's why they made those changes.

03:09:31.872 --> 03:09:36.772
It's similar to that reinterpretation of Amalek as Europe in Christendom.

03:09:36.772 --> 03:09:43.512
Because if you read scripture and simply believe what scripture says, Amalek doesn't descend from Japheth.

03:09:43.512 --> 03:09:45.872
Europeans descend from Japheth.

03:09:45.872 --> 03:09:49.512
We can't be Amalek because we are not related to him.

03:09:49.512 --> 03:09:53.032
They are more closely related to Amalek than we are.

03:09:53.032 --> 03:10:04.852
But of course, they have reinterpreted that because it is only their interpretation of whatever document that serves their racial ends as the Jewish people that is their true religion.

03:10:04.852 --> 03:10:15.392
And so that's why they changed Haman from a Macedonian to an Agagite, to make him an Amalekite, to make the narrative in Esther match their revenge fantasy.

03:10:17.832 --> 03:10:24.632
I said earlier that I would talk about three types of edits that the rabbis made to scripture.

03:10:24.632 --> 03:10:25.772
And so I want to go over those now.

03:10:26.852 --> 03:10:34.112
I think these are probably the three sorts of things you want to look for if you're reading through and trying to compare.

03:10:34.112 --> 03:10:37.912
Now I would say, and Woe would also say, just read the Septuagint.

03:10:37.912 --> 03:10:41.712
You don't need to spend a bunch of time going back and forth and comparing one to the other.

03:10:41.712 --> 03:10:46.072
If you're so inclined, though, here are the three types of changes you're going to see.

03:10:46.072 --> 03:10:56.472
And even if you're just familiar with scripture and you're reading the Septuagint, you will still notice these changes because you'll have that knowledge of the Rabbinic text.

03:10:56.472 --> 03:11:00.832
Of course, modulo the changes they've made by importing the Septuagint.

03:11:01.892 --> 03:11:13.392
But the three main kinds of changes they've made are a reduction in God's role, the concealing or removing of Christ, and the elevation of the Jews.

03:11:13.392 --> 03:11:16.212
You see all of this in Esther, incidentally.

03:11:16.212 --> 03:11:25.432
You certainly see that reduction in God's role in Esther because God's just completely absent in the rabbi's version of Esther.

03:11:25.432 --> 03:11:26.912
He's certainly not in the Septuagint.

03:11:26.912 --> 03:11:31.312
He's from the beginning to the end, the Alpha and the Omega, as it were.

03:11:31.312 --> 03:11:39.232
The elevation of the Jews, of course, is also there in Esther because they turned it into this revenge fantasy that is purely a racial matter.

03:11:39.232 --> 03:11:40.652
God's not really involved.

03:11:40.652 --> 03:11:45.792
It's just the Jews getting revenge on people who don't like them for no reason whatsoever.

03:11:45.792 --> 03:11:52.352
Ironically, again, removing the bad reason they weren't liked at this particular point in history, probably the only time.

03:11:53.432 --> 03:11:56.052
And then concealing or removing Christ.

03:11:56.052 --> 03:11:57.372
There are many prophecies.

03:11:57.372 --> 03:12:04.852
We went over those in an earlier episode, but there's one that's perhaps worth going into a little bit more.

03:12:04.852 --> 03:12:08.372
It's worth noting that a virgin birth isn't technically impossible.

03:12:09.872 --> 03:12:21.452
And so, if all you have is that, that's not an impossibility, because technically speaking, a human being, being a mammal, mammals can do this, a woman can give birth to her own clone.

03:12:21.452 --> 03:12:30.532
The virgin birth is a miracle because Christ is male, and clone of a woman is in fact not a man, as you might have noticed.

03:12:31.812 --> 03:12:36.712
The fundamental baseline takeaway is that they truly are of their father the devil.

03:12:37.772 --> 03:12:42.052
He is a liar and a murderer from the beginning, in the words of Christ.

03:12:42.052 --> 03:12:47.612
They have done everything they can to subvert the church all along.

03:12:47.612 --> 03:12:57.432
Because they hate Christ, they hate his sheep, they hate his church, and they want to do everything they can to destroy it.

03:12:57.432 --> 03:12:59.352
That's why they call us Amalek.

03:12:59.352 --> 03:13:00.892
That's why they've made these changes.

03:13:01.572 --> 03:13:06.592
That's why they're willing to go so far as to edit the Word of God.

03:13:06.592 --> 03:13:09.892
And Christians have known this for centuries.

03:13:09.892 --> 03:13:12.392
The early church used the Septuagint.

03:13:12.392 --> 03:13:14.492
That was their Bible.

03:13:14.492 --> 03:13:20.492
When you read many of the church fathers, when they quote scripture, they quote the Septuagint.

03:13:20.492 --> 03:13:23.032
Because the Septuagint is scripture.

03:13:23.032 --> 03:13:23.872
That's what they were reading.

03:13:23.872 --> 03:13:24.952
They were reading it in Greek.

03:13:26.092 --> 03:13:31.712
We have had the Septuagint all along because God did exactly what he promised.

03:13:31.712 --> 03:13:34.992
Because God has promised he would preserve his word.

03:13:34.992 --> 03:13:37.052
As we noted, the Hebrew was entirely lost.

03:13:37.052 --> 03:13:37.952
God destroyed it.

03:13:37.952 --> 03:13:39.632
It's more than lost.

03:13:39.632 --> 03:13:42.232
God destroyed Hebrew.

03:13:42.232 --> 03:13:44.632
And not just the Hebrew of scripture.

03:13:44.632 --> 03:13:46.732
He destroyed the Hebrew language.

03:13:46.732 --> 03:13:49.312
He erased it from the earth.

03:13:49.312 --> 03:13:51.012
They resurrected something.

03:13:51.012 --> 03:13:54.132
They basically practiced necromancy, the linguistic equivalent.

03:13:54.972 --> 03:13:57.812
Revived this thing and called it Hebrew.

03:13:59.412 --> 03:14:01.092
But that's not scripture.

03:14:01.092 --> 03:14:04.112
Because scripture is what we've had all along.

03:14:04.112 --> 03:14:11.872
That God preserved for us, as he promised he would, in the Greek, a language that has never been lost.

03:14:13.112 --> 03:14:18.212
Now, some of us in the West certainly forgot how to read and write and understand Greek.

03:14:18.212 --> 03:14:20.712
But the Greek language was never lost.

03:14:20.712 --> 03:14:22.292
We have always had Greek speakers.

03:14:22.372 --> 03:14:28.092
We have always had the resources to learn and use the Greek.

03:14:28.092 --> 03:14:34.212
We basically just sort of lost them in a wall, like the Israelites did with scripture at one point.

03:14:34.212 --> 03:14:54.012
In fact, one of the words in Esther, a word that basically translates to Braggart, traces all the way back to Homeric Greek, is a fundamentally different thing from the degenerate Hebrew language that never rose to the level of a true and full language, and then God killed it and erased it.

03:14:54.012 --> 03:15:01.352
So the fact that we ever accepted anything from the hands of the rabbis is completely and utterly ridiculous.

03:15:01.352 --> 03:15:12.092
All we had to do was be faithful to what God gave to his church, what God preserved for his church, what the early church used as its foundation.

03:15:12.092 --> 03:15:17.152
If we had simply stuck with that, we would have avoided so very many problems down through the centuries.

03:15:18.172 --> 03:15:27.112
Now, thankfully, it has still been preserved, and so all we have to do is the relatively minor work of translating from one European language to another.

03:15:27.112 --> 03:15:28.512
Very easy to do.

03:15:28.512 --> 03:15:30.212
There are some differences, of course.

03:15:30.212 --> 03:15:38.892
Even translating from German to French or French to English, closely related languages, there are still some differences, some difficulties.

03:15:38.892 --> 03:15:42.872
But it's nothing like translating from Hebrew to a proper language.

03:15:43.932 --> 03:15:45.332
It's still the same language family.

03:15:46.492 --> 03:15:54.212
It is not that hard for us to translate Greek into English, or for those men who are so inclined to learn Greek and read it in the Greek.

03:15:54.212 --> 03:15:56.392
It's not that hard to do.

03:15:56.392 --> 03:15:57.912
And God preserved it for us.

03:15:57.912 --> 03:16:05.932
And actually, he also preserved us against ourselves and our own stupidity, which is something that God does constantly.

03:16:05.932 --> 03:16:11.852
God has a sort of special care for fools, as has been said many times in many ways down the millennia.

03:16:13.212 --> 03:16:16.972
Thankfully, in this case, we are the recipients of that blessing.

03:16:16.972 --> 03:16:25.352
Whether or not we bear the bulk of the blame, or we can assign it to our ancestors, hardly matters, because, of course, children do suffer for the sins of their fathers.

03:16:27.072 --> 03:16:34.012
In this case, though, we have the great fortune that we have not actually lost anything except time.

03:16:34.012 --> 03:16:40.132
Because, yes, we have centuries of scholarship, unfortunately, devoted to the Rabbinic text.

03:16:40.852 --> 03:16:43.972
That is time that was largely wasted.

03:16:43.972 --> 03:16:52.872
If it had been devoted to the Septuagint, to the study of God's actual word, we can only imagine the sort of riches we would have on hand today.

03:16:52.872 --> 03:16:56.252
But at the same time, we have to look at this as an opportunity.

03:16:56.252 --> 03:17:12.072
Because we have the Word of God, we know how to read the Word of God, it's very easy for us to translate the Word of God, and now we get to do centuries of scholarship on the Word of God in an actually functional language.

03:17:12.072 --> 03:17:16.932
We don't have to make excuse for things that are missing or for things that are incomprehensible.

03:17:16.932 --> 03:17:28.032
We're not going to have 8,000 footnotes in the text when we're done saying, the wording of this is uncertain, the Hebrew is unclear, the Hebrew is uncertain.

03:17:28.032 --> 03:17:33.732
We're not going to have that, because that is not the case with Greek, because men can learn and read Greek.

03:17:33.732 --> 03:17:35.252
It's still a living language.

03:17:35.252 --> 03:17:46.192
If you learn it, granted, learn modern pronunciation, not Erasmian, but if you learn Greek, you could travel and speak to native speakers, because it's a living language.

03:17:46.192 --> 03:17:47.892
The same is not true of Hebrew.

03:17:47.892 --> 03:17:49.352
There are those that say, what about modern Hebrew?

03:17:49.352 --> 03:17:51.112
It's a fundamentally different language.

03:17:51.112 --> 03:17:52.792
It is not the same thing.

03:17:52.792 --> 03:17:54.912
We went over that in a previous episode.

03:17:57.372 --> 03:18:11.232
We do not want you to look at this as some sort of horrible disaster, some sort of incurable wrong, we do not want you to look at all the Bibles in your house and think, I have to burn these things.

03:18:11.232 --> 03:18:24.552
Instead, we want you to look at this as being proof of God's care for His Church, of being proof that God does follow through with His promises, that not a single word of His ever falls to the ground.

03:18:24.552 --> 03:18:36.732
He said He would preserve His word and He did, despite all of the attacks of the Jews, all of the attacks of Satan and all of the stupidity of Christians down through the centuries.

03:18:36.732 --> 03:18:42.272
Despite all of that, despite the odds, we still have the Word of God.

03:18:42.272 --> 03:18:46.712
We still have it in its entirety, in an accessible form.

03:18:46.712 --> 03:18:56.952
All we have to do is read it, translate it, use it, and stop relying on the wickedness that is the Rabbinic text.

03:18:56.952 --> 03:19:08.632
This thing that was handed to us by the Christ killers, with the very obviously explicit goal of subverting the Church and destroying the faith.

03:19:08.632 --> 03:19:13.652
It doesn't mean that you can't read your current existing Bible profitably.

03:19:13.652 --> 03:19:21.152
God still preserved a great deal of His Word in these texts, in these versions edited by the Rabbis.

03:19:22.172 --> 03:19:26.712
But it's sort of similar to what we as Lutherans would say about the sacraments and things like that.

03:19:28.392 --> 03:19:31.872
There's the fullness of the feast to be had.

03:19:31.872 --> 03:19:35.272
All you have to do is accept it.

03:19:35.272 --> 03:19:40.192
You don't have to settle for stale bread and tepid water.

03:19:40.192 --> 03:19:42.332
God has set out the banquet.

03:19:42.332 --> 03:19:44.852
You should come to the banqueting hall.

03:19:44.852 --> 03:19:55.912
In this case, it is the Septuagint, it is the Greek, it is the Word of God, contrary to and over against the thing handed to us by the rabbis.

03:19:57.232 --> 03:20:00.872
The Christian Church was founded upon the Word of God.

03:20:00.872 --> 03:20:05.952
The Christian Church will always have the Word of God because God has promised to preserve it.

03:20:05.952 --> 03:20:16.972
All we have to do is start using it instead of leaving it in a wall, or in our case, somewhere in the dusty archives of the Vatican or whatever museum.

03:20:16.972 --> 03:20:17.992
We have the Septuagint.

03:20:18.372 --> 03:20:19.652
It is the Word of God.

03:20:19.652 --> 03:20:22.112
It's the one used by Christ and the Apostles.

03:20:22.112 --> 03:20:24.132
It's the one used by the Church Fathers.

03:20:24.132 --> 03:20:26.292
It is the one used by the early Church.

03:20:26.292 --> 03:20:30.052
It is the one we should be using because it is the Word of God.