The
Hebrew word Torah means "instruction",
"teaching" or "direction" and is often translated as
"law", which includes both written and oral laws of the Israelites.
The word Torah (Hebrew תּוֹרָה) most frequently refers to the first five books of
the Hebrew Bible, which are the same as the first five books of the Christian
Old Testament. These books are also called the Pentateuch
(Greek) by Christians and the Taurat
(Arabic)...
Month: March 2019
Documentary Review: Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy
In 2015, a Christian
documentary was released named Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus. Many scholars believe the
Exodus as described in the Bible never happened, and many archaeologists agree
that opinion. The purpose of Patterns of
Evidence: The Exodus is to show that archaeologists are looking for
evidence from the wrong time period, so naturally there wouldn't be evidence of
the Exodus. A few simple calculations using dates the Bible gives leads...
Documentary Review: Fragments of Truth
I had planned on
seeing the new documentary Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy
on opening night and writing a review for today's article, but the projector in
the theater wasn't working, so my plans have changed. The Moses Controversy is scheduled to be shown again on
Saturday, March 16th, and Tuesday, March 19th, so hopefully I'll be able to
write a review for next weekend, but by then it will be to late to see it in
the theater.
<!--...
Do Any Original Masoretic Texts Still Exist?
This is the last article in a short series that started with the question Who were the Masoretes? and then followed up with Why is the Masoretic Text Important?. This list contains some of the oldest Masoretic Texts and copies which still exist. All of these are more than 1,000 years, and some of them have been in almost continuous use since they were written.
- Damascus Pentateuch
- Date:...
Why is the Masoretic Text Important?
My last post, Who were the Masoretes?, described the
work of the Masoretes. Now I want to focus on why their work is important to
Biblical scholarship.
The great, indeed all-important, question which now meets us is this—Does this Hebrew text, which we call Masoretic, and which we have shown to descend from a text drawn up about AD 100, faithfully represent the Hebrew text...