Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1276 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Mastering the Bible - Writers Used Translations - Worldview Wednesday


Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge.  Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy.  Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1276 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday.  Creating a Biblical Worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events.  To establish a Biblical Worldview, it is required that you also have a proper understanding of God and His Word.  Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better.  When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.
Mastering The Bible – Writers Used Translations

Insight Twenty-One: The Biblical Writers Used Translations of the Bible
Dr. Heiser shares his own experience as a Bible teacher.  He says, “When I was teaching full-time, I’d occasionally hear students lament having to read the Bible in translation. Some would even wonder if they could trust their translations. I would tell students they need not worry about the issue since biblical writers used them.”

Dr. Heiser was speaking primarily about how the New Testament writers quote the Old Testament. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, with a few portions written in Aramaic. When New Testament writers quote the Old Testament, they usually use something called the Septuagint, which was an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.

It’s interesting to note that the Septuagint wasn’t always literal in its translation of the Old Testament. That didn’t bother the New Testament writers. For example, a pretty literal rendering of Amos 9:11-12 reads like this:

“In that day I will restore the fallen house of David.
I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins, I will rebuild it
and restore its former glory.
And Israel will possess what is left of Edom
and all the nations I have called to be mine.”
The Lord has spoken,
and he will do these things.

In literal terms, the prophecy seems to be about repairing a physical structure, perhaps a tent booth (Deuteronomy 16:13-16) or a wall. Many readers would anticipate the prophecy is about the rebuilding of David’s house or, by extension, his dynasty. The result would be the “what is left of Edom and all the nations” would be possessed by “house of David.”Luke quotes this passage in Acts 15:16-17 and the wording changes:

“Afterward I will return
and restore the fallen house of David.
I will rebuild its ruins
and restore it,
so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord,
including the Gentiles—
all those I have called to be mine.
The Lord has spoken.”

Notice that Edom becomes “the rest of humanity” in Luke’s rendering, while “nations” become the more specific “gentiles.” The reason for the difference is that Luke is using the Septuagint. Edomites in the Old Testament were estranged relatives to Israel. In the context of Acts 15,