The oldest language in which the Word of God was first recorded, Hebrew, has finally been revised and translated into Modern Hebrew!
This new edition of the Old and New Testaments have been launched this month by the Israel Bible Society. Many Christian pastors and leaders were invited to attend this momentous occasion and this most wonderful gift was received with great joy.
As Gentile Believers in the Messiah of Israel, we do not realise how privileged we are to have a translation of God’s Word in our own languages. Many languages even have several translations to choose from.
But the Israeli, Hebrew-speaking believers are still using the original 2700 year old version of the Bible. Some passages are very difficult to understand because language is a living thing that grows and changes. In addition, Hebrew has not been used as a spoken language for two thousand years while Israel had been scattered all over the world.
English speakers will certainly struggle to understand the Bible if we had to read and study it in Shakespearean English, even though that was commonly used a mere 400-and-something years ago!
Most Jews do not regularly read Scripture and if they do, most read only the first five Books of Moses and the Psalms. They do not read the prophets and there are even prohibited scriptures like Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9.
Their reading mostly revolves around the Siddur(prayerbook) and the writings and commentaries on the Bible of Rashi and Rambam. They believe in the Oral Law, which has no Scriptural basis.
We who live in Israel, see the zeal that they have. We see their passion for their religion and their waiting on their Messiah and we lament because if we can only get them to read the Tanach( Old Testament) for themselves, they would SEE the Messiah!
Pray that every Israeli Jew will receive a copy of this life – giving book in their hands!
Watch the presentation by the Israel Bible Society:
