In Situ (Historic-scientific context= reality): wa-Yi•qᵊr•âꞋ

What your rabbi/​priest/​pastor/​parents never told you about 1st century Christianity & misojudaism

It’s critical for Jews to become aware of the prime origins of misojudaism, still operative today in the Christian world. That means dealing with the unfortunate fact that, for Christians, the LXX (Hellenist-Greek Septuagint) has been defined as their #1 Bible-source authority, above the Hebrew, for their “Old [i.e., displaced] Testament”:

The Septuagint is the most ancient translation of the Old Testament and consequently is invaluable to critics for understanding and correcting the Hebrew text (Massorah), the latter, such as it has come down to us, being the text established by the Massoretes in the sixth century A.D. Many textual corruptions, additions, omissions, or transpositions must have crept into the Hebrew text between the third and second centuries B.C. and the sixth and seventh centuries of our era; the manuscripts therefore which the Seventy had at their disposal, may in places have been better than the Massoretic manuscripts. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Accordingly, a flagrantly misojudaic phrase introduced into the LXX version of this week’s Tei•mân•iꞋ Ha•phᵊtâr•âhꞋ (Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu 43.21-44.6) has repeatedly proven grievous for Jews.

(Moreover, even beyond the innate offensiveness of the phrase, “Old Testament,” the phrase further implies “obsolescence” – i.e., displacement by their Christian “New Testament.” I am profoundly offended by such presumptuous dismissal of our Ta•nakhꞋ! Acquiescing to this Christian convention constitutes constructive tacit and implicit acceptance of Christian displacement theology – just like using B.C. and A.D. in dates. Every Jew should take offense at these Christian conventions, and insist on the proper title, Ta•nakhꞋ, as a prerequisite for continued conversation.)

Ha•phᵊtâr•âhꞋ for wa-Yi•qᵊr•âꞋ

The context of this week’s Ha•phᵊtâr•âhꞋ is introduced by the concluding phrase of 43.20: עַמִּי בְחִירִי (am•iyꞋ vᵊkhir•iyꞋ; My kindred is My chosen/​selected).

𝕸 (MT: Masoretic Text)

Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu 43.26 (which is Hebrew) translates to:
“Remind Me – נִשָּׁפְטָה (ni•shâ•phᵊt•âhꞋ; let us adjudicate mi•shᵊpâtꞋ) together; recounting [the mi•shᵊpâtꞋ], so that you may be deemed tza•diqꞋ.”

Here, Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu reiterates that justification for imperfect mortals (“recounting the mi•shᵊpâtꞋ to be deemed tza•diqꞋ“) is the exclusive result of the Graciousness of י- -ה to confer ki•purꞋ – which He contracted with Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ in the Bᵊrit of Tōr•âhꞋ (gentiles were never made party to this contract) in return for the individual doing his or her utmost to live according to the mi•shᵊpâtꞋ of Tōr•âhꞋ – Life’s Instruction Manual. This is the millennial-old, Tōr•âhꞋ “Plan of Salvation”; (lᵊ‑ha•vᵊdilꞋ), in contrast to the Christian claim of displacement by a 2nd-4th century C.E. image (Yesh”u), redacted as needed by Greek-speaking, Hellenist Roman Christians to syncretize their Hellenist (tracing back to Egyptian) mythology with stories, in Greek, from the Hellenist followers of “Apostle St. Paul” the Apostate .

There were at least 3 disconnects between the historical 1st century C.E. Pharisee RibꞋi Yᵊhō•shuꞋa with his Jewish followers (the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ, corrupted to “Nazarenes”) versus 2nd-4th century C.E. gentile Christianity and their perception of their Hellenist, gentile-preferring (having rejected Jews), Christ:

1. Eusebius documented that the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ excised (kâ•reitꞋ) “Apostle St. Paul” the Apostate, clearly because of his Hellenism. Thus, the original, first, Christians, were predominantly gentile followers of Paul, not the original Jewish Pharisee followers of RibꞋi Yᵊhō•shuꞋa (the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ) – whom Christians vilified, persecuted and eventually eradicated (see #3) as “Judaizers”.
2. Eusebius documented that Hellenist Roman Christians forcibly ousted the 15th Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Pâ•qidꞋ, displacing him with the first gentile “bishop,” in 135 C.E. Thus, post-135 C.E. Christians were followers of gentile Christian bishops, not the preceding succession of pᵊqid•imꞋ who succeeded Ya•a•qovꞋ ha–Tza•diqꞋ (corrupted by Hellenist Christians to “James the Just”), the brother of RibꞋi Yᵊhō•shuꞋa.
3. As documented by Eutychius, the final eradication of all remaining Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ occurred in 333 C.E., when, at the command of Constantine, the Christian bishops forced all of the “Judaizers” (Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ) to attend a Christian Church on Easter (the festival of Ishtar) instead of their continuing exclusive observance of PësꞋakh, and eat pork, upon pain of death, on the way out. The Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ refused (Bagatti, Bellarmino, The Church from the Circumcision, p. 14). Christians weren’t Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ, it was the Christians who eradicated the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ!!! There is no further mention of Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ in the literature until I rediscovered them in the 1970s and began to publish. Since then, plagiarizing and deceiving Christian poseurs have, again, proliferated.

I write this neither hatefully nor disdainfully, but matter-of-factly as a logician researcher of historical documentation striving to help two conflicting opposites face up to, and finally deal with, the same historical evidence and facts: the Christian-fabricated Christ-image, despite Christian claims, has no factual, historical connection to RibꞋi Yᵊhō•shuꞋa or his Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ followers (or any other roots in legitimate, non-Hellenist, Judaism) and, in fact, is a heavily redacted, polar opposite, “bizarro,” and idolatrous, image.

Most Jews, from the greatest kha•reid•imꞋ rabbis to the secular, all unwittingly enable the Christian Gospel when they insist that the Christian YeshꞋ“u is the same as the historical, 1st-century, Pᵊrush•imꞋ RibꞋi, Yᵊhō•shuꞋa. Jews who blur these contradictory opposites generate the illusion of welding back together these “disconnects,” corroborating the core fulcrum of Christianity, from which the entirety of the Christian Gospel dangles – ignorantly enabling the Christian Gospel!!! The greatest teachers of the Christian Gospel are not the evangelists, but Jews, including the rabbis and Great Jewish kha•reid•imꞋ “Gedolim,” who thus enable the Gospel!!!

“Great Isaiah Scroll” (Dead Sea Scroll)

Contrary to the Christian claim of LXX authority, 𝕸 (the Hebrew text) of Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu 43.26 is corroborated, against LXX, by the “Great Isaiah Scroll,” 1QIsa:

The only evolution is from 1QIsa “יַחְדָּיו” to the synonym in 𝕸 “יַחַד,” both translating to English as “together.” Most certainly, the inflammatory misojudaic redaction found in LXX, below, is not found in 1QIsa!!!

Tar•gumꞋ Yō•nâ•tânꞋ (Aramaic)

Further contrary to the Christian claim of LXX authority, Tar•gumꞋ Yō•nâ•tânꞋ corroborates 1QIsa and 𝕸. As I translate Yᵊsha•yâhꞋu 43.26:

Say we hold court here and now, as one. Debate accommodatingly (!) whether you will be capable or worthy.

Thus, Tar•gumꞋ Yō•nâ•tânꞋ, too, corroborates 𝕸 and 1QIsa against the misojudaic redaction introduced in LXX.

Hellenist LXX

None of the above texts (or legitimate translations) at all prepare the researcher for the shock of reading the blatantly and brazenly misojudaic redaction introduced into the earliest extant copy of LXX.

It is germane, too, that while Christians understandably prefer to refer to anti-Pharisee Hellenists as “Alexandrian Jews” rather than “Hellenists”, Greek was a language forbidden by 1st-century rabbis – every one of whom were Pᵊrush•imꞋ (“Pharisees”); the Orthodox rabbis of today. Speaking Greek, for a Jew, signaled that he or she was assimilated into Roman Hellenism with all of its idolatry, and prompted suspicions of being a Roman-collaborator like the Hellenist Tzᵊdoq•imꞋ (“Sadducees”) – and (after 135 C.E.) Hellenist Roman Christians.

More sinister, though, there’s also something the historians know (but aren’t publicizing) about LXX that you probably don’t know: the two “earliest extant copies” of the Hellenist Greek LXX just happened to be bound in the same two codices as the two “earliest extant copies” of the Hellenist Greek Christian New Testament! Only Christian authorities would do such a thing. And Christians are well documented, even by Christian scholars, as having heavily redacted these codices to match their 4th century Christian convictions. Thus, the “earliest extant copies” of the Hellenist Greek LXX are delivered to us by Christian redactors in the 4th century C.E. And that is the only intelligent explanation how the following misojudaic redaction came to be found in the LXX version of Ησαῒας (Āsaias; Isaiah) 43.26: (redacted phrase highlighted):

Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou τας ανομιας σου πρωτος (tas anomias sou prōtos; the Torahlessness of your initial state), in order that thou mayest be justified.

Here, supposedly in B.C.E. 2nd century, and supposedly written by Jews before the advent of Christianity, we find the theme declaring that the initial, or original, state of Jews is Torahlessness (glossed as “lawlessness”) – for which, Christians claim, Jews are lost without the Christian Jesus.

Thus, a 2nd-4th century (Hellenist-Greek Roman) Christian redaction to this week’s Ha•phᵊtâr•âhꞋ in LXX, back-attributed to 70 (Roman numeral LXX) B.C.E. 2nd century Greek-speaking Hellenist Jews, set the tone for all future (Hellenist-Roman) Christian misojudaism.

This redaction to LXX – followed by the Christian world as authoritative over the Hebrew text – is the root, perhaps the earliest extant cause and evidence, of all Christian misojudaism that continues to torment Jews today.

Tōr•âhꞋ: a contract between י- -ה and Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ

Christians are taught to not see the Bᵊrit in Tōr•âhꞋ and view Tōr•âhꞋ only as “the law” that exposes and condemns every mortal, including Jews, as “original sinners.” Thus, to Christians, the “Old [i.e., displaced] Testament” is no more than “the law [that exposes and convicts] of sin and death.”

Christians are blissfully unaware of the perquisites of the Bᵊrit with Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ in Tōr•âhꞋ that provide Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ with ki•purꞋ. In this perspective, Christians merely see their thinking as absolute fairness – including Jews with other mortals, all of whom Christians view as “lost” due to falling short of perfection in keeping “the law.” It is then the Jews whom the world sees as presuming to self-elevate themselves, by their own “works,” as “chosen” – above “the Law”; and this perception governs how the the world perceives the Jew. The remedy is to educate Christians to the Bᵊrit with Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ in Tōr•âhꞋ that provides Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ with ki•purꞋ – which is the only “salvation” for man having the imprimatur, in Tōr•âhꞋ, of י- -ה.

2,000 years of equivocating on this point has consistently proven to produce catastrophes. Upholding the Torch of Tōr•âhꞋ, Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ (Jews) must illuminate and “save” the gentiles! It is our raison d’être.

Countering misojudaism via education

Whether you are Jew, Christian or Muslim, you could learn how things got the way they are, and how education in that historical reality carries the potential to dissolve some significant conflicts between Jews and gentiles that are at the heart of misojudaism.

Ti•kunꞋ hâ–O•lâmꞋ

This could further enable us to transform Ti•kunꞋ hâ–O•lâmꞋ from unrealistic dream to reality; upgrading much of the world to reconcile as fellow creatures of י- -ה, thereby unifying the Name of י- -ה, the Ël•oh•imꞋ of Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ and Creator-Singularity of the universe – i.e., reality.