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The True Language Of The New Covenant Scriptures

By Rabbi/Brother Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky

*Editors note- When this publication refers to Hellenized, pagan Christianity, it does not include those Yahweh fearing Ephraimites and non Israelites, who seek to understand truth. Those individuals remain faithful to the Feasts Of Yahweh, the biblical Sabbath and the dietary instructions of the Master and they forsake Maryology, angel and saint worship. Believers are not pagans. They are victims of pagan systems under which they worship, which are mostly just revised forms of customs and festivals adopted from Babylon. The individuals caught up in these systems need to be constantly prayed for, until they have the strength to leave those systems by themselves. We are grateful that thousands of Ephraimites are beginning to study and learn those things that really do please their Heavenly Father. They are joining themselves to their biblical Israelite friends, so that we may exist as one body of New Covenant Israel in Messiah, the original way that the good Master intended. R.K.

Throughout our believing lives we have often been taught that to really understand the New Covenant (Brit Chadasha), we must delve deeply into the original Greek language. Many Bible scholars and many would-be Bible scholars are told that without a basic working knowledge of Greek, it is impossible to fully glean from the Brit Chadasha. After some investigation into this vital matter, it now appears that this "go and learn Greek" approach is just another attempt by Hellenized Christianity to promote their Greek bias against biblical truth. It is just another attempt to vacuum any vestige of Israelite thought and language, from the modern Christian faith.

The truth of the matter is that without a Hebraic mindset, you or I cannot even remotely begin to understand the writings of the New Covenant. It was, is and always will be a Hebraic document written by Israelites. I also would question the Greek myth that claims that perhaps only Luke out of all New Covenant writers was not Jewish. In what pit of hell was that nonsense birthed? Where is the evidence for that teaching? We as Bible believers, Jews and Ephraimites and our companions, must have a Hebraic understanding of the culture, lifestyle, values and insights of first century Hebraic practice to truly glean gems of Bible truth.

All the writings of the early "church fathers" who had not yet been corrupted by Constantine’s introduction of pagan practices into what would later evolve into popery, all claim that many parts of the Brit Chadashah were in fact written in Hebrew. Keep in mind that all the early church fathers (those before the Council at Nicea in 325 AD ), all knew and spoke the truth about the Hebraic origins of the Brit Chadasha writings. That is because they did not have an anti-Jewish agenda to promote. These early church fathers are often referred to as anti-Nicean.

Papas, Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor wrote in 120 AD "Matthew put down the words of the Master in the Hebrew language. Others have translated them as best as possible." Ireanaeus, Bishop of Lyon, France in 120 AD stated "Matthew indeed produced his Gospel written among the Hebrews in their own Hebrew dialect." Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea wrote in 325 AD, "Matthew had first preached to the Hebrews and when he was about to go to others, he transmitted his Gospel into his native Hebrew language." Origen, who lived in 200 AD, wrote in his commentary on Matthew, "the first Gospel composed in the Hebrew language was written by Matthew, for those who came to faith from Judaism."

Now we begin to see the truth emerge as we uncover just a few of the quotations of the early church fathers. They proclaimed that parts of the Brit Chadasha, were in fact written not in Greek but in Hebrew.

Many believers have also been taught that Mark’s Gospel was the first one written. It was not Mark but Matthew that was the first Gospel account published. Why is this significant? Simply because all the other accounts lined up their eyewitness testimonies with Matthew which was originally a Hebraic document. That Hebraism then was transferred to other New Covenant books as well. Is this what your church has been teaching you? Probably not!

Even a few of the post-Nicean church fathers preserved for us the integrity of the Hebraic New Covenant. Epiphanius, in about 390 AD stated, "The Jews have the entire Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew." Jerome, who was well versed in Hebrew, translated the entire Tanach into Latin which today is called Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. He stated, "Matthew was the first in Judea to compose the Gospel of Messiah in Hebrew letters and words. Who it was that later translated it into Greek is no longer known with certainty. Furthermore the Hebrew text itself is still preserved in the library at Caserea, which the martyr Pampilius assembled with great care."

Therefore it is beyond any reasonable dispute that the Gospel of Matthew was penned originally in Hebrew! You may be asking, what about the other books of the Brit Chadashah? The Book of James, whose real Jewish name is Jacob, and appears in Greek as Jacobi, was written to the 12 tribes of believing Israelites scattered abroad in the Diaspora. Common sense tells us that he wrote in Hebrew. Both of Peter’s epistles were written in Hebrew as well, since his primary audience were the Ephraimites and Jews scattered in the early stages of the Diaspora. Lastly, Rav Shaul (Paul) wrote in Hebrew to the Hebrews, who were the intended Hebrew audience of the Book of Hebrews. Do you really think that Rav Shaul (Paul) wrote to Israelites in Greek or in Chinese? Let us get serious!

Since so much of the Brit Chadasha was originally written in the holy tongue of Hebrew, why have all the original Hebrew documents seemingly disappeared, while the earliest preserved manuscripts are in Greek?

Let us try to answer that. The various Messianic Jewish sects of the first century, were neither popular among traditional Jewry nor early Gentile Christianity. They were considered heretics by both these camps, since parts of their theology did not fit into either way of thinking. Included in these early Messianic Jewish groups were the Nazarenes, Ebionites and Pasaginans, as well as the Essenes. Whenever these Messianic documents, including the entire New Covenant in Hebrew came into the hands of either traditional Jewry or non Jewish anti-Semitic Christianity, these documents were disposed of by burning. This explains to a great degree why we don’t have the original Hebrew manuscripts!

Why is it so essential for us as Bible believers to adopt this fact of history? Mainly because a student of the Word cannot fully grasp all the deep things if he or she does not posses a basic understanding of Hebraic thought, culture, circumstances and history of those times. There are many idioms and expressions of speech that simply got lost in the translations. If the Master was sending you to China to preach the Gospel, you would not intensify your studies in Latin culture, now would you? We see that, that is exactly what has been happening in the last 2000 years!

Scholars are often mystified by the simplicity of the Hebrew scriptures in Tanach, but because of pride or prejudice they refuse to humble themselves to learn the Hebrew culture, which is so vital to their studies of the New Covenant. They couldn’t do that could they! After all that might be considered Judaising!! The reason that the King James English Bible is often difficult to understand is because those honest translators did their best to maintain the Hebraisms and insert it into the Greek text. While they did successfully manage to do it to some degree, it still made understanding the Greek New Covenant second generation manuscripts difficult. It became the old placing of the square peg in a round hole. Many scriptures in the King James, are meaningless in both Greek and English or any other language for that matter, without a Hebraic background or without the original Hebrew manuscripts.

A perfect example of this is found in Matthew 19:23-25. Here HaAdon Yahshua rebukes not just the rich young ruler for idolatry, but also the talmidim who thought like many "name it and claim it" Christians do today, that riches were the ultimate sign of Yahweh’s blessing. Of course we know this is not so. The ultimate sign of Yahweh’s blessing is the privilege of a personal relationship with Yahweh, through Messiah Yahshua. Anyway, in English or Greek the concept of a camel trying to squeeze through the top of a sewing needle, is cute at best and ridiculous at worst. Guess what? Yahshua was not a standup comic and had no desire to become one! In Hebraic architecture every major Israelite city was surrounded by walls. Every city also had a special entrance for beasts of burden who would enter the city through a separate tiny entrance called the Needle Gate. The eye of the Needle Gate therefore, was the entry point into the tiny Needle Gate for the beast of burden. In verse 25 of Matthew chapter 19, Yahshua’s disciples were shocked at the fact that rich people would have a hard time getting into the Kingdom of Yahweh because of their worldly care. It is interesting to note that they were not shocked however at the reference to the eye of the Needle Gate, since it was so very common to their culture and their language.

Matthew 2:23, cannot even be understood in the Greek text and still befuddles scholars to this day. In Hebrew, Nazarene means nezer, or Branch and is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1. In Greek or English, it is a fulfillment of nothing and becomes biblical silly putty, making no sense whatsoever. All the Greek and Latin knowledge in the world will not help one understand this simple Hebraic reality. Those who study Hebrew and Hebraic culture and then delve into the various English versions, have a much better understanding of the entire Brit Chadashah, even though they are reading a third generation translation from Hebrew, to Greek, then to their native language. Don’t you wish that we still had access to the original Hebrew documents of the New Covenant, so that a lot of this mess could be cleared up? Well, unfortunately because of the hatred of the early Messianic Jewish community, that may never happen this side of heaven. After all, it was the first century Messianic Jews who recorded the Brit Chadasha for all future generations.

Once we understand that the original manuscripts were Hebraic, we have another spiritual bullet in our ammunition when we dialogue with traditional unsaved Jewish friends, who cannot reconcile a Holy Book (New Covenant ), with a pagan Greek language. Every Orthodox Jew knows that when Yahweh spoke prophetically, He always spoke in the tongue of angels, prophets and heaven, which always has been and always will be Hebrew. For many years in my early believing life, I had to make up several excuses for the so called "original Greek documents" of the Brit Chadasha. My counterpoint was always that Yahweh could write the Bible in any language He chose to, since as Yahweh, He is both omniscient and sovereign. No excuses are any longer necessary. The original New Covenant documents are just as Hebraic as Tanach itself!!

Of course, dyed-in-the-wool dispensationalist and replacement theologians, just love to perpetrate the myth of the "Greek original", since it is easier within the framework of that lie, for them to separate Torah from grace and the church from Israel, with Israel being cursed and thus the church being blessed! As long as we have this demonic separate entity theology among us, the truth will to a large extent be concealed. The sincere truth seeking believer, needs to do an immediate reassessment of the rush to treat and educate themselves in Greek culture. Unless we return to a Hebraic based curriculum in Bible Colleges and seminaries, all but forsaking the Greek paganized educational system of the past, I fear what we have is a permanently dysfunctional theological mess.

We beseech you our brethren, don’t believe the anti-Semitic hogwash and lies that many already have. We see then that it is actually very possible to love Jewish people and yet possess, adopt and propagate anti-Semitic doctrines, done often in ignorance, designed to demonize the Jews.

Please be careful to always reassess your thinking after having a particular subject presented to you for the first time in a new light. Casual readers of the Davar Yahweh (Word), will not understand the significance of the above writings. Students of the Davar Yahweh, will be provoked to look into these matters.

Which of these two will you be?