dyl (03/26/83)
The time for Jewish Sanhedrin to loose their authority to execute the death penalty is fortold in Genesis and fulfilled. Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh* comes. This happened in 11 A.D. when Jewish sovereignty is subdued by the Roman Empire. To cope with the situation, the Jews made efforts to eliminate the death penalty. * Shiloh is a name of the Messiah
smb (03/26/83)
From: dyl@floyd.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Exact date for no more stoning Message-ID: <1353@floyd.UUCP> Date: Sat, 26-Mar-83 10:24:34 EST The time for Jewish Sanhedrin to loose their authority to execute the death penalty is fortold in Genesis and fulfilled. Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh* comes. This happened in 11 A.D. when Jewish sovereignty is subdued by the Roman Empire. To cope with the situation, the Jews made efforts to eliminate the death penalty. * Shiloh is a name of the Messiah This interpretation intrigued me enough that I went and looked up some other translations of this verse. What I found is an interesting lesson on the difficulties of translation, and how one's viewpoint influences one's rendering of this verse. I started with the new Jewish Publication Society translation, Second Edition, from 1967. They give the last clause as "so that tribute shall come to him", with the following footnote: 'Shiloh', understood as 'shai loh', 'tribute to him', following Midrash [a rabbinic commentary]; cf. Isiah 18.7. Hebrew obscure; literally 'until he comes to Shiloh'. That is, they claim that at some point, there was a transcription problem, and two words were merged into one. The reference to Isiah is to a parallel phrase, "tribute shall be brought to the Lord of Hosts"; I don't have a Hebrew version handy. The earlier Jewish Publication Society translation (1917) renders the verse as "as long as men come to Shiloh". In the Soncino publication, Hertz (an Orthodox Jewish commentator) gives a lengthy commentary on the verse. I quote: Lit. 'until Shiloh come'; or 'until that which is his shall come'; i.e., Juday's rule shall continue till he comes to his own, and the obedience of all the tribes is his. This translation may also mean that when the tribe of Judah has comie into its own, the sceptre shall be taken out of its hands. The explanation of this verse... is very difficult. Some Jewish commentators have given it a Messianic meaning. [Here I have to transliterate some Hebrew letters; I'll do it character by character. Note that in Hebrew, most vowels are represented as extra markings on the consonants, not as separate letters, and these markings are often left off -- thereby adding to the difficulty of translation.] I. It is a strange circumstance that the older Jewish Versions and commentators (Septuagint, Targums, Saadyah, and Rashi) read this word [sh-y-l-h] without a 'yod', as if written 'sh-l-h', the archaic form for 'his'; or as if it were a poetic form for 'peace' [sh-l-o-m]. (a) The translation 'until that which is his shall com' is derived from the Septuagint. Its meaning is, The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till all that is reserved for him shall have been fulfilled. (b) 'Till he come whose it (the kingdom) is' (Onkelos and Jerusalem Targum, Saadyah, Rashi, and other Jewish commentators). (c) 'Till peace cometh' (M. Firedlander). II. Most commentators, however, take the word 'sh-y-l-h' as the name of a place or person. (a) 'As long as men come to Shiloh' (to worship). Shiloh was the location of the sanctuary in the days of the Prophet Samuel, before Jerusalem became the centre of Jewish worship. As the outstanding superiority of the tribe of Judah only began after the Temple was built at Jerusalem, this interpretation is unsatisfactory. (b) 'Till he of Shiloh cometh, and the obedience of the peoples be turned to him.' Mendelssohn and Zunz see in the verse a prediction of the event described in I Kings XI, 29 f. Ahijah, the Prophet of Shiloh, foretold to Jeroboam that a part of the Kingdom would be taken from Solomon and transferred to him; that the ten tribes of Israel (here called 'peoples', see Gen. XLVII, 4) would break away from the House of David, and submit to his rule. This ingenious explanation fails to satisfy for various reasons. 'He of Shiloh' [would be rendered diferently in Hebrew]; the tribes were not turned to the Prophet of Shiloh but to Jeroboam; and the utterance would have been quite unintelligible to Judah. (c) 'Till Shiloh come.' This is the rendering of the Authorised Version, and assumes that 'Shiloh' is a personal name or a Messianic title. Although this assumption finds support in Rabbinic literature, it is there only a homiletic comment without official and binding authority. Despite the fact that nowhere in Scripture is that term applied to the Messiah, Christiana theologians assume that Shiloh is a name of the Founder of Christianity..... It is noteworthy that this translation only dates from the year 1534 and is found for the first time in the German Bible of Sebastian Munster. Although it is retained in the text of the Revised Version, it is now rejected by all those who have a scholarly acquaintance with the subject. Even a loyal Bishop of the Church of England, the late Dean of Westminster, wrote, 'The improbability of this later interpretation is so great that it may be dismissed from consideration. So what are we left with? Clearly, the meaning cited by floyd!dyl has a fair amount of support. But it is equally clear that many other meanings are possible -- they depend on your viewpoint and on the amount of archaeological and scholarly research you are willing to accept. Verses like this are one reason I can't accept the claims of those who feel the Bible is inerrant. Even if the original Hebrew and Greek is, the meaning to us today can't be. --Steve P.S. Does anyone have any later commentaries on this verse? Hertz's was first published in 1936.