[soc.religion.christian] Christian misinterpretation!

YZKCU@cunyvm.bitnet (Yaakov Kayman) (01/21/91)

Re article <Jan.10.00.01.06.1991.22140@athos.rutgers.edu>, which is mine,
your moderator makes the following comment in response to my statement
that the interpretation in Romans 11:26 of Isaiah 59:20 is a specif-
ically-Christian misinterpretation, as the original verse is clear in
saying that ONLY AFTER those Jews who have sinned repent and change their
ways will Messiah come, and NOT that Messiah will take away anyone's
sins:

>
>[I'm not going to comment on the substance of this disagreement.
>However I'd like to note that the source of this understanding of
>Isaiah is not Christian.  Like other Greek-speaking Jews, Paul tended
>to quote from the Septuagint, the standard Greek translation of the
>Hebrew Scriptures.  Its translation of Is 59:20-21 is "The Savior will
>come for the sake of Zion, and remove all wickedness from the
>descendants of Jacob.  I will make this covenant with them, when I
>take away their sins."  --clh]

I will not comment on the content of the Septuagint. Perhaps a scholar
of the Greek language in which it was written would care to provide an
exact translation of Isaiah 59:20. 59:21 is irrelevant to this discus-
sion.

The original Hebrew, in any case, is quite unambiguous. The implication
of the (mis)interpretation in Romans 11:26 is also quite clear, and quite
Christian. I therefore stand by my statement that the misinterpretation,
which as I said before, I will leave to Christians to ponder whether it
is deliberate, is SPECIFICALLY CHRISTIAN MISINTERPRETATION.

Yaakov K.
--------
Yaakov Kayman      (212) 903-3666       City University of New York

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