Moment in the Word

Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he (Christ) cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me (KJV).  

 

 

Approaching the holy seasons of Advent, we genuinely appreciate St. Paul quoting Psalms 40:6 from the ancient Greek Septuagint which truly prefigures the Incarnation of the physical body for God's eternal Son – the Word, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:1-4, 14 KJV)." 

But what was the real importance of God appearing to mankind in Jesus' fleshly body? 

According to John, the divine Incarnation served a vital purpose by allowing us to actually experience the invisible God finally represented in a solid form, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son (the Word – St. John 1:1), which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18, KJV)." John went on to say that the Incarnation permitted us to know the unknowable by employing all our natural senses, "That which was from the beginning (the Word – St. John 1:1), which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:1-4, KJV)." 

According to His predetermined will, God purposely used the entire Old Testament to foreshadow the day when He would appear in a physical body by the miraculous Incarnation, "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the 'volume of the book' (the entire Bible) it is written of me (Psalms 40:7, KJV)." Thus, this revelation of the Incarnation was already recorded in Scripture long before the New Testament ever existed. 

But sadly, after God was totally revealed by His Only Begotten Son through the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, there were evil men who determined to remove any evidence of Christ from the "volume of the Book" by rewriting the Sacred Scripture... starting in the 1st Century. Although Peter, Paul, the Gospel writers, the Early Church, and even the Jews all formerly used the ancient Greek Septuagint written two hundred years before Jesus was ever born, yet Rabbinic Judaism began rewriting their Hebrew scrolls after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. to eliminate references to the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. This later revision was known as the Masoretic Text. (https://www.rivalnations.org/censored-bible/ )  

Early Church Fathers saw and protested what was happening because the editing of the Hebrew Scripture would eventually threaten the ancient Greek Bible used by Christians, "And I wish you to observe, that they (Rabbinic Jews) have altogether taken away many Scriptures from the translations (the original ancient Septuagint)." Justin Martyr AD 160  

In other places, the Early Church Fathers objected to words being added in the new Hebrew version that did not appear in the older Greek text, "The words are found in the Hebrew, but do not occur in the Septuagint." Hippolytus AD 205 

Unfortunately, revisionists in the Church eventually abandoned the Septuagint in favor of the new Masoretic Text that eliminated Christ from the "volume of the Book," to which St. Augustine objected when St. Jerome created a new Church Bible, "Let it be seen plainly what differences there are between this version of yours (the Vulgate) and that of the Septuagint, whose authority is worthy of highest esteem." Augustine to Jerome AD 394  

Regretfully, the revisionists won the argument and the Bible of Jesus, Peter, Paul, the Gospel writers, and the Early Church was forsaken in favor of the new Masoretic Text, but why should the "BIG CHANGE" matter to you on the eve of Christmas? 

From Jerome's creation of the Vulgate, twelve early Protestant Bibles were translated... 2 versions of Wyclif's Bible -1380/88, the Tyndale Bible - 1526, the Coverdale Bible - 1535, Matthew's Bible - 1537, the Great Bible or Whitchurch Bible - 1539, Taverner's Bible - 1539, Becke's Bible - 1551, the Geneva Bible - 1560, Bishop's Bible - 1568, the Douay-Rheims Bible - 1609, and finally the King James Version - 1611. Today, there are even more versions, all tainted by the distortion of the Masoretic Text rather than preserving the original integrity of the Early Church's Greek Septuagint.  

Those of you who claim the authority of the King James Bible, should go back and read Hebrews 10:5 again, "Wherefore when he (Christ) cometh into the world, he saith, 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me (KJV).'" Now, turn to the same passage in Psalms 40:6 that St. Paul quoted from his Bible – the ancient Greek Septuagint, and see the awful distortion in your favorite version, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened (Psalms 40:6, KJV)." There's a big difference between God "preparing a body" to reveal the Incarnation of His Only Begotten Son in the Septuagint and merely "opening some guy's ears" in the Masoretic Text... wouldn't you say? 

Tragically, the Old Testament in the King James Version (and many others like it) is based on the premeditated, intentional distortion of the revised Masoretic Text rather than the original Greek Septuagint of the Early Church. If the Scriptural perversion of someone changing your Bible nearly seventeen hundred years ago to eliminate Christ from the "volume of the Book," makes you uncomfortable, then it's time to use an Orthodox Bible that thankfully translates from the ancient Septuagint to preserve the New Testament's divine Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of God's Only Begotten Son. Today, we should rejoice during this season of Christmas that Orthodox Christians had the wise foresight and dedication to keep the pristine integrity of the Early Church's original Bible alive and well in the ancient body of Scripture known as the Greek Septuagint.