Something Neat I Learned

[thirdwoe]

Hello All...I found this out the other day and thought that I would share it here with you. Blessings.


A Study that shows something you may not have known before.

(1st Corinthians 15:55 -English KJV 1611 A.D.) "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

The Apostle Paul is quoting from Hosea 13:14. BUT…if you turn to that passage in your English KJV, you will see this there: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." (English KJV) 1611 A.D.

Notice that the part of the verse there in Hosea, that The Apostle Paul quotes from does not match up exactly with how it is worded in The English KJV in 1st Corinthians 15:55. Strange right? What was he quoting from then? Was it his own paraphrase perharps? Lets see.

So, lets check the other witnesses to the Hebrew Old Testament Text. 1st lets check the Hebrew "Masoretic" Text, which he KJV translators used to translate their English version of the passage and I'll focus on just the part of the verse that is quoted in 1st Corinthians 15:55.

(Hosea 13:14 -Hebrew: "Masoretic" Text - 1000 A.D.) "I will be thy plagues O death, I will be thy destruction O grave."

Well, we can see that but for the word order, the KJV Translators were translating right from The "Masoretic" Text for the Hosea 13:14 passage, but the quote is still not just like what The Apostle Paul used for the sentence in 1st Corinthians 15:55

So, lets try the "Dead Sea Scrolls" to see if that much older Hebrew Text of Hosea 13:14 to see if maybe the Hebrew Text there is the source of the quote.

(Hosea 13:14 -Hebrew: "Dead Sea Scrolls" Text -200 B.C.-100 A.D.)"O death, where are thy plagues? O sheol, where is thy destruction?"

No, it's not the same as in 1st Corinthians 15:55 and even a bit different than The "Masoretic" Text that The KJV translators used for the English translation. They did not know of the "Dead Sea Scrolls" in 1611 A.D.; It being as yet discovered in a cave outside of Jerusalem in 1948 A.D.

So, lets try the ancient Greek translation of The Hebrew Text called the "Septuagint" that existed way back in the year 250 B.C.; this Greek Translation of The Hebrew Old Testament, was quoted from very often in The New Testament or so it has seemed by many…

(Hosea 13:14 -Greek: "Septuagint" Text - 250 B.C.) "Where is your punishment, O death? Where is your sting, O hades?"

A lot closer to the way it is worded in the quote in 1st Corinthians 15:55, but it is still not exactly the same. We are running out of Ancient Text Witnesses to consult....

Lets try the Latin Translation of The Hebrew, done around 400 A.D. called The Vulgate, which has been the sole Bible version of the Roman Catholic Church since that time.

(Hosea 13:14 -Latin: "Vulgate" Text -400 A.D.) "O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite:"

That is moving further away then we had come to. So that is not it either. What other Textual "Witness" do we have left that is very old, even older than The Latin "Vulgate" of 400 A.D., The Hebrew "Dead Sea Scrolls" of 200 B.C.-100 A.D., The Greek "Septuagint" of 250 B.C. and The Hebrew "Masoretic" of 1000 A.D. ???

Ahhhh…. That's right… The Aramaic. The Language that Jesus & His Apostles both spoke, read, and wrote in…being their common Language. Jesus even speaking in Aramaic from Heaven, to Saul of Tarsus, when He chose him to be His Apostle on the road to Damascus one afternoon.

(Hosea 13:14 -Aramaic: "Peshitta" Text -400 B.C. 100 A.D.) "O death, where is your victory? O sheol, where is your sting?"
(1st Corinthians 15:55 -English KJV 1611 A.D.)"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

There it is!!! Mystery solved at last. It is exactly the same, but for the word order, which could be reversed and mean the same thing. And the word "Sheol, is the word under the English "Grave"....It is very clear that The Apostle Paul had the Aramaic Old Testament in front of him when quoting The Bible for that sentence in 1st Corinthians 15:55.

And The Holy Spirit moved him to thus write it down as he did.

[charleswest]

Thanks,way cool....