This is one of the worst mistranslations in
the Bible of the teaching of Yeshua, the Jewish Jesus (Matthew 5:17-18):
Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled.
I was taught that
this meant “Jesus fulfilled all of the
law, did away with it and we are under grace.” Christians were under grace, while Jews were under the law. The
belief systems of over a billion Christians are constructed on that
mistranslation. Interestingly, Yeshua’s words reminded his Jewish audience of
something Adam did in the Garden of Eden. You will know what I mean when you understand
the correct meanings of his words.
● The Torah or
the Prophets were two sections of Jewish
Scriptures at the time of Yeshua – and
still are today.
● Destroy
means “to add words to or remove words from the Torah or the Prophets” – or “to
incorrectly interpret the words of the Torah or the Prophets.”
● Fulfill
means “to correctly interpret the words of the Torah or the Prophets.”
● Verily
should have been translated “Amen.”
● Jot should
have been translated “Yod,” which is the name of the smallest letter in the
Hebrew alphabet (see graphic above).
● Tittle
should have been translated “thorn,” which was the name of the small tip
scribes placed on certain letters.
● “in no wise pass
from” is another way of saying “destroy.”
Now let’s put the
pieces together and reconstruct what Yeshua actually taught:
Do not think that I have come to add words
to,
take words from, or misinterpret the Torah or
the Prophets.
I have not come to do that.
I have come to correctly interpret them!
Amen!
Make sure you understand this. Until heaven
and earth pass away,
not one yod or one thorn on any letter of the
Torah will be changed
until all of the words of the Torah has been
correctly interpreted.
So what does this
have to do with Adam? Below is the commandment Yahweh gave Adam in the Garden
(Genesis 2:16-17):
And Yahweh the god commanded the man, saying,
"From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
but from the Tree of the Knowledge of TOV (good) and RA
(evil)
you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely
die."
Neither the animals
nor Eve had been created when Adam was given this commandment. Here is the commandment Adam gave Eve
(Genesis 3:2-3):
"From the fruit of the trees of the garden we
may eat;
but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of
the garden,
the god has said, 'Y’all shall not eat from it
and y’all shall not touch it,
lest y’all die.'"
How many words of the
original commandment are different from the commandment Adam gave Eve? Did you
notice Adam also added a new commandment of own – “y’all shall not touch it.”
Since this was the only law at that time,
Adam destroyed “all of the law”!
But, there are some important
factor we need to keep consider before we condemn Adam. No one interpreted the
words of the commandment for him and helped him know what they meant. No one
was there to mentor and help him keep it. No one told him whether the
commandment applied to Eve.
And no one told him that the tree next to the
forbidden one
was the Tree of Life and eating its fruit
would make him live forever!
I hope you found this informative and thank
you for reading it.
Shalom,
Jim Myers
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