In article <cocoaC5uG2q.KsB@netcom.com> cocoa@netcom.com writes: >In article <1993Apr10.195513.17991@csi.uottawa.ca>  misrael@csi.uottawa.ca (Mark Israel) writes: >>In article <cocoaC5797E.43y@netcom.com>,  cocoa@netcom.com (little 'e') writes: >[deleted] >>> Here tis.  Someone just told me that the Old Testament books were translated >>> into Greek a long time ago >>   Yes, that's a famous version called The Septuagint.  It was a translation >>made by Greek Jews. >>> and that the originals were destroyed in a fire soon afterward.  No.  >>   I don't know what you're referring to here.  When the Jersusalem Temple was >>destroyed, some manuscripts may have been lost, but I think our extant Hebrew >>manuscripts are as good as our Greek ones. I don't know about any "originals". >The person who was telling me about the Septuagint version said that the Greeks >had a wonderful library in Alexandria that was full of manuscripts/scrolls >and that it was burned soon after the Septuagint version was translated  >(perhaps to conceal some changes in the different versions, or perhaps just >as part of the typical burning of valuable things that occurs during changes >in power groups, he/I dunno).  No. The library at Alexandria was perhaps the greatest library ever built in the world. The Greeks had a love of wisdom, philo sophos, and this great love was reflected in the Alexandrian library. The Christians  got a hold of it and began modifying and purging texts and then the Moslems  invaded and either the Christians burned the library to keep it from falling  into Moslems hands (far more likely since they were the book burners, not the  Moslems), or it burned in the sack of the city or the Moslems burned it.  Either way, a tremendous amount of information was lost. The destruction of the library of Alexandria was probably one of the greatest crimes of man against man.  >>> So, I was just wondering, since I imagine some Jewish people somewhere must  >>>have had copies of the earlier Hebrew versions, is the Hebrew version of the  >>> Old Testament very different from the Greek derived version? >>   No.  There are a few famous discrepancies (Isaiah's prophecy about a "young >>woman" was changed into a "virgin", which was how the New Testament writers >>read it), but not many.  Actually, the Hebrew almah, (young woman), was translated as the Hellenistic  Greek parthenos which may or may not be correctly translated into the modern and technical English term virgin. The Jews did not have the type of virginity cult that the Greco-Romans had in Artemis and Diana.  >Well, perhaps this is the answer then. >[deleted] >>   If you go to a Jewish bookstore, you'll get a Bible translated by Jews, so >>there will be some differences in interpretation, but the text they're  >>translating *from* is basically the same.  The standard text used by Christians and Jews is the Masoretic Text. Jews of course use the text in its original Hebrew, without translation.  >>   If you want to read "the original", you can buy an Interlinear Bible.  That >>contains the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, with an English >>translation written underneath each word. >>   If you want a Bible with a possibly-more-original basic text, you can try >>to find a Samaritan bible.  (Good luck!  I've never seen one.) The Samaritans  >>(no, not the Good Samaritans) have their own version of the 5 Books of Moses. >>They claim the Jewish bible was altered by Ezra.  Propaganda.