A Brief Foray into Forensics

Bible Study Tools

Today I'm taking a little detour into forensic Biblical text analysis. Bear with me; you might find this interesting! I was looking up references to highways. The prophets refer to a road in the desert or wilderness, the "way of holiness," which will run from Assyria to Egypt, and will be the straight road by which the scattered flock of Israel will return to their land at the Second Coming.

The KJV translates Isaiah 35:8 like this (this is after the eyes of the blind will be opened, so after Jesus' return):

Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. (KJV)

If you can read Hebrew, here is the Hebrew from the Masoretic text (remember to read right to left!):

וְהָיָה־שָׁם מַסְלוּל וָדֶרֶךְ וְדֶרֶךְ הַקֹּדֶשׁ יִקָּרֵא לָהּ לֹֽא־יַעַבְרֶנּוּ טָמֵא וְהוּא־ לָמוֹ הֹלֵךְ דֶּרֶךְ וֶאֱוִילִים לֹא יִתְעֽוּ׃

In English: And there was a path and a way, and the holy way shall be called to it, that we shall not pass impure, and that is why I go by a way, and fools shall not go astray.

Unfortunately, the Masoretic text has been corrupted/changed by the rabbis in certain Messianic passages so as to point away from Jesus as the fulfiller, and copy errors have crept in, and sadly we don't have the original Hebrew from which the much older Greek Septuagint was translated (about 200 B.C.); however, we do have the original Greek from the Septuagint, which we can faithfully regard as kept free of error by the Holy Spirit:

Isaiah 35:8 ἐκεῗ ἔσται ὁδὸς καθαρὰ καὶ ὁδὸς ἁγία κληθήσεται καὶ οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἐκεῗ ἀκάθαρτος οὐδὲ ἔσται ἐκεῗ ὁδὸς ἀκάθαρτος οἱ δὲ διεσπαρμένοι πορεύσονται ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς καὶ οὐ μὴ πλανηθῶσιν

And when I plug this into Google Translate, this is what it offers:

ENGLISH

there is a clean way, and a holy way is called, and no unclean person shall pass there, there is no unclean way there, but those who are scattered will walk on it and will not go astray

There's a big difference between "fools" and "those who are scattered," wouldn't you say?? So forensic analysis using translation tools can sometimes shed some light on the original meaning. Interesting how all the old copies of the Old Testament prior to the 12th c. A.D. Masoretic text have completely disappeared. Somewhere in the world, someone is going to make a great original text discovery soon, I have a hopeful feeling. Meanwhile, we can trust the Septuagint, since it was the Greek translation that was quoted by Jesus and the Apostles and church fathers.

See below for Strongs #H191 ("fools") from Blueletterbible.org. We have no way to know if this word (which is transliterated as "evil" in Hebrew!) was original to the text, but the 2nd century B.C. Greek translators chose Strong's G1289 "diaspora" (dispersed people) to describe these returners. That certainly makes the most sense.

Just to check it in reverse, I looked up "scattered" and chose Genesis 11:4 as a likely candidate for the equivalent of the Greek "diaspora":

Genesis 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (KJV)

and sure enough, when I check the Septuagint translation, the Greek word G1289 "diaspeiro" or diaspora is used in this Genesis passage:

So what did the Masoretic text use in this Genesis 11 verse? A completely different word, H6327.

LANGUAGE WARNING: Sorry to get graphic here but did you know the Yiddish word putz means penis? The usage is "don't be a putz," similar to "don't be a dick." How interesting that the Masoretic text may have changed /poots/, which has the connotation of scattering sperm abroad, to /ev-eel/, meaning foolish, blind.

🐿 Squirrel note: The Bible gets SUPER graphic about the male anatomy once you start to dig into etymology. Ever wonder why testimony comes from the root word testes? Probably not, but this was how men would believe the truth of each others' words; they would allow someone to hold their balls while the other made an oath. It was an expression of trust. Abraham commands his servant to put his hand "under his thigh" to swear (Gen. 24:2-9).

Genesis 24

2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:

Since the Promise was given to Abraham and his descendants, the physical descent from father to son was the most important factor about their identity as a tribe. Everything relates back to the purity of the genetic line. This no doubt has a lot to do with the genetic mingling of angels and men, and men and beasts, that the fallen angels were doing before the Flood, in order to try to pervert and corrupt the genetic line that would produce the Son of God.

This brings us back to weddings and the purity of the virgin bride. Think of Mary.

Maybe you’ve wondered why Abraham said “put your hand under my thigh.” Yarek doesn't mean thigh, unless you are a butcher (Levitical priest). It means loins, nakedness. It was a euphemism for the "place of procreative power." To come from "under someone's thigh" is to be descended from him.

A friend in my Telegram study where this piece first appeared said:

”There is also a lot of talk of spreading seed in the Bible. God never wanted them to intermingle with foreigners. I think it's interesting how the wayfarers are called fools [yet] will be on the right path and will not be led astray.”

And I know this is true because I'm half Jewish, half Gentile. My sister and I never fit in with either side of the family. There are a lot of us out there, too, and many who don't know they have a Jewish great-grandparent. Plus there are the other 10 tribes that have intermarried with Gentiles going back to the 8th c. BC. I wonder if everyone who is mortal in the Millennial Kingdom will be a descendant of Abraham in some way? Something to ponder.

It’s a long way from highways to procreative body parts, but I hope some of you found this useful and not too offensive! We’ll return to Isaiah in the next post.

Next up: Isaiah chapter 3:1-7

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