Those Knowledgeable in Judaism: Research Project?

Question

I am doing a comparative research project for a paper of mine that is way over due. The idea of the paper is to compare early (2nd century BC to 2nd AD) Jewish understandings of prophetic passages which the New Testament writers quote. The idea is to see if the passages were taken out of context based upon the Jewish understanding of those passages. I looked briefly at the Talmud (Babylonian) but did not see something that looked like it would be helpful. If you know of an early commentary or similar item I would greatly appreciate the information. Thank You.

Answer 1

Hi I am not Jewish so I cannot help you much but I know many contacts that are so I starred this for them to answer for you, I hope some of them see it.

Its always good to see a Christian with an open mind here on Y!A.

I hope you get some good answers. Cher is correct extend your question and you will get more answers after Friday!

Answer 2

Observant Jewish answerers will be available tomorrow after sundown.

I don't know about historical interpretation that early.  But I can direct you to more modern resources. (Relatively modern, Rashi was from some time around 1000 CE if I recall correctly). But he does reference parts of the Talmud in his commentaries.

The site below has the complete Tanakh with Rashi's commentary alongside each other:

Micah 5:2

Therefore, He shall deliver them until the time a woman in confinement gives birth:

He shall deliver them into the hands of their enemies until the coming of the time that Zion has felt the pangs of labor and borne her children; Zion, which is now seized by the pangs of labor, is now called a woman in confinement. [I.e., now the labor pains will cease and the redemption will come about.] But our Sages state that from here we deduce that the son of David will not come until the wicked kingdom spreads over the entire world for nine months (Yoma 10b, Sanh. 98b). But, according to its simple meaning, this is the structure as I explained.

Answer 3

There's a relatively simple way of doing it:

Open up a Christian Bible, and any passage that claims to refer to Jesus or Mary or any sort of non-single indivisible G-d.  Then at that same verse open up a Tanach which has an English translation.  The Bible is generally a mistranslation of the Tanach, and an accurate translation will make the differences obvious.

Some of the more memorable examples which come to mind are the mistranslation of 'alma' to mean 'virgin', while it really means 'young woman' and the very different word 'betula' means 'virgin'.  Another is Psalms 22:17 which reads "Like a lion, they are at my hands and feet." However, the often used translation for Bibles is "They pierced my hands and feet." which is clearly quite different. Many others are more subtle and would require more explanation, such as Isaiah 53:11 where the Tanach says "and their iniquities he did bear." (past tense) while the Bible says "and he will bear their iniquities." (future tense) which makes the latter seem to be a prophecy while in Judaism it was referring to history. Along with verses often taken out of context, like all of Isaiah 53 when *not* mentioned along with Isaiah 52.

Oh, and glancing briefly at the Talmud is usually futile.  The text is 5422 pages long, in Aramaic - in English it's usually thousands more, and still in dense and often technical language.

Answer 4

You'll find your best resource here:  http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/

Most Jews don't compare our Bible against the Christian NT.  Jesus and the NT are totally irrelevant to Judaism.  We REALLY don't care what Christians think.

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Answer 5

If you can leave this open for a few days, I'm starring it to see if my knowledgable jewish contacts show up.

There are many passanges in Tanach, that take on new meaning (and wording) in OT & then in NT.  I don't know NT passages enough to work backwards...  The Talmud is much too complex to glance through & get anything (it so many volumes & written with juxiposition of ideas challenged against each other).

Can you give some specific examples your suspecting (or any that quote Tanach at all)?  (I'm also very fuzzy at the moment.)

Is Issiah 53 quoted in NT?  It totally taken out of context.  You have to read it with Issiah 52 to get the Jewish meaning.  The Tanach didn't have the chapter divisions originally, so it's more accurate to keep them together anyway.

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I really am out of it.  I forgot to mention that it's Shabbat, so the mostly likely knowledgable people won't be here during Shabbat which goes Friday sundown to Saturnday sundown.  So, if you can keep this open...I emailed some folks, so I'm sure you'll get answers after that.

It's a great question.  I'm sure people will take time to answer it.

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L'Chaim gives me an idea -- this site compares concepts & so probably gives some verse comparisions  http:///www.whatjewsbelieve.org

It's for Christians asking about Judaism from Christian perspective.  It's not the stuff Jews were normally talk about.  For Judaism from a straight Jewish perspective this site is good:  http://www.jewfaq.org

We don't just interpret the verses differently in location, we read them with a different style, so we naturally get different interpretations.  You'll notice Jewish folks rarely quote single lines out of Torah to "convince" of something.  We read everything in the context of everything else, very analytically.  So a single quote doesn't mean much without a few pages of discussion & counterdiscussion, & even then we may arrive at more than one depth of understanding for a verse & leave it to the listener to take which one they need from it at the moment.  

You've gotten a few examples, but if you don't have enough for the project, definitely, I'd suggest asking in a few days with different wording & see who spots it.

Answer 6

It hard understanding history. But i think many people can have different interpretations. Its like in the Quran how some muslims take things literally. While others really dont give #$#$# and go on with their lifes.

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...