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Galatians 1:19
#1
Galatians 1:19 is a verse which features strongly in debates about whether there was an historical Jesus. This is a subject of some intetest these days in some quarters as evidenced by Bart Ehrmans latest book.
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There are several reasons to think that the peshitta contains the original version, the most important being that the greek translator made the mistake of referring to jesus as "the Lord".
Nowhere is semitic thought does "the Lord" refer to anyone but yahweh. We find this in the hebrew bible and the peshitta NT.
The best example is in psalm 110 which reads.... "the lord (Yahweh) said the my Lord"

I tend to think in the PNT jesus is referred to as our/my Lord, never "the Lord".

However the greek translator changed this in quite afew places probably due to the ever confusing issue of the divinity of Jesus, and referred to Jesus as the Lord, a term strictly reserved for Yahweh in hebrew thought.

The peshitta makes it clear that a kinship relationship is being referred to in Galatians 1:19, and this is supported by modern liguistic theory particularly construction grammar which has all but abandoned the idea that a lexicon combined with a grammatical component is sufficient to understand language. Instead we need to be aware of constructions and see that language is often composed of "prefabs".

Galatians 1:19 is good example as it contains the construction X the Y of Z, which was used as a kinship identifier. Eleanor Dickey's study of greek letters from the period had this to say ..."There is no evidence that a person mentioned as being the brother or sister of someone other than the writer or addressee can be a spouse or anything else other than a sibling. "

Yet the greek translator by exchanging "the Lord" for "Our Lord" makes it appear to say James the brother of Yahweh, not James the brother of Jesus.

p.s I Know this has the potential to stir up debates about the divinity of Jesus but Im not a christian and am just interested in examining the texts.
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#2
Good point.

G.D. Bauscher has some interesting facts. When translating the OT to Greek, as we know the LXX, 23% of occurrences of Our Lord (Adonai) were translated to a Greek combination which translates as 'The Lord'.

Now I have done a search on Our lord the NT. It refers to Jesus, and it also refers to the 'master' of the servants in one of his illustraties.

But some cases were we have 'the Lord' (such as in Ephesians 4:17) it says: "b marya" (In the Lord). Now, can we be sure if he means 'Yeshu' or the Father who resurected him?

I just leave this open to the reader <!-- sSmile --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="Smile" title="Smile" /><!-- sSmile -->. Because being dogmatic, does not help.
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#3
Galatians 1:19 NASB

But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Semantics, our Lord, the Lord or my Lord all equate to Jesus being the miltha of God the Father and the second qnuma of the God head.
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#4
I get it, you guys are doubting Jesus' divinity, hmmm.
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#5
Gal 1:19 does not say "James the brother of MarYah" (d'Marya)...It says "James the brother of our Master" (d'Maran)...BIG differance.

James was the brother of Jesus, as to His humanity, but as to His Divinity, being YHWH in the flesh, he has no true brothers, being that He is God The Father's Only Begotton Son. He is unique...one of a kind, being both God (The Word/YHWH) and Man (Jesus/Eshu). No other person can this be said of and it be true.

Shlama,
Chuck
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#6
Alan G77 Wrote:I get it, you guys are doubting Jesus' divinity, hmmm.

I'm not here to argue about Jesus's divinity. I'm not interested in pushing any view I may or may not have about it.
What I am interested in is the texts.
The greek texts at times make no sense because the translator/s did not follow the peshitta, it seems. the peshitta is alwyas clear, Jesus is always our/my lord. Thus there is no confusion when for example Paul quotes the hebrew bible he can refer to "the lord" without confusing that reference with jesus.
If the peshitta becomes studied widely (as the greek is now), then there are many many insights which will come to the fore.
Galatians 1:19 will definitely become a topic of converstaion (as it is now), because of its place in historical jesus studies. Pauls use of "the lord" and "our/my lord" will become a topic as well because the greek translators made changes.
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#7
There is no problem in the Peshitta for this verse, as it clearly states that James (Y'kob) is "the Master's" (d'Maran), brother. Not Master-YHWH's (dMarYa), brother...which would be wrong, as Master-YHWH=The Word/Miltha of Alaha, is the ONLY Begotton of Alaha, as to His Divinity, coming forth from The Father, as His one of a kind and Only true Offspring. As to His humanity, as the First-Born of many brethern, it is true that James is the brother of Eshu (Jesus), as to His humanity.

The Greek does not show this very important distinction.

Shlama,
Chuck
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#8
As I mention in the OP Bart Ehrman has just written a book outling the reasons to believe that Jesus was an historical person, and to refute what is known as jesus mythicism. Jesus Mythicism argues that Jesus was not an historical figure, but some form of mythical being.
One of the key pieces of evidence is that paul (whom scholars generally believe wrote some epistles before 70 AD), refers to the the "brother of the lord". Because the greek uses "the lord" rather than "our lord" it gives a foothold to argue that this does not refer to jesus.
Anyway Im not a christian so it doesn't matter to me whether jesus was an historical person, but it's interesting that the peshitta clarifies this verse and indicates unambiguously that it does refer to jesus (assuming the peshitta is the original).
I realise that most who post here are religious and this might not be of great importance, but the idea of peshitta primacy will have a lot of effect on NT criticism in lots of areas. Thats all.

When we look through the GNT there are quite a few places where one must ask...'is that referring to Jesus or to God?"
The peshitta is perfectly clear.
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#9
The Eastern Peshitta has helped explain a number of things for me, that the Greek just could not...And I do believe that it is the Original New Testament Scriptures.

You know...there is much more evidence that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, is a real person, than there is for Paul of Tarsus, His Apostle/Missionary. Do they say Paul is "a mythical figure" too? Or how about Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel...? King David, King Solomon?

At least for Jesus our Saviour, we have a photograph left. The very 1st photograph ever taken.

Shlama,
Chuck
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