10-17-2015, 07:34 PM
Shlama friends,
Particularly for those who claim that the Peshitta is perfect and without error, how do you explain Paul instructing his audience to keep the festival of Unleavened Bread with leavened bread (khemira)?
Peshitta: מטל הנא נעבד עדעדא לא בחמירא עתיקא ולא בחמירא דבישׁותא ודמרירותא אלא בחמירא דדכיותא ודקדישׁותא
Translation: "keep the festival ... with leavened bread."
This directly violates the Torah, and completely ruins the metaphor that Paul was making, which is that the Corinthians should be "unleavened" (patira) in 1 Co. 5:7. Why then does the Peshitta say to keep the feast of Unleavened bread with leaven, while the Greek text appropriately reads "keep the feast... with unleavened bread (azymois)."
NOTE: I respect and love my Christian brothers, but I totally reject Christian dispensational answers that claim Paul didn't obey the Torah or teach others to obey it. That is completely unscriptural, and I'll be glad to point that out, even though I'm not trying to engage that question now.
I'll just let you know that I respectfully disagree and reject any answers that fail to uphold the Torah, which Paul himself did (Act 24:14, Act 25:8, Act 21:24) and also taught others to uphold (Rom 2:13, Rom 3:31). (Not to forget that Jesus required every command to be kept (Mat 5:17-20). So I might save someone their time by letting you know that I don't believe that Paul would make such a blatant contradiction to the Torah requirement for Unleavened Bread (Exo 12:15-17).
Therefore, while I love the Peshitta, I'm just wondering if anyone has an insight that could explain how one can properly obey the Feast of Unleavened Bread with... leaven. Again, the Greek has no such problem here, as it reads "unleavened bread."
As for my own attempt to rescue the Peshitta from error, I've batted one idea around: Only one place in the Apostolic Writings (i.e. "New Testament") does "leaven" appear in a positive light. Everywhere else, including here in 1 Co. 5:7-8, leaven is a symbol of sin and wickedness, which was part of Paul's point--a secondary reason why the Peshitta reading doesn't fit.
But in Mat 13:33 / Luk 13:21, Jesus uses leaven as a positive metaphor for the Kingdom of God growing and expanding. Despite the fact that I would like this to satisfy the issue in 1 Co. 5:7-8, it cannot because Paul is talking specifically about keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And again, the Greek has no such problem here.
I'm not suggesting, by the way, that this discussion relates to "primacy" in the sense of which text came first--only to what I call "superiority"--which text is more accurate. Yes, I'm happily aware of many good Peshitta primacy, or "superiority" examples, but I may have to conclude that the Greek scores a point here.
Shlama,
Thomas
Particularly for those who claim that the Peshitta is perfect and without error, how do you explain Paul instructing his audience to keep the festival of Unleavened Bread with leavened bread (khemira)?
Peshitta: מטל הנא נעבד עדעדא לא בחמירא עתיקא ולא בחמירא דבישׁותא ודמרירותא אלא בחמירא דדכיותא ודקדישׁותא
Translation: "keep the festival ... with leavened bread."
This directly violates the Torah, and completely ruins the metaphor that Paul was making, which is that the Corinthians should be "unleavened" (patira) in 1 Co. 5:7. Why then does the Peshitta say to keep the feast of Unleavened bread with leaven, while the Greek text appropriately reads "keep the feast... with unleavened bread (azymois)."
NOTE: I respect and love my Christian brothers, but I totally reject Christian dispensational answers that claim Paul didn't obey the Torah or teach others to obey it. That is completely unscriptural, and I'll be glad to point that out, even though I'm not trying to engage that question now.
I'll just let you know that I respectfully disagree and reject any answers that fail to uphold the Torah, which Paul himself did (Act 24:14, Act 25:8, Act 21:24) and also taught others to uphold (Rom 2:13, Rom 3:31). (Not to forget that Jesus required every command to be kept (Mat 5:17-20). So I might save someone their time by letting you know that I don't believe that Paul would make such a blatant contradiction to the Torah requirement for Unleavened Bread (Exo 12:15-17).
Therefore, while I love the Peshitta, I'm just wondering if anyone has an insight that could explain how one can properly obey the Feast of Unleavened Bread with... leaven. Again, the Greek has no such problem here, as it reads "unleavened bread."
As for my own attempt to rescue the Peshitta from error, I've batted one idea around: Only one place in the Apostolic Writings (i.e. "New Testament") does "leaven" appear in a positive light. Everywhere else, including here in 1 Co. 5:7-8, leaven is a symbol of sin and wickedness, which was part of Paul's point--a secondary reason why the Peshitta reading doesn't fit.
But in Mat 13:33 / Luk 13:21, Jesus uses leaven as a positive metaphor for the Kingdom of God growing and expanding. Despite the fact that I would like this to satisfy the issue in 1 Co. 5:7-8, it cannot because Paul is talking specifically about keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And again, the Greek has no such problem here.
I'm not suggesting, by the way, that this discussion relates to "primacy" in the sense of which text came first--only to what I call "superiority"--which text is more accurate. Yes, I'm happily aware of many good Peshitta primacy, or "superiority" examples, but I may have to conclude that the Greek scores a point here.
Shlama,
Thomas