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Messianic Bible translations are translations, or editions of translations, in English of the Christian Bible, some of which are widely used in the Messianic Judaism and Hebrew Roots communities.
They are not the same as Jewish English Bible translations. They are often not standard straight English translations of the Christian Bible, but are translations which specifically incorporate elements for a Messianic audience.
These elements include, but are not limited to, the use of the Hebrew names for all books, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) ordering for the books of the Old Testament, both testaments being named their Hebrew names (Tanakh and Brit Chadasha). This approach also includes the New Testament being translated with the preference of spelling names (people, concepts and place names) in transliterated Hebrew rather than directly translated from Greek into English. Some Sacred Name Bibles such as the Hallelujah Scriptures, conform to these elements and therefore may be considered Messianic Bibles as well.
Complete Jewish Bible | |
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Abbreviation | CJB |
Complete Bible published | 1998 |
Textual basis | OT: Masoretic Text . NT: Greek New Testament 3rd Edition UBS, 1975. Ancient Greek source manuscripts into modern English with some Yiddish expressions. |
Translation type | Dynamic equivalence |
Reading level | High School |
Copyright | Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. |
Religious affiliation | Messianic Judaism |
Website | www |
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. |
The Complete Jewish Bible (sometimes abbreviated as the CJB) [1] is a translation of the Bible into English by David H. Stern. It consists of both Stern's revised translation of the Old Testament (Tanakh) plus his original Jewish New Testament (B'rit Hadashah) translation in one volume. It was published in its entirety in 1998 by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. [2]
The Old Testament translation is a paraphrase of the public domain 1917 Jewish Publication Society Version, although scholar Bruce Metzger notes that where Stern disagreed with the JPS version, he translated from the Masoretic Text himself. The New Testament section is Stern's original translation from the ancient Greek.
Stern states that his purpose for producing the Complete Jewish Bible was "to restore God's Word to its original Jewish context and culture as well as be in easily read modern English." This translation was also intended to be fully functional for Messianic Jewish congregations.
Stern follows the order and the names of the Old Testament books in the Hebrew Bible, rather than those of typical Christian Bibles. He uses Hebrew names for people and places, such as Eliyahu for "Elijah", and Sha'ul for "Saul." The work also incorporates Hebrew and Yiddish expressions that Stern refers to as "Jewish English", such as matzah for "unleavened bread" [3] and mikveh for "ritual immersion pool". [4]
Tree of Life Version | |
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Abbreviation | TLV |
Complete Bible published | 2011 |
Textual basis | OT: Masoretic Text . NT: Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece (27th edition). |
Translation type | Word-for-word |
Reading level | 8th Grade (Age 13) |
Copyright | Messianic Jewish Bible Society |
Religious affiliation | Messianic Judaism |
Website | www |
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light!" and there was light. 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. |
The Tree of Life Version (abbreviated as "TLV"), first published in 2011, is a Messianic Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible (or TA-NA-KH) and the New Testament (or New Covenant) sponsored by the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society and The King's University. [5]
According to the publisher, Baker Books, the Tree of Life Version (TLV) is intended to be a translation that "speaks with a decidedly Jewish-friendly voice [...] to recover the authentic context of the Bible and the Christian faith." The sponsors of the translation sought to restore to the biblical texts "their actual Jewish essence," which, in their view, is lost in most English translations. Specifically, the project sought to restore "the Jewish order of the books of the Old Testament," "the Jewish name of the Messiah, Yeshua," "reverence for the four-letter unspoken name of God," and "Hebrew transliterated terms, such as shalom, shofar, and shabbat." Prior to the publication of the TLV in its entirety, it was previously published either with the TLV New Covenant alone or bound together with the public domain 1917 Jewish Publication Society Version Tanakh as the Messianic Jewish Shared Heritage Bible. [6]
The team of Messianic Jewish and Christian scholars commissioned to work on the project included Dr. Jeffrey L. Seif, Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Feinberg, Rabbi Dr. Glenn Blank, Dr. Hellene Dallaire, Rabbi Jeff Adler, Rabbi Barney Kasdan, Dr. Vered Hillel. Other contributors included Mark Anthony, Michael L. Brown, Dr. Jack Cairns, Dr. Mordechai Cohen, Pat Feinberg, Dr. John Fischer, Dr. Patrice Fischer, Dr. Steve Galiley, Dr. Ray Gannon, Dr. Henri Goulet, Dr. Ihab Griess, Dr. David Harris, Dr. Stanley Horton, Dr. Daniel Juster, Liz Kasdan, Elliot Klayman, Dr. Seth Klayman, Dr. Craig Keener, Phillip Lanning, Dr. Barrie Mallin, Dr. Shawn Moir, Dr. Richard Nicol, Dr. Seth Postell, Dr. David Rothstein, Dr. Noel Rabinowitz, Dr. Rich Robinson, Dr. Matthew Salathe, Dr. Jim Sibley, Josh Sofaer, Dr. Greg Stone, Rabbi Eric Tokajer, John Taylor, Myles Weiss, Dr. Randy Weiss, Dr. Lon Wiksel, and Dr. Wayne Wilks. [7]
Messianic Jewish Literal Translation | |
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Abbreviation | MJLT |
Complete Bible published | 2018 |
Textual basis | NT: Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece (27th edition). |
Translation type | Word-for-word |
Reading level | High School |
Copyright | Perfect Word Publishing |
Religious affiliation | Messianic Judaism |
Website | www |
"For God so loved the world, that the son -- the one and only -- he gave, so that everyone who is believing in Him may not be destroyed, but may have life age-enduring." |
The Messianic Jewish Literal Translation (MJLT) is a Messianic Jewish Bible translation based on Young's Literal Translation (YLT). The MJLT is a re-rendering of the YLT for the modern, Messianic reader, which the publisher says is meant to restore the Jewish perspective of Scripture which has been "obscured by deeply ingrained anti-Jewish, anti-Torah preconceptions." [8]
Though the translation is meant to bring out the Messianic Jewish context and meaning of the New Covenant Scriptures, the publisher says that it is meant for all believers, whether Jewish or Gentile, who "desire the word’s pure milk." [9] In addition to being Messianic Jewish in nature, the MJLT seeks to put forth the meaning of the original language by giving a literal, word-for-word rendering from Greek to English.
This Bible version has several unusual features: [10]
New Jerusalem Version | |
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Abbreviation | NJV |
Complete Bible published | 2019 |
Textual basis | OT: Masoretic Text . NT: Majority Text. |
Translation type | Word-for-word |
Reading level | High School |
Copyright | Hineni Publishers |
Religious affiliation | Messianic Judaism |
Website | njvbible |
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was chaos and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim hovered over the face of the waters. 3 God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. |
The New Jerusalem Version is an English Messianic Bible translation first published in 2019 by Hineni Publishers. It is primarily an update of the 1901 ASV, WEB and “The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text,’’ published in 1917 by the Jewish Publication Society. It consists of both the TANAKH (Old Testament) and the Brit Chadashah (New Covenant). The TANAKH is based on the Masoretic text and the Brit Chadashah is mainly based on the Majority Text. [11]
According to the Publisher, Hineni Publishers, the goal of the New Jerusalem Version is to make the personal name of God known to English-speaking people from all around the world, and to help the reader to rediscover the Hebrew roots of the Bible. Where the personal unutterable name of God occurs in the Masoretic Text, the original Hebrew יהוה (the Tetragrammaton) has been preserved; and the name of the Messiah has been transliterated from Hebrew: Yeshua. Book titles are in both English and Hebrew, [12] and several Hebrew words such as shalom, Torah, kohen, Sheol, Gehinnom, etc. have been transliterated. [13]
The publisher states the New Jerusalem Version distinguishes itself from most English Bibles by restoring the:
Midrash is expansive Jewish Biblical exegesis using a rabbinic mode of interpretation prominent in the Talmud. The word itself means "textual interpretation", "study", or "exegesis", derived from the root verb darash (דָּרַשׁ), which means "resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require", forms of which appear frequently in the Hebrew Bible.
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
The Septuagint, sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy, and often abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Messianic Judaism is a modernist and syncretic sect that considers itself Jewish. Many consider it a part of the Christian movement of evangelicalism.
Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.
Yeshua was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), from which, through the Latin IESVS/Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.
The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,658 languages.
Partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100 complete translations into English have been produced. A number of translations have been prepared of parts of the Bible, some deliberately limited to certain books and some projects that have been abandoned before the planned completion.
The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is an English-language translation of the Bible published in 1985 by Darton, Longman and Todd and Les Editions du Cerf, edited by Benedictine biblical scholar Henry Wansbrough, and approved for use in study and personal devotion by members of the Catholic Church and approved also by the Church of England.
The Jewish Publication Society of America Version (JPS) of the Tanakh was the first Bible translation published by the Jewish Publication Society of America and the first translation of the Tanakh into English by a committee of Jews. The full publication title is The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text: A New Translation with the Aid of Previous Versions and with Constant Consultation of Jewish Authorities.
David Harold Stern was an American-born Messianic Jewish theologian who lived in Israel. He was the third son of Harold Stern and Marion Levi Stern.
Hebrew Bible English translations are English translations of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the Masoretic Text, in the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Most Jewish translations appear in bilingual editions (Hebrew–English).
The books of the New Testament frequently cite Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Scholars have observed that few of these citations are actual predictions in context; the majority of these quotations and references are taken from the prophetic Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings.
Several Spanish translations of the Bible have been made since approximately 700 years ago.
Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.
Koren Publishers Jerusalem is an Israeli publisher of Jewish religious texts. It was established in 1961 by Eliyahu Koren, with the aim of publishing the first Hebrew Bible designed, edited, printed, and bound by Jews in nearly 500 years. It produced The Koren Bible in 1962, The Koren Siddur in 1981, and the Koren Sacks Siddur in 2009, in addition to numerous editions of these books and other religious texts in Hebrew, English, and other languages.
Harold Louis Ginsberg,, commonly known as H. L. Ginsberg, was a professor of biblical literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City in the 20th century.
The Literal English Version of Scripture (LEV) is a translation of the Bible based on the World English Bible. Formerly known as the "Shem Qadosh Version", the title was officially changed in November 2016. It is considered a Sacred Name Bible rendering the name of God using the Hebrew characters יהוה, and that of Jesus in Hebrew as ישוע. It was created by a team of volunteers across the United States with additional proofing and editing assistance by individuals in Poland and Taiwan. Footnotes and appendices were written by the General Editor, J. A. Brown.
The Tree of Life Version of the Holy Scriptures (TLV), first published in 2014, is a Messianic Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible (or TA-NA-KH) and the New Testament (or New Covenant) sponsored by the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society and The King's University.