Neither Add nor Take Away…


The other day someone asked about Deuteronomy 29:32, which goes: “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.”
The person was in a bit of a tizzy because when he went to consult a Hebrew text—presumably a Jewish translation of the Old Testament—he came to discover there was no Deuteronomy 29:32. He then let his imagination get the best, speculating the verse must have been added later on by the early church father Jerome, the translator of the Latin Bible. Moreover, he even thought Jerome was guilty of adding to the text!
Curious to know what he was talking about, I got on the Internet and found an online version of the Tanakh (an English translation of the Old Testament produced by the Jewish Publication Society). I came to find out that in the Tanakh Deuteronomy 29 ends with verse 31. Not to panic, I kept on reading and the verse was in the very next chapter. So the warning about adding and taking away to the Law in modern Protestant English translations (e.g. King James Version; The New American Standard; New International Version; English Standard Version) is Deuteronomy 29:32, but in the Hebrew Bible and the Tanakh it is found in Deuteronomy 30:1. English Bible also notes that Deuteronomy 29:32 is Chapter 13:1 in the Hebrew.
The man was simply over reacting with a wild imagination. There is no conspiracy. The text had not been changed. The difference is in the way different Bible versions order the chapter and verses. Whatever the case may be the chapter and verses are not inspired.

It is always important to pay close attention to the details of the Scripture, but never add to it our own imaginative twists in any way shape or form. More importantly, we do not want to miss the message being communicated. God’s people are to always be mindful of all that the Lord has commanded them to do, not adding to them legalistic prescriptions, nor forsaking their guidance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grappling with the Craziness of an Election Year with the Book of Kings

Image
Well this is another election year, which makes the Tuesday after the first Monday in November the terminus ad quem for all the political madness that comes beforehand in the USA. With all the mudslinging, rioting, and overall incivility, it is hard to believe were still have over five months to go. I am going through the Book of 1-2 Kings at the moment, and the refrain “Only the high places were not taken away” caught my eye, and as I began to meditate upon them, I found them to be a bit helpful in grappling with all that goes on during these turbulent election years. Here a little background is needed. After the days of Solomon there came about a civil war that divided the children of Abraham living in the promise land into two nations—the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. There eventually came about a series of rulers in the kingdom of Judah whose reigns the biblical writer describes this way: Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD…Only ...
Read more

The Good Thing About God and Judgment

Image
Today, I was continuing my trek through the extensive Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. There is so much content in this extensive two-volume work, I can only soak in a small percentage of it. Working through Wright is always a work in progress. He is just one of those astute theologians who leaves no stone unturned in developing a point. Wright makes this observation about the way the larger story of the New Testament conveyed in Paul’s works concerns God’s judgment in the world, which is part of the way he has come to setup his rule over the world. On p. 481 Write notes,  The word “judgment” has of course been allowed to slip into negative mode in the contemporary western world, with “judgmentalism” one of the classic postmodern villains. But even a postmodernist whose car has been damaged by a drunk driver wants a court to pass “judgment” against the offender. “Judgment” is in fact a positive thing. It is what restores health to a society, a bala...
Read more

As the Dust Settles in Haiti…

Last Sunday as I was getting my groceries totaled up, the checker asked if I would like to make a donation to Haiti, which I did. The amount was practically nothing, but it did remind me that for the entirety of the previous week, it seemed as if the entire world zeroed in on what was going on that half of the Island of Hispaniola, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. News sources consider this the largest earthquake that country had experienced in the last 200 years, and many report an estimated 50,000 lives perished. Events like this always remind me that human life is so precious, yet at the same time, one can never know when life’s flame shall be extinguished. There were lots of voices chiming in on the Haiti situation, and many of them were quite helpful, instructing people on what they could do to help survivors. I even had an acquaintance share his intention to travel to the island to do some aid work. I say Godspeed! I also heard a few disheartening...
Read more