Shalom Chaverim,
The work of the Scripture Restoration Project continues as I make my way thru the Sermon on the Mount and restoring the original Hebrew Gospels across the board as I work my way thru the text.
I want to share with you a very important restoration that has already resulted from this project.
Recently I was working on the “salt of the earth” passage in Matthew 5:13 while restoring, not only this verse, but also the parallels in Mark 9:49-50 and Luke 14:34-35.
As I work thru Hebrew Matthew, I am also restoring the parallels in Mark and Luke, populating the parallels with the original Hebrew as I go.
This process brought me to also restore the original Hebrew of Mark 9:49 which leads into Mark 9:50 = Matt. 5:13, as well as Luke 14:35b which concludes with the phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” which also appears throughout the synoptic Gospels (Matt. 11:15; 13:9; 13:43; Mk. 4:9, 23; 7:16 and Luke 8:8) The original Hebrew form of this phrase is best preserved in the DuTillet/Munster text of Matthew 13:9, so we can use that text to restore the original Hebrew of the phrase to all of these verses.
I want to share with you the amazing Scripture Restoration of the baffling verse Mark 9:49 which reads in the KJV:
For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. (Mark 9:49 KJV)
This is actually the reading of the late Byzantine type texts, which appear to conflate two readings:
“for everyone shall be salted with fire” found in the Old Syriac Sianiatic manuscript, and in early Greek Codices Codex B, Codex L, Codex Δ as well as f13 (which has many “Western” text type readings) and “For every sacrifice will be salted with salt” (Codex D and the Old Latin) And then other witnesses, including the Peshitta text, have both readings.
A scribe, trying to understand the confusing phrase “for everyone shall be salted with fire” must have written a note from Lev. 2:13 in the margin “And every oblation of your meat offering shall you season with salt”. From there, some future scribes mistook the note for a correction, replacing “for everyone shall be salted with fire” while others took it as a correction to be added.
The original Hebrew of the original phrase in Mark 9:49 must have been כי כל באש ימלח
The Aramaic translator must have read this כִּי כֹּל בָּאֵשׁ יִמְלַח “for everyone with fire, shall be salted” which is rendered in the Old Syriac with the words כול אנש גיר בנורא נתמלח “for every man with fire will be salted” and in the Greek with Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται “for everyone with fire will be salted”. The references to “fire” in the previous verses of Mark 9 probably contributed to the translator taking באש to mean “with fire”.
However the original Hebrew of Mark 9:49 is correctly understood to read as כִּי כֹּל בָּאַשׁ יִמְלַח “For everything decaying is salted”. The original Hebrew word was בָּאַשׁ (Strong’s 887) “decaying, spoiling” (1).
This leads us into the next phrase in Mark 9:50 = Luke 14:34 “salt is good”. This fits perfectly because the word בָּאַשׁ can also mean to become evil, and באש can actually mean “bad” or “evil” so that that which decays contrasts with salt which is “good”.
All of this leads into the parallel to Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth” meaning that without the influence of those identified with the “salt of the earth” the earth, or the “world” in the parallel in Matthew 5:14 “you are the light of the world”, the world decays and becomes evil.
This is a great example of how we are restoring the original Hebrew text with the Scripture Restoration Project.
This project will play a very important part in prophecy, as we read in the Book of Enoch:
But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or diminish ought from my words but write them all down truthfully –all that I first testified concerning them. Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom. And to them shall the books be given, and they shall believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all the righteous who have learnt therefore all the paths of uprightness be recompensed.’
(1Enoch 104:10-13)
And the words of Isaiah: “the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” (Isaiah 29:18)
When we complete the restoration of the originals of the books of the so-called “New Testament” (better called the Ketuvim Netzarim, Writings of the Nazarenes) we intend to publish the volume in Israel, and to make it a key part of the restoration of Nazarene Judaism among the Jewish people in the Land.
We must raise at least $500 by the end of the day Monday to cover our electric bill (and Texas Summer air conditioning)
This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.
But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.
Donations can be sent by paypal to donations@wnae.org.
Donations can also be made out to “Nazarene Judaism” and sent to:
Nazarene Judaism
PO Box 471
Hurst, TX 76053
(1) As Torrey proposed in Our Translated Gospels; Charles Cutler Torrey; 1936; p. 11, 13)