There are essentially two concepts on who wrote the Pentateuch. The Mosaic which is that Moses wrote most of it, and that later editors made annotations and updated geographical or detailed terms; or a much later author in the sixth century wrote it all, placing original terms into the document to make it look authentic.

            It is not possible that the Pentateuch can be both Mosaic in origin or was written in the sixth century. By just computing the date, Moses had written these books somewhere between 1400 and 1200 and the claim of the sixth century origin? Do the math.

Scholars are in disagreement about when the Pentateuch was composed. Some argue that it is a series of compilation from between the 10th – 5th centuries, others have argued for its creation of the 2nd century. Let us prove otherwise.

There are verses which state or strongly imply that Moses was the author. Consider the following passages in the Pentateuch itself: Exodus 17:14 “Then the Lord instructed Moses, ‘Write this down as a permanent record…’” Exodus 24:4 “Then Moses carefully wrote down all the Lord’s instructions.” Exodus 34:27 “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down all these instructions, for they represents the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel.’” Leviticus 1:1 “The Lord called to Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him, ‘Give the following instructions to the Israelites…’” Leviticus 6:8 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Give Aaron and his sons the following instructions…’” Deuteronomy 31:9 “So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests.” Deuteronomy 31:24-26 “When Moses had finished writing down this entire body of law in a book…”

These are passages elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures on where we can see the authorship of Moses: Joshua 1:7-8 “…Obey all the laws Moses gave you.” Joshua 8:31-34 “He followed the instructions that Moses the Lord’s servant had written in the Book of the Law…” Joshua 22:5 “…Obey all the commands and the laws that Moses gave to you.” 2 Chronicles 34:14 “…Hilkiah the high priest…found the book of the Law of the Lord as it had been given through Moses.”

We even have passages in the Gospels which show that Jesus and John the Baptizer believed Moses to be the author: Matthew 19:7-8 “…why did Moses say a man could merely write an official letter of divorce and send her away?”, they asked. Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted divorce…’” Matthew 22:24 “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children…’” Mark 7:10 “For instance, Moses gave you this law from God…” Mark 12:24 “…haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush…” Luke 24:44 “…I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.” John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses…” John 5:46 “But if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote about me. And since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?” John 7:23 “…do it, so as not to break the Law of Moses…”

Other passages in the Christian Scriptures: Acts 26:22 “…I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen…” Romans 10:5 “For Moses wrote…”

I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, the matter of authorship is settled and is not open to debate. Moses was the human author of Genesis and the other books of the Pentateuch. These five ‘books of the law’ were written by Moses alone. The Pentateuch, therefore, is an inspired, inerrant, authoritative document written by the man Moses.

       When speaking about the authority of the Scriptures, one must distinguish between its authority, inspirations, and all concepts concerning the Scripture that have had arguments and discussion over the years. We have to observe from the beginning that all attributes which the Scripture attribute to itself stand in close relationship to its purpose and nature.

        The authority of the Scriptures is believed to be the whole of the biblical preaching and doctrine. This authority of the Scriptures is no other than that which the apostles ascribe to themselves, namely as heralds, witnesses, ambassadors of God and Christ. They attach that authority in the same manner to their writings as to their words. This would be justified by an author who said that, “Jesus Christ has chosen to found his Church not directly by his own hands, speaking the word of God, say for instance, in thunder-tones from heaven; but through the instrumentality of a body of apostles, chosen and trained by himself, endowed with gifts and graces from the Holy Ghost, and sent forth into the world as his authoritative agents for proclaiming a gospel which he placed within their lips and which is none the less his authoritative word, that it is through them that he speaks it.”

        Let us compare it this way, laws are authoritative but even an uninspired law is law. But when inspiration has once been shown to be fact, it comes mightily to the reinforcement of their authority. God speaks to us now, in Scripture, not only mediately through his representatives, but directly through the Scriptures themselves as his inspired word. The Scriptures thus become the solidification of God’s authoritative will.

         Inspiration consists in this, that God makes the words of men the instrument of his word, that he uses human words for his divine purposes. As such the human words stand in the service of God and participate in the authority and infallibility of the Word of God, answer perfectly God’s purpose. But this remains a human instrument in the hands of God. And it is not up to us, it is up to the free pleasure of God to decide what kind of effect divine inspiration should have in the mind, knowledge, memory, accuracy of those whom he has used in his service, in order that their word really can be accepted and trusted as the inspired word of God.

        God speaks to us through the Scriptures not in order to make us scholars, but to make us Christians. To be sure, to make us Christians in our knowledge but not in such a way as to make human knowledge infinite or to teach us in a supernatural way of all sorts of things. What Scripture does intend is to place us as humans in a right position to God, even in our own studies and efforts. Scripture is not concerned only with persons’ religious needs in the sense of that word. On the contrary, its purpose and authority is that it teaches us to understand everything about humanity, the world, nature, history, their origin and their destination, their past and their future. Therefore the Bible is not only the book of conversion, but also the book of history and the book of creation. But it is the book of history of salvation; and it is this point of view that represents and defines the authority of Scripture. History defines the authority of the Bible in a sense wherein through out time and again, people were able to make use of such source that they were using it everyday in their lives which then will justify that they made it as law and laws are authoritative. God used history to show how his authority thrived through time but this doesn’t mean that the mere fact that just because it survived time then it is authorative.

        A major problem for people today is the source of authority. Some people believe that authority comes from force so whoever has the power makes the rules; others have the idea that whatever makes the most people the happiest is the correct thing and another concept is that every individual is free to do as he pleases so long as it does not harm someone else. Regardless of whom people choose as their source of authority, it ultimately resides with man or more specifically on themselves.

        We need to understand that since God created all that is, He alone holds ultimate authority over all creation. He is the creator of all humans and it is He who decides the scope and form of authority. God created everything so He alone owns everything. However, He has decided to put His property under our stewardship so that means that it is upon Him not us.

TITLE OF BOOK: MEANING ACROSS CULTURES

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: EUGENE A. NIDA

            Eugene A. Nida was born November 11, 1914, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is the developer of the dynamic equivalence biblical translation theory. He received a Bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in Greek language from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1936. He received his Master’s degree in Greek New Testament from the University of Southern California and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan.

            He has been a pioneer in the fields of Translation Theory and Linguistics. His most notable and most controversial contribution to Translation Theory is Dynamic Equivalence, also known as Functional Equivalence. This approach to translation aims to reproduce the intention of the original text in the translation, rather than reproducing the actual words of the original.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1.      An Introduction

2.      What Communicating Means

3.      Translating Means Communicating

4.      The Form of the Message

5.      The Content of the Message

6.      The Discovery and Analysis of Problems

7.      Provision of Supplementary Information

  

BOOK SUMMARY:

            We’re all people in the world. We live everywhere – in crowded cities and tiny towns. We come in many colors, in many different sizes and shapes. All over the world, we have many different ways of life and these will be seen from our diverse cultures and specially our languages.

            The author emphasized one key point in his book. How languages and how we interpret the meaning of it is very crucial in understanding the Bible. Different languages are spoken around the world, in our country alone, how many dialects to we have? We have a lot and because of that it cause much confusion and misinterpretation but God created languages for a purpose. A reading of Genesis indicates that when God created Adam in His own image, He gave Adam the gift of understandable speech, thus enabling him to communicate objectively with his creator and with other human beings through linguistic symbols called words.

            God chose to use human language as a medium of revelational communication. If the primary purpose of God’s originating of language was to make it possible for Him to communicate with human beings, as well as to enable human beings to communicate with each another, then it must follow that He would generally use language and expect man to use it in its literal, normal, and plain sense.

            It is really hard to comprehend something that one is not familiar with, one sentence might mean totally different to another ethnicity. But language is a prerequisite to understanding not only God’s spoken word but the Bible as well.

            The Bible as a body of literature exists because human beings need to know certain spiritual truths to which they cannot attain by themselves. Thus these truths must come to them from without special revelation from God. This revelation can only be understood if one interprets the words of Scripture according to God’s original design for language – that is, according to the ordinary, plain, literal sense of each word.

            Instead of overlaying meanings on the text, which will make understanding much harder as if language barrier is not enough? The objective interpreter seeks to discover the author’s intended meaning. One must recognize that what a passage means is fixed by the author and is not subject to alteration by readers.

            Having varied kinds of languages makes each nation rich in their culture but this shouldn’t change the meaning of the biblical text that it comes out saying something entirely different than what was intended by the author. Only by objective methodology can we bridge the gap between our cultural minds and the minds of the biblical writers. Indeed, our method of interpreting Scripture is valid or invalid to the extent that it really unfolds the meaning a statement had for the author and the first hearers or readers.

          “A life without LOVE is no life at all…” It’s easy for us to say that we love so we do its corresponding actions. We say that we love our parents so we help them in every way we can. Doing what we are told for them to be proud of us. We claim we love our friends too, so we are always there to share their laughter and tears. We profess we love our God so we pray and rejoice in His holy name. Lastly, we pledge that we love the man or the woman who possess the power to let our hearts skip a beat so we give… yet in the end of it all, we always expect something to receive.         

          Anyone in this world has the ability to say I LOVE YOU to whomever they want at any time of the day. But what is LOVE? Love, according to my friend Mr. Webster Dictionary is a strong, complex emotion or feeling causing one to appreciate, delight in, and crave the presence or possession of another and to please or promote the welfare of the other in devoted affection or attachment. I bet not everyone understood what that meant. It is due to the fact that what we know is when we feel such glorious emotion, we say that we love but when we are in pain, we say we hate.         

           We all need to understand that love is not as simple as one plus one. Maybe in our hearts, it’s always easy for us to conclude that we are happy therefore we are in love. Logically speaking, the statement is invalid but does the heart knows’ logic? No, because the heart only knows how to feel and it’s the responsibility of the mind to think. In our lives, we come across situations that need every will power we have to get through it but also in such circumstances that we can see how the heart dictates the mind on what it should do or vice-versa. We get confuse on what to believe in since we allow them both to do the same work for us when both were made to do different distinct jobs. In this, we already don’t understand what is love in the hearts’ perspective or the minds’ point of view.         

          Loving is when we give even though we have very little to share. It is when we sacrifice even if we feel so much pain. To help whenever someone is in need or not. We love when we give all our best without expecting anything in return. So therefore when we say we love, we should do it physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually just like God, who did it unconditionally.

          Thinking is when we reason out what is right and what is wrong. It is when we judge people for what they are not personally but mentally. In our minds, we should let our views flourish. Let us learn new things for us to make our ideas travel. If we encounter things in life, we should always reflect before we act. For it was said that, “One can measure the stupidity of a person through his common sense.”

          I choose the heart and the mind for both has been the guides of my life. It helped me get through a lot of barriers on the paths I have crossed. My mind judges what is true and what is false and my heart senses what is right and what is wrong. My principles for one are registered in my intellect so that I may speak it out but it is also kept in my sensitivity for me to value it in a lifetime.         

          Love comes with forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to do in our lives especially if we have felt pain. People around us have the capability to hurt us bodily. It is easy for them to inflict injury or any other form of damage but God has made our bodies to heal in such given time. But what really hurts is when the people we love stab us behind our backs, when they betray us in words and in deeds, when they condemn us without any further justification, and above all is when they asked for mercy but through it all still would do the same things to you without any reason why. We love them unconditionally yet why is it always the case that they are very much powerful to hurt us? Why can’t we love then be loved and hated for what we hate?         

          Pain is always affiliated when we love but in this we gain knowledge to teach the two parts that symbolized everything. If all is well and everything is running so smoothly, we will never know how is it to be humble, and be kind. We will be engulfed with greed on what we have, superior among other people and above God. We ache all over when what we plan to do cannot be accomplished but in every twinge we feel comes a lesson with it. A perfect life would end in disaster for nobody would surrender what he or she has for the sake of others. Every little thing in this world is important for it is place there for a certain task. Just like that of the heart and the mind, having their own duty in the purpose of living our lives. We may sometimes ignore on how important these little things as we go on our routinely ways but I tell you, small things matter greatly in this world. We should always remember that these small insights make up the composition of bigger things in life. It may seem to be such ordinary topics, always heard and talked about but affects every aspect of our lives when we get to encounter it. Loving and thinking doesn’t only help us to exist in this world but rather aids us to live our life fully…  

          All of you might not recognize me with this simple clothes and may think that I am just one of those common people roaming around the planet. Yes, you’re definitely right… I am just an ordinary woman. I know most people don’t recognize me because I am not one of those actors and actresses who are shown on TV or the artists who’s musical voices are heard on the radio. But a lot of individuals whose passion lies in believing the truth know me for I am a writer, a believer; I am Faith Cawaon Bayao.

          Long before I know who I was in the secular world, I was just one of those who merely exists working at home, squeezing in time going to school and during breaks I do my hobby – reading. As a child I dreamed of being a professional doctor but realizing that I didn’t have the right stuff for a pro career, I shifted gears and majored in financial management. After deciding that, I went on to study and until now I’m still on that tract. Being involved in different kinds of people helped me a great deal for it was when I heard the calling of my God to stay on the right path that inspired me to continue my life in His name.

         I had the privilege of seeing my own hands work in God’s ministry. After my realization in wisdom and in the financial sense, my spiritual life is still my priority, my faith crossed over into my success when I used my talents into Christian endeavors such as functioning on activities for the youth and organizing some. I travel on missionary trips and it helps me to be aware of how much I have and how little some other people have on which to survive each day. Some of my reflections are shown on who I am today devoting my life to a religious theme. Though all the blessings, however, I am most thankful for the spiritual foundation that had kept me an ordinary woman.

          Not changing has been a major focus in my life, I credit my ability to do so based on my spiritual roots because when the time comes that it’s all over, I hope I can say that it was a whole lot fun, but I kept my feet on the ground and I didn’t change. I am a private woman, but those who knew me best know that I am a woman who believes strongly in the value of my relationship with God and living a life of integrity, even in my principles. This isn’t always an easy choice with some people, but I am committed to this decision so when I start my day, I made the simple decision to keep it clean. The decision was based on my Christian faith and a certain lifestyle I’m trying to maintain, and I’ve never been tempted or pushed to do otherwise. I am a sincere and humble woman. Generous. With me, what you see is what you get. Today, I remain the same as when I began – an ordinary woman with strong moral values and a simple, yet enduring faith in God.

          We believe that God speaks to us, and that we can respond. In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us through His son Jesus Christ. We can say that God speaks to us through the beauty of His creation, even from the events of our lives which maybe either broke us or challenged us at one point, from the words of the scriptures, through our disorganized churches, and even through signs. These are ways on how God speaks to us, and if we pay attention, we can come to recognize what or how God is communicating with us through them.

            But what does this all really mean? Are these messages, coming from all these various sources, no it is not like that. God communicates with us personally. The experience of God is within us. He speaks to us individually and uniquely, different from you and from me. But how does this happen when God does not have vocal chords and use sound waves? In the Bible, many people seemed to receive God’s communication as if one is literally talking to Him just like how we do it today. God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Mary received a visit from an angel. Samuel was sleeping when he heard God’s voice. But on the other hand, when we consider people we know who listen when God’s speaking, we are aware that they are not talking about sound waves and speech patterns. In addition to that, some of our mental institutions have people confined within their walls who claim that they literally hear God’s voice and their experience is treated as hallucinatory and insanity. So when God talks to us, are we not using a metaphor?

            Yes we are using a metaphor for it is needed because we are dealing with the mystery of trying to communicate from one who is completely different from than ourselves; the Holy One who rise above and is beyond all human experience and ways of understanding. We want so much to learn everything and we keep on asking a lot of things from our Creator yet in the end of it all we cannot comprehend His answers. Humans presume and assume a lot from God even up until to the point of questioning His purpose. Our thinking is never God’s thinking! We being pea brains and smart alecks can never have a communication with our God in our own capability. He talks to us in our hearts, through our experiences.

            Though we must use metaphor and examples to convey the meaning of such conversations, these metaphors just like talking, listening, hearing and the like are nevertheless pointing to something that is real. This is the reality of God’s communication through our experiences.

            These and many other experiences are vehicles of God’s constant communication with us that helps build up our personal relationship with Him. This means that our feelings, our emotions, our short-lived thoughts are carriers of God’s presence and God’s personal word to us.

             According to a Hebrew poet, reading the Bible in any language other than the original Hebrew is like kissing a beautiful woman with a veil between your face and hers. In other words, reading a translation of the Bible is better than nothing, but it isn’t nearly as wonderful as reading it in Hebrew, with the linguistic veil removed.

            We learned that the English alphabet was based from Latin or Roman which came primarily from Greek. With that information, we cannot ignore the fact that other languages also played a crucial part in spreading the Word of God. Without Greek, where would Latin be? Without Roman, where will English be basing up? Without English, how will we be able to know God?

            But what do we miss by reading only a translation? For one thing, there are many plays on words throughout the Bible. One of the first examples is in the story of the creation of Eve. Adam said, “She shall be called Woman (ishah) because she was taken out of Man (ish).” Adam had seen female animals with their male counterpart, but this was the first time he had seen a female “ish”. This newly-formed creature resembled Adam, but it was obvious that she was female. So Adam added the feminine suffix -ah to ish.

            Another feature is the concept of word origins and the relationship of words to one another. This would assist us to be able to figure out why we call the first man on earth as Adam instead of Mhac? Or the first woman as Eve in replace of maybe Maria? Man (adam) was created from the dust of the ground (adamah). In the transliteration we can see that adam is taken out of adamah and contained in the word adam is dam, the Hebrew word for “blood,” reminding us that the life of Adam is in his blood. And the reason why Adam called his wife Eve because eve in Hebrew is Chavah, meaning “living; life-giver” because she was the mother of all living. Knowledge of Hebrew allows a reader or most importantly religious leaders to see different levels of meaning in the Scriptures. One notable example of this is poetry, I think we all know that there is a large portion in the Bible that is written in this kind of literature and also many of the Prophets’ writings are written in poetic form. Anyone who has studied both foreign languages and poetry knows that poetry loses some of its impact when it is translated into another language. Try translating a Tagalog or Ilocano poem into English, what would that sound?

             Try to imagine yourself being a pastor without any basic knowledge about Hebrew or even Greek, trying to comprehend a verse that you are going to preach on Sunday. Are you just going to read the verse, expound it word for word? You wouldn’t be giving justice to the message God wants His people to know. Bible verses take on new meaning when we know them in the original languages so pastors should be required to know these. They might not necessarily need to learn how to speak it since people nowadays are much more proficient in English but being able to understand it would definitely help them to be able to comprehend the true essence of the message and be able to impart it with the Christian community.

            If I can, I would want to learn these languages because no one can really understand the Scriptures without it.

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