Israel Speaks
The nation of Israel is also called the people of the Book
referring to the Book of Books - the Bible.
The Bible is the world's most read book and it has been translated
into numerous languages.
The Jewish Bible comprises of the 24 books of the Old Testament.
When were they written and who determined which books to include?
The Nahum Ben Zvi family has already for a long time had a printing house
in Jerusalem. Nahum works in research and printing of Jewish holy books.
At the moment we are only sure about the 5 books of Moses.
They were written already in the First Temple period
around 500-600 BC.
The canonization of the Old Testament books is very unclear.
The writing order of the Old Testament books is known
from the 1st century BC.
Already then there was a debate about two Old Testament books: -
Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs.
They were canonized only in the middle of the 2nd century AD.
Rabbi Akiva considered the books holy.
The text itself is probably around 2000 years old -
that is, the canonization of the books is 2000 years old.
The oldest scrolls were found in Qumran, close to the Dead Sea.
The first scrolls were found in 1947 by a Bedouin herder who had been
rescuing a sheep from the cave.
These scrolls originate from over 2000 years ago and they include
for example, most of the texts of the Old Testament.
The writer of the book is thought to be the Jewish Essenes community
who lived in the Northern part of the Dead Sea.
The Judean desert and Qumran scrolls
included around 800 different parchments.
They also included some new books, such as the Temple scroll, -
the book of Hanok and some other books which were considerd holy
by their writers.
However, they were not included in the Bible. We don't know why.
Neither do we know exactly where the scrolls came from.
There is a big debate about whether the scrolls were written in Qumran
or whether they were taken from Jerusalem to the Judean desert
in order to hide them from the Romans.
Archeologists and Bible scholars debate about this.
There is also a big debate about the people of Qumran, the Essenes; -
were they the people about whom Josephus Flavius wrote?
It is clear that there was a large Jewish community living in Qumran.
They lived a simple life and observed strict ritual purity.
Did they write the scrolls? Maybe, maybe not.
Many writing tools, such as ink bottels, have been found in Qumran,
which supports this fact.
Besides that, there is not much evidence for it.
The discovery of the Judean desert scrolls was a great breakthrough
because prior to that we didn't have any copies of the Bible.
We had a set of 24 holy books.
Until the 16th century, these books were copied by hand
by people who were not always so precise in doing such a big job.
There were mistakes.
Now we had finally made a great discovery dating back 2000 years.
This enabled a different method for Bible research.
Now you could compare today's Bible with the 2000-year-old text.
After the discovery of the Qumran scrolls 50-60 years ago they did not
make great changes.
The Old Testament texts have been preserved in an amazing way.
Although such a large quantity of text had been copied for 2000 years,
there were not many mistakes.
The books of the Old testament and their order was defined
2000 years ago.
The oldest perfect Jewish Bible is called Aleppo Codex.
Due to the high precision of the text, the Jews have named it
Keter - a crown.
Nahum Ben Zvi has devoted his life to the research and publication
of the new version of this Keter.
Keter is a book written on two sides of the page which is made out
of parchment.
It was ordered by a Karaite Jew who lived in Basra.
The order was made on behalf of one of Tiberia's great Bible scholars.
The book was designated for the Karaite community of Jerusalem.
In other words, a Basran Jew ordered the book from Tiberia
for the Karaite community in Jerusalem.
It took 10 years to write the book, -
approximately from the year 910 AD to 920 AD.
It was then taken to Jerusalem.
Ever since its existence, the book was considered unique.
The writer, Naftali Ben Asser, was a great Bible scholar.
His family copied biblical texts for 200 years.
The Karaite community of Jerusalem understood the value of the book
and wrote an addition to it which springs up in many instances.
They wrote in many places: -
"Sanctified to the Lord, not for sale or purchase."
Hence, the book belongs to the Jews and it cannot be sold.
Approximately a hundred years later Mouslims took over Jerusalem.
The Keter was taken to Egypt and later on to the city of Aleppo in Syria.
It was carefully guarded in the Jewish synagogue of Aleppo.
We know cases in the 19th and 20th century, when people requested
to see or photograph the Bible without permission.
Almost everyone received a negative answer.
We're moving on to the year 1942, to the time of World War II.
The director of the Hebrew Univer- sity of Jerusalem decided to make
a new Israeli version of the Jewish Bible.
A board was established for this project.
It was clear that they wanted the text to be from the Keter Bible.
They asked the Aleppo congregation for a permission to see the book, -
but received a negative answer.
On November 30th 1947, a day after the UN decision
to establish two states in Israel, -
there was a lot of anti-Jewish hostility in the Middle East.
The old synagogue of Aleppo was robbed and burned.
No one knew what happened to the Keter Bible.
Researchers thought it had been destroyed.
People thought there was no more Keter and nothing to wait for.
In 1958 The president of Israel Itzhak Ben Zvi received a guest
who said: "I have a gift for the leader of the Jews," -
as he called the president.
He pulled out the Keter Bible from inside a case.
According to an eyewitness, Ben Zvi was very excited.
Itzhak Ben Zvi was aware of the value of the Keter Bible.
When he saw the book, he was amazed and touched.
There have been two great events in the research of the Old Testament.
The first was, of course, the dis- covery of the Judean desert scrolls
in years 1947-67.
The other is the discovery of the Keter texts.
These two books were written more than 1000 years apart.
They were able to find a biblical text dating back to 1000 years ago
and compare it to the ancient text.
This was an exceptional event in the research of the Old Testament.
The whole world became interested in and wanted to see the Keter Bible.
Both Jewish and Christian Bible scho- lars had been waiting for the book.
Throughout centuries and particularly after the invention of
typography Christians have trans- lated and distributed biblical texts.
In some translations, the order of the canon has been changed.
I have a book from the mid 17th century.
The book has Latin on one side and Hebrew on the other.
In that book the order of the books has been changed.
It sees the Old Testament as a historical book and, -
therefore, the books have to be in a chronological order.
Let's take an example of the book of Ruth.
Ruth was the foremother of the family of king David.
Hence, the book of Ruth has to come before the book of Kings.
Similarly, The Chronicles also come before the Prophets.
It did not follow the traditional Jewish order of the 24 books.
Translations were first made into European languages
and then by missionaries to local African languages.
From there it spread to the rest of the world very fast.
New languages and dialects are always being discovered.
The Bible is the most translated and the most printed book
in the world.
Bibles are being translated even today.
Already for 15 years there has been a project in Jerusalem called the
Home for Bible Translators.
Mirjam Ronning came to Israel at the age of 7.
Her parents worked here in distributing Bibles.
Together with her husband Halvor, she leads this special project.
In September 2010 in the Judean Mountains in Yad Hashmona
they celebrated the inauguration of a new home for Bible Translators.
Thy hope and joy, thy fame shall glow, -
And ringing louder and more strong
To Finland raise our song.
See from our love for thee shall grow
Thy hope and joy, thy fame shall glow, -
And ringing louder and more strong
To Finland raise our song.
Amen, thank you!
15 years ago we had on our hearts to set up the Home for Bible Translators.
Its vision is very similar to that of my father Kaarlo Syväntö.
The Bible should be read and studied in one's mother tongue.
Coming from a small nation, we can understand it the best.
Although many of you speak different languages - Swedish, French, English
or German, you would still prefer reading the Finnish Bible and
and receiving nourishment from it.
There are thousands of nations in the world who do not have
this possibility.
Home for Bible Translators, April '09
Home for Bible Translators, Sep '10
Isn't it a beautiful and gorgeous house!
It was built by Finnish professionals.
Why would such a house be built in the Judean Mountains?
The reason is found in Jesus' last words to the Disciples.
I will read it from my father's old Bible
from the Gospel of Matthew from the old translation.
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations."
In Hebrew it says: make them my students, talmidim.
This commandment means exactly what it says: all nations.
It is not just a vague concept, but refers precisely to all nations.
The challenge is: How do we get it to all nations?
This is the foundational question: Can you be a disciple of Jesus
without a Bible in your mother tongue?
Our answer is that if we don't read and study the Bible, -
we cannot be disciples.
You can be called a Christian, but you cannot be a disciple
without a Bible in your mother tongue.
How can we promote and advance this?
For 15 years we've thought that since there are not enough
Western people going to these countries, let us bring national
translators to this land.
When they acquire the knowledge of the original text and know these
landscapes, its flora and fauna, they have knowledge which they can
pass on to their people in the best way.
It is faster because they have to know both the original text
and the target language.
The best translator is a person who knows the original language, -
in this case Hebrew, and the language of his or her own tribe.
I am wearing a dress with the names of different West African languages.
We have had Nuni-language translators who have their own perspective; -
this is new for me and this is not.
They learn Biblical Hebrew and, equipped with this knowledge, -
they can better understand the truth.
The purpose of the Bible home is truth.
The translators are chosen very carefully and they all are already
Bible translators by profession chosen by their own people.
They are talented in their mother tongues
and, in a spiritual sence, are leaders in these nations.
Our program is under the Hebrew University and it's an academic
program from which you receive internationally accepted credits.
The entry requirements are high.
You have to have a B.A. or M.A.
We have also had students with doctorate degrees.
However, they have to have studied biblical Hebrew for one whole year
prior to coming here.
This also shows if they can do it.
They study in a 6 month intensive program under the Hebrew University
in the Rothberg International School in English or French.
They receive a very intensive package, and when they leave, -
they are completely different people.
Daniel, the son of Mirjam and Halvor Ronning, has supervized
the construction of the new home.
It is actually a miracle that this house is standing here.
It has also been quite complicated to receive building permits.
Firemen here almost had a heart attack when they saw the wooden house.
We had to explain to them a little bit.
Many volunteers have participated in this project which has helped a lot.
We provide adequate tools for them for the construction work.
Although there was already a bomb shelter nearby, we had to build
another one.
There have been many small issues with regards to the wooden house.
There are also many insects that like to eat the wooden house.
We have to find a special toxin which is not toxic for us.
Maybe Finland is too cold for these insects, but they like to be here.
I've taken care of everything from paper work to dealing with insects.
In the end you can see a complete puzzle.
It is a miracle and the grace of God how this came about
and that no one has gotten hurt.
One man fell quite seriously, but eventually he only broke his arm
and is now coming back to work again.
There are so many things, it's quite hard to explain it in one minute.
You can see the result with your own eyes.
The Home was established by volunteers along with me and Halvor
who don't receive a salary.
From the beginning, we realized we couldn't pay salaries for workers.
So we said: anyone who wants to serve here is welcome.
For these 15 years all who have served here have been volunteers.
It has been a great example for the translators of how you can serve
with different gifts.
It doesn't help if we know Hebrew, if no one does the practical work.
Where has the money come for this house project?
Simply, individual people in Finland have understood the importance
of sending the message from this land, as it did 2000 years ago, -
even to Finland as well as other countries.
Today the word of God goes forth from Zion, from Jerusalem.
Translation: Sonja Mattayev