From "Yosef benYehudah" <rabbiyosef@h...> Thu Oct  7 21:39:26 1999
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From: "Yosef benYehudah" <rabbiyosef@h...>
To: chofjclist@egroups.com
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 21:42:32 PDT
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Subject: [chofjclist] Re: What is Jewish Book of Mormon?
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My answer comes from the Scripures:

	* "...to them [The Jews] have been committed the Oracles of God."
	(Rom. 3:2)

	* "Whatever your hand finds to do, verily do it with all your might."
	(Eccl. 9:10)


One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon, according to the title page is 
for:

	"convincing of the Jew... that Yeshua is the Messiah."

Now the current english Book of Mormon CANNOT be expected to fulfil that 
role.

Now many translations of the BoM have been made into many gentile languages 
so as to bring the book to the Gentile world.

There have been two attempts to translate the Book into Hebrew presumably to 
reach the Jews.  However neither translation is very good.  Moreover the LDS 
translation has been out of print for years.  Moreover and more importantly 
MOST JEWS SPEAK "Jewish English" NOT HEBREW.

The question has been posed at times "why was the BoM translated into 1611 
KJV English  in 1830?  Americans in 1830 did not speak 1611 English.  It is 
usually answered that the BoM was written in 1611 KJV english so that it 
would be more accepted as a companion to the KJV.  However the KJV has no 
significance to Jews.  Jews have no need or desire for a text to serve as a 
companion to the KJV.  The english of the English BoM is clearly slanted 
with the gentile dialect with gentile terms like "Jesus" and "Church".   It 
is therefore NOT written in the language spoken by most Jews today, "Jewish 
English."

It is no more wrong to translate the BoM into Jewish english than it is to 
translate it into French, Spanish or German.

A Jew who picks up the current english Book of Mormon is immediatly turned 
off by the usage of gentile terms that are very un-Jewish.  They know that 
"Jesus" was not his real name.  Jesus is an english name.  In fact the "J" 
was added to english late.  In 1611 there was no "J".  In the 1611 edition 
it was IESUS wich is a Latin name.  NO ONE seriously proposes that his name 
was IESUS or JESUS.  He was a Jew with a Hebrew name Yeshua.
Now it is understandable that a version of the BoM aimed at gentiles would 
have "Jesus" because thats the name they no him by.  However to a Jew 
"Jesus" is a Latin name in which we were persecuted and slaughtered for 
centuries.  And since that was not even his name why should we use it?  To a 
Jew the "Church" is a gentile institution which has peresecuted us for 
centuries.  The term "church" comes from Germanic KYRKE a term for pagan 
Germanic Temples.   Why would a Jew use a gentile term right out of pagan 
gentile religion?  When a Jew reads in the BoM that Yeshua was called the 
Alpha and Omega (3Ne.9:18) they find this unbelievable.  Why would Jews 
wholeft Jerusalem around 600 B.C.E. be using the Greek alphabet.  It is 
understandable that Gentiles would have this since it agrees with their KJV, 
but a Jew would know that is SHOULD be ALEF and TAV (from the Hebrew 
alphabet).  [By the way the "ALEF and the TAV" has special meaning to 
Jews... thats another topic.]  You get the picture.

These terms are not used by Jews and many of these terms are actually 
offensive to Jews.





>From: J J <CYBERBELUM@c...>
>Reply-To: chofjclist@egroups.com
>To: chofjclist@egroups.com
>Subject: [chofjclist] Re: What is Jewish Book of Mormon?
>Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 18:37:48 -0400
>
>Rabbi, I speak for no one other than myself.  Maybe there is a need for 
>this
>Jewish Book of Mormon, but I personally will not request a copy.  I look at
>it like this.  If God had intended that the BoM be written in Jewish
>English, he would of had Joseph translate it in that.  If God wanted it 
>both
>ways, he would of had Joseph do it that way too.  I do not know if you feel
>"called" to do this or whether you are doing it because You want to...but
>remember that if God wants something done, He will ensure that it gets
>accomplished.  Like Myles recently said, God will not judge you by the size
>of your head (which means intelligence), but what is in your heart.  God
>will judge you for not using your head though.  You have to look into your
>heart and ask yourself why you are doing this.  Is it because you feel that
>there is a need or is it because God feels there is a need?
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Yosef benYehudah <rabbiyosef@h...>
>
>
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