Introduction

INTRODUCTION

I am sure that most of you would agree with me that the Word of God is the most incredible book that was ever written.  “A Hebraic Study of the Gospels” is a new work that begins where “Our Hebrew Gospels’ left off.  You will find most of the commentary is the same as in the previous one, except there are considerable additions to it.  Also, there is additional research work from the Mishnah that was not in the previous work.  All of this is important, but there are some major changes in the format that need explaining.

First of all, we need to recognize that we have four different Gospels, written by four different authors, with four different perspectives they are trying to present.  In “Our Jewish Gospels,” where two or more Gospels were involved in the same story, I cited the verses from one Gospel and referenced the similar verses in the other Gospel.  In doing so, you lose any possibility of sharing the individual author’s viewpoint for that story.  In this commentary I am using what I call a modified horizontal comparison.  When a particular segment involves two or more Gospels telling the same story, all of the verses from each Gospel are listed together in their correct chronological sequence with similar verses shown together.  In this way the reader can see any differences that one Gospel might have compared to another.

Why do we have so many different English translations of the Bible?  For a long time now that question has really bothered me, until recently I began to uncover some answers (at least for myself).  I’m not going to try to present a study in Textual Criticism in this commentary, but simply present some information that I have discovered in my studies.  Again, controversy still rages in some of these areas and I do not claim any expertise myself.  It is my understanding that most textual critics of note today will not use the Greek manuscript called the Textus Receptus which many of our major Bibles are translated from (KLV, NKJV, NSAS, Jerusalem Bible, etc.).

In 1869 a Bible scholar by the name of Constantine Tischendorf published a work  titled  “The New Testament, The authorized English Version: With Introduction and Various Readings From the Three Most Celebrated Manuscripts of the Original Greek Text (1869).”  This work can be found on the Internet.  The Biblical text that he used for his basic text was called the “Authorized English Test,” also known as the “King James Bible (1869).  On each page, at the bottom of the page as footnotes, he listed various readings from the Codex Sianaticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexendrenus.  These three manuscripts are our earliest (4th century Alexandrian) and considered most accurate Greek manuscripts we have of the Bible.  The “Authorized English Text” is what is called a “Western text,” which is not considered nearly as accurate by most scholars.  It was translated originally from the “Textus Receptus,” which was originally created using seven Greek manuscripts dating only from the 12th century.  I have chosen to use the “New King James Translation” for this commentary for two reasons.  First of all, its translators have tried to work into its text a lot of the variances from the three major manuscripts listed above.  Secondly, as a footnote identified as “NU-Text at the bottom of the page, the translators listed many addition variances from these same earlier manuscripts.  

It is my earnest prayer that this commentary will be of great benefit to you as you read  it and it opens your eyes to a whole new world of the Bible.  This commentary is by no means a complete work and probably never will be.  But, if it encourages you to study and go deeper into God’s precious Word, then I have accomplished my purpose.  I am always glad to receive any constructive criticism based on legitimate research.  My email address is bobdoty@yahoo.com.  Shalom, and be blessed in Yeshua’s name.