The Bible Doesn't Say That: 40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions, and Other Misunderstandings

by Joel M. Hoffman

Overview

The Bible Doesn't Say That explores what the Bible meant before it was misinterpreted over the past 2,000 years.

Acclaimed translator and biblical scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the reader through dozens of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In forty short, straightforward chapters, he covers morality, life-style, theology, and biblical imagery, including:

*The Bible doesn't call homosexuality a sin, and it doesn't advocate for the one-man-one-woman model of the family that has been dubbed "biblical."

*The Bible's famous "beat their swords into plowshares" is matched by the militaristic, "beat your plowshares into swords."

*The often-cited New Testament quotation "God so loved the world" is a mistranslation, as are the titles "Son of Man" and "Son of God."

*The Ten Commandments don't prohibit killing or coveting.

What does the Bible say about violence? About the Rapture? About keeping kosher? About marriage and divorce? Hoffman provides answers to all of these and more, succinctly explaining how so many pivotal biblical answers came to be misunderstood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250059482
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/16/2016
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

JOEL M. HOFFMAN, PhD, is the author of In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language and And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning. He is the chief translator for the 10-volume series, My People's Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and for My People's Passover Haggadah. He is an occasional contributor to The Jerusalem Post and The Huffington Post, and has held faculty appointments at Brandeis University and at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. In the Beginning

2. Evolution

3. Noah’s Ark

4. Lifespans in the Old Testament

5. David and Goliath (and Elhanan and Goliath)

6. Jesus’s Lineage

7. Jesus’s Death

8. The Ten Commandments

9. Commandments

10. God So Loved the World

11. The Truth Will Set You Free

12. Healing a Withered Hand

13. God’s Name

14. Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

15. Dust and Ashes

16. Psalm 23

17. Heart and Soul

18. Unicorns and Dragons

19. Kings

20. Nations, Swords, and Plowshares

21. If Not by Bread Alone, Then by What Do People Live?

22. Who Is the Voice Crying in the Wilderness?

23. Old Testament Prophecies Fulfi lled in the New Testament

24. The Virgin Birth

25. Moses’s Horns

26. The Apple from the Garden of Eden

27. The Jubilee Year

28. The Son of Man and the Son of God

29. Keeping Kosher

30. The Rapture

31. Slavery

32. Marriage

33. Divorce

34. Prosperity

35. Violence

36. Justice

37. Men and Women

38. Killing

39. Homosexuality

40. Abortion

Conclusion

Bible Citation Index

General Index

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/18/2016
Hoffman follows up The Bible's Cutting Room Floor with another witty and accessible look at Scripture, this time using his mastery of Hebrew and Greek to rebut many of the most popular beliefs about what the Bible actually says. He groups the ways that the sacred texts have been distorted into five categories—ignorance of ancient languages and culture, inadvertent misinterpretations that became mainstream, reading them through a modern lens, mistranslation, and intentional misrepresentation of what was actually said. Hoffman proceeds to give 40 examples of significant distortions, such as what the first words of Genesis are, and what the forbidden fruit of Eden was, in short, pithy chapters that first present the conventional answers before explaining what the accurate ones are and how the inaccuracies developed. Even lay readers who believe themselves fluent with the Bible will likely be surprised at some of Hoffman's explications, such as the ambiguity about who killed Goliath, and how. Hoffman has produced the best kind of popular scholarship, that will be interest both religious and secular readers. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] witty and accessible look at Scripture...Hoffman has produced the best kind of popular scholarship, that will interest both religious and secular readers” - Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“The Bible Doesn’t Say That challenges the reader to think differently about many of the Bible’s core ideas...the author writes in an accessible style that requires only an open mind and willingness to challenge long-held assumptions. A reader comes away understanding that while some of our misconceptions about the Bible are relatively minor, other misconceptions have led to significant misunderstandings, and even conflict, between people of faith.” - JewishBookCouncil.org

Praise for The Bible's Cutting Room Floor

"A wonderful book to confirm the beliefs of the faithful, to strengthen those whose faith begs for more information and to enlighten those who reject the stories of the Bible as mere fiction. " -Kirkus Reviews

"An engrossing gift for amateur bible students." -Booklist

Praise for And God Said

“Deeply welcome as a valuable tool for teaching . . . well-worth acquiring.” —Jewish Book World

“A sensitive . . . discussion of the structure of languages in general and of Biblical Hebrew in particular.” —The Jerusalem Post

“A lively tour of the difficulties besetting the Bible's translators, their successes and (more frequent) failures.” —Jewish Ideas Daily

Praise for In the Beginning

“Hoffman has a flair for explaining how languages work.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Written in an energetic style with a commitment to exploring the evolution of Hebrew from ancient times to the present in ways that a broad audience can comprehend.” —Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher

2015-11-29
A critical look at what many people think is in the Bible. Hoffman (The Bible's Cutting Room Floor: The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible, 2014, etc.) offers a mixed bag of thought-provoking insight and banal criticism. He begins by asserting that readers often distort the Bible in five ways: ignorance, historical accident, culture gaps, mistranslation, and misrepresentation. He also notes that all of these distortions share one of two common elements: the misapplication of tradition or missing the original context. Hoffman does well to alert readers to these ways in which the Bible is often misapplied and misunderstood. However, he tends to overextend his argument concerning concepts and statements that "aren't in the Bible." The author offers 40 instances in which "the Bible doesn't say that." Some of these cause readers to think twice about long-held assumptions. For instance, he spends one chapter examining the lengthy life spans of early Old Testament characters, exposing readers to background that is probably new territory, such as Babylonian mathematics. However, in other cases, he tackles ideas that are outdated or rarely encountered. For instance, he points out that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was not an apple. Though portrayed as an apple in some early Christian art, it is hard to imagine a modern Christian with even the slightest exposure to Scripture thinking that the forbidden fruit was an apple. Similarly, Hoffman beats the dead horse about "who killed Jesus," covering well-trodden ground that a select set of Roman officials and Jewish leaders brought about the crucifixion, not "the Jews." The author also tends to nitpick translations, almost to the point of absurdity. For example, he believes the word "king," found throughout the Bible, should be read as "ruler," since ancient kings were different in many ways from modern ones. The book shows some promise, but much of its largely unnecessary and sensationalist.

Kirkus Reviews