“What I learned from Derek Prince and Rabbis from Hebrew University regarding Bible study and translations, and how your worldview, language, and translation can affect your doctrine [and more]" Part1
Guest post by Rick Fox
Shalom friends,
As I’ve promised, I want to introduce you to my friends. The following is shared with permission, written by Rick Fox @thesnootyfox on X (formerly known as Twitter). His website, “The Snooty Fox," provides insights into his background and experiences as a retired investment banker and chaplain. Rick shares his journey in the financial service industry, including his roles as a registered principal, senior vice president, and director of a Wall Street financial services firm. He highlights his expertise in investment banking, restructuring troubled businesses, and assisting ministries. With a background in economics, business, teaching elder in ministry, and his service in the US Army's Chaplain Corps, Rick has had some amazing experiences and freely shares his insights in a way that is both an encouragement and a challenge (You can learn more about him by clicking the linked text above or his picture and name below:).
Today I want to talk about what I learned from Derek Prince and Rabbis from Hebrew University regarding Bible study and translations, and how your worldview, language, and translation can affect your doctrine, discernment and maturity. During April 1978, I was on a Derek Prince team that met with Rabbis who were professors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
We met on the Mount Scopus campus for a discussion of translation errors in the King James Bible and the Professors’ use of the Gospels and the Apostle Paul’s writings as a research tool and window into first century Judaism.
Obviously, we primarily handled the Koine Greek of the New Testament and the Septuagint. The Rabbis were Hebrew in the Old Testament and Franz Delitzsch’s translation of the New Testament into Hebrew. In 1877, aided by prominent German Messianic Jewish rabbinical scholars, Franz Delitzsch, a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist, translated the New Testament into Hebrew, returning Yeshua to Judaism and giving the Gospels and Apostolic writings back to the Jews.
You can purchase a good quality translation of the Delitzsch Hebrew/English Gospels from First Fruits of Zion @followffoz produced by FFOZ [https://a.co/d/4IcZ0nS].
To me, it is astounding that at this time in Germany, the Holy Spirit was moving on Jews to accept Yeshua as their Messiah, years before Hitler and the Nazis rise to power and the slaughter of 6 million Jews.
Derek’s purpose for the meetings was to help the professors in any way possible, and we would gain the benefit of learning the Hebrew mindset in studying Scriptures. That included an introduction into Hebrew idioms and expressions without which