SID: Hello Sid Roth here your investigative reporter the supernatural here with William Morford and we’re talking about a new, fresh, vibrant translation of the New Testament that has the action that was originally intended in the New Testament. I can tell you from just the tenses and the action words that are used; it has given me a whole fresh understanding of the New Testament. I can’t read the…it’s like I’ve never read the New Testament before; and trust me for 30 years I’ve been reading the New Testament, but there is something very fresh – I believe it is bashert, a Hebrew word that means it is meant to be; but in addition to that, it’s like a two edged sword. William Morford got to know a traditional Jewish rabbi but he wasn’t just any rabbi he was the grandson of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. You see Hebrew had been a dead language for a thousand years; just in the Holy Book, but not a spoken language. And his grandfather went to Israel, one of the early Zionists, and if his grandfather hadn’t been the architect of modern day spoken Hebrew; I mean he literally created many of the words of Hebrew. This is the grandson that you studied under and his name is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda; and how many languages does he speak?
WILLIAM: He speaks eight.
SID: And I would imagine he is very articulate in Hebrew
WILLIAM: Oh absolutely, absolutely; because he grew up there. He came to the States roughly the age of 20 to go to college
SID: Why did he teach you? I mean you’re not Jewish – why would he teach you?
WILLIAM: He feels that he’s to be a bridge, to build a bridge between the Jewish people and Christians. So he was very active in the Lakeland area and Ministerial Association and so on. And he’s just very willing and certainly able to bridge the gap between us.
SID: Before we get to some of the things he taught you I have a theory and I want you to tell me whether I’m right or wrong. In the New Testament, there is the book of James but we know that James wasn’t his name. We know in the Greek, it’s Jacob.
WILLIAM: Right.
SID: And so therefore, why is it James? Did it have anything to do with King James who authorized the translation? Is this just my imagination or could there be something to it?
WILLIAM: It has everything to do with it. It was the translators of the King James who wanted to bless their benefactor because they were paid to come together and…
SID: But you can’t change the word of God. You’re not supposed to. All right, what about something like the word church. How many times is that found in the Greek New Testament?
WILLIAM: Zero, absolutely none.
SID: Zero? Zero! You haven’t read the King James lately.
WILLIAM: Well you’re right, I haven’t done that.
SID: It’s in there.
WILLIAM: But it’s not in the Greek.
SID: Why is it? What is the Greek?
WILLIAM: The Greek has the word ecclesia which is talking about a gathering of people. So it’s the congregation that Jesus and all the disciples were talking about. And see that’s very Jewish; the Jewish refers to the congregation – it’s the people.
SID: I always thought the church was never brick and mortar.
WILLIAM: Right but when we say church we immediately see a building with a steeple and that’s not correct.
SID: What about something like Easter? King James talks about Easter. What is the Greek word for Easter?
WILLIAM: The Greek word is a corruption, is pesach, which is the Greek writing of pesach.
SID: That sounds like Passover.
WILLIAM: Right.
SID: So how did Passover, pesach become or Passover, become Easter?
WILLIAM: You’ll have to go back a few hundred years and talk to the English translators of the Greek text because Easter is not there.
SID: I’ll tell you what, this bothers me immensely and let me tell you why though; because I’m Jewish. I was born a Jew and I’ll die a Jew. I had an encounter with the Messiah of Israel: Yeshua in Hebrew, Jesus. And after this encounter with Him, I found that most of my Jewish friends don’t believe in Jesus and the reason is they feel Christianity is a different religion. But as I have studied, it is just New Testament Judaism is what Christianity is. The rabbis went astray because they needed a replacement for the sacrificial system and they opted not for Jesus, and then many Christians went astray because they separated themselves from their Jewish roots; your Bible brings the two back together. I love it.
WILLIAM: That’s right that’s where we should be. And that’s why in my translation I use the traditional English names because this is aimed at the church. This is to bring Christians into an understanding of where the first century church was. See the church today, in the really going ahead churches; the churches are looking for the power of God. They want to be copies of the first century church as we read in the books of Acts, but we’re not where the first century church was. That was the weapon of power, was through Jewish roots their ties to the Tenach, to the Jewish scriptures. And their growing up knowing of a relationship with God and focusing on the seasons of the Lord; on Jewish life as it’s supposed to be led; focuses on people, it’s on individuals as Malachi says “to return the fathers love to the children and the children’s love to the father.”
SID: Bill give me an example quickly of an idiom that, if we took literally, we would totally miss.
WILLIAM: Well talking about the poor, the poor in spirit; that’s repentant.
SID: That’s so much easier to understand. I mean I have struggled with: what does this mean, poor in spirit? It’s the repentant but there’s so many. And was Paul a tent maker?
WILLIAM: No,
SID: He wasn’t a tent maker! Don’t tell them what he was. We’re about ready, and you know what? You’ll be so amazed when you find out what Paul’s profession really was, because it ties in with the power of God. I mean the Hebrew roots coming together tie in with the power of God. We’ll be back in just a moment. Don’t you dare go away!
