There are a few questions that I do have. However I will put them in different threads so not to confuse this brain of mine.
Are we to read the bible with the mindset of the Eastern mindset or of the Western mindset? There is way too much of the Western mindset, but what of the Eastern mindset?
I really think we have to add the Hebraic mindset to our own, or miss all the deep meaning that is there. One thing I found entirely helpful was reading not just David Stern's The Complete Jewish Bible in English, but its companion The Complete Jewish Bible Commentary to the New Testament. Talk about opening your eyes...this guy is great. There are paperback versions of the text available, as well as an ever being updated Bible and Commentary of The Complete Jewish Bible in the Word Search format. Most Messianic Synagogues use this Bible much as Christians used to use the KJV...it is one of the most common, and it is in contemporary language.
Christians on Forums tend to use the KJV to avoid argument over word meanings, but not everyone considers the KJV contemporary! I started in it, so it's familiar. Since then I've been through about twenty different translations...and there are dozens more...I just bought John Parsons' new Bible...on CD, of course...I don't think the print version is out yet...that has first the verse of scripture in Hebrew, then in Romanized Hebrew, so that you can pronounce the words correctly, and below the Hebrew has his own translation, as he is a language guy. The website is <Hebrew4Christians.com>.
I finally gave in, and started Hebrew. I thought I could do without it, but there is a lot to miss in the translations, though I know I will never really understand all that Hebrew can mean...I don't know if you can unless you are a child that lives in Israel, or an American 'Ghetto' (please forgive the reference, but it works) and grows up fully enculturated. There are so many levels to the language, and imagery that is very specific to Hebrew...YHVH's way of putting all the truth in one special package, and mind you, this is Abraham's language, and he was from the Southern Iraq area.
We all know the bible was written by holy men of God, inspired of God. It was written from the ancient Hebrew mindset that was pertaining to their day. What of our day? I do believe that it is for today also.
Oddly, Hebrew has not changed all that much in the last 2000 years...just a lot of modern words added that are technical, or Americanisms, and so forth. The Jews were set apart, and they stayed apart...Jews are very culture specific, and even when trying to, probably have to work at being non-Jewish, even after four generations or more. YHVH has guarded the Jews' language, despite being at odds with them. If we want to understand all that is in the Scriptures, we have to sort through everything...all the Christian Dogma and histories, and the Jewish dogma and histories, and make a blend that can be taught, losing nothing of what Judaism is supposed to be.
I don't think we really manage this until the Kingdom is in place, but I am enjoying the attempt...it keeps me focused on YHVH, Yeshua, and the Ruach haKodesh. I admit, however, that transliterating Hebrew word sounds into English takes a lot of effort. Oddly, once you see the Romanized word, and then look at the Hebrew...you can easily sound it out after learning the Hebrew alphabet. Learning to write the Text, Script and Print is a real challenge
As for the Bible being for us now, even as it was for the Jews and Gentiles just after Yeshua's death...Yes...nothing has changed...the message is the same, and no one can change it...though the Adversary has certainly tried. In the 1st century onward, the Believers did not know more than we did then...most of the Brit Chadashah was not compiled...all the parts were scattered, and cherished. Sh'aul did a good job of explaining to people he had already converted from Judiasm, that lived in the Greco-Roman World...but even his explanations lose a lot without a deep understanding of the underlying Tanakh, and the years of living in Judaism that they knew from birth. The Proselytes were plentiful, but they were already living cheek-by-jowl with the Jews in the first place, or they were not interested, and had to put up with a lot of Judaic and Pagan persecution. Then the 2nd century saw a gradual transformation into less Jews, and more Greco-Romans, until by 300 AD, you had the split between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and the Jews were being persecuted by both.
Only when all the writings of the 1st Century were gathered carefully together in the first translations out of the Greek into Latin(8th century), into German, French and Dutch( 8th-13th centuries) and a full translation into English beginning with Wycliffe in 1383 (14th century), can you make sense of it all together. English is the most changeable language of the bunch, since we adopt nearly every word we like, and alas, is still changing so quickly that our current list of translations have remarkable variations in them. I tend to read The Complete Jewish Bible and the KJV side by side.
The message, however, stays the same...Grace, Salvation through faith, and then walking out the walk and keeping the commandments. It's only been recently (about the 1960's) that people, mostly college students, decided that Grace was it, and that we didn't need any of the old stuff. Before that, mostly 'Christians' became non-Christians if they wanted to behave in that manner. And now, 'Christians' aren't really Christian at all, and we are fleeing to the Jews that will have us, as they flee to Yeshua.
Well, we do need the old stuff...including every one of the keep able, and non-cultural commandments. And we do need to find communion with each other...it's just a little hard to do it with the Apostasy in full swing, heading for the end times. There is so much noise about Grace that you can hardly find Yeshua in it.
Only when people begin to be forced to stand up to people that don't like them much will we actually find the real Believers...there are some in every church, synagogue, mosque and temple, but I think that most of us are finding that we are being pushed out of what is called Christian or Judaic faiths. We all know a few people that really walk the walk and talk the talk. It's just getting hard to find people of like mind on these matters.
What of the Hebrew language? The bible was written in ancient Hebrew and Greek. So therefore the meaning would be totally different than it is today. Just like our English version and meaning has changed would not the Hebrew and Greek also?
Actually, Greek is rather frozen in time...back in the day it was first written down...the Septuagint reflecting Greek of the year it was translated from the Hebrew (132 BC), and the Common Greek of Yeshua's day in about AD 60-90. Modern Greek doesn't even sound the same. And Hebrew has been pretty much standardized since the first Temple was destroyed...the Cohanim, and Levites carefully guarding every letter, teaching in both Hebrew and Aramaic, not to mention that after Yeshua, and the fall of the second Temple, the Jews had communities everywhere to help everything stay similar, at least in writing. As far as I know, the Ashkenazi and Sephardi dialects of Hebrew (European and Eastern) are really all the differences there are even in the pronunciation of the Hebrew words, and they can mostly understand each other.
I may not like all of Rabbinical Judaism, but I am very thankful for the Rabbi's care over the centuries. That, by the way, is why there are Jews that will not believe in Yeshua until they meet Him face to face...it’s their job to hold the Oracles of G-d. I do not envy them that moment of realization when they finally understand, those that are kept purposefully blind. They are the ones who walk into the Kingdom as humans, and rebuild the world under Yeshua...and I guess, us.
When the Dead Sea Scrolls were checked, the Jews were surprised so little had been lost or changed, and newer finds have done the same for the Hebrew Texts of parts of the Brit Chadashah. Archeology has continued to keep digging stuff up...so much, that it's hard to keep up with even if that is your field.
- there are 70 faces to 
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how bad things can get when debating scripture. 
