TBS Quarterly Record 596 - Trinitarian Bible Society (Australia)

Issue Number: 596 – July to September 2011was not always made in an entirely satisfactory manner: some changes to represent theReceived Text were left in brackets, a number of alterations to represent the ReceivedText correctly were not made, and in some instances the changes were made withoutensuring that the alterations flowed nicely with the rest of the text. These points indicatethat a thorough revision to ensure better conformity to the Received Text has been longoverdue.The main aims of the revision projectThe principal aims of the project are first of all to produce an edition of the HebrewNew Testament that retains the beauty of the Delitzsch Hebrew, whilst improving itsconformance to the Greek Textus Receptus, and secondly to amend words that havechanged their meaning significantly and to replace any other words that are difficult forHebrew-speaking people of today to understand. Where possible, words that are beingchanged are being replaced with words from the Hebrew Old Testament so that there isincreased uniformity in the style and language between the Old and New Testaments. Ashinted earlier, Delitzsch used a particular form of Hebrew which, whilst possessing greatliterary beauty and reverence, is not necessarily accessible to a good number of thoseusing Hebrew today. 2 The end result, we trust, will provide the Hebrew-speaking peopleswith a trustworthy, reverent and more widely accessible copy of the New Testament.The complex nature of the projectBefore we take a look at how far the work has progressed, it is helpful to understand thebreadth of the project, which is in part occasioned by the complex nature of the Hebrewlanguage.The present team, which began its work on revising the Gospel according to John in May2010, has been headed by a minister of the Gospel who up until recently was living inIsrael and had done so for a number of years. The core of the team—working under hisguidance, and all living in Israel—includes one of the Society’s Editorial Consultants withspecialist New Testament Greek knowledge; an American missionary with a good workingknowledge of Hebrew and New Testament Greek, who works on the alignment betweenthe Greek and Hebrew; and a literary Hebrew consultant, an expert in Biblical and literaryHebrew who is very familiar with Delitzsch’s style and thus able to help preserve hiseloquence whilst providing important guidanceon thenuances of the Hebrew language.These core team members are also in close touchwith a number of other reviewers who supplyvaluable additional expertise. The first of theseis a long-time believer and user of the DelitzschA traditionalHebrew scribe at work13