Austin Bible Church
The Hebrew language is one part of an entire structure in the plan of God to execute on earth the Doctrine of Inspiration. The plan calls for a people of God, from the people comes the language, from the language comes the text, through the authors the text was written, through the scribes the manuscripts were faithfully transmitted, through the prophets the text was faithfully taught, through the scholars the grammatical development took place to standardization of the text, from which comes the necessity of the student to understand the Hebrew language in order to secure the interpretation of the text, from the text comes the Bible doctrine content of the text, and from the Bible doctrine content of the text comes salvation for the unbeliever and spiritual growth and spiritual maturity principles for the believer.
The Hebrew language is one of four Semitic languages. You cannot separate the Hebrew people from the Hebrew language nor from the Hebrew text. The Hebrew text is divided into three sections: Torah, Prophets, The Writings. The order of books follows logically the three section structure.
The transmission of the text in copying manuscripts was a very detailed, minute and painstaking job. Accuracy and respect for the text was foremost in the mind of the scribe. The Angelic Conflict relates to the language of Scripture in the attempted discrediting of the writers of the text. If authorship of the text can be discredited, then the content can be discredited. All attempts at this have failed.
The Angelic Conflict also relates to the languages of Scripture in the attempted discrediting of the communicators or content of communicators. If the Angelic Conflict fails at the attempt to discredit the written text, the next thing is to discredit the verbally taught text.
The destructive higher criticism of the 19th and 20th Century failed to disprove the authorship of the written text. The destructive criticism of the verbal communication (categorical) of the 21st Century will also fail in the discrediting of the communicators and content of the verbal text.
By an exposure to the many and varied versions of the Hebrew text, it is obvious that God has always made it possible for people of all places, races, and languages to know the text. The supposed corner on scholasticism does not belong to the 21st century.
Versions of the Old Testament have been made in: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Slavonic, Persian and in most of the known languages today, which are beyond mention.
Within Church history and before, there has run side by side, the original text and interpretations thereof. The concept of compiling the exegetical meaning of the original text is not a specialty of the 21st Century commentaries. The Jews employed this as far back as the Exilic Period.