Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah, with Leah, his first wife, and Rachel, 2nd wife and sister to Leah, with them being 1st cousins; with their possibly Egyptian handmaidens who were 3rd and 4th concubines or considered as wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. Jacob was 130 years old when he went to Egypt. (Genesis 47:9) He remained in Egypt until he died at 147, when his body was returned to Hebron in Canaan. He married his uncle Laban's 2 daughters in Haran. a trading town of NW Mesopotamia that was also known as Canaan. (Gen30:18; 35:25-26). To give one a general idea of when this took place, " Jacob lived 147 years, so he died 2255 years after Creation, otherwise known as 1505 BCE. In other words, Jacob lived 1652–1505 BCE, or born 261 years before Moses, which would be 3, 656 years ago.
Polygamy, or the practice of having more than one spouse at a time, is legal in some countries, including many in sub-Saharan Africa. In these countries, polygamy is often legal to some extent, and is more common among Muslims than Christians. However, some countries have recently banned polygamy, while others have unique laws regarding it:
In the ancient Jewish culture, Isaac, who was married to Rebecca, was regarded as the model in later monogamous households. Proverbs 31 shows a monogamous family. It was the first Jewish kings, Saul, David and especially Solomon who practiced polygamy. Solomon's concubines were even numbered and recorded. He did this to keep peace among countries he dealt with, and it seemed to work on the most part.
During the Talmud period only had a handful of rabbis who were recorded with more than one wife at a time.
By 1000 CE in the takkanah of Rabbi Gershom, it forbid polygamy and gave formal sanction among Ashkenazi Jews to what was already generally accepted. "Among these Takkonoth the most well known are the prohibition of polygamy (taking more than one wife), the decree against opening a letter addressed to others, and so on."
However, among the Spanish and oriental Jews, on the other hand, polygamy continued to be legal, though by no means general.
In Italy, down to the 17th century, a person whose wife was barren, was occasionally permitted by papal license (Catholics) to take a 2nd wife. Europeanization of many oriental communities in recent generation, has seen polygamy becoming increasingly rare.
In Israel, monogamy is now enforced by law, though existing polygamous marriages are recognized. Around 20 to 30 percent of Bedouin men practice polygamy, according to government figures, with the rate climbing as high as 60 percent in some villages. Bedouin polygamy takes many forms, from several wives cohabitating under the same roof to men picking up and moving on to second wives without looking back. The Bedouins are Muslims and Islam permits a man to take up to four wives, though the practice varies greatly among different Muslim communities, often depending on education and income.
Polygamy is allowed by Sharia law, which governs family laws for Muslims in Israel, and tradition and custom also permit it. However, the Israeli state rarely enforces the law against Bedouin citizens, and many Bedouin are unaware that it's illegal. Some say that the Israeli legislature and legal system's ambivalence on the issue violates the human rights of Arab Bedouin women.
Most modern Muslims view the practice of polygyny as allowed, but unusual and not recommended due to normative pressures for ordinary men. The practice of polygyny is often viewed in its historical context, as the marriage was the only way for a woman to be provided for during the time of Muhammad.
Polygamy is illegal in Israel under Israeli marriage law, which applies to all residents of East Jerusalem, including Arab Muslims. However, polygamy is permitted under Sharia law, which governs Muslims' personal status issues in Israel. As a result, polygamy is practiced among Israeli Arabs, especially in the Bedouin sector, where authorities often turn a blind eye to it. According to Israeli government data, at least 20% of Bedouin families are polygamous, but women's rights advocates estimate the figure is closer to 40%.
Traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic marital jurisprudence allows Muslim men to be married to multiple women . Men can have up to four wives at a time according to the islamic jurisprudence.
In the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, polygynous marriages are legal. They are also legal for Palestinians who are governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in the West Bank. Polygymous marriages means many children come from such unions.
Iran: Men can practice polygamy if their first wife consents.
Satan is found in the Bible. What we Jews think about him is different from the Christian viewpoint or the Islamic viewpoint.
Satan occupies a prominent place in Christianity, which generally regards him as a rebellious angel and the source of evil who will meet his ultimate demise in battle at the End of Days, which Judaism, Christianity and Islam all believe we are now immersed in.
Balaam and the Angel (1836) by Gustav Jäger. The angel in this incident is referred to as a "satan".The Bible contains multiple references to Satan. The word appears just twice in the , both times in the story of Balaam, the seer who is asked by the Moabite king Balak to curse the Jews. When Balaam goes with Balak’s emissaries, God places an angel in his path “l’satan lo” — as an adversary for him.
Jewish sources, commencing with Moses (born c 1391 BCE) on the whole don’t dwell as much on the satanic, but the concept is nonetheless explored in numerous texts. In Hebrew, the term Satan is usually translated as “opponent” or “adversary,” and he is often understood to represent the sinful impulse (in Hebrew,yetzer hara) or, more generally, the forces that prevents human beings from submitting to divine will. In the earlier biblical books, e.g. 1 Samuel29:4 (possibly written by King David or a friend) , it refers to human adversaries, but in the later books, especially Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3, to a supernatural entity.
He is also sometimes regarded as a heavenly prosecutor or accuser, a view given expression in theBook of Job, where Satan encourages God to test his servant. Job is the 3rd book in the hagiographic section of the Bible (the writing of the lives of saints. biography thatidealizesits subject. "a hagiography which is designed to serve a political agenda."
The Talmud (books of discussion of Jewish law) explains that Job was never a real person but was simply a parable; a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.Satan makes many appearances in the Talmud. A lengthy passage in the tractate Sanhedrin accords Satan a central role in the biblical story of the binding of Isaac. According to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, it was Satan that caused the Jewish people to despair of Moses returning from Mount Sinai by showing them an image of the prophet on his deathbed. A passage in the tractate Megillah says that Satan dancing at the party of the Persian King Ahasuerus is what led to the killing of Queen Vashti in the Purim story.
It tries to answer the problem of the suffering of a good or righteous people. Job is an example of a good person. He is a native of Uz who Satan tries to tempt to do bad things. His friends think that his suffering is the result of his wickedness, but Job says that he has not done anything bad. G-d finally steps in from a whirlwind explaining the Divine cosmic order of things and the pettiness of human understanding. The author of Job is unknown, possibly thought to be by some Edomite who wrote it between Mosaic and early 2nd Temple times. The book was not then read but recited by the high priest of the Temple on the eve of the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.
Only twice in the Hebrew Bible does Satan appear as a specific figure, as HaSatan — the Satan. One is the Book of Job and the other is a brief reference in the Book of Zecharia, where the high priest is described as standing before a divine angel while Satan stands at his right to accuse him.
Satan has a central role in the story as an angel in the divine court. According to the biblical narrative, Satan — here too commonly translated as the Adversary — seems to urge God to create hardship for his righteous servant Job, arguing that Job is faithful only on account of his wealth and good fortune. Take those away, Satan claims, and Job will blaspheme. God permits Satan to take away Job’s wealth, kill his family and afflict him physically, none of which induces Job to rebel against God.
Sephardi Jews also read the book on the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av) found on the Jewish calendar.'The ninth of Av') is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both of Solomon's Temples; in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar; (After the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Jews of the Kingdom of Judea went into exile. The 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire during the First Jewish-Roman War. in 70 CE.)
The Romans subsequently crushed Bar Kokhba's revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 500,000 Jewish civilians (approximately 580,000) on 9 Ab 135 CE.[9]
Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman commander Quintus Tineius Rufus plowed the site of the Temple in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.[10]
Over time, Tisha B'Av has come to be a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for later tragedies that occurred on or near the 9th of Av. References to some of these events appear in liturgy composed for Tisha B'Av (see below). Note that dates prior to 1582 are in the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar.
The Jews were expelled from Spain on 31 July 1492 (Av 7, AM 5252).[10]
Germany entered World War I on 1–2 August 1914 (Av 9–10, AM 5674), which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to World War II and the Holocaust.[9]
On 2 August 1941 (Av 9, AM 5701), SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval from the Nazi Party for "The Final Solution," which marked the beginning of the Holocaust during which almost one third of the world's Jewish population was murdered.[13]
On 23 July 1942 (Av 9, AM 5702), the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began.[13]
The AMIA bombing on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killed 85 and injured 300 on 18 July 1994 (10 Av, AM 5754).[14]
The 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, according to some Religious Zionist rabbis like Yaakov Ariel and Dov Lior.[15][16]Kinnot have been composed about the withdrawal,[17][18] and the connection to Tisha b'Av was emphasized in 10-year anniversary commemorations.[19][20] The disengagement's timing lent itself to symbolic interpretation both by Religious Zionists and by wider Jewish culture.[21] However, even within Religious Zionism, Chaim Navon holds that the disengagement did not rise to the level of a calamity[22] and Shlomo Aviner has written that mourning the disengagement on Tisha b'Av is forbidden because it incites political division. Yona Metzger, then Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, ruled in 2006 that the disengagement was a tragedy but mourning rituals should not be integrated into Tisha b'Av, while Howard Jachter permits it in narrow fashion.
While the Holocaust spanned a number of years, most religious communities use Tisha B'Av to mourn its 6,000,000 Jewish victims, in addition to or instead of the secular Holocaust Memorial Days such as Yom HaShoah. On Tisha B'Av, communities that otherwise do not modify the traditional prayer liturgy have added the recitation of special kinnot related to the Holocaust.
The year of 5784 (2024) has Tisha B'Av on August 13.We are under a high alert
with Iran's Ayatollah giving the order to attack Israel and all Jews. Nine days from
now, what calamity might happen if any? Western intelligence sources told Sky News Arabia that they had evidence Iran plans to attack Israel on Tisha B’Av in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which begins on August 12 and ends on August 13, the site reported on Friday. Iran’s attack will reportedly be coordinated with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group embedded in Lebanon.
Satan is explored in detail in Jewish mysticism, orKabbalah.
According to Kabbalah, God is Ein Sof, or "without end," and is never depicted in human form or as having a gender. Instead, Kabbalah defines God by describing what God is not.
Kabbalistic sources expand the view of Satan considerably, offering a rich and detailed portrayal of the demonic realm and the forces of evil in the world, which are to be warded off in some cases with various forms of magic, from amulets to exorcisms. Among the most prominent forms of Jewish mysticism is Kabbalah, which emerged in the 12th century and has since become a central component of Jewish mystical thought. Other notable early forms include prophetic and apocalyptic mysticism, which are evident in biblical and post-biblical texts.
The Jewish mystical tradition has much to say about Satan. Indeed, kabbalistic texts offer a rich description not merely of Satan, but of an entire realm of evil populated by demons and spirits that exists in parallel to the realm of the holy. Satan is known in Kabbalah as Sama’el (rendered in some sources as the Great Demon), and the demonic realm generally as the Sitra Achra — literally “the other side.” The consort of Sama’el (who is mentioned in pre-kabbalistic Jewish literature as well) is Lilith, a mythic figure in Jewish tradition more commonly known as the rebellious first wife of Adam.
The kabbalistic sources portray the demonic as a separate and oppositional realm in conflict with God. Kabbalah even offers explanations of the origins of the demonic realm, the most common of which is that this realm emerges when the attribute of God associated with femininity and judgment, is dissociated from the attribute of God associated with grace and masculinity, and becomes unconstrained. Evil, in this reading, results from an excess of judgment.
Many of these ideas would later find expression in Jewish folk beliefs and in the works of the Hasidic masters. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Poloniye, one of the chief disciples of Hasidism’s founder, the Baal Shem Tov, wrote in his Toldos Yaakov Yosef that God would eventually slaughter the angel of death during the messianic age — a belief that clearly echoes the Christian view of a final showdown between God and Satan at the End of Days. Hasidic folk tales are replete with descriptions of demonic forces, among them a famous story in which the Baal Shem Tov defends a group of children from a werewolf.
Even today some Hasidic Jews will seek out protections from such forces in the form of amulets or incantations. Some Jewish communities, particularly in the world, also prize amulets as protection from evil spirits and maintain a number of customs and rituals aimed at keeping those spirits at bay. Jewish sources dating back to biblical times including formulas for exorcisms to free the possessed of an evil spirit, known as a dybbuk.
The term appears in multiple other instances in the Prophets, often in a similar context — referring not to a specific figure as the Satan, but rather as a descriptor for individuals who act as a satan, i.e. as adversaries.
In Islam, Satan is called Iblis, and is also known as ʿAduw Allāh ("Enemy of God"), al-Aduw ("Enemy"), or al-Shayṭān ("Demon"). Iblis is the leader of the devils, or shayāṭīn, and is often compared to the Christian Satan.
Some of these Christian ideas are echoed in Jewish tradition, but some also point to fundamental differences — most notably perhaps the idea that, in the Hebrew Bible at least, Satan is ultimately subordinate to God,carrying out his purpose on earth. Or that he isn’t real at all, but is merely a metaphor for sinful impulses.
The kabbalistic and Hasidic literature complicate this view, offering a closer parallel to Christian eschatology. Both the kabbalistic/Hasidic and Christian traditions describe the forces of the holy and the demonic as locked in a struggle that will culminate in God’s eventual victory. According to some scholars, this is born of the considerable cross-pollination between Christian and Jewish thinking in the so-called “golden age” of Jewish culture in Spain during the Middle Ages, from whence many of the early kabbalistic texts, including the Zohar, emerged.
I'll conclude with Maimonides's thoughts. The word Satan, Maimonides writes, derives from the Hebrew root for “turn away.” Like the evil inclination, Satan’s function is to divert human beings from the path of truth and righteousness.Maimonides seems not to believe Satan actually exists, but rather that he is a symbol of the inclination to sin. The entire Book of Job, he writes, is fictional, intended merely to elucidate certain truths about divine providence. And even if it is true, Maimonides continues, certainly the portion in which God and Satan speak with each other is merely a parable. Maimon Ben Joseph (1110-1165) dayyan in Cordova, Spain, which he left in 1148 with his family because of persecution and went to Fez, upholding the faith of Jews who had been forced to convert to Islam; eventually settled in Egypt.
"G-d invited Moses up to Mount Nebo where He showed His beloved prophet the Promised Land before his death. Deuteronomy 34:4–5 records, “Then the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’ And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.”
Jordan River runs from Mt. Hermon to the Dead Sea of about 87 miles directly but has to wind around for 200 miles. Tributaries from Transjordan are Rivers Yarmuk, Jabboak, Heshbon
Abraham had a nephew named Lot. Lot traveled from Aram-Naharaim with his Uncle Abe to Canaan with him on his contingent. Lot's father was Haran who was Abraham's brother, both sons of Terah of Ur of the Chaldees. Each traveled with their own sheep and sheepherders to their new site for this was to be a permanent move.
The sheepherders had a quarrel over pasture-land and invading each other's choice spots. They parted company with Lot settling in the city of Sodom. This was a poor choice of people, as he was captured by 5 kings (like mayors of their towns) who had just attacked the country. Abraham rescued Lot. He had all the sheepherders with him. It was quite the escape, with Sodom on fire and Lot's wife looking back at it and turning into salt, quite a hot fire at that. At a later point, his daughters produced 2 sons Lot had sired when drunk, Ammon and Moab. From them came the Ammonites and the Moabites.
1. Ammonites, one of the Bull worshippers; didn't listen to the lecture from Lot's Uncle Abraham about what G-d was not.
Ammonites were found in Transjordan and of course were Semitic, related to Abraham. Remember that this was in the days of human sacrificing.
They were known best from the 13th to 18th centuries BCE, then declined, and were absorbed into Arab tribes. They kept attacking the Israelites after Israelites had occupied Canaan. The Ammonites were defeated at the hands of Jephtah, the Israelite judge who lived in Gilead and King Saul. Jephtah even defeated the Ephraimites, his cousins, who opposed his leadership. The Bible repeats the story Jephtah said that before fighting the Ammonites, he vowed to sacrifice whatever came first from his home, should he return safely; he was met by his daughter and,, with her consent, performed his vow. (Judg: 11). (I notice that she and Abraham's son, Isaac, also went along with being human sacrifices). Back then, they may have taken that ritual to be the norm, hard to believe, though.
Abraham's DNA, I figure, would be the same as Moses and his brother, Aaron; and Aaron had to be in today's DNA lingo, a J1 haplotype as they were from the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Jacob. Of course, the DNA does mutate somewhat through 4,000 years so would be carrying that knowledge, too. All of the males born with Abraham as the origin should be of J1. J1 is known as the Cohen gene-meaning from the direct line of Aaron. All other Levites may have an altered line of J1.
They were changed with new titles from Israelites to Jews much later after Solomon's death in 920 BCE, to past 135 CE when the Romans killed Bar Kokhba who held Jerusalem for 3 years and then was killed. Those remnants in Judah became known as Jews.
Great question! The Hebrew Bible doesn’t have a whole lot to say about individual Moabite men, and those texts that do talk about Moabite men (likeNum 22-24) don’t talk about them in relationship to Moabite women.
This is probably because the Moabites, who were Israel’s close neighbors, were primarily of concern to the Israelites when it came to war or Moab’s political alliances with Israel’s enemies or to intermarriage. So what Moabite men and women did amongst themselves wasn’t really important to the biblical authors. It only mattered when they interacted with the Israelites in some way.
The alleged sexual promiscuity of the Moabite women was primarily a concern to biblical authors who believed that these women would lead Israelite men into worshiping Moabite gods (see Num 25:1-5 and 1Kgs 11:1-8). The idea that the foreign woman is a dangerous temptress is a very common theme in the Bible; it is probably a literary device rather than a reflection of historical reality—that is, these are ancient “yo’ mama” slanders, not historical facts. The role of Moabite men in influencing Moabite women’s behavior doesn’t really come into the picture, because the stories aren’t about actual relationships and actual people. Yo, yea of little faith, our DNA might give us an idea through Mt haplotypes,, and remember, this was back in the days of human sacrificing. Sex offenses, hmmm, a whole town was slaughtered because of a rape.
2. Moabites were living in Transjordan which is bounded by the Heshbon River in the North, and the Zered River in the South, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to the West, and the Syrian Desert on the East.
They were the brothers of the Ammonites. They spoke a biblical Hebrew. Moabites took the land from the Rephaim (Emim), an even more ancient people in Transjordania in the time of Abraham who apparently settled near Jerusalem in the "Valley of Rephaim."
During the 40 years of the Exodus (c.1579-1500 BCE) part of the Moab land came under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon. After his defeat by the Israelites, it was occupied by the Israelites, giving all three reason to fight over it. Moabites originally were divided into family tribes, then united into a single kingdom, and it was their 2nd ruler, King Balak who summoned Balaam (Heathen prophet who was divinely inspired) to curse the Israelites. Of course, the curse was turned into a blessing on the Israelites.
Baal Peor It was on Balaam's advise that the Midianites invited the Israelites to worship Baal Peor and Balaam was killed by the Israelites on the battlefield. Balaam had the characteristics of a Mesopotamian priest and soothsayer but also appears as a faithful servant of G-d. The rabbis listed him as one of the 7 prophets who spoke to heathen nations. the biblical report of Balaam's reproof by his ass (donkey) is interpreted by Maimonides as a vision.
The Levites; those that were Cohens (Priests) and those who weren't have responsibilities at the altar of the Temple. Publisher, Museon
Levites' principal roles in the Temple included singing Psalms during Temple services, performing construction and maintenance for the Temple, serving as guards, and performing other services. Levites also served as teachers and judges, maintaining cities of refuge in biblical times.They were to live with tribal members and teach children and adults. They did not receive land of their own as the 11 other tribes did.
The Jewish history is reported by Moses in the Five Books of Moses that open with Genesis and followed with Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is the Torah, which has been told to the people of the Exodus, and afterwards.
The Torah is the Jews most revered possession, but to most other people, merely a fable. While Jewish tradition holds that all five books were originally written by Moses sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE, leading scholars have rejected Mosaic authorship since the 17th century.
Orthodox Shul
However, The Torah is read every year in a systematic scheme all over the world by Jews, so that people in Holland are reading from the same chapters as the people of the United States, giving us a feeling of uniting on Shabbat. Jews did not wait for the printing press to be invented. They lived it, then heard the history and enacted a special holiday every year of Pesach (Passover) where they also went without bread, and ate matzos instead like the people of the Exodus did, and certain foods are used as props to tell the story of what their ancestor, Moses did. Moses through G-d knew how to keep the history alive!
I understand that the Torah must have been read in the Temple as well to the people by the Levites on Shabbat and other days. That would be one useful place of keeping the Torah with people who could read it.
Specific instructions are listed in the Torah as to how to make objects for the Temple as well as the Temple itself, which were followed..
The tradition of reading the Torah out loud dates back to the time of Moses, who would read the Torah publicly on Shabbat, festivals, and Rosh Chodesh. According to the Talmud, it was Ezra the Scribe who established the practice, which continues today, of reading the Torah also on Monday and Thursday mornings and Shabbat afternoons. These days were picked because Monday and Thursday were traditionally days that the Jews would go to the nearest towns to shop and trade. Also, this way the people would never go for more than three days without getting spiritual sustenance from the Torah. There were breaks in the practice, but since the Maccabean period in the 2nd century BCE, public Torah reading has been maintained continuously. It was also in the Maccabean period that the Jews started reading from the Torah consecutively, reading on Shabbat afternoon, Monday, and Thursday from the point at which they left off the previous Shabbat morning.
In the early times, there were two traditions as to how the reading on Shabbat mornings should proceed. In Israel, the Torah was divided into 155 portions and took three years to read. In the early
19th and 20th centuries, Reform and some Conservative congregations followed this triennial cycle but this has been largely abandoned in favor of the annual cycle. In Babylonia, the Torah was split in 54 sections and took one year to read (some portions were read together in non-leap years). The size of the sections vary, containing anywhere between 30 and more than 150 verses. This latter custom became accepted for Orthodox and most Conservative Jews. The only break from the weekly cycle is when Shabbat is a holiday with a special Torah portion. The Torah is read on Shabbat and festivals between the shacharit (morning) and mussaf (additional) services and on weekdays at the end of shacharit.
Customs
There are always at least three people on the bimah (raised platform from where the Torah is read). According to the Talmud, one should not stand alone to emphasize that God gave the Torah through an intermediary. The person on the bimah is also there to correct the reader's pronunciation and "trop" (also called ta'amei hamikra, meaning a series of musical notations that dictate the tune of how the Torah is read), since the Torah scroll has no punctuation or vowels. A gabbai (synagogue official) is also there to call people up to the Torah.
The reader uses a yad (literally, "a hand"), usually a six to eight inch piece of silver fashioned in the shape of a finger, to point to the words of the Torah as he reads them. This is done so the reader does not obstruct the vision of the person honored with the aliyah and does not mar the dignity of the Torah by touching it. In Sephardi congregations, the Torah is carried inside a large wooden cylinder that stands erect when open, and the Torahparchment is in an upright position when it is read. In Ashkenazi congregations, the Torah lies flat.
There are a few passages in the Torah read quickly and in a low voice. These passages, from the sections of B'chukotai and Ki Tavo, list the curses that befall those who do not observe the law.
There was a time when there was no printed Bible in English. There was a time in England when under the Roman Catholic Church, it was illegal to translate the Scriptures into the common language from Latin. There was a time when it was illegal to read those illegal translations in public–or to own one. There were times when people were martyred for doing both. In England, William Tyndale, who became known as the Father of the English printed Bible, was forced to leave England in 1525 because of the wide-spread rumors about his project to prepare an English New Testament. He ended up in Germany near Martin Luther and in 1525, the first English Language New Testament was printed and copies smuggled back into England. Tyndale was finally captured in Belgium and his last words before he was burned at the stake in 1536 for printing common language Bibles were: “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” This prayer would be answered just three years later when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible. But before that, Myles Coverdale and John Rogers (who used the name Thomas Matthew) continued the work of Tyndale and moved the English Bible project forward. Coverdale finished the translation of the Old Testament and in 1535 he printed the first complete English language Bible. John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. What is unique about the work of Rogers is that this is the first Bible completely translated from the original Greek and Hebrew sources. Since it was printed using the alias name Thomas Matthew, it is commonly called the Matthew’s Bible. The significance of this Bible is that it set up the basic content, sources, and format of our present English Bible. Rogers was eventually burned at the stake for his translation work.
King James Bible, 1611. The King James, or Authorised, Version of the Bible remains the most widely published text in the English language. It was the work of around 50 scholars, who were appointed in 1604 by King James (r. 1603–25), and it is dedicated to him.
Tanakh (Tanach) Jewish Bible : The Jewish Publication Society Translation) was first published by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 1917. It was the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into English by a committee of Jews.
Additional: Joseph Herman Hertz, (born Sept. 25, 1872, Rebrény, Hung. —died Jan. 14, 1946, London), chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and author of books on Judaism and of influential commentaries on the Bible expressing a fundamentalist viewpoint. He was the editor of my 2 volumed Pentateuch and Haftoras
which are not dated. They contain Hebrew text, English trans-
