HEBREW ROOTS #3 --- The WITNESS of The FIRST

"For if this FIRST had been faultless, 

there would have been no place for this SECOND."

Hebrews 8:7

No "TANACH",  no "Old" Testament, no "Old Covenant."  Scripture calls it THE FIRST. 

The First WHAT ?

The Scriptural context leaves no doubt that COVENANT is the topic under discussion.  Furthermore, the topic has 2 items which are being compared:  the FIRST item as compared to the SECOND.

The FIRST  is dead, dying, and brings death; the SECOND is alive, living, and brings LIFE !  

Scripture does this in another place, also: the FIRST ADAM as compared to the SECOND ADAM+ : 

Y'SHU+ the MESHIKHA ( Aramaic), 

YESHUA+ HA MOSHIACH (Hebrew), 

or JESUS CHRIST (English). 

See I Corinthians 15:45-47

In both comparisons, the FIRST --- while very good and both created and established by GOD HIMSELF --- gave place to the SECOND item as to a SUPERIOR.

The FIRST  is dead, dying, and brings death; the SECOND is alive, living, and brings LIFE !  

 Now, to look at Scripture itself, starting in the book written DIRECTLY to and for the original Hebrew Roots Christians:

Hebrews 8:13  : In that HE saith, "A new," HE hath made  the FIRST old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. (KJV)

The New English Bible states this truth in this way:

By speaking of a NEW Covenant, HE has

pronounced the FIRST ONE "old" ;

and anything that is growing old and ageing

will shortly disappear.

Now enters the translation of Mr. Andrew Roth's Aramaic-English New Testament:

" In that HE said a RE-NEWED (Covenant ),

HE made the FIRST old;

and that which is old and decaying ,

is near to disappearing. "

Mr. Roth follows this verse with a lengthy commentary, footnote 45, explaining why  Hebrews 8:13 and its contextual verses are NOT meaning "COVENANT" at all ... but rather the "sinful predisposition" of mankind !

Thus, herein lies a great and grievous difficulty

when dealing with the Hebrew Roots leaders and teachers and translators:

they change the word meanings .

NEW means "new," not something old re-furbished.  New means "new" in the Greek and Latin and Aramaic / Syriac text.  Mr. Roth arbitrarily changes the meaning in his AENT... except when it comes to "NEW WINE !"

[  A NOTE...  on translating from the Aramaic /Syriac to English:  

In the Semitic languages, a word may change its meaning slightly when used in a different FORM.

Mr. Roth does not follow the rules for translating these forms and thus, adds confusion in his AENT translation .

   In the Peshitta, ( which Mr. Roth is translating ) there are ONLY 6 VERSES in which “renewed” or “renovated” is used. 

In five of those six verses, the Aramaic/Syriac word is a VERB in the ETHPAEL form. One time, the VERB is used in the Pael form, according to the analytical lexicon of Dukhrana.com.  

Now this is IMPORTANT:  if the VERB FORM is in the simplest format ( not Ethpael nor pael ), then it means “to be NEW”.  

However, if the verb form is in the ETHPAEL or PAEL format, then it means “renew.” 

The ADJECTIVE form of NEW ( CHaDaTa) ---  as in Hebrews 8:8,  8:13,  9:15, and 12:24 --- always means “NEW.”   The simple adjective form always means “new.”

Mr. Roth changes the simple adjective "new" to his un-authorized ( by any linguistic rule ) "renewed" when translating Jeremiah 31:31 as quoted in Hebrews 8:8. ]

In BOTH the Jeremiah 31 verses and the Hebrews 8 verses, the CONTEXT plainly states that the FIRST COVENANT was: 

·                     faulty

·                      old

·                     decayed

·                     disappearing

In Hebrews 7, the FIRST COVENANT  is described as :

·                     powerless (vs 18 )

·                     useless  ( vs 18 )

·                     made nothing perfect ( vs 19 )

• inferior to the SUPERIOR Covenant through Y'SHU+ (vs 22)

In Hebrews 10, the AENT, states: 

"For in TORAH there was a shadow of the good things to come; not the substance of the things themselves... "  in regards to the Blood sacrifices establishing the FIRST COVENANT.

Hebrews 10:9 states, in reference to Y'SHU+ the MESHIKHA:

" ...  Behold, I+ come to do Your Will, O ALAHA (GOD); HE+ abolished the FORMER that HE+ might establish the latter. "

The former, of course, is the FIRST COVENANT and its system of sacrifices, laws, and ordinances.  They were good and given to protect all who would take refuge in GOD.

But when the SUPERIOR COVENANT was given by GOD through His SON+, Y'SHU+ the MESHIKHA ( JESUS CHRIST ), the old has passed away .  The former sacrificial system is no longer valid in the eyes of GOD, ALAHA, The ELOHIM.

HEARKEN:

For the priesthood being changed,

there is made of necessity

a change also OF THE LAW.

Hebrews 7:12

The Righteousness which was found in keeping TORAH is gone now.

"... I do count them dung, 

that I may win CHRIST (MESHIKHA+) . 

And be found in HIM+, 

not having mine own righteousness, 

which is of the Law, 

but that which is through 

the faith of CHRIST, 

the righteousness which is of GOD 

by faith."

~ The Apostle Paul, Philippians 3:1-14

Yea rather, we ESTABLISH the Law

... the Law of CHRIST.

The FIRST  is dead, dying, and brings death; the SECOND is alive, living, and brings LIFE !