 
“I am Alap,
also Taw,” says the Master YHWH, Elohim; who is, and was, and is to
come, the omnipotent."
Revelation
1:8
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The Aramaic English New Testament is being distributed by:
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Bellingham, WA
98225-4650
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Khabouris Codex
 If
you've read the newspaper articles about the Khabouris
Codex, then you already have a good idea that this ancient and beautiful
manuscript stirred up a LOT of debate when it was first released to the American
people back in 1954. Imagine for a moment, and, please consider this
carefully. What would it mean to the religious worlds, if, an ancient and
beautifully preserved New Testament manuscript came on the scene, suddenly and
seemingly out of nowhere? Imagine that you, a leading scholar, professor,
theologian and dedicated Christian has been told all your life that Aramaic is a
dead language. That the New Testament wasn't originally written in Aramaic
and you've taught thousands upon thousands of people that the Greek New
Testament is the way to go. But, you pick up the New York Times and there
it is. The Khabouris Codex is right in your face:
For more
information about this digital reproduction please visit:
http://www.betterlight.com/khabouris.html
If you clicked
on one of the yellow text boxes, you've just viewed a
state-of-the-art in digital reproduction. The
level of
excellence of these magnificent high res images for researchers, scholars and
translators is unprecedented. We see the breathtaking quality of ancient
leather that carried the message from a millennium and many centuries ago.
We witness how the scribe organized and justified each
line. How he made notations around the text to reflect the ancient
Masoretic style of reproducing Holy writ. How he took the time to
accentuate precious words with red ink, but that's just "dusting the surface" as
they say.
The
Director of the California-based Khabouris Institute who produced these digital
images noted:
“Since the pages were flattened, we had maximum sharpness,” Eric
Rivera stated . “I think these images are sharper than anything that’s
been done before. And these are really big shots... there is so much
detail. You can go to the 80X microscopic level and see the actual writing, the
fungus in the parchment cracks, and there is no question that you’re looking at
an actual character from a thousand years ago.”
According to Eric, new insights have already emerged from this
ancient text from pioneering work done by the late Dan MacDougald, his
colleagues, and men like Bishop Gerrit Crawford. “Critical differences
have been found that will alter the version of Christianity being taught today,”
he said. “With the Khabouris codex, you get closer to the source -
providing insights into the original ideas that haven’t been as diluted and
confused through time and generations of interpretations and languages. We
want to explore these original concepts and make sure we hear them as they were
intended.”
Imagine what such a statement
might do to a dyed-in-the-wool Christian theologian who already thinks he knows
everything there is to know about textual criticism and systematic theology.
Mr. Rivera, why do you say that "critical differences have been found?"
How could this "alter the version of Christianity being taught today?"
What about these "original ideas that
haven’t been as diluted and confused through time and generations of
interpretations and languages?" One would
assume that back in 1954 when Christians heard these kinds of things they asked
their pastors about it, and many Christian leaders were praying... O Jesus...
thank you! No? That's now what happened at all, because everyone
knows that truth is no match for tradition. Extremely precious few souls
would ever think to suffer the infamy of the truth over the joys of social club
Christianity.
When the Khabouris Codex was
inspected by the top Aramaic researchers and scholars from the Church of the
East, they noted that this manuscript held "layers" of text. Within these
"layers" the other story of the date stamp of this ancient manuscript is told.
The aging process took its toll on the Khabouris Codex, what you see above is
one of the better pages. Over the centuries it was not uncommon for
scribes to "touch up" faded words and letters. On
June 7, 1965 the Archdeacon and Pastor Sadook De Mar Shimun, B.A.B.D., verified
and described the Khabouris codex this way: “The significance of the
Codex should be based on the following factors, each of which is of supreme
importance. Its colophon which ascribes it to the first decade of the 3rd
century, makes it the oldest Syriac-Aramaic known to exist...It's complete
text...” and that "...it was His
language as well as that of His disciples and the people to whom He proclaimed
His teachings...".
That 3rd century date however, was more
conservative than how scholars interpret the
colophon today. The most natural
conclusion is the reference in the colophon
that states: “dated one hundred years from
the Great Persecution.” That would
refer to about year 164 CE, the Great
Persecution was the first one in history
that occurred during the reign of Nero,
after he set Rome ablaze and blamed the fire
on Christians and Nazarenes.
What you were just looking at is the oldest
New Testament manuscript on earth. For
those who don't have a tingle going down
their spine, no worries. Albeit this
is an impressively ancient manuscript, but
it's not the paint job that will make or
break you on race day, what matters is
what's under the hood.
In the Greek based New Testament
world, however, there are now some 2200 different New testament translations;
obfuscated, confused and contrary to one another. The Aramaic New
Testament Church of the East has one New
Testament record that spans well over 1800 years. In fact, some 360
manuscripts in the Eastern Aramaic Peshitta family reveal breathtaking accuracy
with each other. Amazing.
Certainly the aging process took
it's toll on the Khabouris Codex, what you see above is one of the better pages,
but over the centuries scribes did in fact do a number of "touch ups" over
well-worn letters, but, the "other side of that story" is this.
For those who prefer to date the Kabouris
Codex by its latest "touch up" the reality
is that a thousand years back or forward
isn't going to make any difference when it
comes to the content which speaks for
itself. There is a world of difference
between Eastern and Western Aramaic New
Testament texts. Eastern texts reveal
a depth of Semitic detail far deeper than
any other ancient New Testament text on
earth, even if it didn't predate the oldest
Greek texts by about 200 years.
Our discussion about the ancient
Khabouris Codex would not be complete
without giving honor to it's neighbors, the
Greek manuscripts. If there is a world
of difference between Eastern and Western
Aramaic New Testament manuscripts, then
there is a universe of difference between
the Greek and Eastern Aramaic Peshitta
manuscripts. The one thing that we
really must nail down right off the bat, is
that if someone were to put the P52 into
your hand, that you wouldn't follow the
Greek primacy crowd over the cliff and call
that a "manuscript". Everyone else on
the planet calls those "fragments", let's
say it's about the size of a dollar bill.
Many
scholars consider the Codex Vaticanus
(B) 300-350 CE,
to be the
most reliable of the Greek New Testament
manuscripts, it resides in the
Vatican library and has done so since the
middle ages. The second most popular
is the
Codex Sinaiticus (Sin.) 350-400 CE,
discovered at a Catholic monastery in the
middle of the Sinai desert. The British
Museum purchased it for 100,000 pounds where
it remains on display.
The
Codex
Alexandrinus (A), 450-500 CE, has
resided in the British Library since the
17th century.
You've likely noticed that this family of
Greek texts has very exotic and compelling
names, for example: Vaticanus.
This tells us that this manuscript was
discovered in the Vatican, so, let's imagine
what the Vatican looked like around 300-350
CE when it was "discovered". This was
during the glory days of Caesar Flavius
Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus
(272-337), who Christians affectionately
refer to as Saint Constantine. He was
the first Christian Roman Emperor, according
to historians he and his mother dear mother
Helena (of Bithynian Greek extraction) were
torn between their many offical tasks that
included burning renegade Bibles and
renegade Christians. Constantine knew
well that the only way to reign in the
riff-raff Christians was to have one
official authorized bonafide version of
Bible: his. And so it was born, albeit
a rather oversimplification of history, the
Vaticanus Importantous Caesar Flavius
Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus New
Testamentos Biblios.
Moving ahead we come to the popular
Codex
Sinaiticus, which takes it's name from Mt.
Sinai even although it was discovered at
Saint Catherine's monastery in the Sinai
Peninsula, which is one of the 23 (or so)
locations that are all acclaimed to be the
real one. As the crow flies it is 81
miles west and a bit south of the most
likely location called Jebel el
Lawz, in Saudi Arabia,
on the East
side of the Red Sea.
What if you run a massive business selling Bibles
and it just so happens that you have nothing even close to the Khabouris Codex
to sell anyone? What if your Christian denomination has a very hard and
fast "salvational doctrine" that is the very core belief of your existence as a
religious institution, but an ancient New Testament text comes along and rips
those old religious theories to shreds? Imagine the politicking, the fear
of being wrong, the loss of business and the fear of not knowing what it really
says.
In the spring of 1955 the Khabouris Codex hit the
American Christian status quo like a bomb, and everybody knows that if you know
someone is about to send a bomb onto party, the best thing is try to stop it, if
you can. The war against the Khabouris Codex came on all fronts, according
to news releases it was the Bible Society in 1955 that ran a brisk campaign to
try to discredit the Khabouris Codex. Interestingly enough, we here at
Netzari Press and some of our distributors have felt the heat from Bible Society
representatives. There has been anger against us, rhetoric, threats and
even a few choice words thrown our way for asking people at the Bible Society to
take a look. No, they won't, we're very small fish you see, in a very big
pond.
Josephus
Mattathias states that; "Mount Sinai is the
highest of the mountains in the region of
the city of Madian." Hershel
Shanks, Biblical Archeology Review editor
says, "Jebel el Lawz is the most likely site
for Mount Sinai." Newsweek, February
23, 1998. A Red Sea survey plate in
Saudi Arabia marks the location where
archeologists believe the Israelites landed
on the east side of the Red Sea in Saudi
Arabia. Google Earth shows a likely
place for Elim where there were 12 wells and
70 palm trees, the wells are there to this
day. The wilderness of Sin lies
between Elim and Mt. Sinai, which can be
seen via Google Earth. At the base of
the mountain today are a guardhouse, fence
and big blue sign on authority of Royal
Saudi Decree that reads: ARCHEOLOGICAL
AREA WARNING IT IS UNLAWFUL TO
TRESPASS... STIPULATED IN THE ANTIQUITIES
REGULATIONS. There is a burned and
blackened peak on Jebel el Lawz as a result
of; "so I turned and came down from the
mount, and the mount burned with fire"
(Deut. 9:15). Google Earth shows an
area 2 X .75 miles immediately to the north
of Jebel el Lawz, there are structures of
antiquity that include an alter and numerous
pillars (Exodus 24:4) at that encampment.
Jebel el Lawz in Arabic means
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