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Bible Scholar Explains How 'Newer Testament' Translation Brings Readers Closer to Jewish Roots of Christian Faith

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Translations of the Bible have increased dramatically in recent years and one Bible scholar has translated the Hebrew Heritage Bible Newer Testament.

CBN News spoke recently with Dr. Brad Young, who trained at Hebrew University and was a teacher of biblical literature at Oral Roberts University for more than 30 years. He believed it was important to highlight the Jewish roots of the Christian faith by translating the Greek New Testament into Hebrew, then into English, to understand better how the first followers of Yeshua (Jesus) would have heard his teaching.

As an example, Dr. Young cites one of the most famous scriptures from the gospels, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son...."

Young explained, "Most people start with the word "world" as cosmos (in Greek). It can be the world, different things. But we saw in a lot of Hebrew texts from the time that when you talked about the world like that, you were really talking about the people of the world. So, we translated, "For God so loved the people of the world that He gave His only son..."

To see our interview with Dr. Young, click on the video above.

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About The Author

Julie Stahl
Julie
Stahl

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel fulltime for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN – first as a graduate student in Journalism; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. As a correspondent for CBN News, Julie has covered Israel’s wars with Gaza, rocket attacks on Israeli communities, stories on the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and