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Why Does Hebrews 10:5 Change "Ears" to "Body" in Psalm 40:6? https://youtu.be/rq3fK_RyaBU Hebrews 10:5 is another passage where a quote of an Old Testament passage reads differently than it does in the Hebrew Bible, but unlike other passages we have looked in our series thus far, this change in reading does not have the support of a textual variant in the Hebrew text. Rather, it appears that the translators of the Greek Septuagint being quoted by the writer of Hebrews, actually interpolated a reference to David possessing "dug out" ears (or pierced ears) in the Hebrew text of Psalm 40:6 as a reference to servitude which finds its basis in the Jewish law of slavery. Hence, the change was made from pierced or dug out "ears" to "body" to emphasize the complete devotion of David (and eventually the Messiah Jesus) to God in offering His "body" in self-sacrifice for sins as applied by the author of Hebrews in his citation from Psalms. ============ [Music] Why Does Hebrews 10:5 Change "Ears" to "Body" [from] Psalm 40:6? Why did the writer of 00:00:16 Hebrews change the word "ears" to "body" when he was quoting Psalm 40:6, where it says in the NASB, this is the Christian New American Standard Bible that I usually read when I'm reading the Christian Bible. Psalm 40:6, it says, "Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; (but) My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required." It has changed. The "ears" are changed to "body" when we see it quoted in Hebrews 10:5. "Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, 'Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You [have] prepared for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.'" That's Hebrews 10:5-6. So have you noticed the change? In the Old Testament it says, "My ears you have opened," in the New Testament, it says, "A body you prepared for me." The claim of the Jewish rabbis is that Christianity has distorted the message of Judaism. This is another episode in our series where we are discussing "Is Christianity the Mormonism of Judaism?" and just like Mormonism distorts the teachings of Christianity when it distorts the gospel, and says that we have to do a bunch of works and temple rituals in order to be forgiven and to receive salvation from God, so Judaism claims that Christianity has distorted the core message of Judaism by teaching that we need a sacrifice for sin and that that sacrifice is paid for by Christ. So today we're going to be talking about the concept of vicarious atonement. What is vicarious atonement? Vicarious atonement is the belief that somebody innocent could take the place of somebody who is guilty. So in other words, if I wanted to have my sins forgiven in the Christian concept of vicarious atonement, we come to Jesus, we confess our sins and Jesus forgives our sin, because He paid the price for our sin as an innocent lamb of God. He paid the sacrificial price for our sin on the cross so that we could be forgiven and go free. That's the concept of vicarious atonement, that somebody innocent takes the place of somebody guilty, and that is the concept that is taught in Hebrews chapter 10, where it quotes these passages of the Old Testament, particularly Psalm 40:6 about the blood of bulls and of goats, it's impossible to take away sin and it says, "Sacrifice and ... offering You have not desired; (where Psalms 40:6 says) My ears You have opened," to do God's will. The passage in Hebrews says, "But a body You prepared for me." So we're discussing this concept: Did the Hebrews writer mistranslate or misquote the passage in Psalms when he wrote, "A body You prepared for me"? Was that misquoted in Hebrews and was it a mistranslation in the Greek Septuagint, Greek translation of this Old Testament, because the Septuagint reads exactly the same way? We're going to discuss that today, but to begin our discussion of this topic, 00:03:43 I feel it's very important that we understand the jury system of sacrifices and understand how sins were forgiven under the Old Covenant, the old law. What could be covered by a sacrifice and what could not be covered by a sacrifice? Let's listen in as the rabbi we have been featuring in a number of our videos, let's listen as he describes the different types of sacrificial offerings in the Old Covenant found in the Old Testament. Rabbi Tovia Singer: "So what is a guilt offering? How is it different than a sin offering, and why would it be so valuable here in this passage? The answer is simple. A sin offering, Leviticus 4, is for sins committed unintentionally, accidentally, recklessly. People make mistakes. We're creatures of habit, and we're not thinking properly. Therefore we make mistakes, but they're not intentional. What is a guilt offering? Listen up guys, I'll tell you all this. So if you read through Leviticus 5, you'll notice that what we, what comes into view, is a person - a whole series of sins where he may have sinned intentionally - or unintentionally - it makes no difference. The Torah says that what happened is such a person comes and he decides to confess, and stand before the court and say, 'I sinned. I stole it.' "He's not caught. He got away with it, but he confesses it. So what does the Torah say? The Torah says this is a very special case because the person had confessed their sin, although initially it might have been intentional, there's a whole lot of different ones, but let's just take the worst scenario. It was completely intentional because, although the initial action was completely, it was intentional, deliberate, with the intent of robbing or sinning, but at some stage this person confesses their sin and they didn't need to. They got away with it. So Hashem considers is such a great act, such a great act, but now that it's only a guilt and they could bring a sacrifice for it, which means the weight of the sin retroactively has been lifted, because what happens if you steal and you get caught, we can go to Exodus for that. If you get caught, if you steal and don't confess, but you actually get caught, you have to pay twice, double. In a case of a large rental, you may have to pay four or five hundred. "There's no sacrifice for you; sacrifices don't work if you get caught. Sacrifice had only done whatever we say so the weakest won't sin. In this case is a very interesting orientation here. Here we have a sin where it began as a full-blown sin, but the act of confession, of repentance and remorse has now weakened the force of the sin, now that you are making your soul in HaShem, offering a guilt offering you can bring a carbon I shall make [Hebrew?] a guilt sacrifice." Okay, we just saw the video from this rabbi explaining the two types of sacrifices that were offered in the temple for sins: Psalm 40:6 in the Christian Bible, or Psalm 40:7 in the Jewish Bible, 00:07:16 It reads in the Christian Bible: "Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required." Now the context that David wrote this particular Psalm about sacrifice and offering not being required is in the context of his experience with Nathan the Prophet confronting him about his sin with Bathsheba. If you remember, in 2nd Samuel Chapter 12, we read about how Nathan came to David and told him a story about a man who had only one sheep and that sheep was so precious to him, that he would sleep with that sheep and he would take such great pleasure in the sheep. And then the rich man, he had plenty of sheep, but instead of sacrificing one of his sheep for his guests, he took the poor man's sheep. Now this really resonated with David when he thought about this man having one sheep and the only sheep he had. And David was a shepherd - you might remember that - and so, when Nathan told him this story, David became irate and he [said], "Well that man who took that only sheep, that rich man who took the only sheep of that poor man, he deserves to die." It says in 2nd Samuel 12:5, "Then David's anger burned greatly against that man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.' Now, if you remember, Nathan came to David to confront him about his sin with Bathsheba. Bathsheba, if you remember, was the wife of Uriah, who was a valiant soldier in David's army and when Uriah was out fighting the battles for David, David saw Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop and decided he wanted to have her over for the night, and she sent a message a few weeks later, telling David, "Hey, I'm pregnant." So what did David do? He had committed adultery with Uriah's wife. Now, David had plenty of wives, had plenty of concubines and there was no reason he needed to sleep with Uriah's one and only wife, so Nathan told the story about the sheep to help David see the connection of what he [had] done to Uriah. So to cover up his sin with Uriah's wife, his sin of adultery, David then tried to get Uriah to come home from battle and to sleep with his wife, so that this child [who] was going to be born would be seen by everyone around as, "Oh well, that's Uriah's child," but it didn't work. Uriah refused to be at home with his wife and to spend the night with her. He stayed on the doorstep of his house, because he's like, "Why should I have pleasure with my wife 00:10:33 "when the battle was raging and my brothers out there in the war [were] fighting?" So he refused to sleep with his wife. So now David is caught with a problem. He's trying to cover up his adultery, which, by the way under the Old Testament law, a person who commits adultery would be punished by death if he's convicted. It reads in Leviticus 20:10, "If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." So, according to the Jewish Levitical law, David had committed a punishment...