Part 1: Why Does Israel Still Matter: Lost in translation

The truth is… the question ‘Why Does Israel still Matter?’ can only be asked by a Church that has become utterly alienated from its own origins. Nevertheless, it’s a question that needs to be answered if the next generation of Christians is going to take up the mantle of standing with Israel. 

The modern State of Israel may or may not be the final restoration of the Jews to their ancient land – only God knows. But it is impossible to deny something mysterious is going on in Israel. Depending upon which branch of the Christian religion you have been exposed to, grew up with, or have adopted, we each look at Israel through theological lenses. Likewise, Jewish people look at Christians through lenses they acquired through their experience.

Christians and Jews belong together. From the Christian side, that involves bringing the Church back to its original Hebraic vision. That does NOT mean conversion to Judaism or romantic notions of finding your distant Jewish roots. What it DOES mean is that in the Jew Jesus/Yeshua, everything changed. The human race became one new man in Him. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

To commemorate the launch of our website, I thought Iʼd post this series of articles to offer my “cliffs-notes” on this complex and essential question.

In the short 70-year history of the modern State of Israel, it’s probably never been more critical than it is today to understand what’s happening here, who the players are, and what’s at stake. According to polling data, worldwide support for Israel continues to wane. Sadly, that trend extends into the Evangelical Church. A recent survey of Evangelicals conducted by Life-way research suggests a decline in support for Israel among young Evangelicals (18-34). Some experts in Israel question whether they can survive without the help of the United States.

As an American who spends a lot of time in Israel, I can see plenty of geopolitical reasons to support Israel, but that’s not my purpose for writing. Our reason for standing with Israel goes much deeper than “American interests abroad” or the survival of Western civilization, and we certainly don’t take our queue from the media. Comprehending Israel as a modern Nation/State within its biblical context requires more thought and study than many people have time for.

This series of articles will help provide a coherent rationale to answer the question, why does Israel still matter?

The Jewish poet Haim Nachman Bialik wrote that reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your bride through a veil. With that idea as a backdrop, let me zoom out to look at a basic assumption. For centuries the Bibles we read, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek New Testament, have been filtered to us through the minds or lenses of translators from copies of original manuscripts and/or other translations. In other words, translators are interpreters… they can’t help it. To do their jobs, they must choose words and thoughts from one language to express words and ideas in another.

The Hebrew Scriptures, referred to as the Old Testament by over a billion Christians, were initially written in Hebrew and, in some cases, Aramaic. When those scriptures were eventually translated into other languages, they didn’t always translate word for word or thought for thought. While we believe the scriptures were inspired in their original manuscripts, we donʼt believe the translators were, and some of their choices have had unpredictable long-term consequences.

From the time Jerome translated the Greek scriptures into Latin at the end of the fourth century, it was twelve hundred years before the entire Bible was translated into English. Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate from various sources, including earlier attempts in Latin, Coptic, Syriac, and Hebrew. The Hebrew scriptures in Greek, The Septuagint, existed for centuries before that. Did you ever play grapevine, telephone, or Chinese whispers as a kid? Things get lost in translation, and when they do, there are consequences. It’s the consequences that need more thought.

I will give three examples of Hebrew concepts that were mistranslated into English and became diluted from their original meaning. One tragic consequence has been that, over time, these mistranslations have affected how we see God and what we think He is like.

In Hebrew, each letter is a picture, and every word is like a comic strip that tells a story. Let’s look at these Hebrew concepts/words; Torah, Tzedakah, and Berith. The Latin words used to translate them were Lex, Justitia, and Foedus. The English words that followed were; Law, Justice, and Covenant.

The Hebrew word Torah was filtered into the English language as Law from the Latin word Lex. The problem is, the English word Law borrows from the Latin meaning, and neither words express the depth of the Hebrew word Torah.

Torah is an intimate family word that carries the simple meaning of instructions passed from the Father to his children. On the other hand, Lex flows from within a rigid legal and judicial framework and is extremely narrow and linear.

Torah is panoramic and sweeping in scope, describing God’s rich covenantal commitment and His covenantal faithfulness to his people. These instructions included specific ways He graciously provided for them to respond to Him. These responses became the moral obligations that flowed from within that Covenant. Explicitly spelled out were the various ways of behaving that would lead to life and the ways of behaving that would lead to death. God told them to choose life.

The second mistranslated Hebrew concept is Tzedakah. Tzedakah was filtered into English as Justice from the Latin word Justitia. Here again, the Latin idea of justice flows from within the same rigid legal matrix as Lex and fails to represent the Hebrew idea of Tzedakah.

The actual Hebrew word for justice is Mishpat, but even in that case, our English concept of justice falls short of how the Hebrews understand justice. Mishpat is a much more significant idea. To translate Mishpat with our vision of justice oversimplifies its meaning. Especially in Western thinking that is so addicted to that rigid legal matrix.

Mishpat is derived from “shaphat,” which means to judge. And don’t we love to do that? But our Western idea of “to judge” comes from the same rigid Latin legal matrix. It focuses on the actions of a Judge. In Hebrew, the more significant meaning of “shaphat” reflects how God has provided for us to participate in how He governs his creation.

So, think of Tzedakah as the Mishpat of God in motion. Therefore, Tzedakah could be better understood as righteousness. While it certainly includes our idea of justice, it goes far beyond something God merely distributes, like rewarding virtue or punishing vice. Like Torah, Tzedakah is a covenantal word emphasizing healthy relationships and all the behaviors necessary for relationships to be healthy.

Finally, the Hebrew concept of Berith (Covenant) has suffered the most in this lost-in-the-translation thing. When the Hebrew idea of Berith made its way into Western vocabulary, it was primarily translated into English from the Latin word “foedus.” Although sometimes translated as Covenant, it carries the primary meaning of “Contract” in Latin, and it’s that meaning which informs the English concept of Covenant.

In other words, the Western idea of Covenant is contractual… another word dripping with legal connotation.

Like the other examples, the Latin word “foedus” is a lousy translation of Berith. To the Western mind, a covenant is just a contract, a legal agreement between two parties defining what each party receives from the other. With a contract, your chief concern is to protect yourself and your interests.

In stark contrast to that, the Hebrew concept of Covenant is where you commit yourself with specific promises to another person for the other person’s sake. Covenants have played a fundamental role in the ancient near-east for thousands of years. On the other hand, Western culture is almost entirely contractual. Marriage is the only remaining so-called Covenant we have left, but it is generally treated like a contract. We may say the word covenant, but we hear and see contract because we are all wearing “contract lenses.” To think contractually is our default setting, and much of our Western theology has been informed by that bias. Quid pro quo… a simple exchange… I’ll do this, and you’ll do that.

Do you see what I am getting at? All of these words contain ideas… pictures. Like Legos or building blocks, the ideas behind these words form the essential conceptual tools we use to build our concept of God and what He is like.

Understanding the difference between Covenant & Contract is where we need to begin to answer the question, “Why does Israel still matter?

Next in part 2: “God makes covenants NOT contracts”