The Written Law (The Torah)
The Written Law consists of the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. The term “Bible” is more commonly used by non-Jews, as are the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” The appropriate term for Jews to use for the Hebrew Bible is “Tanakh.” Tanakh is an acronym for Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).
The Torah is also known as the Chumash, Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. The word “Torah” has the following meanings:
1. A scroll made from kosher animal parchment, with the entire text of the Five Books of Moses written in it by a sofer [ritual scribe]. This is the most limited definition.
2. More often, this term means the text of the Five Books of Moses, written in any format, whether Torah scroll, paperback book, CDROM, skywriting or any other media. Any printed version of the Torah (with or without commentary) can be called a Chumash or Pentateuch; however, one never refers to a Torah Scroll as a Chumash.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html
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Introduction
This Go Fish Ministries publication is a paraphrase of the Old Testament books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Its main purpose is to present a simplified version to those who have difficulty understanding more traditional ones, especially children and teens. My inspiration was to give my own children a more understandable, easier to read text, and one that would encourage them and other young people to read the Word of God. Many Biblical versions were considered in the interpretation of this version, in which the starting point was the original King James Version. Other versions considered were the New King James Version, the Good News Bible, the Living Bible, the American Standard Version, the Revised Standard Version, and Others, along with a study of many of the original Hebrew words from the Strong’s Concordance and Dictionary. The main departure from these common versions is the use of the proper Name of God, which is now commonly understood to be Yahweh. I now quote from the preface to The New Oxford Annotated Bible Revised Standard Version which states concerning the Name of God,
“A major departure…is the rendering of the Divine Name…the term Jehovah; the King James Version had employed this in four places, but everywhere else, except in three cases where it was employed as part of a proper Name, used the English word LORD (or in certain cases GOD). . . While it is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced Yahweh, this pronunciation was not indicated when the Masoretes added vowel signs to the consonantal Hebrew. To the four consonants YHWH of the Name, which had come to be regarded as too sacred to be pronounced, they attached vowel signs indicating that in its place should be read the Hebrew word Adonai meaning Lord (or Elohim meaning God)…The form Jehovah is of late medieval origin; it is a combination of the consonants of the Divine Name and the vowels attached to it by the Masoretes but belonging to an entirely different word. The sound of the Y is represented by J and the sound of W by V, as in Latin . . . the word Jehovah does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew . . . and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.”
In light of these words and many hours of heartfelt prayer and study of the Scriptures, I’ve endeavored to bring back the use of the forgotten Name of God in this publication, and the use of the English word Lord has been replaced with Savior, in places where the use of YAHWEH was not employed. I’ve been tormented over whether or not this interpretation was the right thing to do, and I now believe with all my heart that I’ve done the perfect will of God. Yet, if I’ve rather entered into the permissive will of God, I now plead for God’s mercy on my soul, as I’ve done it in ignorance rather than malice.
Another departure from the norm is the explicit use of the masculine form to denote the persons of the Godhead, noting that many of the Hebrew words implicating the Godhead are in feminine forms, in particularly Elohiym, which can denote God or Goddess. Where verses read He, Him, or His, many instances have been changed to read You, Your, or Yours, which doesn’t denote a masculine or feminine Entity, but rather an androgynous Entity. Passages in the New Testament indicate that heavenly beings are neither male nor female, and I believe we can ascertain from these passages that God is neither masculine nor feminine or possibly has both qualities. Since human beings are made in the image of our Maker, and have both masculine and feminine hormones, and it is believed by most that God is complete in Self-existence, it is possible that God fully has both qualities. Since we have no way of knowing this for certain, I choose to use an androgynous descriptor of God in this text. In addition, since the word man, to some, no longer represents humanity in general as used to be the case for most people, I’ve changed the words man, mankind, and the like to more neutral forms, such as humanity, people, or persons, along with many of the systematically masculine wording such as he, him, and his, to they, them, and theirs as the original Hebrew word (1931 Strong’s) can be denoted as masculine, feminine, or androgynous (he, she, it, etc.).
Other passages which are antiquated by their wording and phrasing are given a more modern connotation than the original text would allow for. In every case that a change was made, several alternate texts were considered along with the original languages as denoted in the Strong’s concordance and dictionary. Some verses were joined together, where the thought had been divided into separate verses in the KJV, when they were felt to be better understood by keeping the thought in one main sentence. Also the text has been put in paragraph form with the individual verses not being numbered, as I believe this can be a distraction when studying or reading the Word of God.
With these departures in mind, I hope that this interpretation may be viewed as a help along with other translations in the great commission of Jesus Christ, my Savior. I hope to someday do additional interpretations of the Scriptures, but trust that I’ve done and will do only that which would be in God’s perfect will. God Bless and Go Fish! Jesus said, “Follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of others.” Matthew 4:19.
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Please consider making a Donation to Go Fish Ministries, Inc. to help us serve as many victims of sexual abuse, childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, and others in the Christian community as possible. Thank You.
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