Friday 27 July 2018

Aryeh Kaplan's False Translation

The late Aryeh Kaplan was quite poplar in his time, an he even wrote a Translation of the Torah. However, this would be better described as a mistranslation.  He consistently misrepresented what is written in the Torah, and instead puts down false statements that suit his own goals.

One example is in this article he wrote about the Oral Law.

http://www.aish.com/jl/b/ol/48943186.html

He alleges "If I would have written the majority of my Torah, [Israel] would be counted the same as strangers" (Hosea 8:12).

However, this is not what Hoshea wrote or said.

The plain translation is given on Mechon mamre:

יב  אכתוב- (אֶכְתָּב-) לוֹ--רבו (רֻבֵּי), תּוֹרָתִי:  כְּמוֹ-זָר, נֶחְשָׁבוּ. 12 Though I write for him never so many things of My Law, they are accounted as a stranger's. 

The Law was written, containing so many things, but still considered as "foreign" - because the sinners in Israel and Ephraim had taken to false gods.

This in no way is alluding to the existence or necessity of a an oral law, quite the opposite. It is attesting to the fullness and completeness of the written law, which is still rejected, by the idolaters, and perhaps also by those who feel it is incomplete.

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