Jesus' Words Only

Paul’s out of context misquote of Hab 2:4, + mistranslation, cuts Christianity from its Jewish roots

Jul 21, 2022

Video Description

We review four points:

1. Paul quotes Hab. 2:4 out-of-context of prophecy of a proud person whose spirit is not right within himself.

2. Paul then misquotes by not including “his” EMUNAH which means the EMUNAH of the proud person whose spirit is not right within himself.

3. Paul mistranslated EMUNAH as Greek noun for “faith” – PISTIS.

4. The right translation would be either HEDRAIOS or HYPOMONE “steadfastness.”

The three passages where Heb. 2:4 is misquoted in NT … the just shall live by his EMUNAH. [KJV] are:

Rom 1:17 …The just shall live by faith.

Gal 3:11 … The just shall live by faith.

Heb 10:38 …the just shall live by faith.

The missing word each time is "his." This is material because "his" has a distinct meaning in the original context of referrng to a "him" that is "proud," with a "spirit that is not uprght."

Paul in Romans omits HIS, for example, and this is deliberately dropped. For Paul had a Hebrew Bible proven with him, proven by Rom. 9:33 where Paul quotes Isaiah 8:14 but not in the Septuagint, but only in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint has a false negative in the passage, so in the Septuagint it reads that God has "not" placed a stumbling stone and rock of offense in Jerusalem, but the Hebrew said He did (the 2 stone tablets), and Paul chose this Hebrew over the Greek Septuagint in writing Romans 9:33. Hence, as to Romans 1:17 quote of Hab. 2:4, the "his" was deliberately removed in translating from Hebrew to Greek. The Septuagint does not have HIS but has "MY" -- a futher example of the poor quality of the Septuagint.

Several scholars point out how incongruous was Paul's use of the verse at 2:4 as a doctrine of salvation. Paul used it as a doctrine rather than a depiction of how the just shall live by "his" steadfast faith -- the faith of the haughty one who will draw all the Gentiles / Nations to himself:

“Habakkuk 2:4 has often been taken as espousing a pan-historical principle of salvation by faith, but this overlooks the fact that Hab 2:4 is a prophecy of the end times. In order to understand this better, we need to pay attention to the flow of the book of Habakkuk.” ("Paul's Use of Habakkuk 2:4.") .

“Habakkuk 2:4 occurs in Yahweh’s answer to Habakkuk... This answer is actually a vision that is to be written down (2:2). According to 2:3, it is a vision that concerns the time of the end. ….The core of the vision is Hab 2:4. At the time of the end, there would be someone whose soul was puffed up and not upright....” (Id.)

Shimon Bakon, Ph.D., the Editor of The Jewish Bible Quarterly, “HABAKKUK: FROM PERPLEXITY TO FAITH,” JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY Vol. 39, No. 1, (2011) at 25, 28 explains EMUNAH's meaning, and the profound impact of Paul's mistake:

“It is the interpretation of the term emunah that caused the division of Judaism and Christianity. In the Jewish interpretation, emunah stands for steadfastness and loyalty to God and the mitzvot (see: and his hands remained steady [va-yehi yadav emunah] Ex. 17:12). By an ironic twist, Paul made it into faith without the encumbrance of mitzvot that leads to salvation. "To prove the transitory nature of the law, Paul derived his great anti-Jewish motto 'the just shall live by his faith' after giving it a new meaning.” fn. 1 [1. Robert H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1941) p. 4-5.]

Paul knew Greek (see Acts 21:33), and he could have used hedraios or hypomene to mean "steadfast." The word "pistis" is wrong.

Likewise, H. . Ray Dunning, Professor of Theology at Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville, Tennessee, did a thorough study on Emunah [Hebrew of Hab. 2:4] and pistis [Greek translation by Paul] in Habakkuk 2:4. Here is the fruit of Professor Dunning’s study:

“The just shall live by his faith. The word rendered faith is the Hebrew emunah, from a verb meaning originally “to be firm,” and is used in the Old Testament in the physical sense of steadfastness (Smith, op. cit., p. 140). Thus the better rendering is “faithfulness.” [sic: steadfastness].

“Emunah is the word used to describe the uplifted hands of Moses, which were steady (Exod. 17:12). It is also used of men in charge of money who “dealt faithfully” (II Kings 12:15). It is closely akin, if not identical, to the English idiomatic statement “Hold steady,” implying that if one does not “bolt,” the circumstances that surround him will alter. Lehrman’s suggested meaning of the intention of this exhortation is good: “The righteous Israelite, who remains unswervingly loyal to the moral precepts, will endure, although he has to suffer for his principles; whereas the wicked, who enjoy a temporary ascendancy through their violation of right, are in the end overthrown and humbled.”

H. Ray Dunning, “The Divine Response, Habakkuk 2:4,” Beacon Hill Commentary (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1966) Vol. 5 at 277-78.

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