The sacred task of translating the Word of God, as revealed to Israel through lawgiver, prophet, psalmist, and sage, began at an early date. According to an ancient rabbinic interpretation, Joshua had the Torah engraved upon the stones of the altar (joshua viii. 32) not in the original Hebrew alone, but in all the languages of mankind, which were held to be seventy, in order that all men might become acquainted with the words of the Scriptures. This statement, with its universalistic tendency, is, of course, a re?ex of later times, when the Hebrew Scriptures had become a subject of curiosity and perhaps also of 'anxiety to the pagan or semi-pagan world'.
Excerpt from The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text: A New Translation With the Aid of Previous Versions and With Constant Consultation of Jewish AuthoritiesThe sacred task of translating the Word of God, as revealed to Israel through lawgiver, prophet, psalmist, and sage, began at an early date. According to an ancient rabbinic interpretation, Joshua had the Torah engraved upon the stones of the altar (joshua viii. 32) not in the origi nal Hebrew alone, but in all the languages of mankind, which were held to be seventy, in order that all men might become acquainted with the words of the Scriptures. This statement, with its universalistic tendency, is, of course, a reex of later times, when the Hebrew Scrip tures had become a subject of curiosity and perhaps also of 'anxiety to the pagan or semi-pagan world.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at is book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.