Redacting Romans 7:9-12: A Great Deception

In a recent online Webinar from Chut HaM'shulash (http://www.ntcf.org/register.html), Uriel and Adi ben Mordechai presented the amazing results of their research into Romans 7. 

They broadcast, live each week from Jerusalem, the findings from their extremely diligent research and translation efforts. These findings are presented each week in an online class where Uriel teaches on the appropriate translation and interpretation of the earliest extant Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. 

What follows is a brief overview of their impressive findings with respect to Romans 7:9-12:

Every version of Romans 7:12 writes this verse as a conclusion to an argument that went before. Some translations start verse 12 with ‘Wherefore’ (KJV) or ‘So that’ or ‘so then’ or ‘Therefore’ (see for example the NKJV & WEB versions).

A typical rendition of verse 12 is the Complete Jewish Bibles’s (CJB): “So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.” (David Stern, the CJB translator, replaces the word ‘Law’ found in most versions, with the more correct ‘Torah’).

This conclusion in verse 12 most clearly then, is stating that the Torah is very special, that is ‘holy’ (from God), just and good. 

So the argument that leads to this conclusion should be consistent with the conclusion. It should give some detailed, point by point, argument that clearly and unquestionably leads to this conclusion.

But it doesn’t! The previous few verses don’t come close to this conclusion! 

As to which verses are relevant, if you read from verse 1 you will note that verse 8 is a concluding remark for an earlier argument. Therefore the relevant text for this conclusion in verse 12 is verses 9 to 11.

Here’s verses 9-12 in the NKJV:

“9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

We can clearly see that verse 12 is a concluding remark. To make this version even clearer, I will change the use or ‘law’ here (from the Greek ‘nomos’) to Torah as this passage is clearly addressing God’s Torah.

So we have from the NKJV:

“9 I was alive once without the Torah, but when the commandment (of Torah) came, sin revived and I died.

10 And the commandment (of Torah), which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment (of Torah), deceived me, and by it killed me.

12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

Let’s be very clear. This translation of Romans 7:9-11 most definitely states that Torah caused the Apostle Paul (Rav Sha'ul) to die! Torah which he knew was supposed to bring ‘life’ instead brought ‘death’!

[Note: Some argue that Rav Sha'ul was speaking figuratively here, as he was clearly still alive when he wrote 'it killed me'! The problem is that this is then very inconsistent, because the Torah's declaration that it 'brings life' is not figurative, and neither is the conclusion.]

So not only is the argument presented in verses 9-11 in contradiction to the conclusion in verse 12, it also has a number of other problems. 

For example, the Apostle Paul is declaring that he died (while still alive to write this)! And he is declaring that the Tanakh is wrong! He is in direct conflict with Moses, King David and King Solomon for example.

Moses stated "… fear YHVH your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.” —Deuteronomy 6:2

King David wrote: “The Torah of Adonai is perfect,restoring the inner person.The instruction of Adonai is sure,making wise the thoughtless. – Ps 19:7

King Solomon also wrote... "The Torah of a wise man is the source of all life, to turn him away from death traps." - Proverbs 13:14

These and many other passages in the Tanakh declare that the Torah brings life. Similarly the two greatest commandments, as declared by Yeshua, are a call to obey the 10 Words which is the very core and foundation of the Torah.

So having shown that Romans 7:9-11 is problematic as we have it, was it also just as problematic in the very earliest version we currently have of it?

According to Chut HaM'shulash, and demonstrated in class, the earliest extant Greek manuscript for this portion of Romans in the Codex Sinaiticus (circa 350 CE), has a clear paragraph/line break at the end of verse 8, whereas verses 9 and 10 have no break or spaces in them, thus helping to establish that a new thought or argument begins at verse 9, and clearly concludes with verse 12.

I will not go into detail as to how Chut HaM'shulash make their translation decisions, except to allude to the fact that they demonstrated in class that the translators have rendered the verb ‘to find’ as active rather than passive (as indicated in the text) and that this has made a huge difference in changing the focus from sin to ‘commandment’ or Torah. 

If you wish to be further illuminated on the translation decisions Uriel and Adi make, I recommend attending their classes - go to http://www.ntcf.org/register.html to register.

As a result, Chut HaM'shulash end up with a translation of the Greek into English that is actually consistent with the concluding remark for verse 12!

It appears that all other translators have taken the seriously biased lead of the King James translators and not taken the time to avail themselves of the earliest manuscripts and re-translate anew using standard and accepted Greek grammatical rules.

So here is Uriel and Adi ben Mordechai’s very revealing translation – see below for an amplified version as well:

Romans 7:9-12

“9 Now, I was once living apart from the Torah, but the commandment came along. The activity of wrongdoing began waking up.

10 At that point, I began the process of dying. But for me the commandment was acquired, which leads to life! She, was leading to death.

11 The fact is that act of wrongdoing, seizes an occasion via the commandment, deceives me, and by means of this, it extinguishes life.

12 Thus, in the end the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good!”

And the ‘amplified’ version (the text in square brackets is added for clarification/amplification:

“9 Now, I was once living apart [or distant] from the Torah, but [then] the commandment came along [or appeared]. The activity of wrongdoing [i.e. sin] began waking up [i.e. operating].

10 At that point, I began the process of dying. But for me the [the Torah’s] commandment was [then] acquired [i.e. was found or declared], which leads to life! She [i.e. ‘sin,’ over on the other side], was leading to death.

11 The fact is that act of wrongdoing [i.e. ‘sin’], seizes an occasion via the [Torah’s definitive] commandment, deceives [i.e. misleads or tricks] me, and by means of this [trickery], it extinguishes [or eliminates] life.

12 Thus, in the end the Torah is holy, and the [Torah’s] commandment is holy and righteous [or honorable] and good [or noble]!” - (c) Uriel ben Mordechai, Above & Beyond, Jerusalem.

While you may still find this somewhat ‘awkward’, the reality is that both Hebrew and Greek are more limited in the wording and require more ‘reading between the lines’ than today’s English. Hebrew, especially the Biblical Hebrew of Sha’ul’s day, had significantly fewer words. 

Whether Sha’ul first wrote this letter in Hebrew or Greek, there is no doubt that his thinking, his mindset, was Hebraic. Thus, there is much implied that is not necessarily easy to discern without a very strong background in such ‘Jewish thinking’.

For example, it seems most likely that Sha’ul is first speaking about when he was a child when he refers to ‘once living apart from Torah’, and as he grew in both maturity and Torah learning/instruction his awareness of what sin was began to grow or ‘wake-up’.

Thus he also realized from his knowledge of Torah that wrong-doing’ (sin) leads to death, that he though only a very yoing man was already beginning to die and his made wrong choices in his daily life. 

But it was the Torah, that while not only making him aware of his wrong-doing, also gave him the instructions and information needed to turn back to HaShem and instead seek to act ‘rightly’ (to be righteous), and in turn to be separated (holy) before HaShem.

Thus, in truth the Torah really does lead to a holy, righteous and good life!

What I also see in this portion of Romans 7 is even more clear evidence that Rav Sha'ul, the Apostle Paul really was Torah observant and no Hellenistic fraud or deceiver. The deception has come from the Hellenistic 'church fathers' whose redacted and corrupted this letter.