It Exists to Resist

This week, Fr. Paul examines later additions to biblical manuscripts, such as Greek breathing marks and the differentiation between uppercase and lowercase letters, which were not in the original texts. He criticizes poor translation choices, like rendering the Hebrew "yarash" as "possess" instead of "inherit." He also discusses Kamal Salibi’s original discovery that the Hebrew consonants for "raven" and "Arab" are identical, allowing for different interpretations. Salibi's work, which questioned specific translation choices, remains unresolved, emphasizing the need to hear the text consonantally and showing that the biblical text resists modern interpretive control and should be read on its own terms. (Episode 328)