TBS in Israel

My name is Albert Hembd. I am currently working with others on behalf of theTrinitarian Bible Society to revise the Hebrew New Testament which was translated by Franz Delitzsch in 1877 for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

My wife and I regularly attend services in Jerusalem with the most excellent Rev. John Goldby of Laide, Scotland, who is also project leader for the Trinitarian Bible Society of the Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament revision. We also attend services at the Kehilah HaMeshihit in Jerusalem, where are many fine saints of the Lord.

The Franz Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament is a masterpiece of Biblical Hebrew scholarship. Delitzsch was one of the greatest Hebrew scholars of all time. In collaboration with the famed Masoretic scholar Seligman Baer, he prepared a Masoretic edition of the Hebrew Old Testament (the Tanakh), which certainly is a formidable achievement.

In compiling his Hebrew New Testament, Franz Delitzsch first employed the inferior Greek text of Codex Sinaiticus (see the following article on Delitzsch’s use of Sinaiticus) for his base text. However, Professor Delitzsch and the British and Foreign Bible Society soon agreed that Codex Sinaiticus was not adequate, and he accordingly revised his translation to follow the Textus Receptus instead. This he completed in 1878.

We of the Trinitarian Bible Society, in collaboration with others, are working, in humble dependence upon the Most High, to bring the Delitzsch translation (a magnificent work in Hebrew) more in line with the original Greek of the Textus Receptus, and also to make it more accessible language-wise to the modern Israeli reader. Currently, the Delitzsch Revision Team have completed our revision of the following books:

-- The Gospel according to John

-- Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians

-- Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians

-- Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians

-- Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians

-- Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

-- The Gospel according to Matthew

-- The Gospel according to Mark

Currently, we are working on 1 and 2 Corinthians.

Concurrently with the work on the Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament Revision, I also am working on preparing for the Trinitarian Bible Society an electronic edition of the Ginsburg Hebrew Old Testament.

For four years, I studied modern and Biblical Hebrew Hebrew University at Mount Scopus. I am presently studying at Bar Ilan University, which, in its Bible department, is more conservative than the Hebrew University, and grounded in traditional Jewish scholarship. I am deeply privileged, in the Providence of God, to be studying now with Professor Yosef Ofer, who is probably the world’s leading authority on the Aleppo Codex and the ben Asher Masoretic Text.

Be sure to see my wife Rebecca’s website at Hoosier in Israel.