The Bible Doesn't Say That

40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions, and Other Misunderstandings

By: Joel M. Hoffman

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

A vast listenership wants better access to the ancient words and ideas of the Bible. In The Bible Doesn't Say That, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the listener through dozens of instances of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In 40 short chapters, Hoffman covers fundamental theology, morality, lifestyle, and biblical imagery:

• The famous New Testament quotation "God so loved the world" is a mistranslation, as are the titles "Son of Man" and "Son of God".
• The Bible doesn't call homosexuality a sin, and it doesn't advocate for the one-man-one-woman model of the family that has been dubbed "biblical".
• Jesus had siblings, in spite of the Catholic rhetoric about the "ever-Virgin Mary".
• The Ten Commandments don't prohibit killing or coveting.

Even many of the Bible's details end up distorted: The fruit in the Garden of Eden wasn't an apple, it wasn't a whale that swallowed Jonah, and many animals marched onto Noah's ark in groups of seven, not pairs. The Bible Doesn't Say That succinctly explains each misunderstanding, detailing the nature of what went wrong and offering insight into the original meaning of the world's most popular book.

©2016 Joel M. Hoffman (P)2016 Recorded Books

Enjoyed The Scriptural Commitment

It was not a like/dislike type of book. It was an expose of the subject matter. Well done.

Quite interesting

never knew how much is actually misunderstood by the lack of a proper translation. still maintaining my stance as an atheist, it is good to hear some of the highly quoted verses abrogating, abdicating and even justifying against certain issues, are actually being quite discombobulated by certain people.

As you like it

As the author notes, you can use Scripture to endorse your own opinions, and he does. Some fair scholarship here, but don't expect to agree with all his conclusions. He points out some bad translations which is important.

Very interesting

I enjoyed thinking through the arguments presented in this book, though upon listening to them I didn't not always arrive at the same conclusion as the author because there were certainly others verses that didn't seem to be addressed though, in my opinion, relevant.

Terrible

This work was less historical, theological, textual critical, or apologetic than I had hoped. Instead this is largely about pushing the author's misguided view of scripture on the reader. There was nothing in this work that has not been debated or written about by the church in the last 2000 years.

No Heart in the Issues

Obviously the author's title is "Doctor" but from such a title you get "knowledge" but not "heart." Dr. Hoffman pointed out key items but he doesn't at all mention the heart in the issues. He mentions in varying chapters that, "The Bible doesn't say homosexuality is a sin" or "The Bible doesn't say a marriage should be 1 husband 1 wife," etc. Although he points to examples in Scripture where Scripture does refer to his points he fails to point out that when we read and look at Scripture we must look at it with the heart, the eyes, the lense of God as a Father and Jesus as the Church's future groom.

When we take it from that view we can see that the Bible may not explicity say "yes" to certain things or "no" to certain things, but we see the Father's attitude towards certain things. Although God may not say anything for or against 1 husband 1 wife marriages, if we put ourselves in a father's shoes we certainly wouldn't want our children to go marrying multiple partners because we don't want them to go astray.

Homosexuality and marriage mentioned above are just 2 of many things that Dr. Hoffman address and I just so happen to use those 2 items in this review because out of Dr. Hoffman's other topics, these 2 were the easiest to relate to and 2 of the hotter topics in the book.

So, fair warning, if you are a weak believer and you think this book may shake your faith, please DON'T READ IT. But if you have such a discerning heart as our Father above, then proceed with caution.

This guy is wrong about practically everything

I think he is just seeking glory and relevance. There are plenty of things people misunderstand about the Bible which he could have talked about. Instead he spent his time disparaging things which are actually correct. For example, he claimed God’s name YHWH was only used by priests and never pronounced from the beginning. Actually, it is in the Hebrew Scriptures nearly 7,000 times and pronounced constantly by everyone, even lowly field workers.

Ruth 2:4 Boʹaz arrived from Bethʹle·hem and said to the harvesters: “Jehovah be with you.” And they replied: “Jehovah bless you.”

In the centuries before Christ the rule making religious leaders began misapplying the commandment against not using God’s name respectfully to not pronouncing it as well. As foretold in Jeremiah 23:27 “They intend to make my people forget my name”.

However, calling upon God by name is not only encouraged but required for salvation.

Joel 2:32 everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved

This verse was repeated to Christians at Romans 10:13-14 though most translations hide this fact. Whenever you read LORD in all caps, the Hebrew used YHWH. Using this personal name for God, which is translated Jehovah in English is the important thing, not precise Hebrew pronunciation. Few claim God’s sons name has to be said the Hebrew way rather than the English version “Jesus.”

Let us reject those who make God impersonal by saying we shouldn’t pronounce the name he has revealed in his Word and self-important supposed experts who seek to lift themselves up by putting God and his Word down!