Why Far East is correct in
Isaiah 43:5, Moffatt Translation
Letter to the
Editor:
GOD'S MESSAGE, November 2009, p.3
GOD'S MESSAGE, November 2009, p.3
IT HAS BEEN MY HOBBY to read various
religious magazines. I love comparing religious magazines. I love
comparing the beliefs of different religious organizations
and I'm fond of knowing at least the basis of their beliefs.
Through your magazine God's Message, I
learned that one of the bases of what you claim as your "election"
as God's children is the prophecy written in Isaiah 43:5-6
which mentions about God's sons and daughters from the east I noticed
however
that to make it appear that it specifically refers to the
members of
the Church
of Christ, your religion which originated from the Philippines, a
country in the Far East you often use Moffatt's Translation of the
Bible which categorically puts "Far East" in the verse instead of
just "east". But what are Moffart's credentials that made you subscribe
to his rendition of that verse? Why do you believe that "far east" is
correct in Isaiah 43:5?
RicardoTan
Phuket, Thailand
Phuket, Thailand
Editor's reply:
Concerning Mr. James Moffatt and his translation
of the Bible, The Oxford Companion to the Bible (ed. by
Metzger and Coogan 1993), which has more than 250 contributors,
representing "international community of scholars, coming from some
twenty centuries, on five continents has this to say:
“The translation that made
the greatest impact upon the Bible-reading public, though,
was
that of the
Scottish
scholar James
Moffatt … his translation
of the Old Testament appeared in 1924
and the whole Bible was revised in 1935. He spent the last years of
his life as professor of Church History at Union Theological
Seminary, New York
However, this is not the
reason we quote Moffatt’s rendition of Isaiah 43:5 in which he used
the term “far east” instead of just plain “east” as other versions
have it. By examining the said verse, we will notice that the
prophet explicitly says
“east”
in verse 5, and mentions “from afar” in
verse 6. Now since the ones being prophesied in verse 5
as
coming from the “east” are the very
ones being referred to in verse 6 as “from afar”, it is clear then
that they are “from afar” in the “east” or Far East.
That
Moffatt’s rendition of the verse is correct is
further substantiated by
the fact that in original
Hebrew, the word
which he translated as “far
east” is “mizrach”
(Isa. 4-3:5, Hebrew-English Tanakh by
the Jewish Publication Society). Concerning the Hebrew term “mizrach,”
the Dictionary of the Bible by William Smith has this to say:
“East. The Hebrew term
kedem proper means that which is
before or in front of a person,
and was applied to the east from the
custom of turning in that direction when describing the points of
the compass, before, behind, the right and the left representing
respectively east, west, south and north, Job 23:8, 9, The term as
generally used refers to the lands lying immediately eastward of
Palestine, viz. Arabia, Mesopotamia and
BabyIonia. On the other hand
mizrach
is used of the far east with a less
definite signification, Isa. 43:5; 46:11.” (p. 154)
Here is a testimony of a
renowned Bible scholar that
“mizrach”
was the Hebrew term used in Isaiah 43:5, and that this term is the
equivalent in English of “far east.”
Moreover, in a related prophecy, the country “afar” in the “east”
from where God’s people in these last days would come from is
composed of “islands of the sea” (Isa. 24: 15, King James Version).
The Philippines, the country from which the Church of Christ
reemerged in these last days, is made up of more than 7,100 islands
and is situated almost at the geographical center of the Far East
(Asia and the Philippines, p. 169). These are just some of the
reasons why we do firmly believe that the place in the prophecy
(Isaiah 43:5-6) referred to as
“mizrach” or “far east”
has the Philippine as its fulfillment.
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