JU18-10: Why The Editor Of The Book Of Judges Decided To ALTER This Verse To Promote His Agenda

“The people of Dan set up the image for themselves. Y’honatan the son of Gershom, the son of M’nasheh, and his sons were cohanim for the tribe of the people of Dan until the day of the exile from the land.”-Judges 18:30

The last time we met I told you I was going to tell you how I knew the young Levite in Judges 17 and 18 was not a God-authorized priest.

The answer lies in verse 30.

It says this Levite’s name was Y’honatan (or Jonathan) and that he hailed from the clan of Gershom.

Well, there’s your answer right there.

Because we know Gershom was just a clan of regular Levites.

Remember, per the Torah, ONLY descendants from Aaron’s clan can be priests.

There’s also another piece of interesting evidence supporting this Levite’s false identity as a priest.

This evidence reminds me of the time I changed an F I got on my high school report card to look like an A because I didn’t wanna get in trouble with my parents.

The printed ink showing my grades on my report card was a light gray color.

So it was easy to take my lead pencil and transform that F into an A (yeah, I know I was a bad kid).

Anyways, you’re probably wondering what in the heck does this have to do with our study of Judges Chapter 18?

Okay, let me explain.

There’s a deliberate translation error attempting to connect the young Levite’s identity to the tribe of Manessah.

Let’s explore this a bit deeper because it gives us fascinating insight into how the Israelites thought back then.

Here’s what we find.

Take a look at verse 30 in the Complete Jewish Bible (it’s also copied above).

“The people of Dan set up the image for themselves. Y’honatan the son of Gershom, the son of M’nasheh, and his sons were cohanim for the tribe of the people of Dan until the exile from the land.”

See the part where it says “the son of M’nasheh”?

Well homies, that part is based on a DELIBERATE MISTAKE the ancient Biblical editor inserted when he wrote the book of Judges..

We know this for two reasons

FIRST, the tribe of Manasseh is in no way whatsoever connected to the tribe of Levi.

SECOND, according to the oldest texts available, the consonants that spell out out Y’honatan’s family name are משה.

They are MEM- SHIN- HEH.

Remember, ancient Hebrew script doesn’t have vowels.

You should be able to read that Hebrew word above.

It says MOSHE or “Moses”.

Well, here’s the thing.

Do you recall which tribe Moses hailed from?

The answer is the tribe of Levi.

So this young, mischievous Levite is actually the “son of Moshe” and NOT Manasseh.

Then why do many Bible translations say this young Levite was the “son of Manasseh” instead of the “son of Moshe”? 

Well, here’s what happened?

At some later date, the editor who was transcribing the book of Judges took the liberty of inserting a tiny NUN above and between the MEM and the SHIN.

Or to say it in English language terms, a tiny “n” was inserted above and between the “m” and “s”.

When that was done, the name changed from MOSHE to M’NASHEH.

Apparently, the editor didn’t want to corrupt the original text.

That’s why he used a tiny NUN and placed it above the other letters.

This allowed the reader to choose whether he wanted to say the name as MOSHE or M’NASHEH.

Now the creators of the Complete Jewish Bible and the King James Version have decided to incorrectly say this Levite was a “son of Manasseh”…

Which again makes no sense because there isn’t any genealogical connection between the tribe of Manasseh and the Levites.

But the NIV version correctly says this Levite was the “son of Moses” as follows:

“There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses,^[d] and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land.”

But notice they added a little footnote to Moses’ name.

Here’s what that footnote says:

“Many Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate; many other Hebrew manuscripts and some other Septuagint manuscripts Manasseh”

Anyways, let’s get to the $64,000 question that I know is exploding in your brain at the moment.

Why in the world would the later Biblical editor of the book of Judges decide to go ahead and insert a tiny NUN above the letters of MEM and SHIN so that the name Moses would read as Manasseh?

The answer is because whoever edited the oldest Hebrew manuscripts felt it disrespectful to Moses.

He didn’t want to dirty Moses’ name by linking this fraudulent Levite priest to him.

So instead, since Manasseh was one of those tribes who fell hog wild into idolatry, he thought it better to connect this fake Levite priest to Manessah’s family instead of staining Moses’ reputation.

That was his way of thinking anyway.

Interestingly, the Greek translation of the Torah known as the Septuagint, a translation that was written 250 years before Yeshua…

This translation appropriately and accurately says this young Levite was indeed a descendant of Moshe.

And you wanna know what else is kinda mind-blowing?

This ain’t the only place in the Scriptures where the Biblical editors have taken the liberty to edit and doctor up the Scriptures a bit in order to promote their own agendas.

So let’s move to the takeaway here.

While I can understand the Biblical editor’s feelings of not wanting to stain Moses’ reputation by connecting the young Levite to him, I’d much rather have the whole truth so help me God, thank you.

This kinda reminds of the King David worship that goes on in some circles of Orthodox Judaism who insist that David never committed a sin.

Well, besides murder and adultery, yeah, maybe he never did commit a sin.

Pardon my sarcasm, but the fact that the Bible holds nothing back in revealing both the good and bad of its characters is why I not only love the Scriptures but can trust their integrity.

I mean come on man, even the great Moses himself was barred from entering the Promised Land for a transgression he committed.

And at the end of the day, aren’t we all descendants of Adam and Eve?

In our bloodlines we have both great people and also murderers and adulterers etcetera.

Even the Messianic line via Ruth contains gentile blood.

And if I remember correctly the gentile prostitute Rahab is also in the line of Messiah.

As the Apostle Paul said, we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But through our faith in the Savior, our sins are forgiven and we are all being reconciled back to our Father in Heaven.

So it isn’t necessary to try and hide things in an underhanded way.

Anyways, I thought this fascinating and wanted to share.

Plus, ain’t it cool that you now know something probably no average pastor, preacher or teacher walking the planet right now knows?

Over and out.