Of course, I see the Qur'an as the Book of Mormon for the pre-modern world. It makes a lot of gross errors in Biblical chronology (even if one assumes the Bible is history, which is already a contentious point) and then proposes a theology that doesn't even have the tiniest shred of authority to stand on when placed in the Biblical tradition. But I digress...
Regarding your questions:
- What about modern Catholic Bibles?
Well, the Vulgate is the basis, but I understand that Jerome's worst mistakes have been corrected, and the "apocrypha" were never relegated to an appendix, so books like Wisdom or Judith or Tobit are still in the order they would have been in about 1600 years ago, even if a few are thrown at the end (like 4 Ezrae).
- Didn't they use Church Slavonic in the East?
Well, yes and no. The Romanian Orthodox Church uses Romanian, the Greek Church uses Greek, and the Slavic churches use Slavonic, but even though it's a bit antiquated, it would be like the French Church using Medieval French, not like it using Latin. There's a huge gap there...and even then, each regional Slavic Church has adapted Slavonic to its own uses. The actual "Old Church Slavonic" is different from "Church Slavonic" used in Russian churches today.
- How can you just randomly add "with" before direct objects?
The quick brown fox jumped over with the lazy dog. I ate with a sandwich. I fucked with the hot girl. Read with between the lines. In other words, it doesn't look with quite right. But they do with it anyway.
- What is so special about that 151st Psalm?
It's just non-canonical.
- Do you have any concrete examples of how changing a few words (because I don't imagine the differences are much bigger than that?) can make such a big difference between that Hebrew version used for the Septuagint and the Masoretic text?
It's choice of words. Is it a virgin who gives birth, or a young girl? What did the LXX source text say? Did the Masoretes intentionally pick a version of Isaiah that didn't require a virgin? Did the text say "the Holy Spirit" or "the Christ"?
- Interesting. I had never made the link between Mordechai and Marduk, that's for sure. And that last one is quite amusing, if you're familiar with the Egyptian-Italian-French actress/singer Dalida. Who I somehow have really no problem picturing as Delilah.
You were never meant to make the link, based on what the Masoretes wanted. But it's clear - Mardochaios. And I believe the singer Dalida based her name on the Coptic version of the Bible, which is based on the Septuagint and uses the form Dalida in Judges.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
