With Phase 2 now solidly complete, we have a wording of the KJV/ASV/DRA and other, Genesis only, with many custom word choices and phrasings, which we may now lay copyright claim to as the NSV. The link for this project will now be set as http://www.noachide.ca/wiki/nsv:start
What follows is a theological consistency pass. This means I will be going through all of Rashi’s commentary and selecting various comments by Rashi for inclusion in the NSV’s official notes. This may at times be a paraphrase of Rashi, or a ‘Rashi states…’ or even ‘See Rashi’ in justification of a point. In any case the main goal here is to ensure that whether a comment is included by Rashi or not, should a comment exist the text of the NSV allows for, if not directly encourages, the Rashi explanation.
Of course other sages might be considered too, but the point here is to introduce Rashi as a credible source (which is self-evident) and therefore presenting his commentary will be introduction enough.
All this is being done for the book of Genesis first; because, once the roadmap for how this project is going to look and feel is set it will be much easier to finish the other books of the Bible. And yet, I expect that only Exodus and Genesis will be of prime importance for Noachides; nevertheless the counter-missionary community at large will require a complete textual analysis, and I am working on some interesting things.
Tag System
What is a note? What is a cross reference? They are various kinds of tags applied to a verse. For example, text is considered a note, but if the text consists entirely of ‘See (verse)’ it is essentially a cross-reference. The principle then allows for different kinds of notes such as translation notes, ASV notes (notes are then able to be stored independantly of translation, if desired) and there are of course other benefits to this idea. Such as tagging verses with concordance words as well for a ‘complete’ concordance!
There’s a lot to look foreward to in the Tag System, and other technologies we are working on in order to present a useable product for the modern Noachide and counter-missionary movements.
Endorsement by a Rabbi
Endorsement might be too strong a word, but Phase 3 can only be complete when a Rabbi has verified that the work is Kosher. Once we have such a verification (that there are no remaining Christian passages) — in any form such a verification would be to take place — we would feel that the theology is accurate as presented. This is not to say that we would not publish prior to such an event, only that we would be careful to defer to the rabbis and to authoritative translations — and ultimately to the MT itself — at least, as a disclaimer in the foreward.
Finally, ‘the NSV is born’: Phase 3 will not be a marked phase in the sense we have retained copies of the final stage of phase 1 and 2; it will be immediately presented as the ‘live’ version, as commentary is slowly worked into the wording. Lunch time is crunch time!