The purpose of this essay is to explore the historical background of Victor Alexander, the independent ‘translator’ of The Aramaic Bible: Disciples New Testament. Everything I have included in this document comes directly from Victor Alexander’s own writings, which are freely available online. I have carefully documented my footnotes to facilitate further reading.
In the description of his unique Bible, available for distribution on Amazon, Alexander writes,
It took me many years to come to the realization that the original language of the Scriptures was not Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek; the language of the Scriptures was the first language ever recorded in history. It is called by the oldest Church in existence, ‘Leshana Atiqah,’ or the Ancient Tongue. The original language of the Bible evolved from drawings, symbols, and finally the alphabet. It is, therefore, necessary to go back to the roots of all the words from the beginning of recorded history to understand the Scriptures accurately. This is not simple, but it helps that a translator should be a native speaker of the original language (in its modern vernacular). Even though the ancient language of the Scriptures is based on thousands of years of development, it helps to be able to pronounce the language correctly. This is where my translation has produced the best version of the New Testament, and of the Old Testament, as I continue to translate the Old Testament Books. In the footnotes to my translation, I provide the literal Aramaic idioms, expressions, figures of speech, or grammatical constructions. The actual text of my translation is normally of the idiomatic translation. Whenever there is an idiom, I follow up with a footnote to provide the literal wording. However, sometimes the original idiom in the Old Tongue (Ancient Aramaic) is clear enough, and in such cases, I note in the footnotes that the ‘idiom is retained.’ Then I give the idiomatic translation of the word or phrase in English. Another peculiarity of my translation is that it seems archaic to some people. This cannot be helped. It is not that I’m deficient in my English, but rather I have chosen to render the English language translation as close to the original text as possible (leaving out no words whatsoever) – this being the first accurate translation of the Scriptures ever. I do not leave out anything of the original Text or smooth over anything; it is all there, word for word, both in the literal and the idiomatic wordings. My literal footnotes are, therefore, usually ungrammatical, but that is deliberate. The main body of my translated Text is idiomatic, but not idiomatic at the cost of altering the meaning. I opted to leave some of the Aramaic flavor intact and maintain the wording of those expressions and phrases that did not have an equivalent English language stylistic substitute. The manuscripts from which I translate are from the Ancient Church of the East, one of the first Churches that emerged out of Jerusalem during the Apostolic Age, in the First Century of Christianity. I’m a descendant of the families that followed in the footsteps of the Apostles of Eashoa Msheekhah (Jesus the Messiah.)[1]
Claims such as “the best version of the New Testament” and “the first accurate translation of the Scriptures ever” should be an immediate red flag that the translation is either everything Alexander claims it to be or it is the work of an extremely fertile imagination. In the process of researching Victor Alexander, I obtained a copy of his Aramaic New Testament. In the foreword, he writes,
The Ancient Aramaic is… the scribal language of the Scriptures and it is sacred. It is still being used in the liturgy of many Eastern Churches today, including the Church of the East of the Atourai. It is, however, a liturgical language, which was not translated correctly until I found out about the fact that it has never been translated into any modern vernacular of any of the Churches still using it.[2]
Alexander claims his translation is free of the biases and prejudices characteristic of other translations of the New Testament.
That is why all the Bibles thus translated contain the same errors in translation and result in the pseudo-Christian doctrines that have caused so many religious and cultural misunderstandings in the world for two hundred years. The Aramaic Original NT is then a non-prejudicial translation of the original New Testament Scriptures by a native Aramaic-speaking translator.[3]
Alexander claims to be a Jewish descendant of the families of the original Galilean followers of Jesus. He claims to be a native Aramaic speaker uniquely qualified to translate these historical documents that no one has ever seen. Because his version of the New Testament represents such a radical departure from all existing Greek manuscripts, it is necessary to ask some probing questions about its enigmatic author. The only thing we know for certain is that Victor Alexander is a B-grade filmmaker based in Glendale, California. For reasons unknown, he has created an entirely fictional narrative about the outlandish achievements of his father, whom he identifies as ‘Nimrod Alexander.’ Strangely, there is no evidence whatsoever of this mysterious figure outside Victor’s own narratives, and it appears his larger-than-life existence is the exclusive product of Victor Alexander’s vivid imagination.
He identifies his father as Nimrud Youkhanna Malik Qambar, who came to be known as Nimrod Alexander. Victor identifies another mystery figure, whom he simply identifies as Dr. Alexander, who appears to have adopted Nimrod as a young boy in New York City, from whom Nimrod took the surname ‘Alexander.’ Here is the beginning of Victor’s curious narrative.
Nimrod Alexander was born in 1884 to a Turkish family of Aramaic-speaking Jews that lived in the Ottoman Empire before World War I. His grandfather was Malik Qambar, a Jewish merchant born in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a handsome and brilliant man who noticed his grandson was exceptionally intelligent and began teaching him about doing business, buying and selling in the markets of Istanbul. Nimrod boarded a ship headed for the US one day — he was four years old — and ended up in NYC. He was discovered by nuns and Jesuits wandering around hungry and disheveled, and was placed in an orphanage. By the time he was twelve years old, he had learned how to make clothes. He graduated from high school at age seventeen, and he was already a master tailor of women’s clothing and began working in the NYC garment industry, selling gowns at $1000 to $2000. Later, he worked for a tailor and made gowns that sold at $10,000 to $20,000 to NYC socialites. In 1909, he met Louise Brooks, a Ziegfeld Dollies dancer. Nimrod Alexander invested some money with Ziegfeld and began to manage Louise Brooks’ career as an actress, making silent movies.[4]
Immediately, something seems peculiar about this narrative. A simple AI fact-check indicates there is absolutely no evidence of a man named Nimrod Alexander in the high-society garment industry in New York City in the 1890s. Malik Qambar was an historical person, but he was neither Jewish nor a merchant in Istanbul. The only historical figure named Malik Qambar was born in 1888 and died in 1969 at the age of 80. He was a Catholic Assyrian national leader and general of the Assyro-Chaldean battalion formed in 1920 as part of the French Foreign Legion. According to Wikipedia, “Malik Qambar was a descendant of former chiefs of the Assyrian Jilu tribe.”[5] If Victor Alexander is to be believed, his grandfather taught him about business and trading in Istanbul before he immigrated to the United States at the age of four.
There are major chronological problems in Victor Alexander’s timeline. His father, Nimrod, was allegedly born four years before the birth of his famous grandfather! In a separate account, there is a variation of this confabulated story. In a fabricated IMDb biographical entry, Victor Alexander writes,
Nimrod’s father was John, and his grandfather was Malik Kambar, a Jewish merchant from Istanbul, Turkey. He sent his grandson money and encouraged him to work with Jews in the garment district of NYC. Nimrod Alexander came to Southern California and encouraged these Jewish men to come to sunny California and make movies without artificial lights. The first film stages were nothing but four walls with an open ceiling, letting sunshine in without incurring electricity bills. Later, they placed silk screens to soften the light.[6]
There is a discrepancy in these stories. Was Nimrod Alexander funded by a wealthy grandfather upon arriving in the United States, or was he wandering around disheveled before he was found by nuns and placed in an orphanage?
Victor Alexander portrays his father as an extremely wealthy entrepreneur who financed early Hollywood movies. He claims, “Nimrod Alexander had amassed a great deal of wealth from selling movie rights. He had sold RKO Studios to Howard Hughes for USD$50,000,000.[7] RKO Pictures (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) is an iconic American film studio founded in 1928, famous as one of Hollywood’s “Big Five” studios during its Golden Age. Victor claims, “To his friends in Hollywood, he was known as Nimrod Alexander. He financed one thousand of Hollywood’s greatest movies, yet no one seems to know who he was.[8] In a separate account, he writes,
In the movie business, he was known as Nimrod Alexander. He encouraged mostly Jewish actors, directors, and producers, as they had the biggest interest in the movie business. He worked with Orson Welles and had a high regard for him as an actor, writer, and director. He had casual marriages to Louise Brooks, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Hedy Lamarr.
The movie that best depicts the life of Nimrod Alexander is The Artist, which was the story of how the movies began as silent pictures and later added sound and became a great vehicle for Broadway musicals. He financed All That Jazz, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Roy Scheider. The last movie he financed was American Hustle; Nimrod Alexander will remain an unknown film producer. Nimrod Alexander shall remain as a mysterious character with the exception of a few men and women who would still remember him as a major pioneer of the film industry. He was great friends with Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Sr. He brought D. W. Griffith to Hollywood in the early 1900s.[9]
In 2018, Victor Alexander claims, “I found out a year ago that my father had produced Moby Dick with Gregory Peck. My father was a financier of movies.”[10] On Wikipedia, we read that the 1956 film, Moby Dick, was produced by John Huston. Also,
The film was bankrolled by brothers Walter, Harold, and Marvin Mirisch… The Mirisches made a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures in order to release the film. Under the agreement, WB would distribute Moby Dick for seven years, after which all rights would revert to the Mirisch brothers’ company, Moulin Productions.[11]
It would appear that Nimrod was, in Victor’s words, a ‘mysterious character’ and ‘an unknown film producer’ because he didn’t exist. A simple AI fact-check reveals there was never a famous Hollywood socialite or movie financier named Nimrod Alexander. Not a single film mentions his name! But the story gets even more incredible. In all the biographies of the famous actresses he was allegedly ‘married’ to, such as Louise Brooks, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Hedy Lamarr, there was never a figure named Nimrod Alexander in any of their lives. Victor Alexander’s fictitious narrative appears to fulfill the famous saying: “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” There is a lot of pure fiction here, but it gets much worse. Victor continues,
Nimrod Alexander built the Chinese Groman’s Theater and created the stars on the Walk of Fame in front of it. He also created the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and came up with the Oscar as an award to actors, actresses, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, etc. He posed in the nude and brought a sculptor who sculpted him standing with a sword before his penis. The sculpture was built on an armature and later cast in copper and polished to bronze. Nimrod Alexander was six foot, three inches and the Oscars displaced in the various buildings and in the main screening room all are full sized; but the actual statuette that is given as an Oscar award is about one foot long. Nimrod Alexander never thought of giving himself an Oscar.
The truth is, “The iconic prize was designed almost a century ago by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons.”[12]The iconic Grauman’s Theater was built by Sid Grauman and opened in 1927. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded by Louis B. Mayer, the studio head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The famous Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard “was originally conceived in 1953; the first stars were unveiled in 1958, and the first permanent stars were placed in 1960.”[13]
Apparently, Nimrod lived a double life with achievements far beyond Hollywood. Victor writes,
Nimrod Alexander was in the CIA during WW I and WW II as well. The job of the CIA military arm was the blowing up of bridges and all covert actions that are not published in newspapers or shown on television.[14]
There is a small problem with this biographical sketch. A simple AI fact-check reveals;
The CIA did not exist during World War II; its forerunner was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), headed by U.S. Army Major General William “Wild Bill” Donovan. Donovan, a decorated World War I veteran, directed the OSS from its creation in 1942 until it was disbanded in late 1945. Following the conclusion of the war, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was officially established under the National Security Act of 1947, succeeding the OSS and earlier post-war intelligence groups.
Victor Alexander takes the fictional story much further.
As a CIA man, Nimrod Alexander saved some important people from Nazi Germany and brought them to the US. He brought the German Lutheran rocket scientist Wernher von Braun to the US, and he was the scientist to put a man on the moon when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy wanted to do it. Nimrod Alexander also brought Marlene Dietrich out of Nazi Germany. He helped Hedy Lamarr get movie roles in Paramount Studios. She had escaped out of Nazi occupied Austria, where her father, uncle, and husband perished in concentration camps, but she and her mother made it out.[15]
Nimrud Alexander became the official name of the man who created the CIA in 1906, the CID in 1907, and INTERPOL and later on. Nimrud Alexander created the League of Nations to deal with the aftermath of WW I. Nimrud Alexander built the United Nations building which became the place where all countries of the world would bring their cases for discussion and resolution. The UN became very important especially after WW II. Nimrud Alexander’s work for the CIA became extremely complex, and as it is beyond the interest of this webpage, it should be noted that Nimrud Alexander returned to his interest in the movie business, which he was a major influence, starting in 1909, when he began producing silent movies. His leading actress was Louise Brooks of the Ziegfeld Dollies, who was his chief model.
Nimrod Alexander was highly influential as a CIA man. He made it possible for Howard Hughes to secure a government contract from the Federal Government to fly AIR MAIL for the first time coast to coast for two years. Nimrod Alexander brought the German scientist Werner Von Braun from Germany as WW II broke out, and later when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy decided for the US to put a man on the moon, Nimrod Alexander worked with Werner Von Braun in order to make it possible for a rocket carrying a landing craft to land on the moon and to allow an astronaut to walk on the moon, collect samples and plant the American Flag, and after a number of missions the US was able to go to the moon and later to Mars. This is a very brief history of who Nimrod Alexander is; there will never be another Nimrod Alexander.[16]
Indeed! It is remarkable that with all his extraordinary accomplishments he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. There are no photos, no biographies, no mentions in any history books. Nothing! Victor writes,
Nimrod Alexander never thought of giving himself an Oscar, and because of his CIA work, he didn’t allow many pictures of himself bearing his name. When he decided to be placed in a sepulcher, it was about 2017.
This would make him 133 years old at the time of his extraordinary life. He would have undoubtedly needed 133 years to accomplish all his son claims he had achieved throughout his remarkable life! But it gets worse! On his LinkedIn page, Victor says, “My father, Nimrod Alexander, was a pioneer of motion pictures; in fact, he created the Academy Awards. One of his granddaughters is Jennifer Lawrence!”[17] His narratives are riddled with delusions. He writes this about himself.
Vic Alexander grew up in San Francisco. He attended the Benjamin Franklin Adult High School there, later renamed the John Adams Adult High School. John H. Adams was the great-great-grandson of John Adams, the second US President. Vic Alexander asked Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to knight John Herkimer Adams, and she was gracious enough to do it.[18]
Elsewhere, Victor Alexander writes his own bio, stating, “John H. Adams… was Vic Alexander’s mentor, who made it possible for him to attend the City College of San Francisco.”[19] A simple fact-check reveals this is yet another fabrication! The second US President, John Adams, had no direct descendants named ‘John H. Adams.’ His notable descendants generally include John Quincy Adams (6th US President), Charles Francis Adams Sr., and Charles Francis Adams Jr. There is no verified historical record of a John H. Adams being a descendant of the second president or serving as Vic Alexander’s mentor to facilitate his transition to City College of San Francisco. The claim that Alexander requested that Queen Elizabeth II knight John Herkimer Adams is unverifiable and conflicts with US constitutional practices. The ‘Titles of Nobility Clause’ in the Constitution forbids US citizens from accepting titles of nobility from foreign kings or queens. The likelihood that Queen Elizabeth II would grant Victor Alexander his wish to have John H. Adams knighted is not just unlikely but altogether ridiculous. He appears to have an obsession with proximity to the Queen, as revealed in yet another bio entry.
…when I visit HM Queen Elizabeth II so as to help her to recall the case against her extradition to Israel for crimes against the State of Israel after the 1947 Resolution, my Jewish father suggested to the UN, and was passed so she won’t have to burden the future monarch of Great Britain with the case against Great Britain.[20]
A man named Daniel C. Branham Steele, a devotee of Victor Alexander and his Aramaic Bible, found a way to regain contact with Alexander in 2019. He describes Victor as “a native Aramaic-language speaker who undertook to translate the entire New Testament.”[21] In various emails back and forth, Alexander revealed,
I found out that I’m the sole heir of Nimrud Alexander, first CIA Director, who placed money under my name since 1906 and was assassinated by foreign enemies leaving me a fortunate [sic] which cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. I have converted that fortune to the benefit of all those who want to make the world a better place.[22]
More glaring discrepancies! Here, we find Nimrod was assassinated, but earlier, Victor claimed he died in 2017 and was nominated to be placed in a sepulcher. He claimed Nimrod was a multi-millionaire from his achievements in Hollywood, yet Victor indicates he gave the entire inheritance away. Clearly, by the time of this email correspondence with Steele [2019], he was struggling to support himself and his wife, Liv Alexander. He says to Steele,
Can you encourage these people to make a small contribution directly to me? I have to help Liv with some money. My son-in-law Donald Trump has prevent [sic] everyone from sending one cent. God bless, Victor Isaac Alexander.[23]
In another email to Steele, Victor explains why his former website was now offline.
I don’t have any money to use a new hosting account. My Bible translation has been shut down by the order of President Trump, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, Pope Francis I, and the US Government.[24]
Victor also claims,
At 74, I found out that I had a famous father who had started the movie industry, that he was so wealthy that he had many enemies. I overreacted and began attacking his enemies throughout the Internet, that created a lot of animosity towards me. At 75, I can’t stop the attack of people in the US against me.[25]
Victor appears to suffer from paranoid delusions. To top it all off, he writes on one of his web pages: “The murderer of the six million Jews during WW II was Canadian!”[26] He mischievously links this claim to Dr. John Cooley Gunnell MD, a hematologist based in Glendale, California, whom he describes as a ‘genocidal maniac.’ Victor Alexander created a website under the name gunnell666. These and many other bizarre claims seriously call into question the soundness of Victor Alexander’s mind. If he were to undergo a psychological assessment, it would be evident that he is extremely mentally unwell. Compulsive lying and paranoid delusions suggest he may suffer from ‘pseudologia fantastica.’[27] This condition has also been called mythomania, a persistent pattern of excessive, often fantastic lying that occurs without any clear external motive or material reward. When a person with this condition also displays delusions, the boundary between their invented reality and the truth begins to break down.
Psychologists use the term ‘confabulation’ when a person’s brain treats their own fabricated stories or delusions as genuine memories. With frequent repetition, particularly if the stories are highly emotional, the barrier between fiction and reality breaks down, causing the individual to truly believe their own lies, without intending to deceive.[28] While it is not my place to make such an assessment, the evidence points toward an extremely unhealthy state of mind.
Victor Alexander is a failed B-grade independent filmmaker who appears to have generated a fictional movie script about his own genealogical significance, filled with wild confabulation and repeated storytelling that has morphed into reality in his imagination. All of this calls into question his grip on reality. His obsession with his genealogy and a seemingly mythical connection to a great-grandfather named Malik Qambar, a Turkish-born Jew, feeds into his fascination with the ancient Aramaic tongue. Part of his self-made autobiographical mythology is his claim to being a native-born Aramaic speaker. As we drill deeper into his thought world, we will see that Alexander considers himself uniquely qualified to read ancient Aramaic. He says, “I do understand Aramaic to a profound level. I went to an Aramaic language school. It was a Presbyterian Church school.”[29] He claims a unique….
…capacity for undertaking the translation, transliteration and stylistic considerations of the Scriptures in both languages, the original Galilean Aramaic and American English. As a translator, I bring to the job a thorough, native Aramaic language competency, education and knowledge of the cultures of Biblical lands, together with a US University education and a degree (BA) in a communications field.[30]
When faced with the reality of Victor Alexander’s claims to have translated the New Testament from Aramaic as a “native-born Aramaic speaker,” it is fair to question whether these claims are part of his wild confabulations. Why would someone growing up in San Francisco attend an Aramaic language school as a native-born Aramaic speaker? Add to this the problem that there were no Presbyterian Aramaic-language schools in California in the 1950s or 60s. Why would a Presbyterian school teach Aramaic? Alexander’s claim to have attended such a school in California conflicts with his other claim to have attended a different high school in San Francisco. It would appear that Victor’s confabulated stories about his ancestry are part of the self-created mythology of being a Jewish native Aramaic speaker, uniquely qualified to translate the New Testament from first-century Aramaic.
Daniel Steele recognizes Alexander’s fragile grip on reality yet clings tenaciously to his so-called Aramaic translation. He writes,
I am asked, “Why, Dan, do you promote Vic Alexander’s translations? He is a solo worker, and by your own account, the translations are full of typos.” Because he is approaching the writings of Aramaic-speaking authors as an educated Aramaic speaker. The whole kit-and-caboodle of the Scriptures was Aramaic-speaking agents acting in an Aramaic world. They had an Aramaic world view, Aramaic thoughts, ideas, and expressions. I do not give a hoot if a period is on the wrong side of a quotation mark, or if a word is obviously misspelled. Vic’s idiomatic phrasing of Aramaic ideas has been invaluable to me. Line after line, I see that this and that passage have been mistranslated and misunderstood, and that I have misread this or that passage for decades. Whole basic doctrines I held had been based on false assumptions and misunderstandings, which I would never have known were false if I had not read the Aramaic point of view from Vic. God is doing a different thing than I had ever known or assumed. Victor Alexander has turned my whole world upside down, and that is a good thing. (thanks, Vic).
Vic spent more than twenty years in an individual effort to translate the New Testament and much of the Old, according to a native Aramaic speaker’s understanding of the ancient language. I find in his, a perspective not found in other translations from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, or paraphrases. He has looked at the dictionaries and in many cases said, “Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that when we speak it.” When I catch those, it’s like explosions of revelation in my mind as illumination comes in rewriting everything I thought I knew.[31]
Victor Alexander’s translation of the New Testament is vastly different from any other version. The claim is that it has been translated directly from Galilean Aramaic texts, which the author has exclusively accessed. Yet, when asked to reveal these mysterious documents, Alexander flatly refuses to reveal his sources. Given his propensity to fabricate stories, it must be asked if his outlandish claims are merely an extension of his vivid imagination. Alexander simply refuses to show these ancient manuscripts or disclose exactly where he saw them.
This claim has been likened to Joseph Smith’s famous ‘Golden Plates’ that he alone had seen and translated into English but could not produce. Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed to have translated them before they all mysteriously vanished. The Book of Mormon was the product of Smith’s amazing translation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Smith claimed the ‘Golden Plates’ were handed to him by an angel named Moroni, and he returned the plates to the angel after translating them using a method that employed ‘seer stones.’ A seer stone was a smooth rock placed at the bottom of a stovepipe hat. The seer would gaze into the bottom of the hat and receive the translation from hieroglyphics.
Here is what Alexander has said concerning his source material.
Many people who have asked me to defend the authenticity of my translation’s source documents want to see proof. However, I know that even if I were to show them a 2000-year-old manuscript in my hand and do a Carbon-14 test in front of everyone’s eyes, none of them would believe it still. The truth has been denied for so long that it would literally take me forever.[32]
Victor Alexander is a firm believer in the primacy of the Aramaic text, arguing that the original New Testament documents were all written in first -century Aramaic and later translated into Greek. It is evident he buys into a conspiracy theory that biased Western scholars are in denial about the existence of the original documents that Alexander claims to have seen. This is his ‘truth’ that has been comprehensively refuted by many scholars. On the back cover of the book, we read,
The Disciples New Testament is a translation of the Ancient Aramaic New Testament Scriptures of the Ancient Church of the East directly into English, bypassing the errors of the Greek Original, the Latin Vulgate, and all the other Western translations made from them. The Ancient Church of the East began in Jerusalem at the time of the Disciples and Apostles of Eashoa Msheekhah (Jesus the Messiah). The Ancient Aramaic Scriptures were compiled into one Book in the middle of the 4th Century AD by the scribes of the Ancient Church of the East in the city of Urhai (later called Edessa). The Disciples New Testament is then the only accurate and non–prejudicial translation of the original New Testament Scriptures by a native Aramaic-speaking translator.
Alexander’s unique translation is to be distinguished from the Peshitta, an Aramaic translation from Koine Greek, dated to the early 5th century. Bruce M. Metzger references “The hypothesis that the Peshitta version of the New Testament was made by or for Rabbula, bishop of Edessa, probably in the early years of his episcopate, which extended from A.D. 411 to 435.”[33] One wonders why such a translation was necessary if Edessa already had the original Aramaic manuscripts from the first century! Alexander continues,
I don’t need to prove that the manuscript I’m translating from is the oldest found; archeology is not the issue. I don’t need to prove that the manuscript I’m translating from has been sanctioned by any church; doctrine is not the issue. I don’t need to prove that the manuscript I’m translating from is in the proper dialect; nationalism is not the issue. The only thing I need to prove is whether or not the manuscript I’m translating from contains the fundamental belief system of the Apostles of Eashoa [Jesus], the belief system which Eashoa taught.[34]
Alexander claims to have had exclusive access to the original documents, which are completely unknown in the West. He says,
The Christian theological establishment has decreed that Greek is the ‘original’ language of the New Testament, despite the existence of voluminous proof that the Gospels were written in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke and the language of the Biblical lands at the time. After I studied the Bible and compared texts between different versions, it suddenly dawned on me that there really was no competent translation! I searched some more. As unbelievable as it seemed, it was true. Then I thought, surely, who am I, a layman, to even think of translating the Bible? Did I truly have the competence to do justice to the job? I looked around me and talked to many experts, scholars, and clergy alike, and I came to the conclusion, amazingly, that I was probably one of the rarest of translators who had the most extensive and powerful understanding of both the languages of the Scriptures and modern American English. Yes, I do understand Aramaic to a profound level. I went to an Aramaic language school. It was a Presbyterian Church school. Our two teachers were both from Urmia, Iran, where the Aramaic language scholarship was the dominant force in Ashurai [Assyrian] cultural life and where most of our best literary people came from.
The choice of texts for the translation will cover all mainstream and esoteric translations combined. The most accurate original texts are, of course, the Galilean Aramaic that Jesus, the disciples, and apostles spoke and wrote in. These are the primary texts. They are preserved only by the ancient Church of the East theologians. Before starting my translation project, I looked around me and saw, in this town where I live, over fifty churches. Only fifty thousand people live here. A dozen religious broadcasts a week, that I am aware of, reach us here. There are hints from every one of them that they have the ‘True Gospel.’ There was such a tremendous inclination to dust off the old family Aramaic language Bible and find out a thing or two. However, it was finally my wife who urged me to translate. Her study and devotion to the words of Jesus Christ compelled me to undertake the work.
The original texts of the Bible are, strangely enough, available in print. The Christian world does not know that they are the originals, because almost no one can read and understand them, or even discern their authenticity, since the original language is dormant. Therefore, I am not affected by the controversy as to which is the oldest found version of the Bible at all. As I am dealing with the original Aramaic idioms, transliterating the verses and maintaining true idiomatic readings, as well as Aramaic poetic construction, my main concern is recovering the original meanings of the passages, especially the words that Jesus spoke. My interest is primarily in translating the Aramaic into American English, since Jesus’ words are the most important from the perspective of what Christianity and the Christian Bible are all about. There are no serious problems posed by the translation, except for the fact that some of the concepts that have been embraced by certain denominations have created major obstacles to a clear understanding of the Bible. Only careful, comparative study of my translation against all other translations, including the Greek ‘Original,’ can lead to a clear understanding of the true words of Jesus Christ and the holy Bible.[35]
Andrew Chapman, a biblical scholar who examined Alexander’s New Testament, concluded that the original first-century manuscripts simply do not exist, and that Alexander’s bizarre translation is a complete fraud and “a product of his imagination.”[36] Alexander himself holds an inordinately high view of his unique Aramaic translation. Here is a quote from his website, which was later removed.
My translations of the Scriptures are not just another version of the Bible; my translations are the only authentic translations of the original Scriptures. Throughout my translation project, I have noticed that every verse of the Western Bibles contains at least one word that has been mistranslated. I am surprised that when people read my translations, they do not notice that their Bibles contain errors in every verse. Even more surprising is that the pastors who preach sermons based on the Greek, Latin, and English language translations of the words of Eashoa Msheekha [Aramaic for Jesus the Messiah] and all the prophets before Him, that they do not notice they are preaching misleading ideas, ideas that were not intended by Eashoa Msheekha or the prophets. But in the minds of the American pastors the sermons that they preach seem to be brilliant, inspiring and true to the Scriptures.[37]
Alexander backs himself into a corner in his extravagant claim that apostolic succession lies exclusively in the recovery of the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures.
Adherence to the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures makes it possible for the correct interpretation of the Scriptures and the continuation of apostleship. In order to receive the gifts of apostleship, which only Eashoa Msheekha can bestow on His followers, according to their measure of faith and based on His teachings in the language He spoke, it is necessary to accept the authenticity of the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures. The Ancient Aramaic Church presents its members with a true translation of the Scriptures into English. The age of apostleship cannot be extended to those people who believe in the primacy of the Greek and Latin Scriptures. Too many inconsistencies and contradictions have already risen before the myriad of churches using the Greek and Latin derivatives of names and doctrines that can never be quite correctly stated. This is the significance of the AAC [Ancient Aramaic Church]. Your support is necessary so the translation project can proceed and meet its publishing goals.[38]
I believe this document, which extensively quotes Victor Alexander’s own writings and personal opinions, makes it abundantly clear that he is not of sound mind. This seriously calls into question his capacity to be trusted when he urges his readers to ‘trust him’ that he has actually seen the first-century Galilean Aramaic documents he insists were written in Aramaic before they were translated into Greek. Rather, his inability to produce his alleged source documents appears to reflect a propensity for tall tales. It is entirely possible, even extremely likely, that the whole story of the original documents is entirely fabricated and the product of Victor Alexander’s wild confabulations. There is simply no basis whatsoever to treat this alleged translation as a trustworthy historical source document.
Victor Alexander provides no academic credentials for his translation work, no proof that he is a native Aramaic speaker, and no historical documents from which he claims to have translated. He simply says, ‘Trust me!’ in much the same way Joseph Smith urged his followers to trust him in his claim to have translated ancient hieroglyphics into modern American English through his esoteric use of ‘seer stones.’ Coupled with Alexander’s tall stories about his clearly fabricated ancestry, his translation appears to be a completely fraudulent document.
No one should quote from this Bible translation as though it has any shred of authenticity or authority. Both the author and his enigmatic translation set off multiple alarm bells on every count. All the information compiled in this essay has been freely available online for years, but no one appears to have done the necessary due diligence to ascertain the reliability and trustworthiness of the author or his spurious translation. The translation of God’s holy Word demands the credibility of its translators. A translator who deliberately falsifies and invents a famous ancestry forfeits all credibility and reliability, casting a dark shadow over any claim to have the authority to translate God’s Words.
[1] www.amazon.com.au/Aramaic-Bible-Disciples-New-Testament
[2] Victor Alexander: 2013 foreword to Aramaic Original New Testament
[3] ibid
[4] gunnell666.home.blog/2019/11/21/nimrod-alexander/Alexander
[5] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Qambar
[6] www.imdb.com/name/nm10974549/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
[7] ibid
[8] www.imdb.com/list/ls093240583/
[9] gunnell666.home.blog/2019/11/21/nimrod-alexander/
[10] www.linkedin.com/pulse/vic-alexander-hollywood-filmmaker-vic-alexander
[11] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(1956_film)
[12] www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscar-statuette-modeled-named-after-ancient-egyptian-gods-1235847398/
[13] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame
[14] infolist.com/profile/victor-alexander/
[15] www.imdb.com/name/nm10974549/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
[16] gunnell666.home.blog/2019/11/21/nimrod-alexander/
[17] www.linkedin.com/pulse/vic-alexander-filmmaker-vic-alexander
[18] infolist.com/profile/victor-alexander/#google_vignette
[20] gunnell666.home.blog/2019/11/21/nimrod-alexander/
[21] imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2019/12/vic-alexander-is-alive.html
[22] ibid
[23] ibid
[24] ibid
[25] www.linkedin.com/pulse/may-you-have-serene-9-11-day-vic-alexander
[27]www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/08039489509011929?__cf_chl_f_tk=9JL0x6lAJy5FmWk11ZisMEhFeJ.EyOa8lYMlBk.UgZk-1782937628-1.0.1.1-lofXqUvX68gIjGWGP5ux5aeheOScIVZZSiKMLPifh98
[28] www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSGbgoiOv1s&t=531s
[29] 216.92.75.217/bible/aramaic.html
[30] ibid
[31] imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2019/12/vic-alexander-is-alive.html
[32] theriveroflife.com/2017/03/29/brian-simmons-and-his-passion-anti-translation-what-text-is-victor-alexander-translating-from-part-1/
[33] Metzger, Bruce M. (1977). The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission and Limitations. Oxford University Press. p. 57–58
[34] theriveroflife.com/2017/03/29/brian-simmons-and-his-passion-anti-translation-what-text-is-victor-alexander-translating-from-part-1/
[35] 216.92.75.217/bible/aramaic.html
[36] ibid
[37] www.worthychristianforums.com/topic/213262-aramaic-to-english-translation-proposal/
[38] ibid
