Who is the most persecuted religion?

I am willing to place betting odds that you have a crappy copy of the Bible.

Many devote their lives helping others accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

"Everything is permissible for me," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me," but I will not be mastered by anything.

There are crappy Bibles too.

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

...For starters, there is no doubting that a small handful of readings in the Hebrew Masoretic Text have been altered at some point. Some, no doubt, on purpose, while others were more likely accidental. We can see these alterations by comparing the Masoretic not only to the LXX, but also to the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), the Samaritan Torah (ST), the Syriac Peshitta (SP), and the Latin Vulgate. Not only that, but in a number of these we have quotes from the NT writers that seem to quote the verse from a text other than the Masoretic.

So I will not be claiming the Masoretic text is 100% infallible. But then, without any of the autographs, I do not believe any of the texts we have today are completely infallible. I know, that may wreck your world. But, before you prepare to stone me, please let me explain. I personally believe that in the era we are now in, we have access to the 100% truth. I truly believe that. However, accessing the 100% truth may take a lot of effort. Although I do not believe any one text contains the entirely original reading, I believe that by comparing these texts and using all the evidence available to us, that we will indeed be able to achieve an original-esque text. I will explain that in this article, as well. For now, how about an example of somewhere we know the Masoretic is corrupt?

Psalm 22:16 (Shem Qodesh Version) - For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

Well that seems straightforward, right? Yet the SQV uses the text of the LXX, DSS, SP, and LV. A direct translation of the Masoretic can be found in the JPS Tanakh:

Psalm 22:16 (Jewish Publication Society) - For dogs have encompassed me; A company of evil-doers have enclosed me; Like a lion, they are at my hands and my feet.[b/]

See the difference? And there is a reason for that, as well. You see, the Masoretic text uses the word כָּאֲרִי (ka'ari) here. This is the word ארי (ari), meaning "lion" with the kaf (כ) prefix, meaning "like/as."

So that makes sense then, right? Yet we know this verse is a rather strong reference to Yeshua's death on the tree. His hands and feet really WERE pierced. Yeshua even referenced this verse when He cried out, "My El My El, why have You forsaken Me?" (see 22:1). So what is the deal with the "lion" reference, then? Well, here is how the other versions work out.

Psalm 22:16 (Syriac Peshitta) – For dogs have encompassed me, and a congregation of evil ones has gone around me. They pierced my hands and feet.

Here, the word in question in Syriac is בזעו (b'za), meaning "to rend, dig, pierce." Now if this was meant to read "lion" it would use the word אריא (arya), but it does not. Therefore, it clearly reads, "pierce" and not "lion."

Psalm 22:16 (Greek Septuagint) - For many dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked doers has beset me round: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Here the word for "pierced" is the Greek word ωρυξεν (oruxen), which means again, "to dig." See Matthew 25:18 or Mark 12:1 for an example of how this word is used in the NT (it is translated as "dug" past tense). Note this is not the word λεων (leon), which means "lion."

Psalm 22:16 (Latin Vulgate) - For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.

The word for "dug" here in Latin is vinxerunt, which literally means "to dig, to bore." Notice that Jerome chose this word, and not the Latin word for "lion" which is leo.

Psalm 22:16 (Dead Sea Scrolls) - For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

Here is where we find a major difference. This is the best comparison we have (in my opinion), because the Dead Sea Scrolls are Hebrew, and therefore they are not a translation, but a copy of the Hebrew text. They also predate the Masoretic by over 1,000 years.

While the other versions are translations and therefore can only be counted as secondary witnesses, the DSS should be counted as a primary witness. And in them, we find two different spellings of the word in question. Most notably, however, neither of these two spellings spell ari (lion).

These two words are: כרו (karu, found in 4QPsf), and כארו (ka'aru, found in Nahal Hever, dated to about the 1st century CE). These two spellings are the same word, the proper spelling of which is כארו. This is a form of the word כרה (karah), which means "to dig" as it is used in Gen. 26:25 to describe the digging of a well.

So what is the deal with the "lion" reference, then?

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.

The lion is not as clear cut as you think.

They used the word lion in Psalm 22, even though it doesn't make any sense, because the Masoretes want to remind you of a false image of Messiah as lion.

If they wanted his name to be blotted out, and they had the ability to change the record, then why didn't they do that instead of leaving Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, etc?

Also, you have ignored the point that Psalm 22 can't be about the Messiah because the crucified man's low self-esteem: "But I [am] a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people"

There ARE prophecies that deal with Jesus' second coming (second Advent). Jesus will be a conquering hero for Israel's sake. The final book of the Bible gives record of this.

Although many of the Jewish community were at this point Hellenized, the persecution of the Jewish people and the destruction of practicing Judaism united the Jewish people in Judea. The Jewish people needed someone to lead them. When Antiochus sent some of his officers to the town of Modiin to lay down his tyranny and enact the oppressive laws that he had enforced, he was met by a local Jewish country priest named Mattathias. This turned out to be a very portentous meeting. The country priest was ordered to fulfil his duty to the state and be the first to sacrifice an animal to an altar of an idol. He refused and when another Jewish man stepped forward to do it, he murdered the officer. Tearing down the idol, Mattathias preached "Let everyone who is zealous for the law and who stands by the covenant follow me!" (I Maccabees 2:27).

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There ARE prophecies that deal with Jesus' second coming (second Advent). Jesus will be a conquering hero for Israel's sake. The final book of the Bible gives record of this.

Hebrews 9:28; So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of "MANY"; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, "but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

Are you waiting for him Neal?

Since I am a Jewish believer I am already in naturally.

Hebrews 9:28 says

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Since I am a Jewish believer I am already in naturally.

No, you could be cut off.

For example:
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
Genesis 17:14

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Hebrews 9:28 says

The writer of Hebrews apparently thought that the Messiah was sacrificed (verse 26). This doctrine originated with Caiaphas, and was self serving since they had been accused of being children of those
who killed the prophets. (John 11:49-53)