I'm wondering if Jews believe that God only speaks through the Hebrew scriptures?
To come at it from another angle; does God also speak through translations of the scriptures? What about modern day dreams and visions?
I ask because historically the Septuagint was considered a very popular and important translation (into Greek), and as I understand it, the majority of Jews at the time of Jesus were reading the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew scriptures, (with the exception of some liturgical readings in the synagogues). I'm wondering how Jews today would regard the Septuagint as it is a translation, not the original Hebrew?
And how do Jews regard the thousands of Christian translations into every major language today? Could a modern Jew pick up the NIV bible and say "God speaks through this book" (of course he would have to tear out the New Testament first)?
To clarify my preconceptions as a Christian: In the Christian world, it is believed that when you read the bible God is actually talking to you. Some Christians take this to mean that every word on the page is literally "breathed-out" from God's mouth, and therefore every word is important and only the scriptures in the original languages are truly "God's word". While others believe that it is the message which is "inspired" by God, but not so much the individual words, and therefore translations from the original Hebrew can be considered just as much "word of God" as the original texts, just so long as they convey the same message.