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        LAND The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. The Hebrew word often translated as "earth" is ארץ erets [H:776] but is more frequently translated as "land" which is the more literal meaning of the word. The word erets may refer to land in general or a specific piece of land, or region, such as in the "land of Israel." This word comes from the root רץ rats [H:7518] meaning "fragment." When a clay pot is broken it is not wasted. The broken fragments, called ostracon, are commonly used for writing letters, receipts, messages, etc. To the left, is an example of such an ostraca. Did the Ancients view the earth as "fragments" in the sense of regions, or did they have the knowledge that the land of the earth was divided up into fragments, known to us as tectonic plates? LIFT.UP (V) The following is an excerpt from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center Website.
The Hebrew word behind "lift up" is נשא (nasa, Strong's #5375) and means to take hold of something and lift it up, either to move or remove it. This very same Hebrew word is also used in the following verse.
From a Hebraic perspective, the forgiveness of sins is the same as lifting it off and removing it just as we see in Micah 7:19.
The Hebrew word סל ח (salahh, Strong's #5545) is also translated as forgive and is used in the following verse where the forgiveness of iniquity is being paralleled with the healing (or lifting up) of diseases.
By investigating other words that are related to סל ח (salahh) we can see that this word has a very similar meaning to נשא (nasa). סל ד (salad, Strong's #5539) means "to leap up." סל ע (sala, Strong's #5553) is a "cliff" (a wall that is lifted up). סל ק (salaq, Strong's #5559) means "to ascend." LIGHT The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. "In the beginning..." there was darkness and chaos, so God’s first act was to shed some light on the subject to bring about some order. And Elohiym said, let there be light, and light existed.Genesis 1:3 The Hebrew word אור or [H:216], meaning "light," comes from the verbal root אור or [H:215], meaning "to illuminate." When we are searching for an idea and it suddenly comes to us we say, "the light came on," meaning we have become enlightened. The verb or can have this meaning as we see here. ...The directions of Yahweh are pure, enlightening (or) the eyes. Psalm 19:8 LIKENESS The following is an excerpt from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center Website. The parent root דם (dam) is blood. One descended from the "blood" of another often resembles the one descended from. Derived from the parent root דם the child root דמה (damah) meaning "to resemble" The word דמות (demut) means a resemblance or to be like something else in action or appearance. LIVING The following is an excerpt from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center Website. The Hebrew word חי (chy) is pronounced like the English greeting "Hi" but the "H" is pronounced hard like the "ch" in the name "Bach" (hence I use the transliteration of "hh" for this letter while most use "ch"). The word "hhy" is usually translated as "life" in the English Translations. The idea of "life" is an abstract thought meaning that the concept of "life" cannot be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or felt. As the Hebrew language does express abstract thought it is always through concrete ideas. In order to demonstrate this process of concrete and abstract thought let us examine the concept of "heart". The Hebrew word for "heart" is ל ב (lev). The heart is the concrete and physical "heart", the organ in the chest. But, this same word also represents the abstract idea of "emotion" as the ancient Hebrews understood the "heart" as the seat of emotion (much like we see thinking being associated with the brain). Now when we come to the word חי (chy) we understand the abstract concept behind the word as awareness, existence, etc. but what was the concrete background to the word. The following passage (quoted from the KJV) can help us unravel this mystery.
The word "appetite" in this verse is the translator’s translation of the word "hhy". An "appetite" is again an abstract word and was probably chosen for the translation as it best fits with the idea of "life". But, if we instead replace appetite with "stomach", a more concrete Hebraic concept, we find that the verse makes much more sense.
Just as the heart is the seat of emotion, the stomach is, according to Hebrew thought, the seat of life. If we think about this we can easily understand why. We must first remember that the Hebrews were nomads who traveled from pasture to pasture with their flocks in search of food and water. This was their primary goal in "life". If food and water were in plenty, life was good, if it was not, life was very bad. The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. The Hebrew word חי hhai [H:2416] is usually translated as life, but how did the Ancient Hebrews perceive "life"? A clue can be found in Job 38:39. Will you hunt prey for the lion and will you fill the stomach (hhai) of the young lion? Job 38:39 Hhai is concretely the "stomach," but in the abstract it means "life," as in the verse below. In the six hundredth year of the life (hhai) of Noah... Genesis 7:11 What does the stomach have to do with life? In our culture, it is very uncommon for anyone to experience true hunger, but this was an all-too-often experience for the Ancient Hebrews who lived a nomadic lifestyle, always in search of food and water. To them a full stomach was a sign of life. The following is an excerpt from the book Ancient Hebrew Dictionary. The Hebrew word hhai is usually translated as life. In the Hebrew language all words are related to something concrete or physical, something that can be observed by one of the five senses. Some examples of concrete words would be tree, water, hot, sweet or loud. The western Greek mind frequently uses abstracts or mental words to convey ideas. An abstract word is something that cannot be sensed by the five senses. Some examples would be bless, believe, and the word life. Whenever working with an abstract word in the Biblical text it will help to uncover the concrete background to the word for proper interpretation. How did the ancient Hebrew perceive "life?" A clue can be found in Job 38:39, "Will you hunt prey for the lion and will you fill the stomach of the young lion?" In this verse the word "stomach" is the Hebrew word hhai. What does the stomach have to do with life? In our culture it is very uncommon for anyone to experience true hunger but this was an all too often experience for the Ancient Hebrews. To the Ancient Hebrews life is seen as a full stomach while an empty stomach is seen as death. " LORD The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me. Psalm 35:22 (KJV) In this verse, the word ""lord"" appears twice, once in all upper case letters, ""LORD,"" and the other with only the letter ""L"" in the upper case, ""Lord."" First we will examine the word ""Lord."" The Hebrew word אדון adon [H:113] is one who has authority over another or as it is usually translated, a ""lord"" and is used in the Bible for both men and God. However, from a Hebraic perspective, a ""lord"" is not one who simply rules over another, but rather one who provides for and protects those under his charge. At this point, a little Hebrew grammar is in order to help understand what the Hebrew behind the word ""Lord"" really means. When the suffix י iy is added to the end of a noun, it means ""of me"" or ""my,"" so אדוני adoniy means ""lord of me"" or ""my lord."" When the suffix ים iym is added to the end of a noun, it makes the noun plural, so אדונים adoniym means ""lords."" If the ם m is dropped from אדונים, we have אדוני adonai meaning ""my lords."" In the verse above, the word ""Lord"" is אדוני adonai [H:136] which literally means ""my lords."" In this sense, the writer is using it as a proper name, commonly used in the Bible for God. The word ""LORD,"" in all upper case letters, is not even related to the word אדון adon [H:113], it is the name יהוה YHWH [H:3068]. Each Hebrew name is a Hebrew word with meaning. For instance, the name אדם adam [H:120] is the name of the first human, but adam is also the Hebrew word for ""human."" The name YHWH, traditionally pronounced as Yahweh, is also a Hebrew word, the verb היה hawah [H:1933], meaning ""to exist"" and prefixed with the letter y (y) meaning ""he."" Thus יהוה (YHWH) means ""he exists"" and as a word would be pronounced as ye’huw or yih’weh. Did the original writers of the New Testament use the name ""Yahweh"" in their original text of their manuscripts? Let’s check the evidence. The LORD (Yahweh) says to my lord (adonai) ""Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool."" Psalm 110:1 (RSV) In this verse, we again have the two names for God, Yahweh and adonai. Below is the Hebrew for Psalm 110:1 from the Masoretic text. נאם יהוה ל אדני שב ל מיני עד אשית איביך הדם ל רגל יך Reading from right to left, the second word is Yahweh and the next word is la’adonai (to my lord). Two thousand years ago, a group of Jewish scholars (seventy by tradition) composed a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible for the Jews living outside of Israel who no longer spoke Hebrew. This translation is known as the Septuagint (or LXX, the Roman numerals meaning ""seventy""). Below is the Septuagint’s translation of Psalm 110:1. ειπεν ο κυριος τω κυριω μου καθου εκ δεξιων μου εως αν θω τους εχθρους σου υποποδιον των ποδων σου Reading from left to right, the third word in the top line is κυριος kurios [G:2962], meaning ""lord,"" the translators’ translation for the name Yahweh. The fifth word is also κυριω and is used by the translators for the Hebrew word adon as well. Psalm 110:1 is quoted in Matthew 22:44. Below is the Greek text of this Matthew passage. ειπεν ο κυριος τω κυριω μου καθου εκ δεξιων μου εως αν θω τους εχθρους σου υποποδιον των ποδων σου Notice that the Greek Septuagint and the Greek Matthew are identical. This clearly shows that the Greek book of Matthew was using the Greek Septuagint as its source for quoting the book of Psalms. In the latter 1400’s, a Jewish scholar by the name of Shem Tov wrote a document called Even Bohan (touch stone) to counter Christian missionaries. He included as an appendix a Hebrew copy of the Book of Matthew. The grammatical and textual evidence of this document suggests that this is an ancient version, and possibly a copy, of an original Matthew written in Hebrew. Let’s examine Matthew 22:44 as it appears in the Shem Tov Hebrew. נאם ה"" ל אדני שב ל מיני עד אשית אויביך הדום ל רגל יך Here the Hebrew is identical to the Hebrew in Psalm 110:1 with the words Yahweh and adon intact. This shows that the Hebrew book of Matthew was using the Hebrew text as its source for quoting the book of Psalms. Did the original writers of the New Testament use the name Yahweh in their original text of their manuscripts? Based on the evidence above, the answer is yes, the original book of Matthew did include the name Yahweh. The quotation of Psalm 110:1 found in the Hebrew text of Matthew was copied from the Hebrew text of Psalm 110:1. But, when the book of Matthew was translated into Greek at a later point, the translators copied Psalm 110:1 from the Greek Septuagint which had replaced the name Yahweh with the Greek word kurios. The above examination of the Hebrew and Greek texts of Psalms and Matthew is also helpful in answering a long debated argument. Many have theorized that since Old Testament quotations in the Greek New Testament are from the Greek Septuagint and not the Hebrew text, this is a proof the New Testament was originally written in Greek and not Hebrew. However, as we have seen, the Hebrew text of the New Testament used the Hebrew text of the Old Testament when quoting, but when that Hebrew text of the New Testament was translated into Greek, they simply used the Greek Septuagint for the quotations since it had already been translated. The following is an excerpt from the book His Name is One. Again we will begin our search for the Biblical meaning of אדון (adon) by looking at its parent root דן (dan). In the ancient pictographic script, this word would have appeared as One child root derived from this parent is דין(diyn), meaning to ""judge"". This word is used as a legal term, but not in the modern Western sense of seeking guilt or condemnation, rather it is seeking innocence or life from an Eastern Hebraic sense. We can see this search for innocence in Genesis 15:4 where God punishes the guilty in order to bring life to the descendents of Abraham who were unjustly treated as slaves. ""But I will punish the nation they [the descendents of Abraham] serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions"" (NIV). In the next two passages, the word דין (diyn) is paralleled with ""save"", meaning to deliver from a trouble or burden and ""compassion"". Just as a deliverer saves ones life from an enemy, a judge also brings life (diyn). We have seen that the parent root דן (dan) means ""to enter life"" and the child root דין (diyn) is ""to bring life to another"". We now come to the child root אדן (adon - lord) which means ""one who brings life"" or ""one who opens the door to perpetual life"", the judge or deliverer. In the ancient Hebraic culture each family was a kingdom unto itself, the head of the family, the patriarch, was the king. Within the hands of this king was the power to take or grant life and for this reason he is seen as the אדן (adon). After Jacob flees from his family, Esau becomes the head of the family, he is the אדן. When Jacob returns he is afraid for his life and approaches Esau as a servant in the hopes that Esau will spare his life. Moses is also called אדן, the deliverer and judge of Israel. " LOST The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. Better is a little that the righteous hath Than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; But Jehovah upholdeth the righteous. Psalm 37:16,17 (ASV) These two words, righteous and wicked, are paralleled together as antonyms many times throughout the Biblical text. What is a righteous or wicked person? These two words are abstract in meaning and therefore we will need to find their original concrete meanings in order to uncover their true meaning in Hebraic thought. The Hebrew word רשע rasha [H:7563] is the word translated as "wicked" in the above verse. It comes from the verbal root רשע rasha [H:7561], which concretely means "to walk away from the path" and can be found in the following passage. For I have guarded the path of Yahweh and I have not walked away (rasha) from my God. 2 Samuel 22:22 I recall a backpacking trip where I was following a trail many miles in the backcountry. While paying more attention to the scenery than the trail itself, I found myself lost from the trail. While this is a somewhat common occurrence among hikers and backpackers, there are occasions when people have lost their lives after becoming lost. The word "wicked" is a poor translation of rasha as the Hebraic meaning is simply someone who has walked away from the path. There are two ways to leave a trail—by accident, which we may call an error, or on purpose, which we may call defiance. Both of these are rasha and have the same result. LOVE (V) The following is an excerpt from the book The Living Words. In our modern Western culture, love is an abstract thought of emotion, how one feels toward another, but the Hebrew word אחב ahav [H:157] goes much deeper than simple emotion. The parent root of this word is הב hav. While this root is not found in the Biblical text, a couple of other derivatives are. The word הבהב havhav [H:1890], a noun meaning "gift" and יהב yahav [H:3051], a verb meaning "to provide," help to supply the fuller Hebraic understanding of אהב ahav [H:157]. We do not choose our parents or siblings, but they are instead given to us as a gift from above, a privileged gift. Even in the Ancient Hebrew culture, one’s wife was chosen for him. It is our responsibility to provide and protect those privileged gifts. As a verb, the Hebrew word אהב ahav [H:157] means "to provide and protect what is given as a privileged gift." We are to love God, neighbors, and family, not in an emotional sense, but in the sense of our actions. The following is an excerpt from the book Ancient Hebrew Dictionary. We do not choose our parents or siblings, but are instead given to us as a gift from above, a privileged gift. Even in the ancient Hebrew culture ones wife was chosen. It is our responsibility to provide and protect that privileged gift. In our modern Western culture love is an abstract thought of emotion, how one feels toward another but the Hebrew meaning goes much deeper. As a verb this word means "to provide and protect what is given as a privilege" as well as " to have an intimacy of action and emotion". We are told to love Elohiym and our neighbors, not in an emotional sense, but in the sense of our actions. The following is an excerpt from the book His Name is One. When reading the word "love" our mind usually equates this with an emotional feeling. To understand the Hebrew concept of love, אהב (ahabh) in Hebrew, we will examine the parent root as well as its derivatives. The parent root is הב (habh) written as   in the ancient pictographic script. The is a man holding his arms out as if saying, "look at that". The is the outline of the Hebrew nomadic tent. Based on the pictographs of the parent root we have the meaning of "look at the house".Derived from the parent root are two child roots. The first is  (yahabh) meaning "to give as a gift or a privilege" (See Genesis 29:21; Genesis 30:1; Psalms 29:1).The family into which one is born is seen as a privilege given as a gift. The children born to the parents are seen in the same manner; the wife as well is given as a privilege to the husband as marriages were usually arranged within the ancient cultures. The second child root is the word אהב (ahabh). While usually translated as love, the Hebraic meaning is "the care of the gift". It is the family members responsibility to teach, provide, cherish and protect the other members of the family (See Genesis 24:67; Genesis 29:18). As we can see אהב (ahabh) is not an emotion, but an action, a responsibility. One that you did not choose but were given as a privilege to be a part of. The father sees his wife and children as the gifts of God, which he is responsible to care for. The wife and children were also given the father as a gift and their responsibility is to care for him as well. With this frame of mind, the family becomes אחד (ehhad - one). When we read that we are to "love God", it is not an emotion but a responsibility to listen and learn from him and walk in the teachings that he has given to us, we then become אחד (ehhad - one) with our heavenly father. |