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December 4, 2011 |
| Brushing up Your Hebrew | ||
Every Christian knows and uses some Hebrew words, perhaps without realizing it and perhaps without knowing what they mean, and generally without pronouncing them correctly. This lesson will be a review of those words.
Amen - probably the Hebrew word most commonly used by Christians, and probably the least understood word. It means "certainly" or "may it be so."
Yahweh - "The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew יהוה […] for which the original pronunciation is unknown. The most likely meaning of the name may be 'He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists', but there are many theories and none is regarded as conclusive. The traditional rendering of the name, as found in English Bibles, is 'I am who I am' or 'I am that I am'".1
Jews did not pronounce the personal name of God even though it appears in the Old Testament more than 6800 times. When they read it in the scriptures, they said something else like "adonai," which means lord, or "hashem," which means "the name".
Between the 6th and 10th centuries AD, a religious group called the Masoretes developed a system for adding marks to the consonantal letters of the Hebrew alphabet, collectively known as diacritics or Hebrew punctuation (Some AI). Until that time, Hebrew had not been a phonic writing system. You couldn't read a word you didn't already know and know how to pronounce it. The pronunciations of words were passed down from parents to children by experience.
As a result of not pronouncing it, the pronunciation was lost. By Jesus' time they had shortened it and were saying "Yah" or "MarYah," which means "Lord Yah." These are what appear in the Aramaic New Testament.
Hallelujah - This is a compound word made from allelu and yah. Allelu means "praise," and yah is the short form of Yahweh, the personal name of God. Therefore the meaning is "Praise Yahweh".
Maranatha - This is a compound word made from mar and anatha. Mar means "lord," and anatha means "come quickly". Therefore the meaning is "Lord, come quickly," which is a plea for the Second Coming when Jesus returns.
Torah - The word Torah means the "law" or "instruction" and refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. The Roman Church replaced the word with the Latin word "Pentateuch," which means 5 scrolls or 5 books.
Bar Mitzvah - The word "bar" means "son" or "son of". It can refer to a father - son relationship, but it has other uses. Here, "Bar Matzvah" literally means "son of the law," which they understood. For us, the meaning would be more like "dedicated to the law".
Bat Mitzvah - This is the same as Bar Mitzvah but for "bats" … "daughters". Boys studied the law; girls did other things. There was no such thing as a Bat Mitzvah. That's the way it was until the 1800s, when modernity worked its way into Judaism.
Adam - The word "adam" means "man," but it is strongly connected to the word earth, especially red earth. So it would not be wrong to interpret it as "earthling".
Elohim - While not a common word for Christians, this word means "God" or "god". The word is interesting in that the "im" ending makes it a plural form word, a word that could be a plural or a singular word. This is similar to the word Jesus in English, which ends in an "s", but in that case we know it is singular. This is one of the very few hints in the Old Testament that God is a plural being, a binity or trinity.
Elohim was used as a root word for many people's names, like Daniel, which joins "to judge" with "God" to produce "God is my judge" or "God is my righteousness." When "Elohim" was joined with other words, only the "El" part was kept.
Bethel - This is a compound word made of "Beth" (also commonly seen as Bet, Bayth, or others) meaning "house" or "house of" and the word "el," which is short for Elohim, which means god. So Bethel means House of God.
Bethlehem - This is a compound word made of "Beth," which you now know, and "lechem," which means "Bread". So the word means House of Bread.
It is appropriate that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem. In John 6, Jesus repeatedly refers to himself as the bread of life. That symbolism continues on into Communion, where we eat bread.
Eden - The exact meaning is a little unclear. It probably means a place of pleasure, or delight, or paradise2.
Hosanna - This is a curious word. As some words do, its usage has drifted from its original meaning. "Strictly [speaking, this word is] a cry expressing an appeal for divine help: "save! Help, we pray!"; in a liturgical usage, a shout of praise and worship 'hosanna, we praise you'" (Matthew 21:9)3"
Immanuel - This is a compound word made of Immanu, meaning "with us," and El. We see "Immanuel" being used here.
Now all this happened, that the thing which was spoken from the Lord Yahweh by the Prophet would be fulfilled: 23 Behold the virgin shall conceive, and she shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, "Our God is with us". (Matthew 1:22-23 referring to Isaiah 7:14)
Israel - This is a compound word made of Isra and El. You know El as Elohim, which means God, but the meaning of Isra is not clear. It probably means struggle, strive, persist, or persevere. Jacob's name was changed to Israel by God after Jacob spent the night wrestling with an angel of God. So the name would seem to be saying something about Jacob and God struggling - and that was typical of the Israelites' relationship with God.
Messiah - The word means "anointed," so in referring to a person it means "the anointed one". The word Christ has exactly the same meaning but is a Greek word.
Pharisee - The word means "separated", a reference to being separated unto God.
Rabbi, Rabi, Ravi, Rebbe - The word means "master," but not so much in the master - slave sense but in the master - student sense, where the person is a master in his field of learning. Therefore a master who is willing to take on and train students would be called a teacher.
Sabbath - The word means "rest," particularly "rest from labor". The days of the week in our calendar are named after Norse gods or after the Sun and the Moon, which were also worshiped as gods. The Jewish weekdays are not like this. "With the exception of the [Sabbath], the weekdays have no names. They are simply numbered."4 Therefore the Jewish days of the week are, in English, "first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, rest"
Satan - The word Satan is not a personal name; it is a title meaning "adversary". The Jews say HaSatan, which means "the Satan" and thus "the adversary". The Satan's personal name is not known for certain. All names associated with him are titles or names of things he is associated with. For example, "Lucifer" is a reference to bright heavenly bodies.
The most likely personal name for him is Azazel. This name is used only in Leviticus 16:8-10 in a metaphorical observance where all the sins of mankind are sent back to the one who caused them. This name is also known to Marvel Comics, which gave it to their X-Men character who looks much like the classic image of Satan.
Shalom - The word means "peace". It is the root word for Jerusalem, which means City of Peace. The word Shalom appears in many places in the New Testament, but we don't see it because it is translated as "peace." For example:
And when you enter a household, invoke the peace of the household. (Matthew 10:12)
This isn't only trivia. There are places where it is useful to know this.
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes." (Luke 19:41)
We don't know what Jesus means here until we know he is talking to the City of Peace. It could be reworded as "If you, even you, the City of Peace, had only known on this day what would bring you peace." So he's saying the City of Peace does not know what would bring it peace.
Sheol - This is the place where the spirits of the dead go, the place of the dead, as if it were a place below us. This word is often translated as grave, Hades, Hell, or pit, all of which are incorrect, but for different reasons.
All names in Hebrew have meaning. This has also been true for English names, but their meaning is not immediately obvious. My name is Stanley, which means "to the lee (downwind side) of the stone." We don't understand it because the names have come from ancient languages that were the roots of English. Hebrew does not have roots in other languages, so it is usually easy to know the meaning of a name.
We've already seen the meanings of some names like Immanuel and Israel, but there are many more in the Bible. Some of these names are explained in the Bible, but most are not. Samuel, for example, is explained as meaning "God has heard". We can see the "El" in his name.
It appears that God also used the meanings of names to convey information in the Bible. The following comes from the genealogy of Adam from Genesis 55.
| Hebrew Name | Hebrew Meaning |
|---|---|
| Adam | man |
| Seth | appointed |
| Enosh | mortal |
| Caiman | sorrow |
| Mahalalel | blessed Elohim |
| Yared | shall come down |
| Enoch | teaching |
| Methuselah | his death shall bring |
| Lamech | despairing |
| Noah | comfort |
This could be read as "Man was appointed to mortal sorrow; blessed Elohim shall come down, teaching; his death shall bring despairing (for some), comfort (for others)."
The Aramaic New Testament is a version of the New Testament that gives the actual names of people, not anglicized names.6
But the names of the twelve Apostles were these: the first of them, Shimeon who was called Kaypha, and Andraeus his brother, and Yaqob Bar Zebedee, and Yohannan his brother, 3 and Philippus, Bar Tolmay, and Thoma, and Mattay the Tax Collector, and Yaqob Bar Halphi, and Lebai who was called Thadi, 4 and Shimeon the Zealot, and Yehuda Skariota, he who betrayed him.
| Jesus | - Yeshua, which means God's salvation. Because the written form of the Hebrew
language at the time had no vowels, the exact pronunciation is a little uncertain. Most people, including Jews in Israel, say
Yeshua, but there are variations from Yoshua to Yehoshua. When the name was translated to Greek, it became Iasous; then, in early English, it was Jesu (with a soft J that sounds like a Y). Then later the J became hard, the 'ay' became 'ee', the 's's became 'z's, and the 'oo' became 'uh'. As a result Jesus now sounds like "Jee-zuz," which is nothing like Yeshua. |
| What is Jesus' last name? He doesn't have one (it isn't Christ). No one had last names then. When a full name was needed, he would have been called "Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth." | |
It is useful to know this.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)It seems like there should be a connection between the name "Jesus" and the salvation he would bring, but that doesn't make sense until you know that Jesus, Yeshua, means "God's Salvation." | |
| Simon / Peter | - Shimeon, who was called Kaypha. Shimeon means "He who has heard/hears [the word of God]". Kaypha means rock. |
This is important in understanding what Jesus says here:
Also I say to you, that you are Kaypha, and upon this stone I shall build my church, and the gates of Sheol will not withstand it." (Matthew 16:18) | |
A different translation makes this clearer
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, a small rock and upon the large rock I will build my congregation {Gr. ekklesia - called-out ones}, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her." - Jubilee Bible 2000The Catholic church intentionally misinterprets this passage to say that Jesus meant the church would be built on Peter, and they are that church. | |
| So why is "Peter" used in the Bible when it isn't even close in sound to "Kaypha"? Petra is the Greek word for Rock, and the English equivalent for that is Peter. |
Two angels are named in the standard Biblical canon. Both of them have names that end in "El."
Michael - Note the "El" again. The name means "Who is like God?" It's a rhetorical question used to make the point that there is none like God. Michael is identified as an archangel.
Gabriel - Note the "El" again. The name means "God is my strength." He is also believed to be an archangel.
Two angels are named in books outside the standard Biblical canon. Both of them also have names that end in "El."
Raphael - Note the "El" again. The name means "God is my healer." He appears in the book of Tobit.
Uriel - Note the "El" again. The name means "God is my light." He appears in the Book of Enoch and 2 Esdras.
The Mormon religion has an angel called Moroni. His name is not a Hebrew name, and it does not end in El. His name does not have a meaning.
Some of the Hebrew words we know are pronounced so badly that they cannot be recognized. Here are 3 examples of the correct pronunciation followed by the way it appears in the Bible.
Yerushalayim - Jerusalem
Kfer Nahum - Capernaum
Bayth Lechem - Bethlehem
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh
2 http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Eden.html
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosanna
4 http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/m_calint.htm
5 Gallups, Carl (2013-11-05). The Rabbi Who Found Messiah: The Story of Yitzhak Kaduri and His Prophecies of the Endtime. WND Books
6 Significant help from http://bibleseo.com/gospels/jesus-disciples-names-meaning-occupation/