Ancient
Hebrew Research Center
Biblical
Hebrew E-Magazine
February, 2009 Issue #012
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Issue IndexBiblical Word of the Month – Soul Name of the Month – Red Sea Question of the Month – Acrostics? Verse of the Month – Genesis 15:6 ________________________________________________________________________ Biblical Word of the Month - SoulBy: Jeff A. Benner What is the soul? Webster' Dictionary gives the following definition. "The spiritual nature of humans, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state." In most cases people will understand the soul through this definition. But, as I have so often stated, our interpretation of Biblical words should be from a Hebraic perspective, not a modern western perspective such as English.
________________________________________________________________________ Name of the Month - Red SeaBy: Jeff A. Benner After the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt they camped
at the "Red Sea". When the chariots of Pharaoh arrived the waters of
the "
_______________________________________________________________________ Question of the Month – Acrostic?By: Jeff A. Benner Q: What is the significance of the words Aleph, Beyt, etc found through Psalm Chapter 119? A: Psalm 119 is divided up into twenty-two parts. At the beginning of each part (in some translations such as the King James Version) is the name of a Hebrew letter. The first section is called aleph; the second is beyt, and so on. This Psalm is what is called an acrostic psalm. An acrostic is where each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet such as in the following example.
Berries are sweet Cherries are round Dandelions are yellow Eggplants are large etc.
________________________________________________________________________ Verse of the Month – Genesis 15:6By: Jeff A. Benner I have heard many times "it is not important to have to know the Hebrew meanings of words, the English is good enough for complete understanding". Is this an accurate statement? I don't think so. Anyone who has worked with translation knows that it is often difficult to convey an idea from one culture into another. Not only is this a problem with contemporary languages, but imagine how much more this is compounded when translating from an ancient eastern language into a modern western language. In order to demonstrate the difference between an English translation of a Hebrew passage of the Bible we will examine Genesis 15:6. Below is this verse from the King James Version of the Bible. And he believed the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness In order to have a complete understanding of this verse from the Hebrew I have included the definition of each word from Webster's Dictionary. And: Together with or along with; in addition to; as well as He: Used to refer to the man or boy previously mentioned or implied Believe: To accept as true or real Lord: A man of renowned power or authority He: Used to refer to the man or boy previously mentioned or implied Count: To include in a reckoning It: Used of a nonhuman entity To: To the extent or degree of Him: Used as the object of a preposition Righteousness: Morally upright; without guilt or sin Let us now interpret Genesis 15:6 based on the fuller meaning of each of these English words. And Abraham accepted the
renowned one of authority as real; and the included this as a reckoning to him
for a moral uprightness. Below is this verse from the Hebrew text of the Bible followed by a transliteration of the passage. וְהֶאֱמִן
בַּיהוָה
וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ
לֹּו צְדָקָה׃ And he believed in
Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. (ASV) וְהֶאֱמִן (ve-he-e-miyn) 1. The first prefix is the letter ו (V), usually translated as "and", is used in Hebrew to continue a story with a new thought. There are no periods in the Hebrew text and one story is written as one long sentence with the letter ו dividing the story up into segments. While this story (Genesis 15:1-17) is divided up into sentences with periods at the conclusion of almost every verse in English, in the Hebrew each verse begins with the letter ו. 2. The root word here is אמן (aman). This word means "to be a firm support". 3. The second prefix is the letter a (H) and indicates subject of the verb is "third person,
masculine, and singular" and that the verb is "perfect tense, active
voice, causative mood". I know this may sound confusing but it is fairly
simple. The subject of the verb is "he", the third person, and
masculine, singular pronoun. The verb is in the perfect tense meaning completed
action and similar to our "past" tense. It is in the active voice in
contrast to the passive voice. The active voice of "cut" is "to
cut" while the passive voice of "cut" is "to be cut".
The causative mood means "to make" or "to cause" the action
of the verb. With all of this said, the best translation of this Hebrew word
would be "he made a firm support". 4. Note that simply looking up this word in Strong's dictionary will not supply all of these nuances of the word; it will simply give you the definition of the root word. בַּיהוָה (ba-yhwh) 1. The prefix ב (B) means "in" as well as "with" in the sense of being with someone else. 2. The word יהוה (YHWH) is the name of God whose pronunciation has been understood as Yahweh, Yahueh, Yahuah, Yehovah, Yahveh and many other possibilities. I should note hear that in Hebraic thought it is not the pronunciation of a name that is important, but that you know the character (the Hebrew word shem means character but is translated as "name") of the individual. The root of this name is הוה meaning "to exist". וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ (vay-yach-she-ve-ha) 1. The first prefix is the letter ו (V), again separating a thought within the story. 2. The root word is השב (chashav) meaning to design. This is a designing of pattern or plan for creating an invention or a plan of action. 3. The suffix ה (H) means "her" and is referring to the final noun, which is feminine, in this verse. לֹּו (lo) 1. The prefix ל is the preposition meaning "to" or "for". 2. The suffix ו is the pronoun "him". צְדָקָה (tse-da-qah) 1. The Hebrew word צדקה (tsedeqah) comes from the root word צדק (tsadaq) literally meaning "to be straight". This word is in contrast to another Hebrew word meaning crooked. The word meaning "crooked" is usually translated as "perverse" and the word צדקה is usually translated as "righteous". Notice the original concrete understanding of these words (straight and crooked) compared to the western abstract concepts (perverse and righteous). One who is "righteous" is one who walks a straight path (moral and upright). One who is "perverse" is one who walks a crooked path (immoral and crawling). The following is a literal rendering of this verse from its Hebraic meaning. And he made a firm stand with YHWH
(the fully existent one), and he designed a straight path for him. Now that we have examined the fuller meaning of this verse using both the English and the Hebrew, I ask you, "Can examining the Hebrew text brings out a better understanding of the text?" Another passage in the book of Genesis shows that Abraham's "aman" (belief) is related to his action of a firm stand and will be discussed in the next issue. ________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2005 Jeff A. Benner Ancient Hebrew Research
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