Hebraic Thought

Yod – One Very Significant Letter

Lois Tverberg 1 Comment

by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18 NAS)

If you grew up hearing the King James Version of the Bible read, you would have heard the above passage with the words ‘… not one jot or one tittle … “. Perhaps you learned that this was some type of punctuation mark equivalent to our English apostrophe. The “jot” that Jesus was referring to was the Hebrew letter yod. It is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, just a half a line long. It looks like a small capital “L” rotated 180°. Furthermore, in what we translate “tittle” or “stroke of a pen,” Jesus was referring to “the thorn of the yod” which is just the small curve at the top of the letter, a slight embellishment on the yod. In our rendering of it above, when written with a bit of a flair it looks like a ram’s horn: a shofar.

So what Jesus was saying was, not the smallest letter or even a decoration on the letter will disappear. This is actually a well-known Hebrew expression, “lo yod v’lo kotso shel yod” which is, “not a yod or a thorn of a yod,” meaning “not the most insignificant or unimportant thing.”

What was Jesus saying by this? This is a difficult question, with a long answer. But briefly put, he was affirming the sanctity of God’s word to his people, that his coming was to bring the scriptures to their fulfillment, not to undermine them. While the Torah taught the people to live the life the way God wanted, Jesus would give them eternal life by repentance and trust in him, the Torah incarnate.

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Avad – To Serve

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

We can get a lot of fascinating insights by looking at the Hebrew word avad, meaning to serve. It is used for several ideas that we consider separate, but in biblical cultures overlapped. The word avad means to serve, but it also means to work, and even to worship!

It has interesting implications for our daily lives. Unless we are in ministry, we tend to think of our jobs as secular concerns. Making money is our own business, not God’s, as long as we share a little bit of it in church on Sunday. How different is our perspective if we consider our work equivalent with our service to God, which is the way that we worship him! In this light it is interesting to hear God’s command about Sabbath again –

Ex. 34:21 “Six days you shall work (serve, avad), but on the seventh day you shall rest (shabbat – to cease or rest).

From my conventional perspective, I had always thought that God expected us to avad (worship) him one day of the week, and do secular work for ourselves the other six. Instead, God says we should serve him six days of the week, and rest on the seventh even from the work God has given us to do! Those in ministry especially should be happy to hear that God grants them rest.

We also should be thinking about how we use our working lives for serving God. Every aspect of our lives at work is a witness to the God we serve. Are we dedicated employees? Patient with our co-workers? Honest with company money? Do we share our faith when it is appropriate? Our worship of God on one day of the week should be just a small reflection of our worship of him the rest of the time.

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Shalom – Peace

Lois Tverberg 1 Comment

by Lois Tverberg

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. (John 14:27)

Like many Hebrew words, the word we commonly translate as peace, shalom, has a wider latitude of meaning than the English word. We tend to understand it as the absence of war or as calmness of spirit. But along with these ideas, the Hebrew word shalom also carries a greater connotation of well-being, health, safety, prosperity, wholeness, and completeness.

In modern Hebrew, the common greeting is, “Mah shalomkah?” Meaning, how is your shalom? How is your well-being? In the Aaronic benediction, when it is said “May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you his peace,” it is a much broader, wider blessing that we may think, talking about God supplying our physical and material needs as well as our emotional needs.

Knowing these broader meanings helps in our Bible study. For instance, God says to Abraham, “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in shalom; you will be buried at a good old age” (Genesis. 15:15). It doesn’t just mean that Abraham will not be at war, or even that he will have a calm spirit, but also that his life would end in well-being and completeness.

One important concept that has to do with shalom, peace, is that it also speaks about having a covenantal relationship with God. When the covenant was first enacted between God and Israel, some of the sacrifices were peace, shelem, offerings, to celebrate the relationship between the people and God. This is the Hebraic understanding of salvation, not just that we will go to heaven when we die, but that we have an unbroken, loving relationship with God here on earth.

Most sacrificial offerings were given entirely to God, but the peace (or fellowship) offering was different. Part of it is eaten by the worshipper, as if he is sharing a meal with God, the ultimate picture of friendship. The Passover meal was a type of peace offering, because it was a sacrifice that the people ate from. When Jesus held up the bread and wine as a new covenant, he was using this as a peace offering to show their new relationship with God. Through atonement by his blood, God offers all of us shalom, in all the many senses of that word.

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Shema – Hear and Obey

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Then [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient (shema)! (Exodus 24:7)

The word that means “hear or listen,” shema (pronounced “shmah”) is an excellent example of the difference between Hebrew, which stresses physical action and Greek and Western culture that stresses mental activity.

Listening, in our culture, is a mental activity, and hearing just means that our ears pick up sounds. But in Hebrew, the word shema describes hearing and also its effects – taking heed, being obedient, doing what is asked. Any parent who yells at their children, “Were you listening?” when they ignore a command to pick up their rooms understands that listening should result in action. In fact, almost every place we see the word “obey” in the Bible, it is translated from the word shema.

The word shema is also the name of the “pledge of allegiance” that Jesus and other observant Jews up until this day have said every morning and evening. It is the first word of the first line,

“Hear (Shema), O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might… ” (Deut. 6:4-5)

By saying this, a Jew would remind himself of his commitment to love God, to dedicate himself to following God and doing his will. Some Jews teach their children the Shema as soon as they learn to talk! It is the central affirmation for a Jewish person of his or her commitment to the Lord. The word shema here again means, “take heed!” or “listen and obey!”

This gives us a clue of why Jesus says,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” He is calling us to put his words into action, not just listen. He wants us to be doers of the word, and not hearers only. (James 1:22)

We as Westerners put all our stress on what is in our minds, and tend to consider action as “dead works.” But Hebrews understood that we have not truly put what we have heard into our hearts until it transforms our lives as well.

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Don’t be a stench!

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

They said to them, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us. (Exodus 5:21)

The Hebrew language is very vivid and poetic because it uses physical imagery to describe the intangible, instead of abstract terms. Instead of being stingy, a person is “tight-fisted,” and instead of being stubborn, a person is “stiff-necked,” like an ox that refuses to let a yoke be put on by arching its neck.

One humorous example is that of the word ba’ash (ba-ash) which means “to be a stench; to emit a stinking odor.” The word was used to describe the Nile after the fish died when it turned to blood (Exodus 7:18). In the same story the Israelites use it in their anger at Moses after Pharaoh increased their labors. They said to Moses, literally,

May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made our aroma to be a stench in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants…

Often the word ba’ash is used when one person is despised by another because of something obnoxious they have done: a very graphic description! We have strong emotional responses to beautiful aromas and terrible smells, and the ancients used this idea to describe being praiseworthy and attractive as compared to being repulsive.

Interestingly, in the New Testament Paul uses this imagery as well:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

When I was an immature believer, I remember that many Christian things “smelled bad” to me. I assumed that Christian authors would be judgmental and rude, and that religious people were hypocritical. I often sense that attitude in nonbelievers too — the more outwardly religious Christians are, the more they tend to convict and irritate those who are immature or unsaved. We smell like Christ: if a person rejects him, they will find us unattractive as well. This is something we need to take in stride when the world isn’t always kind.

On the other hand, just as we smell like Christ, Christ smells like us! Some Christians are rude and vindictive, or dishonest in business. To the world who doesn’t know Christ, this is a potent witness against him. We should always remember that our words and actions are an aroma that goes out into the world.

~~~~

Photo by Oziel Gómez on Unsplash

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Barak – Bless

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. (Deuteronomy 8:10)

Paul tells us that we should “always be giving thanks for all things” (Ephesians 5:4). This sounds impossible to us, but prayers of thankfulness at all times of day were part of Paul’s Jewish context. Each one of them is called a blessing, berakah, and they are brief prayers that acknowledge God as the source of every good thing.

From before Jesus’ time until today, Jews have “blessed the Lord” for every good thing. In Psalm 103 it says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.”

This seems strange to us, because it seems that God should do the blessing. However, the word bless, barak, in Hebrew, tells us something about the idea behind this custom. The word is related to the word “knee,” berek, and the verb can also mean to kneel, as even a camel does (Genesis 24:11)! The idea is that when we bless God, we mentally bow on our knees to worship him, and we are acknowledging him as the source of all blessing. As with many words, the meaning of it has expanded so that the same word, barak, bless, is used when we thank God in prayer and when he gives us good things.

Before the time of Christ, the Jews developed a number of short blessings to be said whenever the occasion arises, in addition to saying longer prayers in the morning and evening. In the Gospels it says Jesus “took the bread and blessed.” (The NIV says “gave thanks” but more literal translations use the word “blessed.”) We know what words he said: most likely, “Blessed is he who brings forth bread from the earth.”

We read that when Jesus did miracles, the people “glorified God”: probably exclaiming, “Blessed is he who has performed a miracle in this place!” It was customary to pray the blessing before leaving the site where a miracle occurred, or to return to the place to say it. So when Jesus heals ten lepers and only one, a Samaritan, comes back and loudly blesses God, Jesus wonders why the other nine haven’t returned to do the same thing (Luke 17:12 -19).

~~~~

Further reading:

If you would like to read more about prayers that Jesus prayed, and how other Jews pray even today, see The Richness of Jewish Prayer.

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Beit – House

Bruce Okkema

by Bruce Okkema

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23)

Probably like many of you, I learned Psalm 23 at a young age. I remember thinking then, and have to admit that even until recently, it seemed very strange that anyone would want to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” While this is poetically beautiful, are we really supposed to spend our entire life in a church building?

To make this phrase a little more palatable, I had reduced the concept to something like, “we are to dwell in the house of the Lord forever in spirit.” The New International Version Study Bible notes read, ‘the Hebrew for this word suggests “throughout the years.”‘ and cross reference another note which mentions “the joy of total security” (Psalm 23:6 Notes).

While these ideas are certainly true, perhaps a better understanding can be gained by using another meaning for the Hebrew word beit. Not only can it be translated “house” as we think of a residence, or “the House” as in the temple; but it also means family, lineage, or household. This particular usage is evident in the story of Jesus’ birth where we read,

Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. (Luke 2:4, NASV)

With this additional insight, the cloud over the understanding of this phrase has been cleared away. So with thanks to all the people who have taught me this, I can truly say that I definitely want to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever!””

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Emunah – Faithfulness, Abraham Believed

Lois Tverberg 1 Comment

by Lois Tverberg

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

One of the most quoted verses about Abraham is Genesis 15:6: “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” This is a key verse in the discussion about being saved by faith apart from works, the central point of the Reformation. It was Abram’s “believing” that gave him righteousness in God’s sight. Protestants have emphasized the importance of believing God’s promises, instead of working to earn our salvation.

But it is important to understand that the key word, emunah, that we translate “believe” has a different emphasis in Hebrew than we tend to hear. In English and Greek (pistis), its primary meaning is to assent to a factual statement, to agree with the truth of certain ideas.

The word emunah does mean to have faith, but it has a broader meaning that has implications for what God calls us to as people of faith. It contains the idea of steadfastness or persistence. In Exodus 17 Moses raised his hands all day long until the Israelites won a key battle. It says that his hands remained steady, emunah, until sunset. In this sense it means steadfast. God is also described using the word emunah in Deuteronomy 7:9:

Abraham and 3 angels“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful (emunah) God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. “

If we look back at the verse about Abraham’s emunah, it should tell us that Abraham believed God’s promises and had a persistent commitment to God which showed in his faithful life. He waited 25 years for a son, and offered him back to God when he was asked.

This has implications about what it means to be a Christian. I used to wonder why God saved certain people just because they decided to adopt one particular set of beliefs over another. But as James pointed out, Satan himself believes that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that he is God in the flesh, and just knowing that doesn’t redeem him!

But while Satan may have the right beliefs, he cannot say that he has emunah: a committed faithfulness to the Lord. What God asks for goes beyond an academic decision to believe that a certain set of facts are true. He wants faith in his promises that results in a steadfast faithfulness to him.

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Yarah – Fear of the Lord

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

One word that comes up often in the Bible is the word “fear,” yareh, and especially in reference to God. For some, it has made them feel that the God of the Old Testament just wants human beings to be afraid of him. But then we read verses like,

(Of the Messiah) … And he will delight in the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:2-3)

and

The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor and life. (Proverbs. 22:4)

It is obvious from these verses that the “fear of the Lord” is a good, rather than a negative thing. The key to understanding these verses is to know that like many words, “fear” has a broader sense in Hebrew, encompassing very positive things like honor, respect, reverence, and worshipful awe. In fact, every time we read the words “revere” or “reverence” in our English translations, it is from the Hebrew verb yareh.

Rabbinically, the “fear of the LORD” was considered one of the greatest goals of a worshipper’s life. It means to always be reminded that God is watching, and to realize the importance of living according to his will, and to be reassured of his constant care. It does mean to realize that God will discipline those whom he loves (Revelation 3:19). But, the emphasis is on a positive, reverential relationship with God, not in terms of being terrified by him. If having a reverential awe of the Lord causes us to live with integrity and obedience to God, it will ultimately transform us.

In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence,
And his children will have refuge.
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,
That one may avoid the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:26-27)

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Da’at Elohim – Knowledge of God

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

“For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

When English speakers use the verb “to know,” we think of knowing in terms of the mental grasp of facts. In Hebrew, the word for “to know,” yadah, is much broader and will enrich our understanding of the scriptures. Many languages have two different verbs to express the idea of knowing a fact (information) as opposed to knowing a person (relationship). Hebrew tends toward the second idea: having a relationship with a person, and even extending it to mean to care about someone, even to be intimate sexually. For instance, the very literal King James version reads,

And Adam knew (yadah) Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain.
(Genesis 4:1)

This idea is especially important when we learn about the biblical concept called the “knowledge of God,” da’at elohim. A Westerner opens the Bible and wants to prove God’s existence and develop a theology about God’s nature, and would call that “knowledge of God.” But the Hebraic view is that “knowledge of God” is having a life in relationship with him. This is true spiritual wisdom: to know the Lord’s will and live it out. We can see this thinking when we compare Christian Bibles to a Jewish translation. In the NIV we read,

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:2)

but in the Jewish Tanakh it reads,

The spirit of the LORD shall alight upon him: a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and valor, a spirit of devotion and reverence for the LORD. (Isaiah 11:2)

In this verse, da’at is translated as devotion. They see knowledge of God as intimacy with God, knowing him as a son does his father, and a wife her husband. We should think of that when we evangelize – are we trying to fill peoples’ heads with facts, or bringing people to know him personally?

Our ministry has always struggled with how to explain that we are educational, but devotional in nature, that we want to bring people closer to the Lord by understanding the Bible in its context. A verse we felt the Lord had given us was, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9, also Habakkuk 2:14). When we read it in the Jewish translation, we finally understood why. It says that the earth “shall be filled with devotion to the LORD as water covers the sea.”

~~~~

Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).