Jeff A. Benner
Ancient Hebrew Alphabet - Lesson 1 - Aleph
updated
I will be speaking at this virtual event and hope to see you there.
For more details, go to unitedinyah.org.
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After working on my translation of the Torah (http://www.mechanical-translation.org) for the past 15 years, of which I am coming close to completing, my next translation project is the Book of Psalms.
If you are not familiar with my Mechanical Translation, let me explain it using Psalm 1, which I have already completed. This is the Mechanical Translation, where each Hebrew word, prefix and suffix is translated the same way all the time. This is the first Hebrew word, ashrey, and wherever this word appears, I translate it as “Happy.” The second word is ha’ish, which includes the prefix “ha” meaning “the” and the noun “ish” meaning “man.” This is the Revised Mechanical Translation where I re-arrange the words so that the verse will read easier for the English reader.
I am hosting my Psalms Blog on Patreon where I will post updates on my progress, share examples of the translation, ask your opinions on different aspects of the translation and most importantly, share with you what I am learning and also hear from you what you are learning.
To get started, go to my Patreon Page, Link provided in the description of this video, and click on "follow." This way you will be notified of all new public posts. Or you can click on "Become a Patron" and for a small monthly subscription, you will get the benefit of additional posts and special benefits. Whichever way you decide to participate, if you so choose, I look forward to seeing you over there.
Coming up next will be my translations of Psalms chapters 19, 24, 62 and 100 at the request of my Patrons.
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I was asked to provide some insight into the word “commit” from the following passage and interpret it from a Hebraic perspective.
Commit thyself unto Jehovah; Let him deliver him: Let him rescue him, seeing he delighteth in him. (ASV, Psalm 22:8)
As I began my investigation into this word and its meaning within the context of the verse, I quickly realized that this verse would make an excellent case study to show how important it is to understand Hebrew vocabulary, poetry and philosophy when studying the Bible.
Before we get into the meaning of the Hebrew word for “commit,” we need to understand that this verse is written with a chiastic structure, a form of poetry common to Biblical Hebrew, especially the book of Psalms. Here is how this verse can be written, showing the chiastic structure.
1a. Commit thyself unto Jehovah
1b. Let him deliver him
2b. Let him rescue him
2a. Seeing he delighteth in him
If you will notice, 1a is parallel with 2a and 1b is parallel with 2b. Also notice that the words “deliver” and “rescue” are synonyms, words with very similar meanings. This is another common form of Hebrew poetry called parallelisms. This means that the words “commit” and “delight” are also synonyms. Of course, these two words are not synonyms in the English language, which means we need to find out what these words mean in the Hebrew language.
The Hebrew word translated as “commit” is the Hebrew verb galal (Strong’s #1556), which Strong’s dictionary defines as “to roll (literally or figuratively)” and in the KJV Bible this word is translated as commit, remove, roll (away, down, together), run down, seek occasion, trust, wallow.
The Hebrew language is a concrete language, which means that words with a concrete meaning are used to express abstract ideas. So to really understand the concrete meaning of this word, let’s look at some of the verses that use this word in a concrete way.
…and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth… (KJV, Genesis 29:3)
And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway… (KJV, 2 Samuel 20:12)
…in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. (KJV, Job 30:14)
So, why did the translators translate this word meaning “to roll” as “commit” in Psalm 22:8? Because “roll over to Yahweh” is not how we speak in English, so they translated this concrete word with an abstract one in order for the English reader to be “more comfortable” with the verse.
Now let’s take a look at the word “delight.” This is the Hebrew verb hhapheyts (Strong’s #2654), which Strong’s defines as “properly to incline to; by implication (literally but rarely) to bend; figuratively to be pleased with, desire.” The KJV translates this word as delight, please, desire, will, pleasure, favour, like, move and would. All of these words are abstract, with the exception of “move,” so let’s take a look at the verse where the word hhapheyts is translated as “move.”
He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. (KJV, Job 40:17)
I have found the book of Job to be an ancient dictionary to the Ancient Hebrew language. What I mean by this is that Hebrew words are often used in a figurative sense, except in the book of Job, where the vocabulary is more frequently used in a concrete way and is very useful in uncovering the concrete meaning of a word.
This word apparently means “to wag,” like a dog does with his tail when it is excited, and figuratively this word means “to be delightfully happy.” Because this word is a synonym with galal, we can conclude that galal more literally means “to roll over in excitement.”
Now that we understand the Hebrew words galal and hhapheyts, let’s put the concrete meanings of these words into Psalm 22:8
Roll thyself over to Jehovah; Let him deliver him: Let him rescue him, seeing he wags in him.
By interpreting the Bible this way, we can better see into the mind, culture and philosophy of the Ancient Hebrew people.
If this type of study is something you are interested in doing, let me recommend my course, "How to do a Hebrew word study without knowing Hebrew" (http://ancient-hebrew.org/bookstore/classes-study.html).
They call this “alphabet” the “Lashawan Qadash,” their pronunciation of the Hebrew phrase lashon qodesh meaning “holy tongue,” or “holy language. To illustrate their pronunciation of the Lashawa Qadash, let’s look at Genesis 1:1.
According to the Masoretic Hebrew text this verse is pronounced; B’reshiyt bara elohiym et hashamayim v’et ha’arets.
But according to this group, the original pronunciation was; Barashayat bara alahayam at hashamayam wat harat.
There are several problems with this “re-creation” of the alphabet. If you attempted to speak Hebrew to someone who knows Hebrew, you would be completely unintelligible and probably mocked for your pronunciation. Those who are making this claim have no evidence to back up it up. The evidence from ancient texts suggests that the pronunciation of the Masoretic text is correct, or at least more correct than this new theory of pronunciation.
Let’s take the name Israel as an example. In Hebrew, this word is pronounced Yis’ra’eyl, but they believe that this was originally pronounced yasharala.
While there is no evidence to support this new style of pronunciation, there is evidence to refute it.
Here is the name Israel from the Masoretic Hebrew Bible, which dates to about 1,000 AD.
יִשְׂרָאֵל
The first letter is a yud with a “y” sound. This is the vowel pointing for the letter “I”. This is the letter sin, identified by the dot on the left of the letter, and pronounced with an “s,” as opposed to the letter shin, with a “sh” sound, when the dot is on the right. This is the vowel sh’va, which is silent. Here is the letter resh with an “r” sound. Here is the vowel qamats representing the “a” vowel. This is the letter aleph, which is silent. This is the vowel tsere representing the vowel pronunciation “ey.” And lastly the letter lamed with an “l” sound.
However, these vowel pointings were created by the Masorites a thousand years ago and prior to this; this is how this word would appear. Those who teach the Lashawan Qadash are making the claim that this would be pronounced Yasharala.
So how do we know if this was originally pronounced yisra’eyl or yasharala? I can’t tell you how it was pronounced 3,000 years ago, but I can tell you how it was pronounced 2,000 years ago.
2,000 years ago the Jews translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. This Greek translation of the Bible is called the Septuagint. But when it came to names the translators transliterated the names into Greek, which help us to learn how Hebrew was pronounced 2,000 years ago. In the Greek Septuagint the name Israel was written like this and is pronounced Isra’eyl. It is not Yasharala
Ισραηλ
Nowhere, in any ancient document, do we find evidence supporting the Lashawan qadash, but we find ample proof supporting the pronunciations found in the 1,000 year old Masoretic Hebrew Bible.
I am of the opinion that those who are using this style of Hebrew pronunciation are doing so in order to not have to learn or worry about the rules of pronunciation. They are making a short cut to prevent themselves from having to learn how to pronounce Hebrew words correctly.
This Hebrew name, pronounced adam (121) is a Hebrew word that means “man.”
The name Seth (8352), pronounced “sheyt” in Hebrew, is related to the root word shiyt (7896) and means “to set or put in place.” The name Seth means “established” or “appointed.”
Next is the name Enosh (583), which is derived from the word enosh (582). This word also means “man,” but more literally a “mortal.”
Then we have Keynan (7018). This name is derived from the word qeyn (7064) meaning a “nest.” Keynan means “dwelling.”
Mahalala’eyl (4111) is a combination of two words. The word mahalal (4110) literally means “shine.” The word el (410) means “God.” So, Mahalale’eyl means “the shining of God” or “the light of God.”
Jared (3382), pronounced yared in Hebrew, comes from the verb yarad (3381) and means “come down.”
Then we have the name Enoch (2585), pronounced hhanokh in Hebrew. This name comes from the verb hhanakkh (2596) meaning “to dedicate.” The name Enoch means “dedicated.”
The name Methuselah (4968), pronounced Metushelahh in Hebrew, is two words. The Hebrew word mot (4194) means “death.” Metu is a conjugation of this verb and means “his death.” The word shelahh (7973) is a verb meaning “send.” So Metushelahh means “his death brings.” Interestingly, the flood of Noah came in the year that Metushelahh died.
Next is the name Lamehh (3929), but the meaning of this name is difficult as this word, or any other related word is not used in the Hebrew Bible, making a definition difficult. It is usually accepted to mean “to bring down low,” or “despair.”
The last name in this genealogy is Noah (5146), pronounced no’ahh in Hebrew. The Hebrew verb nu’ahh (5118) means “to rest.” From this verb comes the noun no’ahh (5118) meaning “rest” and this noun is the name no’ahh, which then means “rest.”
When we look at the meanings of each of these names… we get…
Man appointed a mortal dwelling place, the light of God will come down dedicated, his death will bring the despairing rest.
This coming weekend is the “Pike County Little Theater’s” presentation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Three of my sons (Josiah, Jeremiah and Jedidiah), are in this presentation and I am very proud of the amazing work they have put into this production. My wife Denise manages the concession stand and I, for this play, am the stage manager.
Josiah as Demetrius (red shirt and black vest) 0:25, 0:34, 0:38, 0:40, 0:41
Jeremiah as Snug (white shirt, black apron and tan hat) 0:47
Jedidiah as Lysander (brown shirt, blue jeans and jughead hat) 0:19, 0:34, 0:38
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After graduation Roger worked in Agriculture and Agricultural sales until 1973 when he entered the Seminary in Springfield, IL and then served as a Pastor for the Lutheran Church for 30 years in churches in CA, WI, TX and AZ. After retiring from the ministry he and his wife moved to Magnolia, MS to be near family.
Roger touched the lives of many people including his wife of 50 years, Kathleen “Kathi” Butler Benner, his son Jeff Benner and his wife Denise and their children Kristina, Dallas, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jedidiah, his son Steve Benner and his wife Colleen and their children William, John and Amy, his sister Janice Vanderhyde and her husband Charles and his 13 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents.
In Roger's younger days he enjoyed riding his horse in the backcountry and playing in a Country and Western band with his friends. Roger enjoyed working on various home projects, traveling around the country with his wife touring many historical sites, parks and museums and was very dedicated to researching his family genealogy.
For relaxation he enjoyed reading historical fiction and non-fiction, westerns and listening to music, especially Hank Williams Sr.
Roger was a loving and caring father and husband whose positive attitude and sound counsel will be missed by all. Roger always put the needs of others before his own and always gave a lending hand when it was needed. Roger celebrated life every day, and at his request no memorial services will be held.
In this video we will be examining how the vowel "o" is written in Masoretic Hebrew text and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which will provide us some clues on this debate.
Just as is the case with many of the mysteries of the pronunciation of the name YHWH, and many other Hebrew words, it comes down to interpretation of evidence and only when we find Moses' tape recorder will all of these questions be answered.
From Mr. Benner's on-line video course "Learn the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet and Language" (http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/bookstore/classes-ancient.html)
Course Description
The Modern Hebrew alphabet is only about 2,000 years old, but the Hebrew alphabet has a very long and interesting history that goes back another two thousand years. Prior to this modern alphabet, the Hebrew language was written with a more pictographic script, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, where each letter was a picture. These pictures help to define the letter within its original Hebrew culture and thereby help to define the words that these letters are written with.
This course will examine the history and evolution of the Ancient Semitic/Hebrew alphabet from its early pictographic origins to its modern forms as well as its adoption into the Greek and Latin alphabets.
You will learn the origins of our numbering system in the Hebrew alphabet, the meanings of each Hebrew letter, how to recognize the letters in ancient inscriptions and writings and have a basic knowledge of Hebrew word structure.
You will also learn about the root system of Hebrew words, how to interpret them and how the Ancient Hebrew philosophy and culture influence their definition and meanings.
Course Includes:
• 3 hours on-demand video
• 6 Articles
• 17 Supplemental Resources
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion
• 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
What Will I Learn?
• Know the different stages of the Hebrew alphabet from its ancient origins to its modern form.
• Recognize the letters in ancient Semitic and Hebrew inscriptions
• Know the meanings of each Hebrew letter based on their original pictograph
• Learn the different forms of Hebrew root words and how words are formed out of these roots.
• Learn how the Ancient Hebrew culture and philosophy is closely related to the Hebrew language.
Special offer for the month of February only!
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When this Hebrew name was transliterated in the Greek Septuagint (2,000 year old Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) it was written as Ἰησοῦς (iesous). The Greek alphabet had no "Y" sound, so it used the "I" sound. The Greek alphabet has no consonant "H," or equivalent, so this sound is dropped. The Greek alphabet also had no "Sh" sound, so it used the "S" sound. Then, Greek male names end with "s," so the "s" was added. And this is how יהושע (yehoshu'a) became Ἰησοῦς (iesous) in the Greek.
It is common for names to shift and evolve when transferred from one culture to another. For instance, the German name Ludwig is Louis in France and the Spanish name Juan is John in English speaking countries. The Hebrew name יהושע (yehoshu'a, Strong's #3091) is ישוע (yeshu'a, Strong's #3442 [Latinized as Jeshua]) in the Aramaic language, such as we see in Ezra 2:2. When this Aramaic name was transliterated in the Greek Septuagint, they used the same method as stated above and it comes out to Ἰησοῦς (iesous), the same as it did for yehoshu'a.
When we come to the New Testament period we find that the name of the Messiah is Ἰησοῦς (iesous) in the Greek New Testament, but we find that it is ישוע (yeshu'a) in the Aramaic New Testament. When the Greek New Testament was translated into Latin in the 4th Century this name was written as Iesus, an exact match to the Greek that it came from. The Latin letter "I" split into two letters, "I" and "J." Originally this was two different ways of writing the same letter. So the Iesus became Jesus, but they were both pronounced the same way. Years later, some cultures began using the "I" for the vowel sound and "J" for a "Y" sound. It was not until around 1500 AD that the letter J took on the "dg" sound we are familiar with today.
So, the modern name "Jesus" comes from the Latin Iesus, which comes from the Greek Iesous, which comes from the Aramaic Yeshu'a and the Hebrew Yehoshu'a.
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/bookstore/classes-learn.html
EDIT 12/16/17: Thanks to Julie who emailed me and mentioned that the Greek word βαπτίζω (baptizo, #907) comes from the root word βάπτω (bapto, #911) and means to submerge. "Buried with him in baptism..." (Romans 6:3, 4, 5 and Colossians 2:12).
EDIT 12/16/17: David emailed me the following... The word ’baptism’ and its variations are based on Strong's number 907. #908 is NOT the word used in 1 Cor. #907 baptizo (Greek) (bap-tid’-zo); from a derivative of #911; to immerse, submerge; to make overwhelmed (i.e. fully wet); used only (in the N. T.) of ceremonial ablution, especially (technically) of the ordinance of Christian baptism: translated in the KJV-- Baptist, baptize, wash. #911 bapto (bap’-to); a primary verb; to overwhelm, i.e. cover wholly with a fluid; in the N. T. only in a qualified or specific sense, i.e. (literally) to moisten, or (by implication) to stain (as with dye): translated in the KJV-- dip.
https://www.udemy.com/learn-the-ancient-hebrew-alphabet-and-language/?couponCode=LAH_AHRC_JUL18
The Modern Hebrew alphabet is only about 2,000 years old, but the Hebrew alphabet has a very long and interesting history that goes back another two thousand years. Prior to this modern alphabet, the Hebrew language was written with a more pictographic script, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, where each letter was a picture. These pictures help to define the letter within its original Hebrew culture and thereby help to define the words that these letters are written with.
This course will examine the history and evolution of the Ancient Semitic/Hebrew alphabet from its early pictographic origins to its modern forms as well as its adoption into the Greek and Latin alphabets.
You will learn the origins of our numbering system in the Hebrew alphabet, the meanings of each Hebrew letter, how to recognize the letters in ancient inscriptions and writings and have a basic knowledge of Hebrew word structure.
You will also learn about the root system of Hebrew words, how to interpret them and how the Ancient Hebrew philosophy and culture influence their definition and meanings.
With this course, you will have the ability to go at your own pace, repeat lectures as often as necessary, access the course from any computer or device, download the lectures for viewing offline and have a lifetime access to the course and its resources.
In this course you will learn;
How to read the ancient pictographic alphabet of Hebrew.
How to read the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.
Know the different stages of the Hebrew alphabet from its ancient origins to its modern form.
How Hebrew roots and words are formed.
How the Ancient Hebrew culture and philosophy is closely related to the Hebrew language.
What is the target audience?
Anyone interested in learning how to read and understand Ancient Hebrew letters and root words.
This course is not for learning how to read the Hebrew Bible.
The course includes;
69 lectures
3 hours of video
Quizzes and Exercises
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I am offering a special $10 coupon, for the month of September only, for my on-line course "Learn to Read Biblical Hebrew" to my YouTube followers. To read more about this course and to redeem this coupon, just click on the link below.
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