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Disciples of Yeshua - the Talmidim
Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua
Yeshua is the Living Torah John 1:14
Torah is not a law it is intructions and teachings of Adonai God Himself
Messiah the Living Word Center
Study to Show Thyself Approved unto God...Rightly Interpreting the Word of Truth
3 comments:
SHALOM PHILIPPINES !
Our vision:
To Know the Blessings on Understanding God's Purpose for the Land,the People & the Scriptures of Israel & to Know that Jews & Gentiles are One in Messiah's Love.
To know,to observe and to share the torah
•Torah in hebrew means, loving instructions of the Father to His children.
•Torah also means “teachings,guidelines”
•Torah also means “to hit the mark or target.”
•The torah is commonly mistranslated as law in most bibles.
Mission:
* To share the torah to the christian believers & leaders in a loving,non-condemning ,non-judgmental way in the Spirit of understanding of our love for our Messiah.
* To share & teach the christian believers & leaders to know, understand and practice and enjoy the benefits of torah of the loving Father.
* To conduct lectures on various religious groups in the Errors of Replacement Theology & Anti-Semitism that is hurting the Body of Messiah.
Why Study the Jewish Roots of Christianity?
The Scriptures
The Scriptures have come through the Jewish people.
* The Bible describes their history and their religion.
* Jewish people wrote the entire Old Testament.
* Jewish people wrote the New Testament with the possible exception of the apostle Luke.
* The Preservation of the Scriptures
o The Jewish people protected the Bible against destruction by its enemies.
o They "guaranteed" the accuracy of our existing text by their painstaking copying methods.
The Savior
Yeshua came from the Jewish people.
* He lived as a Jew and followed Jewish religious practices.
* Yeshua refused to abolish Biblical Judaism
o Matthew 5:17
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
The Way of Salvation:
Salvation as well came through the Jewish people
o Rom 11:11-32
+ Natural branches - The Jewish believers in Messiah Yeshua
+ Ingrafted - The Gentile believers in Messiah Yeshua
* The promises of salvation are Jewish.
o Gen 22:17-18
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
* The way of salvation is Jewish
o John 4:21-22
Yeshua declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
The Structure
The Church
o The origin and existence of the church for the first several years were due to the efforts of the 12 Jewish Apostles.
o The church's first outreach was conducted by Jewish people, following accepted Jewish practices and growth resulted.
The Spiritual Benefits
Eph 2:11-13, 3:4-6
* Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--12 remember that at that time you were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Messiah.
* Eph 3:4-6
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Messiah Yeshua.
* Rom 11:11-18
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.
v the term "messianic" by this we mean a person who has a jewish lineage and had accepted the Yeshua as Messiah ,redeemer & Saviour. the term "gentile" is referring to a person with no jewish lineage but have accepted Yeshua the Messiah therefore is grafted-into the covenant of Israel with all its rights, privileges & responsibilities.
Hope for the Philippines
“He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his torah (law)." Isaiah 42:4
Proverbs 29:18 " Where there is no revelation (vision), the people broke loose (perish), but he that keepeth the torah (law) happy is he.
Pro 29:18 Kung saan walang pangitain, ang bayan ay sumasama: nguni't siyang nagiingat ng kautusan ay maligaya siya.
Kaming sa A.I.M. Phils., ay naniniwala na ang pagbabago sa ating spiritual na pamumuhay, ay malaking magagawa ng panumbalik natin sa mga kautusan ng ating Mahal na Panginoon. Maging sa pag unite ng ating mga mahal sa buhay, at maging kaayusan sa ating communidad at bayan. Ang pag respeto at pagsunod sa kautusan ng Panginoon (ten commandments) ang susi ng tagumpay at pagpapala.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:1-17)
1. God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
2. You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my mitzvot.
3. "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4. "Remember the day of Shabbat, to keep it holy.
5. "Honor your father and your mother.
6. "You shall not murder. "
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. "You shall not steal.
9. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house and goods.
Why Learn Hebrew?
Learn Hebrew and you will be healed!” So said Eliezer Ben-Yehuda at the end of the 19th century. Whatever his motive, one of his objectives has certainly been achieved: The restoration of Hebrew as the common language of the Jewish residents of what was then known as Palestine. Today, increasing numbers of people, both Jews and non-Jews are being prompted to learn Hebrew. If they are like me, they need encouragement both to start and to
continue. Here are some “reasons why” which may be of help.
1. Hebrew is the primary language of the Old Testament Scriptures. The apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training.” (2 Tim. 3:16). At that time there was no recognised Scripture other than what is now commonly known as the Old Testament, which is almost entirely written in Hebrew.
2. Hebrew unfolds the riches of the whole body of the Scriptures. Martin Luther wrote, “No one can really understand the Scriptures without it. For although the New Testament is written in Greek, it is full of Hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from a downstream pool.”
3.Hebrew especially helps us to understand the synoptic Gospels (Matthew,Mark and Luke). There are a number of early witnesses who report that the life of Jesus was originally written down in Hebrew. Among them is Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis in AsiaMinor (circa 130 A.D.), who says, “Matthew put down thewords of the Lord in the Hebrew language, and others have translated them, each as best he could.”
However, since the mid-nineteenth century it has become fashionable to believe that Hebrew was not the primary language of Jesus and his contemporaries. Therefore, Dr. Robert Lindsey, a senior member of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research and author of Jesus, Rabbi & Lord, writes, “Passages in the Gospels have become unclear and are easily misunderstood, or the meaning entirely missed, because their interpretation has become
separated from an understanding of their Hebrew linguistic and cultural roots.”
Recent analysis by scholars of the Jerusalem School has shown that there is indeed a Hebrew “undertext” lying behind nearly half of the New Testament (at least the first three Gospels and probably, also, the first half of the book of Acts). The late Abb・Jean Carmignac, a Roman Catholic scholar who worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls for twelve years, came to a similar conclusion quite independently.
4. Hebrew helps us to understand the use of Old Testament Scriptures in the New Testament and to use the Scriptures properly ourselves. Have you ever been puzzled that New Testament writers often go beyond the apparent contextual meaning of the Old Testament passages which they quote? To our Western, Graeco-Roman minds, such use often seems farfetched, yet we accept it as valid. If we are to use the word of truth correctly (2 Tim. 2:15), wouldn’t we do well to recover, for ourselves, the ancient methods of interpretation which these writers used with such creativity?
5. Hebrew gives firsthand access to early Jewish literature. The sages and teachers of Israel have preserved important information about the historic, religious, cultural and linguistic context in which Jesus and Paul taught. They complement the Scriptures and often fill important gaps in our understanding, yet much of this literature remains unavailable in English.
6. Hebrew helps prevent and correct error. For this reason an 11th century Arabic document berated Christians for abandoning the general knowledge of Hebrew. Dr. Joseph Hertz, late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, wrote, “The Men of the Great Assembly rightly felt that the Synagogue Service must be in Israel’s historic language, which is the depository of the soul-life of Israel. Hellenistic Jewry [inAlexandria] did not share this view, and it dispensed with the Sacred Language in its religious life.” Quoting Schechter, he continues, “The result was death. It withered away, and ended in total apostasy from Judaism.”
Throughout the centuries of dispersion among other nations, Jewish children have continued to be taught Hebrew and so retained firsthand access to the Hebrew Scriptures. Is it possible that the Church has become more susceptible to error as a result of abandoning the general knowledge ofHebrew? When the common man was given access to the scriptures in his own language, through the mass production of the first printed editions of the Bible in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries A.D., it led to a reformation and a revival of the Church.
What if every Christian child were to be taught Hebrew as a second language?
7. Hebrew deepens understanding of the Church’s spiritual roots and identity. Sharing a common language helps to reinforce a sense of kinship. Members of the Church are no longer “excluded from citizenship in Israel” (Eph. 2:12). “Our forefathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea” (1 Cor. 10:1). Those who study Israel’s ancient literature and share in the communal life of Jewish people, gain an enriched and constantly deepening appreciation of their common root in the Lord God of Israel. This can only strengthen the Church against flowing with the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the world and the dangers of
alienation from the Jewish people.
8. Hebrew enables us to participate in and benefit fully from the Hebrew service of the synagogue. Synagogue attendance was taken for granted and remained habitual for Jesus, Paul and members of the early Jewish Church in the land of Israel until the exile of the Jews in 135 A.D. Elsewhere, both Gentile Christians and Jewish believers continued to take part in synagogue services until at least the fourth century A.D. Today, the service of the synagogue remains open to anyone who wishes to go along.
9. Hebrew gives insight into the world view of the people who speak it. Dr. Clifford Denton is editor-in-chief of Tishrei, a quarterly journal which explores the Christian faith through its Jewish roots. He writes, “Immersion in a language produces far more than conversation. A language determines the verymind-set of a person. A person who thinks in Hebrew is a different person from one who thinks in English, all other things being equal.
Thus, the Hebrew language gives more than an accurate understanding of words. It is within the very root structure of what it is to be a Jew.”
10. Hebrew is the lingua franca of modern Israel. It goes without saying that anyone who visits or lives in Israel will do better if he or she speaks the language of the people. Even a little is helpful, because people tend to be warmer and more responsive if one tries to communicate with them in their own language. Modern Hebrew and biblical Hebrew are very similar. One forms an excellent foundation for learning the other.
11. Hebrew is relatively easy to learn. David Bivin, co-author of a Hebrew language course and of a book on the Hebrew background to the life and teaching of Jesus, writes, “Hebrew is to a large extent a phonetic language with a relatively small vocabulary. Generally it is based on a simple three-letter root system which provides a helpful memory aid in the formation of various verbs and nouns; nothing like the complexity of many modern European languages.” Neither should one be put off by the strange-looking alphabet. Its twenty-two letters are relatively easy to learn and can be learned within a week.With practice, they soon become familiar.
12. There is something special about reading the scriptures in their original language.
But you'll only find out if you learn how! The student begins to reap the benefits of learningHebrew immediately.However, language learning is a cyclic process. At times one is elated by the advances one has made, at others one seems to be getting nowhere. In either case, to make further progress it is essential to push steadily on, even if slowly. “He who gathers little by little will become rich” (Prov. 13:11).
Re-discovering the Scriptures in its original language
What are some things that a Bible reader misses by reading only a translation? For one thing, there are many plays on words throughout the Bible. One of the first examples of a play on words is in the story of the creation of Eve. Adam said, She shall be called Woman [ishah] because she was taken out of Man [ish] (Gen. 2:23). Adam had seen female animals, but this was the first time he had seen a female ish. This newly-formed creature resembled Adam, but it was obvious that she was female. So Adam added the feminine suffix -ah to ish. Another possible explanation: When Adam awoke from his sleep and saw the woman standing before him, perhaps he thought it was another man, and said, “Ish?” and then as the woman came into focus, “Ahhh!” (This explanation is not to be taken seriously of course.)
Another play on words can be seen when Adam names the woman “Eve”: And Adam called his wife’s name Eve [Chavah, “living; life-giver”], because she was the mother of all living [chai] (Gen. 3:20). Similar plays on words can be seen in the namings of Cain, Seth, Noah, Isaac, and the twelve sons of Jacob, and, of course, at the naming of the Messiah: "...thou shalt call His name Yeshua [salvation]: for He shall save (yoshia) His people from their sins" (Matt. 1.21, Hebrew translation).
Another feature in the Hebrew of the Bible is the concept of word origins and the relationship of words to one another. Sometimes this is similar to a play on words. Man (adam) was created from the dust of the ground (adamah). In the transliteration we can see that adam is taken out of adamah. Contained in the word adam is dam, the Hebrew word for “blood,” reminding us that the life of Adam is in his blood.
Here is an example of word origin: Why was Abraham the first person to be called “a Hebrew” (ivri)? The first place the word ivri/Hebrew occurs is in Gen. 14:13, where the phrase “Abram the Hebrew” appears, with no explanation of what a “Hebrew” is. Some people suggest Abram was called a Hebrew because he was a descendant of Eber (Gen. 11:14), and this is a possibility. Another possibility, though, is found in the meaning of the ayin-beit-resh (three Hebrew letters) root of ivri. The word means “to cross over” (a river or a street, e.g.). This is exactly what Abram did. He “crossed over” in a figurative, spiritual sense when he abandoned polytheism and embraced monotheism. The Jews who translated the Septuagint used the Greek phrase Abram to perate, “Abram the passer”) in this verse. In other places they used the Greek word Ebraios to translate ivri/Hebrew. Knowing all this helps us to identity more closely with our father Abraham. We are all “Hebrews” in a figurative sense if we have “crossed over” from the kingdom of sin and darkness into the kingdom of righteousness and light. Like our father Abraham, we are all “passers” as we pass through this world, looking for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10).
The poetry of the Prophets is another area of Scripture that is greatly enhanced by some knowledge of Hebrew. Anyone who has studied both foreign languages and poetry knows that poetry loses some of its impact when it is translated into another language. This is true of pose, too, but even more so with poetry. And many of the Prophets’ writings are written in poetic form. Here are a few examples that I ran across while studying Isaiah in Hebrew:
… He [Yahweh] looked for judgment ( mishpat), but behold oppression (mispach) , for righteonsness (tsedakah) , but behold a cry (tse’akah) (5:7)
… For it is a day of trouble (mehumah) , and of treading down ( mevusah) and of perplexity (mevuchah) (22:5)… Fear (pachad) , and the pit (pachat), and the snare (pach) are upon thee (24:17).
… precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little
tsav la-tsav, tsav la-tsav
kav la-kav, kav la-kav
ze’ir sham, ze’ir sham (28:10)
Another feature of Hebrew is the use of acrostics. Several Psalms (and Lamentations and the “virtuous woman” passage of Proverbs 31) are written in such a way that the first verse begins with the letter aleph, the second with the letter beit, the third with the letter gimel, and so on. Psalm 119 has groups of eight verses for each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
A knowledge of Hebrew also allows a reader to see different levels of meaning in the Scriptures. When Isaiah says of the wicked dead that “their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched,” the word translated “their fire” is isham, a word formed by combining “fire” (esh) and the possessive “their” suffix, -m. This is how possessives are formed in Biblical Hebrew, so “their fire” is an accurate translation. But the word … can just as accurately be read as asham (“guilt”) is not removed. Their guilt provides the fuel for their fire.
Learning Hebrew idioms can help a reader to better understand the Bible. An idiom is a combination of words that has a meaning which cannot be understood by simply knowing the meaning of each individual word. In English we have hundreds of idioms, such as “That’s a horse of a different color” or “That really hit the spot!” These statements have nothing to do with horses and colors or hitting and spots. Students learning a foreign language must learn idioms as complete units, one at a time. It’s not enough to just know the definitions of the individual words. My seven years’ experience teaching English to foreign students has made me very aware of the importance of learning idioms. If students try to understand an idiom by looking up the definitions of the individual words, they will not get an accurate understanding of what the writer or speaker is trying to communicate. This is as true of Hebrew as it is of English. A Strong’s concordance is fine for understanding individual words, but it will not be of much help if you are dealing with an idiom.
One example of a Hebrew idiom is baruch ha-ba, translated literally as “blessed is he that comes”. In Hebrew this idiom simply means “welcome”. When I lived in Israel, the road leading up to Jerusalem had shrubbery trimmed in the shape of Hebrew letters, proclaiming baruchim ha-baim liyrushalayim, “Welcome to Jerusalem.” When the Messiah lamented over Jerusalem He said, “Ye shall not see Me henceforth, til ye say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:39). In other words, He will not return until Jerusalem welcomes Him as their Messiah.
Perhaps the most important benefit of studying Hebrew is the benefit of having the mind renewed. The student of Hebrew begins to develop Hebraic thought patterns, and a Hebrew-based Biblical world view gradually replaces the Greek-based non-Biblical world view that most Western people have. Marvin Wilson discusses “The Contour of Hebrew Thought” in his book Our Father Abraham. Of course the mind can be renewed quite a bit by extensive reading of the Old Testament in a literal word-for-word translation such as the King James Version,(1) where the Hebraic word order and sentence structure are retained to some extent.
So, how does a person learn Hebrew? The best way, of course, is to go to Israel and spend a few months in an ulpan, where students attend intensive Hebrew language classes full time. This is how I learned. During my two years in Israel, I spent a total of ten months in ulpan, attending classes five hours a day, five days a week.
If someone is serious about studying Hebrew, I strongly recommend going to Israel and enrolling in full-time language classes there. After about three months in ulpan, I was able to read and understand some of the simpler texts of the Bible, in spite of the differences between modern and Biblical Hebrew. I later studied Biblical Hebrew independently, and taught a class. I have retained my knowledge of the language by further independent study and by teaching Hebrew to others.
Not everyone can go to Israel long enough to study Hebrew, of course. Some large cities (in the New York area, especially) offer courses, as do some colleges and universities. There are many “teach yourself” courses with tapes, videos, and computer programs. These are better than nothing, but cannot compare to learning in a classroom setting. The person who can learn a foreign language without the help of a real live flesh and blood teacher is a very rare individual.
Perhaps in the future our congregation here in Peoria will be blessed with our own facilities and be able to offer short-term, full-time intensive classes here in Illinois. I would love to see us obtain property with enough space for classrooms and live-in dormitories to house students who want to come here and study for a month, two months, three months, whatever. Please pray with us about this possibility.
Compiled by: Bro. Aike Aizon 0927-7776747 or email: aike.aizon@gmail.com
Adam –Man
Seth –Appointed
Enosh–Mortal
Kenan–Sorrow
Mahalalel-The Blessed God
Jared -Shall come down
Enoch –Teaching
Methuselah -His death shall bring
Lamech–Despairing
Noah -Rest, or comfort.
Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; the Blessed God shall come down teaching, His death shall bring (the) despairing rest. Jude 1:14-15
"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints…
Luke 3:23Now Jesus Himself began His ministry atabout thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) theson of Joseph, the sonofHeli, 24the son ofMatthat, ……
the sonof Noah, the sonofLamech, 37the son of Methuselah, the sonof Enoch, the sonof Jared, the son ofMahalalel, the son ofCainan, 38the son ofEnosh, the sonof Seth, the sonof Adam, the son of God.
The Gospel in the Hebrew Names of
our ancestors, from Adam to Noah.
Introduction:
Hebrew is an ancient language, dating back over 6000 years. It is in a completely different family to the
English languag. English is part of a family of languages called "Indo-European". Hebrew is part of the
Haimo-Semitic family.
Like English, Hebrew has an alphabet. In fact, our English word "alphabet" comes from the names of the
first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph and Beth. The Hebrew alphabet was used as the basis for
the ancient Greek alphabet, which in turn became the basis for the alphabet used by the Romans, and
now by most languages in Europe.
Unlike English, the Hebrew and Yiddish language are written from right to left. As an example, here is
the first verse of Genesis, written without the vowel signs.
with vowel signs
Hebrew words have power:
We tend to take written language for granted. According to Jewish legend, the Torah (the five books of
the Bible) was written 2000 years before the Universe was created, and by implication, the letters
themselves predated the Universe. God used the Torah as a blueprint when He created the universe.
The Torah is the utmost truth; since the Torah is a relatively small book, it is believed that the Torah
contains not just the "obvious" reading, but many, many different hidden meanings as well.
For example, in Genesis, it is written that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Later on in Genesis, "Adam"
is referred to, but nowhere is Adam introduced - it's taken for granted that the reader understands that
"Adam" must be the man in question. Now, in Hebrew, Adam is written like this:
This consists of three letters (right to left): Aleph, Daleth and Mem.
The word for "blood" in Hebrew is "Dam" - letter Daleth and letter Mem. LetterAleph by itself not only
represents the "Ah" sound, but also the element of air, or breath - so "Adam" is seen as blood with the
breath of life - the man created by God.
There are many other such hidden meanings in the Bible - using letters as numbers, using a "cypher" so
that the last letter of the alphabet corresponds to the first, the penultimate letter corresponding to the
second, and so on, and hidden abbreviations. Scholars have spent many years finding meaning in these,
and the Talmud is a body of writing which largely consists of commentaries - the "hidden meanings" - on
the Torah. Even today, Jewish scholars are researching such hidden meanings. In recent years, the
"Bible Code" has received a lot of publicity; this is a system where supposed hidden messages are
teased out of the bible by picking, say, every 31st letter in a sequence, or every 42nd letter, to reveal
new words.
Esoterica
Each Hebrew letter corresponds to a number; most Hebrew bibles actually use the letters to indicate
chapter numbers and verse numbers. This means that every single Hebrew word has a numeric value,
and scholars have long been fascinated by entirely different words that have the same numeric value as
each other. A simple example: the word for love is Ahebah (Alef-Heh-Beth-Heh), which adds up to 13.
The word for unity is Achad (Alef-Cheth-Daleth), which also adds up to 13. Thus there is a
correspondence between love and unity. The art of finding words with the same numeric value is called
gematria - the concept is vaguely similar to numerology (where a person's name is reduced to a
number, to indicate their personality), except that gematria is usually conducted on biblical names and
the names of angels.
Finally, Hebrew letters are divided into three categories: three "mother" letters, which correspond to the
three elements (Air, Water and Fire - Earth is considered to be a combination of all three elements, and
not an element in its own right), seven "double" letters, which correspond to the seven planets known to
the ancients (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). Double letters are so called
because they historically had two different sounds; for example, the letter "Peh" can have a "P" sound or
an "F" or "Ph" sound; some of these distinctions have now disappeared - for instance, the letter "Gimel"
only has a single sound now (a hard "G"), but used to have two sounds ("G" or "J"). The remaining
twelve letters correspond to the twelve zodiac signs:
The Hebrew letters
The Hebrew Vowels
Like most early Semitic alphabetic writing systems, the alefbet has no vowels. People who are
fluent in the language do not need vowels to read Hebrew, and most things written in Hebrew in
Israel are written without vowels. However, the Rabbi realized the need for aids to pronunciation,
so they developed a system of dots and dashes known as points. These dots and dashes are
written above or below the letter, in ways that do not alter the spacing of the line. Text
containing these markings is referred to as "pointed" text. Below is an example of pointed text.
For emphasis, I have drawn the points in the illustration in blue and somewhat larger than they
would ordinarily be written.
V'ahavta l'rayahkhah kamokha.
And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus (19:18).
There is another style used for handwriting, in much the same way that cursive is used for the
Roman (English) alphabet.
Another style is used in certain texts to distinguish the body of the text from commentary upon
the text. This style is known as Rashi Script, in honor of Rashi, the greatest commentator on the
Torah and the Talmud.
Compiled by: Bro. Aike Aizon 0927-7776747 or email: aike.aizon@gmail.com
DID JESUS SPEAK HEBREW?
JESUS SPOKE AND TAUGHT IN HEBREW
Hebrew was the language of the common person in Judea in Jesus' day.
The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were all based on an original Life Story of Jesus that was written originally in Hebrew and not in Aramaic nor in Greek.
What evidence do we have that establishes unequivocally that Hebrew was the language Jesus spoke and in which he taught?
THE TESTIMONY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS
Early Christian writers who mention the subject are all in unanimous agreement that the original Gospel was written by Matthew in Hebrew.
The earliest of these writers was Papias (Fragment 6), dating from about A.D. 167, who records, "Matthew compiled the sayings of Jesus in the Hebrew tongue, and everyone translated them as well as he could" (Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History", III,39,1). Irenaeus, one of the earliest of the Church Fathers, confirms Papias' statement a few years later when he writes, "Matthew published a written Gospel for the Hebrews in their own tongue" (Ibid. V,8,2). A Jewish believer named Hegesippus is reported to "draw occasionally on the Gospel of the Hebrews ... and particularly on works in Hebrew" (Ibid. IV,22,4).
However, the most dramatic testimony to the existence of an original Hebrew Gospel is the well-known Jerome, who translated the Scriptures into Latin in Bethlehem circa A.D. 400. In Jerome's extensive writings there are nineteen passages that speak of a "Hebrew Gospel" or a Gospel "according to the Hebrews". On one occasion he speaks of "the Gospel according to the Hebrews" which, he says, "I have recently translated into Greek and Latin" (De vir. ill., II).
On another occasion he writes, "In the Gospel which the Nazoraeans and the Ebionites use, which we have translated recently from Hebrew into Greek, and which is called the authentic text of Matthew by a good many ..." (In Matt., 12,13). His most interesting and telling statement can be found in "Lives of Illustrious Men" in Volume 3 of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by P. Schaff and H. Wace, page 362.
"Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetime publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed, but this was afterwards translated into Greek though by what author is uncertain. The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Caesarea which Pamphilus so diligently gathered.
"I have also had the opportunity of having the volume described to me by the Nazarenes of Beroea, a city of Syria, who use it. In this it is to be noted that wherever the Evangelist, whether on his own account or in the person of our Lord the Saviour, quotes the testimony of the Old Testament he does not follow the authority of the translators of the Septuagint, but the Hebrew."
Epiphanius (4th century A.D.) described the "Nazoraioi" (Jewish believers), as "painstakingly cultivating the Hebrew language in which they read both the Old Testament and the Gospel according to Matthew" (Panarion I,29,7 and 9). Pantaenus, the teacher of Clement of Alexandra, relates having found the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew as far away as in India (Eusebius, op. cit., V,10,3).
COINS AND INSCRIPTIONS
Although there is a difference of opinion among scholars currently working in the field as to the importance of coins in deciding the langugage of Israel in the first centuries B.C./A.D., I believe coins and inscriptions are an important tool for determining the principal spoken language of this period. In my view, the evidence of coinage is dramatic. From the fourth century B.C. until the end of the Bar-Cochba Revolt in A.D. 135 - the entire history of Jewish coinage - only one coin is inscribed in Aramaic (Alexander Jannaeus, 103-176 B.C.). All the rest are in Hebrew.
In addition, there is considerable epigraphical evidence from the period to establish Hebrew as the principal spoken language. In excavations in occupation levels from the first centuries B.C./A.D. at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, not one Aramaic inscription has been found.
However, several exciting and important Hebrew inscriptions have been found (see
"Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus" pages. 58-59). At Masada, Herod's fortress on the Dead Sea, the epigraphical evidence is staggering: fragments of 14 scrolls, over 4,000 coins, and more than 700 inscribed pottery fragments. In these, the ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic exceeds nine to one.
Inscriptions on pottery vesels, burial ossuaries, tombs, walls, mosaic floors, and so on, all attest to Hebrew as the spoken and written language of the common people.
Of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide for us one of the most dramatic and significant of the
epigraphical evidences for Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scrolls include nearly 600 partial
manuscripts, both biblical and non-biblical, indicated by some 40,000 fragments. The most
telling evidence of the scrolls is found in the sectarian scrolls and the commentaries on the
biblical scrolls. In the sectarian scrolls, the ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic is again nine to one, but
all of the commentaries are in Hebrew. It is impossible to conclude that a commentary on the
Scripture would be written in a language other than the popular language of the people.
EVIDENCE FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXT
The most conclusive evidence for Hebrew as the principal language behind not just the Synoptic
Gospels, but the New Testament in its entirety, is the text itself. The New Testament is filled
with semitisms: Hebrew vocabulary, Hebrew syntax, Hebrew idioms, Hebrew thought patterns, and Hebrew theology. Moulton and Howard have compiled an impressive 72 page list of Hebrew expressions and idioms found in the New Testament in their "Grammar" (Vol. 2, pgs. 413-485).
Professor David Flusser of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a member of the Jerusalem School for the Study of the Synoptic Gospels, has emphatically stated: "Of the hundreds of Semitic idioms in the Synoptic Gospels, most can be explained on the basis of Hebrew only, while there are no Semitisms which could only be Aramaic without also being good Hebrew."
Joining Professor Flusser are such notable scholars as Pinchas Lapide (Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv), Frank Cross (Harvard University), William Sanford LaSor (Fuller Seminary), Harris Birkland, and J.T. Milik. Even Moshe Bar-Asher, the prominent Aramaic scholar at the Hebrew University, has stated that he believes the Synoptic Gospels go back to an original Hebrew and not Aramaic document.
To the New Testament scholar, fluent in both Hebrew and Greek, it is immediately apparent that the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels, the first fifteen chapters of the Book of Acts, the Book of Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation, as well as vast portions of the remaining portions of the New Testament text, is not Greek at all, but Hebrew in Greek dress. (Editors note: with regard to the Hebraic style of the letter to the Hebrews another scholar comments, "all Greek scholars know that the Greek of Hebrews is the best Greek in the New Testament.")
However, there is an important fact that cannot be over-emphasized. To the scholar fluent in Hebrew, it is additionally apparent that the thought patterns behind the entire New Testament are Hebrew, and not Aramaic nor Greek.
FOR FURTHER READING
"Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus" by David Bivin and Roy Blizzard.
"The Missing Hebrew Gospel" by Pinchas Lapide (Available from CFI).
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