Bible Geek Word Nerd - Testing Your Patience

May You Pass the Test

July 20, 2022

In the NIV translation of the Jewish Bible, the word “test” occurs 96 times, from Genesis 22:1 (G-d TESTED Abraham) to its final occurrence in Malachi 3:15 (the put G-d to the TEST). In English, the word occurs as a verb and as a noun. Sometimes its connotations are positive (in Psalm 105:19, the word of the LORD TESTED Joseph) and sometimes negative (Psalm 78:41, the Israelites put G-d to the TEST repeatedly).

 

The idea of testing is hugely important to understanding not only the Big Narrative of the Bible, but also to understand our part in it. The great English theologian and scholar CS Lewis wrote: “If you think of this world as a place simply intended for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place for training and correction and it's not so bad.”

 

But to really understand what Scripture teaches us about TEST, we only need to consider Jesus the Messiah, who endured two famous tests in His journey to the Cross. Diving deeply into those stories is not the point of this page, so we won’t. But we will remind you of the two tests, with which you probably are already quite familiar.

 

The first was after His baptism from John in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness, where He endured testing at the hands of SATAN (this, incidentally, is a Hebrew word which means “adversary”; it occurs 27 times in the Jewish Scriptures, most often being translated as simply “adversary”). SATAN tested Jesus three times, and He passed each one (quoting from the TORAH as He won His victory).

 

The second test Jesus endured was in the Garden of Gethsamane, where He sweated great drops of blood and asked this the Cup be taken from Him (that is, He would not have to endure torture, crucifixion, and death). He also passed that test.

 

So, the concept of the TEST is critical to our own story of faith.

 

We are going to detour from our final three posts on the “say” miniseries to look at five Hebrew words that Jesus would have been considering as He endured His own tests. These are five verbs which occur 117 times in the Text. Each of them offers a slightly different slant on the idea of the TEST and what G-d is about as He brings us into testing.

 

The first word is NASAH (נָסָה). It primarily means “to test, to try, to prove, to tempt”. It is the most frequently used of our five words. You will find it 36 times in the Hebrew Bible.

 

The first example is perhaps the most famous (and the most difficult to read and understand, in our opinion). In Genesis 22:1, we read, “Some time later God TESTED Abraham.” The context of this test is that Abraham and Sarah’s long-hoped-for son, Isaac, has been born. G-d’s promise has been fulfilled. But then G-d puts Abraham to the most excruciating test. G-d tells Abraham: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you.” Abraham is ready to obey this command, but G-d stays his hand.

 

The second word, occurring 33 times, is TSARAPH (צָרַף), which primarily means “to smelt, refine, test”. In Psalm 12:6, we are told: “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver PURIFIED in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.” In Psalm 105:19, the sense of testing is found: “till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD PROVED him true.” And in Isaiah 48:10, we read: “See, I have REFINED you, though not as silver; I have tested (note: the verb here is most often translated as “to choose”, not “to test”) you in the furnace of affliction.”

 

The third word for TEST is BACHAN (בָּחן). It means “examine, try,” and you will find it 29 times in the Jewish Bible. In Genesis 42, Joseph is dealing with his brothers, who do not yet recognize him. He accuses them of being spies. He is sending one of them back to Canaan to retrieve his youngest brother, Benjamin, while the rest stay in prison. He says in Gen 42:15-16, “This is how you will be TESTED: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one from among you to get your brother. The rest of you will be imprisoned so that your words CAN BE TESTED to see if they are true. If they are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” And in Psalm 11:5, it says, “The LORD EXAMINES the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, He hates with a passion.”

 

The fourth word is BARAR (בָּרַר). BARAR means to purify or select, and it is used 18 times in

the Text. 2 Samuel 22:27 (and Psalm 18:26) says, “to the PURE you SHOW YOURSELF PURE, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.” Ecclesiastes 3:18, we read, “I also said to myself, ‘As for humans, G-d TESTS them so that they may see that they are like the animals.’” And in Daniel 12:10, we are told, “Many WILL BE PURIFIED, made spotless and refined (TSARAPH)…”

 

The final word in our set of TESTING words is an odd one. And its inclusion in this list only confirms how challenging is the Hebrew Text. The word is AZAN (אָזַן). Used as “test”, it is only found once. And the reason for that is the word is most often translated as “give ear” or “hear”. It is the denominative verb for the Hebrew word which means “ear” (OZEN (אֹזֶן)). Confused yet? Interested in learning to be a translator? Oy vey!

 

AZAN’s use as “test” is in Ecclesiastes 12:9. “In addition to the Teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge; he WEIGHED (with the sense that he tested different theories as would a scientist), explored, and arranged many proverbs.”

 

Understanding the idea of the TEST is crucial to understanding how G-d works with us. He TESTED Abraham. He allowed Jesus to be tested. The TEST is for our benefit, to measure where we are, to stretch us and make us stronger. 

 

We are even encouraged to ask G-d not to lead us into the hard test which we might fail…the test too difficult for us (one can imagine a test such as the one Abraham endured, or the tests Jesus Himself endured). “And do not bring us into TESTING” we read in Matthew 6. The Greek is PEIRASMOS, but Jesus did not teach His disciples in Greek. It is likely He used one of the five words we have discussed here. LORD, deliver us from the hard test…and let us pass it.

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Description vs Prescription

Describe or Prescribe

July 19, 2022

We follow The Bible for Normal People with Pete Enns. Sometimes we love what he writes or says; sometimes we do not love what he writes or says. But whatever he writes or says, he makes us think. "As iron (BARZEL בַּרְזֶל in Hebrew) sharpens (CHADAD חָדַד in Hebrew), so one man sharpens another."

This short clip is an excellent explication of the important difference between DESCRIPTIVE and PRESCRIPTIVE readings of the Bible. And we heartily endorse what he says at the end about wrestling (ABAQ אָבַק as Jacob wrestled with "the man" before crossing the river into the Promised Land) with the Bible, with thoughtfulness and patience.

https://fb.watch/emJud51tFf/

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #7 - ANAH

Say #7 - ANAH is a good answer

July 19, 2022 

We have been looking at the various Hebrew terms that mean “say” and “speak” and the like. In the NIV translation of the Hebrew scriptures, verbs of this sort appear more than 6200 times. And just as English has multiple ways of expressing this declarative, Hebrew does, as well. We are down to our final four now after previously covering MALAL, NAGAD, SAPHAR, NAVA, SIACH, and BATA.

 

Today’s word is ANAH (עֲנָה) which means answer, testify, or respond. Including its Aramaic form (found in Daniel and in Psalm 60), it appears 360 times in the Text. There is a Hebrew homonym which means to be bowed down or afflicted, or to abase or defile, which must give translators fits. (Jewish culture – and Hebrew language – is high context, which means context clues are necessary for understanding. Idiomatic expressions, homonyms understood incorrectly, ancient Near Eastern history, etc. are all potential stumbling blocks to rendering the Text into English. No matter which translation you prefer, be grateful for the laborious and faithful work of the countless scholars who have produced your English Bible.) Now, back to ANAH…

 

It first appears in Genesis 18:27, with Abraham negotiating with the LORD for his nephew LOT, before Sodom is destroyed. The NIV offers: “Then Abraham SPOKE UP again: ‘Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes…’” The Holman Christian Standard Bible stays closer to the original Hebrew with: “Then Abraham ANSWERED, ‘Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord—even though I am dust and ashes—'”

Dramatically in Exodus 19:19, we have G-d using thunder; the HCSB again stays closer to the Hebrew than the NIV: “As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God ANSWERED him in the thunder.”

 

ANAH is used in discussing advice to a fool in Proverbs 26:4-5, with one of our favorite paradoxical wisdom passages: “Do not ANSWER a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. ANSWER a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”

 

(We are reminded of the humorous quandry from the Coen Brothers classic “Raising Arizona” when bank robbers Gale and Evelle storm into the bank and Gale shouts: “All right, ya hayseeds, it's a stick-up. Everybody freeze. Everybody down on the ground.” And the feisty old timer asks, “Well, which is it, young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say, if'n I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And if'n I drop, I'm a-gonna be in motion. You see...” So which is it, LORD? Do you want us to not answer a fool, or to answer a fool?)

 

While “answer” can mean to simply give an answer, there is often in the Scriptures an overtone of deliverance to its use – almost as a synonym for deliver – especially when the LORD is the one doing the answering. For instance, Psalm 3:4 reads, “I call out to the LORD, and he ANSWERS me from his holy mountain.” In Psalm 4:1, we have, “ANSWER me when I call, God, who vindicates me. You freed me from affliction; be gracious to me and hear my prayer.” In Psalm 17:6, it says, “I call on you, my God, for you WILL ANSWER me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.” Psalm 69:17 gives us, “Do not hide your face from your servant; ANSWER me quickly, for I am in trouble.” ANAH is used almost 40 times in the Psalms, including once when it is most often translated as “sing” in Psalm 147:7 (because it is linked with playing a lyre).

 

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah seem to be partial to ANAH. Isaiah 41:17, the LORD tells us: “‘The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD WILL ANSWER them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.” Jeremiah often uses ANAH somewhat negatively, as in NOT answering (Jeremiah is rather pessimistic at times, the weeping prophet and all). For example, G-d’s people will not listen in Jeremiah 17:27, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not ANSWER.” And Jeremiah 35:17 tells us, “Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not ANSWER.’”

 

ANAH’s final appearance is in Hosea 2. It is used six times between verses 15 and 23. The hope in the passage is so palpable, that we will quote it in full. Hosea, bring us home:

 

“There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she WILL RESPOND as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt. In that day— this is the LORD’s declaration— you will call Me, “My husband,” and no longer call Me, “My Baal.” For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names. On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely. I will take you to be My wife forever. I will take you to be My wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness, and you will know Yahweh. On that day I WILL RESPOND — this is the LORD’s declaration. I WILL RESPOND to the sky, and it WILL RESPOND to the earth. The earth WILL RESPOND to the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they WILL RESPOND to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one” (LO RUCHAMAH). I will say to those called ‘Not my people’ (LO AM-I) , ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

 

The New Testament has been handed down to us in Greek, but it was originally written by Jews who spoke and wrote and knew Hebrew. ANAH seems like the verb that Peter has in mind when he writes this in his first letter: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to GIVE AN ANSWER to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

 

We always wonder what Hebraisms lie behind the Greek text. Some day, we will know fully…

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #6 - BATA

Say #6 - THINK before SPEAK

July 18, 2022

If you do an Internet search of the phrase “think before you speak”, you will turn up almost 2 billion hits in less than one second. Many of the first hits are for various forms of an acronym that is supposed to help you refrain from speaking without thinking (i.e., THINK or THANK). Some of the hits are articles on why it’s important to think before speaking (e.g., “Ten Reasons Why You Should…” or “Thirteen Reasons Why You Should…”). Throw in some explainer videors and recorded sermons, and you have a significant wave pushing back against speaking rashly.

 

Which leads us to today’s post in our soon-to-be-ended mini-series on Bible words that mean “speak” or “say”. Today’s Hebrew word is BATA (בָּטָא), which means to speak rashly or thoughtlessly. It occurs only four times in the Hebrew Bible, but it packs a powerful punch each time. You will find it twice in Leviticus 5:4 (HCSB) in the matter of rashly swearing an oath:

 

“Or if someone SWEARS RASHLY to do what is good or evil—concerning anything a person may SPEAK RASHLY in an oath—without being aware of it, but later recognizes it, he incurs guilt in such an instance.”

 

If you’re familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, you can recount some clear instances when rash vows led to horrifying consequences. There is the story of Jephthah’s rash vow in Judges 11, and the awful fate of his only daughter. You can also read about King Saul’s rash vow in 1 Samuel 14, which nearly cost the life of his son Jonathan.

 

The implications of speaking rashly in the Scriptures also relate to relational damage, as rash words can hurt another person. Proverbs 12:18 likens them to a cutting blade:

 

“There is ONE WHO SPEAKS like the piercings of a sword, But the tongue of the wise promotes health.”

 

And rashly speaking can not only hurt others, it can also hurt the speaker, as Moses learned in the Exodus. Psalm 106:33 tells us that Moses spoke rashly to his rebellious Tribes:

 

“By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and RASH WORDS CAME from Moses’ lips.”

 

It is no wonder that the advice from the writer James is so often cited: Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Rash words lead to huge consequences. In other words, THINK before you speak.

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #5 - NAVA

Say #5

July 14, 2022

Biblical Hebrew has homonyms, just as English does. And not only does the Text of the Hebrew Bible love playing word games with homonyms, but the ancient sages could also tease out deep meaning for similar words that had potentially opposite implications. Today’s post in our mini-series on Bible words which mean “to say” will offer you two Hebrew verbs, which are homonymns but not synonyms. Let us explain.

 

The Hebrew Bible is not called the Old Testament by most Jews, many of whom find that an offensive term. We try to avoid its usage here at Bible Geek Word Nerd, preferring instead the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Scriptures, or Jesus’ Bible (when we want to be cheeky). The Jewish way to refer to the Hebrew Bible is “TaNaK”. As some readers doubtless know, TaNaK is an acronym derived from the first consonants of the names for the three sections of the Hebrew Bible. T is for TORAH (some translate that word as “law”, but this is an unfortunate choice…a topic for a future post), the first five books of the Bible. N is for NEVI’IM, which are the prophetic books (which includes not just the prophets that Christians know as the Prophets, but also Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings). The final section is K for KETHUVIM, which means “writings; this section contains all the rest of the books (e.g., Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, et al). 

 

But this series is about Hebrew words which mean “to say” or some form of that verb. Why talk about the Jewish way of naming the Bible? First, we aim to edify and enlighten. Hopefully, some of you are now more knowledgeable about the Jewish way of talking about their Scriptures. But secondly, the word NEVI’IM (נְבִיאִים֙) is relevant for our discussion today.

 

NEVI’IM is the plural form of NAVI (נָבִיא), which means “prophet”. It is used 316 times in the Text, from its first appearance in Genesis 20:7 (“Now return the man’s (Abraham’s) wife, for he is a PROPHET, and he will pray for you and you will live.”) to its last one in Haggai 1:3 (“Then the word of the LORD came through the PROPHET Haggai…”). There is a feminine version of the word, as well, meaning “prophetess”: NEVIAH (נְבִיאָה) (Hebrew often adds “ah” to the end of nouns to make them feminine, so ISH/man becomes ISHAH/woman or wife).

 

The Hebrew way of thinking of NAVI includes what we traditionally think of with a prophet, but the word can also mean “spokesman” or “speaker”. It is used for someone who speaks for someone else (in the Bible, that is, for G-d Himself). So in contemporary use, you could say that a politician’s spokesperson is a NAVI.

 

NAVI, the noun, has a denominative verb form: NAVA (נָבָא). Occurring 114 times in the Hebrew Bible, it means, as you might expect, “to prophesy”. For instance, Numbers 11:25 reads: “When the Spirit rested on them, they PROPHESIED – but did not do so again.” And in Zechariah 13:4, we have “And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he PROPHESIES…”

 

This verb NAVA has a homonym, obviously also NAVA (henceforth NAVA 2). In English, NAVA is both a homograph and a homophone. But in Hebrew, the two words are spelled differently, so they are not homographs in Hebrew. NAVA 1 (נָבָא) ends with an ALEPH (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. NAVA 2 (נָבַע) ends with an AYIN (ע).

 

The difference of one letter between these homophones is hugely significant to the Jewish sages, who tease out meaning from the tiniest of details. (Do you remember Jesus’ claim that He did not come to abolish the TORAH? He says in Matthew 5:18: “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.” Jesus is actually quoting a familiar Jewish proverb: “LO YOD V’LO KOTSO SHEL YOD” which means, “not a yod or a thorn of a yod,” meaning “not the most insignificant or unimportant thing.” The tiniest details matter, so whether a word ends with ALEPH or AYIN is significant not only because the word’s meaning changes.)

 

Of NAVA 2’s 11 uses in the Text, six are in the Psalms, five are in Proverbs, and one is in Ecclesiastes.

 

NAVA 2 means to flow, spring, bubble up, or pour forth. In Psalm 19:2, we have “Day after day they POUR FORTH speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Psalm 59:7 reads, “See what they SPEW from their mouths…” And in Ecclesiastes, the Preacher says, “Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to GIVE OFF a foul odor”. NAVA 2 can also mean “to utter”, as in Psalm 78:2 “…I WILL UTTER hidden things, things from of old…”

 

Let’s return to the AYIN. The word AYIN (עַיִן) means “eye”. One of the most important nouns in the Hebrew text, both for its denotative meaning (literally the eye) and its connotative or poetic meaning (sight, look, what you want, etc.), it appears 887 times in the Text. But apart from the concrete and poetic uses, there is also a symbolic use. The word AYIN came to mean “a spring” (as a spring of water). The prevailing etymological theory is that the sky reflected in a pool or spring resembles an eye. So to a Hebraic way of thinking, AYIN represents not just the eye and all of its symbolism but also a sping representing life.

 

What does a spring do? It bubbles up. That is, it NAVAs (as in NAVA 2). Let’s look at Proverbs 18:2’s rich poetic imagery: “The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is A RUSHING (NAVA) stream.” 

 

NAVA 2 is tricky for some commentators. Because it is a homonym, in English it reads like NAVA 1. That is, some interpreters do not understand the difference between the words. For example. The Forerunner commentary asserts that NAVA “literally means ‘to bubble up.’ It describes one who is stirred up in spirit.” Clearly this is a commentator tripped up by a small letter. 

 

But you will not be tripped up because you know that the two words sound alike, but are separated by the “eye”. Sometimes, your English “utter” is more like a bubbling up.

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #4 - NAGAD

Joseph Got What He Deserved: Say #4

July 13, 2022

We mentioned in an earlier post that we have an unnatural affection for the musical works of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. “Jesus Christ Superstar” is a glorious composition lyrically and musically (even if we do not completely embrace Tim Rice’s modernist humanist take on Jesus the Messiah). But our favorite opus of theirs is not that one. Rather, we are very, very much in the “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour® Dreamcoat” camp. A breezy, funny, rocking re-telling of the Patriarchal narrative from Genesis about Jacob, his dysfunctional family, and the story of their arrival in Eqypt is an extremely entertaining show. Not only did we write this paragraph as a paean to that show, which we love, it also provides some context for this post about one of the Bible words which our English translators render as “say” or “said”.

 

You probably know the story, but if you do not, it might be a good idea to check it out. It happens in the first book of the Bible, beginning in about chapter 24 with the story of Jacob’s parents. But the bits which concern Joseph and “to say” take place in chapter 37. (Oh, do read all 50 chapters because they set the stage for every other story in both Jesus’ Bible and the ones written after He died.)to get the whole sense of it!)

 

Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son by his favorite wife. He had eleven brothers and one unfortunate sister (poor Dinah), as well as three step-mothers (is that the term you would used to describe his father’s other wives? We dunno. It’s a weird, strange, jarring story). Joseph is called a dreamer: he receives dreams and visions from G-d, and he also interprets them. This makes him a prophet. It’s those dreams and his willingness to talk about them that got him into trouble with everyone (but it also got him out of trouble, too, so “all’s well that ends well”).

 

Let’s let the Text tell us the story, from Genesis 37:5-10:

 

“Joseph had a dream, and when he TOLD it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream I had: we were binding sheaves of corn out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered round mine and bowed down to it.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

 

“Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?’ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” 

 

You will note that some form of the word “to say” or “to tell” is used in the passage cited. In fact, in eight different places there is some form of say or tell, but only one of them – the one in verse 5, in fact – is marked with upper case, and that is the word we are going to explore. And in exploring its nuances of meaning, we will have a clearer picture of why his brother reacted the way they did (well, they already hated Joseph for being a tattletale and resented him for being the favorite son; this incident may have put them over the edge).

 

The word used in verse 5 – he told it to his brothers – is the Hebrew verb NAGAD (נָגַד). It makes 370 appearances in the Text, beginning in Genesis 3:11 (And he said, ‘Who TOLD you

that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’) and ending with Isaiah 36:22 (“Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.”) What is interesting about this word is primary definition.

 

Look at another use in Isaiah 7:2: “Now the house of David WAS TOLD, ‘Aram has allied itself with[a] Ephraim’; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.”

 

How would you tell the entire household? Would you whisper it into one ear and ask them to pass it along? Or would you broadcast it, loudly for all to hear? Picture the old world town criers who made public pronouncements, ringing their bells and shouting their news. When the house of David was told (NAGAD), it was in a voice loud enough for the entire royal court to hear at once.

 

The primary meaning of NAGAD is “to be conspicuous”.

 

So now, let’s return to Joseph the Dreamer. He did not just tell his brothers in an understated way about his dream. No. Joseph made the dream CONSPICUOUS. The spoiled little brat BRAGGED about his dreams loudly and proudly. No wonder they hated the insufferable little cretin.

 

NAGAD is used in Genesis 9, when Ham told his brothers about his father Noah’s drunken nakedness. “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and TOLD his two brothers outside.” Noah’s anger at his son, who made Noah’s shame conspicuous enough for even the eavesdropping Canaan to hear, makes more sense when you consider the Hebrew text.

 

NAGAD also used when Judah is told about the pregnancy of his daughter-in-law Tamar in Genesis 38:24: “About three months later Judah WAS TOLD, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.’” It is not too difficult to imagine this news being conveyed in loud, broadcast tones for all to hear, based on Judah’s response: “Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned to death!’” Public sin deserves public judgment.

 

Joseph did not just tell his family about his dreams. He broadcast his coming superiority in terms loud enough and proud enough for all to hear. NAGAD – occurring 370 times and most often translated as “tell” – means quite a bit more than simply “to tell”. 

 

Getting behind the English to reveal the Hebrew also gives you new insights into the motives of the primary actors in G-d’s story.

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #3 - SIACH

Maybe We Complain Too Much - Say #3

July 12, 2022

“…or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.”

Job 12:8

 

Job and his friends did a lot of talking. They pontificated about Job and the causes of his calamity. (Oh, that word! A wonderfully evocative word… In Hebrew, eight words can be rendered – and often are rendered by translators – as the English word “calamity”. Seven are found in Job, but not always translated as “calamity”. We’re thinking that a future series will take on calamity. But we digress.) They do a lot of talking, as well as talking about talking, as the verse we’ve cited above.

 

Here is Job 12:8 in Hebrew:

 

או שיח לארץ ותרך ויספרו לך דגי הים

 

The word in question is the second one in the clause: “speak”. It is SIACH (שיח) in Hebrew.

As a verb, it occurs 21 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. You will find it in Judges 5:10, at the conclusion of the terrific story of Deborah and Barak (though she and Jael are the stars): “You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, CONSIDER…”

 

SIACH also features in 1 Chronicles 16:9 (interestingly, also a poem or song, which perhaps gives us a hint of how and why this word is used), “Sing to him, sing praise to him; TELL of all his wonderful acts.”

 

 

 

SIACH fundamentally means to “muse, ponder, or meditate”. But like many Hebrew words, it is richly nuanced with other connotations. It also means: complain, declare, speak, pray, and talk with. If you do an Internet search on SIACH, you will see many uses of the word emphasizing “dialog” or “conversation” (maybe thoughtful debate). For instance, MACHON SIACH is a high school dedicated to producing public intellectuals who engage in the weighty cultural matters of our time. The SIACH network of hazon.org “aims to create an open dialog” about environmental and social justice issues (that sounds pretty weighty). Siach.org, the home of Yeshivat Siach-Yitzhak, expresses “ardent interest in promoting dialogue between the Torah world and its social, cultural, and religious milieu”. And “Siach Yitzchok” is a primary school whose approach focuses on “nurturing the neshama, or the soul” of the child. As a final example, SIACH (used as an acronym for Students from Israel & Abroad Chat) aims “to build and strengthen relationships between Jewish young adults in Israel and around the world.” (To complicate this further, SIACH in modern use is also a small bush or shrub, which features in siach.online’s logo, as well as others’ logos.)

 

So this brings us back to how SIACH shows itself in the Text.

 

SIACH is used in the Psalms 14 times, which comprises two-thirds of its 21 occurrences. The NIV almost always translates it as “meditate”, which we do not hate…except that our modern English idea of mediation is solitary, quiet, and introspective. That is decidedly not the Jewish idea of meditation. 

 

You only need to consider (are we using SIACH there?) another word used for “meditate” in the Hebrew scriptures: HAGAH (הָגָה). Besides meaning meditate or muse (like SIACH), it more fundamentally means “growl” and “moan”, as in Isaiah 31:4: “This is what the Lord says to me: ‘As a lion GROWLS, a great lion over its prey – and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour – so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.”

 

The Jewish idea of “muse” and “meditate”, whether the verb is HAGAH or SIACH, is likely not meant to be quiet or introspective (there is a place for that in Hebrew, but it is not here with these words). The fact that SIACH can be translated as “meditate” in 14 of its 21 uses, but “complain” or “speak” or even “mock” amongst the others definitely signals that there is more to the story than a simple word-for-word translation.

 

Hebrew is rich and complex and beautiful. And patiently SIACHing through the Text, allowing G-d to speak through His RUACH HA’QODESH, will open your eyes to vast treasures of diamonds lying there waiting to be discovered.

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #2

You Don't Say SAPHAR

July 11, 2022

In the NIV translation of the Hebrew Bible, words related to “to say” occur about 6200 times. These run the gamut of the synonyms for “say” and “speak”. Beyond various formulations of those two are, inter alia, “declare”, “answer”, “proclaim”, and “tell”. Someone perhaps word nerdier than we are can add to this hastily cobbled together list. But even if they can add to it, the word count is astounding. (On the other hand, for some context, the NIV version of the Hebrew Bible comprises more than 750,000 words. So “to say” is less than 1% of that total.)

 

We are in the midst of looking at the various ways the Hebrew uses to express this. “Speak”, “spoke”, “say”, and “said” comprise more than two-thirds of the 6200 occurrences we mentioned. But while the English text may simply tell us that “G-d said”, the Hebrew uses one of several different words, each having a slightly different meaning. Sometimes that difference is trivial. After all, what does it matter whether it’s “say” or “state” or “mention”? On the other hand, there is a very large difference between “say” and “announce”, as any to-be-married couple will happily announce to you. So this mini-series intends to explore those various ways of describing “to say” that appear in the Hebrew Bible, perhaps opening your eyes to read the Text with a slightly different appreciation.

 

Previously, we looked at the word MALAL, primarily meaning “speak, utter, say”. 

 

Today, we discuss SAPHAR (סָפַר), which means “count, recount, or relate”.

SAPHAR is used 160 times in the Jewish Scriptures; 35 of those occurrences are used to represent counting or numbering, as in Genesis 15, when G-d is giving His great promise to Avraham (well, at that time Avram):

 

“[G-d] took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and COUNT the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”

 

Also, Leviticus 23:15 says, “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, COUNT seven full weeks.”

 

Twenty-nine times, SAPHAR is used for “scribe” or “secretary”, as in 2 Chronicles 34:13: 

 

“…had charge of the labourers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were SECRETARIES, scribes, and gatekeepers.”

 

Nehemiah 13:13 says, “I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the SCRIBE, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms…”

 

Using SAPHAR in this way is not surprising, given that the verb is a denominative from the noun SEPHER (סֵפֶר), which means “book, scroll, bill, learned letter, or evidence”. As early as Genesis 5:1, it says: “This is the WRITTEN ACCOUNT of Adam’s family line.”

 

In Esther 1:22, SEPHER is “dispatch”: “He sent DISPATCHES to all parts of the kingdom…”

 

In Psalm 69:28, we are introduced to a concept familiar to Christians who read the Revelation of John: “May they be blotted out of the BOOK of life and not be listed with the righteous.” (And now you also understand why we included the promo pic from one of the best animated films of the previous ten years, not to mention the icon from an ancient anonymous Greek iconographer.)

 

In Jeremiah 3:8, we read, “I gave faithless Israel her CERTIFICATE of divorce and sent her away…”

 

And finally, in Malachi 3:16, the Text explains, “A SCROLL of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name.”

 

Moreover, modern Hebrew's use of the word is found in Jewish education: BETH SEPHER (house of the book) is a Hebrew-language elementary school.

 

The remainder of SAPHAR’s occurrences in the Hebrew Text are rendered as tell, declare, recount, or similar words. 

 

First used in this way in Genesis 24:66, the Text says, “Then the servant TOLD Isaac all he had done.”

 

Staying in Genesis, verse 29:13 tells us, “So he TOLD Laban all these things.

 

In Job 12:8, we read, “or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea INFORM you.”

 

Psalm 19:1 has one of our favorite occurrences because it is one of our favorite verses: “The heavens DECLARE the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 

 

Psalm 26:7 offers, “proclaiming aloud your praise and TELLING of all your wonderful deeds.” We understand the poetic parallel with “proclaim”, but one does not have to strain too hard to render this SAPHAR as “count” or “number”: counting off the wonderful deeds of the LORD.

 

The prophets use SEPHER in all its facets, from “scribe” to “count” to “tell”. Joel 1:3 gives us, “TELL it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” In Hebrew, there is only one verb, but the NIV translators added repetition for clarity’s sake. The literal reading of the Hebrew text (which sounds like Yoda) goes something like: “about it your children tell and your children their children and their children generation another.” 

 

עליה לבניכם ספרו ובניכם לבניהם ובניהם לדור אחר

 

As this verse in Joel indicates, and as the other examples make plain, the work of translation is very, very difficult. Most English versions of Scripture are excellent and effective renderings of the original text. None are “literal translations” because that is a literal impossibility. Hebrew simply cannot be rendered into English mechanically. And if one could do that, it would be almost unreadable.

 

We like the NIV, and we read it. We like the NKJV, and we read it. The NLT, the ESE, the NASB, the ESV, the HCSB…these are all excellent translations. But each is the work of humans with biases, preferences, and occasionally, agenda. The point to derive from all this is that modern western readers of the Hebrew Bible are reading an ancient set of documents that a modern western scholar has attempted to put into language we can apprehend. 

 

If all you take from this mini-series – indeed, even from this page – is a heightened awareness of this fact, perhaps your reading of the Sacred Text will be enhanced. And maybe you might be inspired to pull out a Hebrew or Greek dictionary to look behind the English to find out what else might be lurking behind the words. Just don’t get any funny ideas about starting your own page; we do not want the competition…

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Up Your Nose

Maybe Your Nose is Out of Joint

July 9, 2022

We are SUPPOSED to be doing a series on the various Hebrew terms used to describe “speaking”. But it seems we cannot get anywhere without taking a scenic detour. In our previous post, the scenic detour meandered to the family of the Patriarch Jacob (YAAKOV in Hebrew speak). We talked about NAPHTHALI and the burden of names, reminding ourselves how messed up his family was…without even bringing stories about Judah and Tamar or the infamous mandrakes.

 

Today we continue on our scenic detour, prompted as all detours are, by surprise, wonder, or unexpected circumstances. We are going to talk about the Hebrew word for “anger”. N o, not prompted by fights with spouses or family, but by something more irritating and
compelling: popular culture.

 

There’s a scene in the Broadway show “Mama Mia” (please don’t ask us how we know this fact; we just sometimes know things) where one of the characters is asked how he got his name, Pepper. His friend Eddie says he got his name because he gets up your nose. Americans hear that and laugh because Pepper makes us sneeze, so the line is funny. But in idiomatic British English, the phrase “get up your nose” means to irritate them. We have South African friends who use that phrase frequently for “irritate” or “annoy”. So the British playwright, Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book for the musical play “Mama Mia”, used an idiomatic phrase to make a joke at the character’s expense. 

 

This would be good enough, except this little bloggy thing is not about ABBA or Broadway musicals, but rather about Bible words (and mostly Hebrew, if you have not figured it out yet…because Biblical Hebrew is our jam). So let’s explore how this very British idiomatic way of saying “angry” has a Hebrew connection.

 

There are several words that Hebrew uses to express anger. But the most common way is the word APH (אַף). For instance, in Exodus 4:14:

 

“Then the LORD’s ANGER burned against Moses, and He said, ‘What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.’”

 

APH appears in the Hebrew Bible 276 times, but interestingly, it does not appear as “anger” all those times. Because APH’s primary meaning is “nose” or “nostril”. For instance, in Genesis 2:7:

 

“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his NOSTRILS the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

 

So how does the word for “nose” and “nostril” become “anger”? 

 

Hebrew is a very concrete language, preferring to avoid abstractions. Hebrew has a word for it if you can see it (or hear it or touch it). So, it seems quite natural that an abstract but common emotion like “anger” would be expressed by something seen. When you become angry, your face gets flushed. If you become REALLY angry, this redness may go all the way to the very tip of your nose. On the other hand, if you are more controlled and slow to become angry, your nose will not become red. When G-d is described as “slow to anger”, the Hebrew literally says G-d is “long of nose”. Among other verses, Numbers 14:18 says,

“The Lord is SLOW TO ANGER (AREK APPAYIM ארך אפים the word AREK means “long”), abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

 

יהוה ארך אפים ורב־חסד נשא עון ופשע ונקה לא ינקה פקד עון אבות על־בנים על־שלשים ועל־רבעים

 

So this brings us back to the very British idiom of “up someone’s nose”. It seems that many languages and cultures take their cues from observing physiological signs. Perhaps think about that the next time you are in a tiff with a loved one or perhaps experience irritation from “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Think about your own physiological response and whether your nose is become inflamed.

 

The letter of James has a very practical strategy: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James would have been thinking of G-d’s own character in this, we are quite certain), because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

 

From the humorous dialog of Broadway to G-d’s word itself…

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Naphtali

July 8, 2022

We love -- in a totally inappropriate way -- the classic Weber-Rice rock opera... No, not THAT one. The other one: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour® Dreamcoat". (Taking a quick detour from the "to say" series because, well, reasons...the Hebrew word for that is MAAN (מַעַן), from the verb ANAH (עָנָה), which means answer or respond...one of the words we're discussing in the series...so this is not really a detour completely). Any way, back to Weber and Rice and the many-coloured coat...and Jacob's twisted, dysfunctional family.

 

Genesis 30 tells a wowser of a story (the Hebrew might say we are TAMAH (תָּמַהּ) by the whole thing. But just read the first eight verses of the chapter for this word for now, because it relates to a name. NAPHTALI. You do not see many Napthali's running around the Chick-fil-a or Autozone in the towns of America. But the kid's name is interesting.

 

 

 

It comes the word NAPHTHULIM (נַפְתּוּל) and it means "wrestlings" (plural because of the "IM" suffix). Poor Rachel, bereft of kids, is using her handmaids to bring children into her marriage with Jacob. And verse 8 of chapter 30 has Rachel saying this about her handmaid's son (whom Rachel named):

 

"Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali."

 

ותאמר רחל נפתולי אלהים ׀ נפתלתי עם־אחתי גם־יכלתי ותקרא שמו נפתלי

 

NAPHTHULIM comes from PATHAL (פָתַל), which means "to twist", and if you have ever watch someone wrestle, you know the imagery is spot on. But the verb PATHAL is not necessarily a positive word. It also means "twisted" or "cunning". Imagine being little NAPHTHALI and having that connotation attached to not only your name, but also to your origin story.

 

Tell us again WHY God in His wisdom chose (BACHUR) this twisted, dysfunctional family to be the origin of Messiah? The mind boggles...

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - To Say #1

Speaking of Saying - #1

July 7, 2023

With this post, we begin a mini-series on the many Hebrew words that English translators render as some form of “to say”. In the NIV translation of the Hebrew Bible, the verb “say” appears almost 1400 times. “Says” and “saying” comprise 633 and 218 occurrences. But the verb in its past tense form of “said” shows up a whopping 2,196 times. Throw in “tell”, “talk, and “declare, and you can add 1100 more occurrences of the words we will discuss in this series. G-d and His people speak a lot, and a lot of the writing in the Text tells us about what’s been spoken.

 

We contend that there is not really a “poor” translation of the Text in English, just translations with different slants or editorial points of view. English translators have an extremely difficult task because Hebrew has significantly fewer words than does English. There are just 8679 unique words, including names, in the Hebrew Bible. By comparison, Webster’s dictionary contains 470,000 entries, while the OED has nearly 220,000 entries, including obsolete words (which comprise just over 20% of the total). Moreover, the Hebrew text is static and fixed, while English evolves and grows over time. As a simple example, William Shakespeare alone added 1700 new words to English (or codified in writing words that might have only been spoken before his quill touched the page).

 

Fewer Hebrew words with more varied meanings result in translators making hard choices. Sometimes we like those choices and agree with them; sometimes, we do not. This is one reason it is so challenging to translate Biblical Hebrew into English (and the chief reason one simply cannot have a “literal, word-for-word” translation: it just does not work that way).

 

This small Bible Geek Word Nerd project was born out of frustration with some of those translator choices. We want to know what Hebrew terms lie behind the translation. Sometimes, these discoveries are banal and minor. But occasionally, they are epiphanies which alter how we understand and then apply the Text.

 

We suspect some of the discussions on this page are like that, too. We imagine that readers will often yawn at a post. But perhaps once in a while, seeing the Text in a slightly different way will open your eyes to its rich, nuanced meaning. Like holding a diamond up to the light, it shows something different each time.

 

After that lengthy preamble, we will begin with the least frequently used Hebrew term: MALAL (מָלַל). It means “to speak, utter, say” and appears only five times in the Hebrew Bible, beginning with Genesis 21:7: “And she added, ‘Who WOULD HAVE SAID (מִלֵּל֙) to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’”

 

ותאמר מי מלל לאברהם היניקה בנים שרה כי־ילדתי בן לזקניו

 

In Psalm 106:2, the Psalmist writes: “Who CAN PROCLAIM (יְ֭מַלֵּל) the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise?” 

 

מי ימלל גבורות יהוה ישמיע כל־תהלתו

 

Interestingly, what the translators render as “fully declare” in this verse is the Hebrew verb SHAMA (שָׁמַע), which has the primary meaning “to hear”. How does hearing lead to fully declaring? A fair question, the answer to which we will take up in a future post. But also be warned: some answers about ancient languages are not obtainable.

 

The final example for MALAL is from Proverbs 6:13, which in the context of verses 12-14, says:

 

“A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, SIGNALS (מֹלֵ֣ל) with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart – he always stirs up conflict.” 

 

קרץ בעיניו מלל ברגלו מרה באצבעתיו

 

Signals? The KJV has it that he “speaketh” with his feet. The RSV says he “scrapes” with his feet. The Message uses “shuffle their feet”. The NLT sort of gives up on translating MALAL by itself and attempts to give a sense of the verse’s intent:

 

“signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.”

 

Translating is hard work, and reading for meaning demands that you avail yourself of multiple versions of Scripture. (Praise be for Bible Gateway, YouVersion, Blue Letter Bible, Accordance, OliveTree, and Bible Hub, all of which use technology to help the student of the Text plumb its depths).

 

Next post, we will take up the word most frequently translated as “to say”.

Bible Geek Word Nerd - to say

"Thus sayeth the LORD..."
 A Series on Saying

July 6, 2022

One of our most vivid childhood memories of a semi-religious nature is watching Charlton Heston in the 1956 classic film, “The Ten Commandments”. The film is worth watching for so many reasons, from aesthetic to religious. And Heston was great in the part of the prophet Moses. The film from Cecil B DeMille marked the high water spot in Hollywood’s sword-and-sandal phase (tied for the other Heston epic, “Ben Hur”).

 

The most evocative moments in the film seem to be when Heston’s Moses conflicted with
Yul Brynner’s Pharaoh Rameses. Even today, we can picture them and can hear Heston’s authoritative command, “Thus sayeth the LORD, ‘Let my people go!’”

 

That phrase, “thus sayeth (or saith) the LORD”, is an archetype, one immediately familiar to Bible readers (and classic movie fans). 

 

The phrase occurs more than 430 times in the Hebrew Bible, from Exodus to Malachi. But 360 of those occurrences are in the prophets, with Jeremiah leading the pack at 150 uses, followed closely by Ezekiel with 130 uses.

 

With the phrase being so ubiquitous in prophetic speech, we got thinking about the many ways Hebrew has for saying “to say”. Just as English has its own repertoire of synonyms for “to say” (in fact, Dictionary.com offers 59 synonyms for “say”, from “add” and “announce” to “put forth” and “put into words”), Hebrew also has many ways. Hebrew has significantly fewer words at its disposal than does English. Nevertheless, it is not “one word fits all”. With “to say”, different Hebrew words get the job done, but each of them means something slightly different from the others.

 

The subtle differences between the Hebrew words matter for the meaning of the Text. In the next several posts, we are going to explore several Hebrew words that English translators render into “say” or “said” (or “sayeth”). And we will discuss the nuanced meaning that might lie behind each of them. After all, the Text was meant to be read out loud…to be SAID, in other words. Knowing what “to say” means in the Text might lend new insights into understanding it.

 

So, stay tuned as we explore what is SAID.

 

Bible Geek in Greek - Hope #6

Hope #6

 July 6, 2022

If you have been following along with us over the previous few posts, we have been looking at Bible words for “hope”. We profiled the four Hebrew words which translators render as “hope”, and we have just discussed one of two Greek words: ELPIZÓ (ἐλπίζω). Today, we look at the other word: HUPOMENÓ (ὑπομένω)

 

HUPOMENÓ is significantly less common in the New Testament text, generally. And in particular, it is never directly used to mean “hope”. It is most often translated as some form of “wait”, as in “stay behind”, “endure”, and “stand my ground”. 

 

In fact, in the famous love chapter we quoted twice in the previous post, St. Paul asserts that love “hopes all things, ENDURES all things”.

 

So, it is fair to ask: why are we talking about HUPOMENÓ when it really does not ever mean “hope”? Because one cannot “endure” unless one has “hope”. And just as the Hebrew words QAVAH and YACHAL can mean both wait and hope, depending on context (and translator preferences), we assert the same for HUPOMENÓ.

 

It is a compound word, derived from HUPO (ὑπό) and MENÓ (μένω). HUPO is a preposition often being translated as “by, under, about”. Etymologically, it is the origin of our common English prefix “hypo” and as such, it provides with many English words like hypodermic, hypoglycemic, hypochondria, and hypocritical.

 

MENÓ means “stay, abide, remain” (as the Coen Brothers’ famous Jeff Lebowski would say, “The Dude MENEI (μένει)"). In contrast to its comound child, MENÓ makes frequent appearances in the New Testament, occurring 118 times, including that previously cited love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13: “And now these three REMAIN…”

 

In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Jeiwhs Bible), HUPOMENÓ is found in both the Law and the Prophets. Psalm 69 gives us a fitting coda to this concept of “abide” and “endure” because of our hope in G-d. From verses 6 and 7: 

 

“Lord, the LORD Almighty, may those who HOPE (υπομένοντές) in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me. For I ENDURE (υπήνεγκα) scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.”