Bible Geek Word Nerd - Samson - ECHAD

What kind of man was Manoah? 
Let's play "name that tune"...

“A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.”
Judges 13:2

 

For no particular reason, other than the way memory and association work, I think of all the classic rock songs with “man” in the title.  You’ve got “Travelin’ Man”, “Rambling Man”, “Starman”, “Simple Man”, “Tambourine Man”, “Working Man”, “Rubberband Man”, “Rocket Man”, “Television Man”, “Secret Agent Man”, “Digital Man”, “Better Man”, and likely many more.  But nobody has written “Certain Man”, as far as we know.  That one belongs to Manoah.

 

The Hebrew term behind this translation to “certain in Judges 13:2 is ECHAD (אֶחָד).  In almost every English translation (NIV, NKJV, ESV, RSV, NRSV, HCSB, JPS, LXX, etc.) ECHAD is rendered as “a certain”.  The NASB just says “there was a man”.  We kind of like where the NASB is going here.

 

ECHAD is an incredibly important term in the Hebrew Bible, occurring nearly 1000 times in the Text.  And it is a loaded word for many reasons.  Here in Judges, it is sort of innocuous.  Does it really matter if English translators render it as “a man” or “a certain man”?

 

Whoops!  We are getting ahead of ourselves.

 

ECHAD is the cardinal number “1” (one).  So technically, if they were being literal, every English translation would begin verse two with “There was ONE man…”  (So the rock song we SHOULD channel is “One” from The Guess Who.) 

 

 

As the number one, ECHAD is used A LOT in the Hebrew Bible.  But here is the fascinating thing about the word: it also is nuanced to mean other things, such as “another”, “each”, “first”, single”, “some”, and “together”.  Importantly, it also can mean “alone”.  This leads us to one of the more controversial ways ECHAD is rendered into English: the GREAT SHAMA.

 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4

 

Here is the problem.  The Hebrew text has only one verb in the verse: SHAMA (שָׁמַע), which means “hear”.  There is no “is” in the Text.  It may be implied in English, but is it not spelled out in the Hebrew.  Hebrew has a verb for is: HAYAH (הָיָה).  But the author did not use it here.  Its absense, coupled with the flexible meaning available in ECHAD, has led some translators to render the SHAMA verse differently in English:

 

“Hear, Israel: The LORD (is) our G-d, the LORD ALONE…”

 

Verse 4, then, is a sort of preface to the Great Commandment, which follows in verse 5:

 

“…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

 

What complicates this further in English is that the Hebrew word for “lord” (ADONAY) is not used in Deuteronomy 6:4.  English translations use the English term “LORD” – in all caps – as a euphemism for the Name of the One True G-d (following Jewish tradition of using ADONAY (אֲדֹנָי) in place of the Name). 

 

What if we tried to read the Text in the traditional English manner, but substituted a name in place of the euphemism LORD?  Say, Sally? 

 

“Hear, O Israel, Sally our G-d, Sally one” is almost incoherent to read.  And not just because using “Sally” is blasphemous.  How about the non-traditional way?  “Hear, O Israel, Sally our G-d, Sally alone…”  What do we make of this? 

 

The identity of G-d Almighty, the One True G-d, is more complicated than we often recognize. The lads at The Bible Project took on this topic over 22 episodes of their Podcast in 2018 (it’s a very dense topic that is worth the entire 22 hours of conversation). Maybe the ancient Jewish people were not monotheistic in the way we modern thinkers construe the term.

 

This discussion reinforces two things about ancient languages, such as the Hebrew Bible.  First, it bears repeating that translation is incredibly difficult to do.  So much goes into properly understanding what Hebrew writers were trying to convey.  And thankfully, our existing English translations are all very good. 

 

Second, it is impossible to translate – or even read – without bringing our own biases to the words.  We have preconceived ideas and a priori commitments that act as filters for what we see in the words on the page.  Proverbs comes to mind: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety (or salvation).”

 

So what do we make of this oddly placed ECHAD in our Judges verse?  Well, we know that Manoah is one man.  He is a certain or particular man.  He may be a “simple man”, and he could be a “rambling man”.  But is most definitely one man.

 

Tomorrow, we will speak of The Dan Clan.

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Samson #3 - Doing Bad (Again)

 

Doing Bad

 March 20, 2023

(four-minute read)

We have slipped off onto a siding from the main line of our Jeremiah series to explore the life of Samson in the Book of the Judges.  Yes, we are using his story as a pretext for looking at some crucial Hebrew terms (like YASAPH and ASAH).  We’re Word Nerdy that way.  But we will also draw out some theological significance that can hopefully make your study of the Text more rewarding and meaningful for you.  Because we are Bible Geeky that way.

 

 Some of the Judges are genuinely admirable and heroic (Deborah comes to mind).  And some of them are flawed, like Samson.  Our siding from the main starts in chapter 13 of Judges, which opens with, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…”

 Whenever I read thru the Book of Judges, I mentally hear the thumping 4/4 drums of the Dave Clark Five.  You remember them, right?  The second band to make landfall in America during the British Invasion of the 1960s, not long after the Beatles.  They had a string of chart-making hits during their heyday, all of them noticeable for their namesake’s consistent quarter-note beats.  Maybe you can hear them in your audio memory, too.  Their biggest hit was “Glad All Over”.  Great song, yes.  But Judges does not leave anyone glad all over.  Rather, it’s the equally catchy, but perhaps now-ruined, Bobby Day classic, “Over and Over”. 

 Because in the Book of Judges, Israel is doing evil in the eyes of the LORD…over and over and over and over again.  This theme runs throughout the Judges.  In fact, it’s why Israel needs Judges to begin with.

 Samson’s story, told in Judges 13 to 16, begins with this refrain.  From verse one of Chapter 13, we have already looked at the words “again” (YASAPH) and “did” (ASAH).  Now we will finish our triplet by exploring the fraught term “evil”.  Once again, Israel did EVIL.

 The word translated to “evil” is RA (רַע).  Fundamentally, it’s an adjective that means “bad” or “evil”.  It occurs 667 times in the Hebrew Bible.  So far, so good.  But you know where this is going, right?  Because like so many, many other Hebrew words, RA offers itself for service in a range of other meanings, which we aim to explore.  Let’s cover the plain meaning first.

 “…In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and EVIL.”

Genesis 2:9

 Right there on the second page of the Bible, G-d sets the stage for the rest of the story.  And for the rest of the story, G-d does GOOD (TOWB (טוֹב)), and man does EVIL (RA).  It gets so bad that by the time Genesis 6 arrives, G-d sees that mankind’s inclinations are completely toward RA, and He’s ready to pack it all in with the Great Flood.

RA, however, does not just mean bad or evil from a moral standpoint.  It can also mean “natural” bad or evil.  That is, it can mean what we might call a misfortune or tragedy in English.  A tornado flattening your house would be RA.  The evil scientist who invented the tornado machine to send that tornado would also be RA.

In Pharaoh’s nightmares, the cows and corn representing the years of famine are described as RA (Genesis 41).  In Genesis 47, Jacob tells Pharaoh that his years of life have been few and RA.  In Numbers 11, the tribes of Israel complained to G-d of their hardships (RA).  In Deuteronomy 7:15, G-d promises Israel that if they do (ASAH) what He commanded them, they will not suffer the HORRIBLE (RA) diseases they knew in Egypt.

In the Hebrew Bible, RA can mean mischief, misfortune, calamity, sorrow, distress, misery, displeasure, adversity, wretchedness, as well as evil.  Given that the children of Israel are DOING (ASAH) the EVIL (RA) AGAIN (YASAPH), it seems clear that the Text implies the moral sense of RA. 

What are we to do with this thought?

Mankind’s pattern – forget Israel’s – is captured in Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”  (Interestingly, the word for “folly” is the Hebrew word EVIL (אֱוִיל), a coincidental irony that should make both terms more memorable for you.)  We all “do evil in the eyes of the LORD” over and over and over again.  And the rescuers we crave may look the part, but they are still corrupted and flawed (as Samson is).  What then?  Who will save us from the coming calamity our RA has earned us?  We leave you with the words of St. Paul who confronts this human condition, and our cries for rescue:

 “What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Romans 7:24-25

May the Lord keep you from RA.