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The King James Version and Old Testament Punctuation
The King James Bible has periods at the end of practically every verse. It also contains other punctuation marks, such as colons and commas, within verses. Does this English punctuation relate to anything in the Biblical text? The answer is “yes.”
The Old Testament accent marks, which there are strong reasons to believe are just as inspired as the Hebrew consonants and vowels, based on the statement of Christ in Matthew 5:18, among many other reasons, specify pauses or indicate disjunction in the text. In fact, God inspired a more detailed and specific system of punctuation in the original world language, Hebrew, the language in which He revealed 75% of His inspired Word, than the punctuation system of English. Every inspired word in the Old Testament has an accent revealing one of several levels of disjunction or an accent indicating conjunction, that words are to be read with a pause between them (disjunction) or connected (conjunction).
Consider, for example, Exodus 3:14-15. The bold “D” indicates a disjunctive accent in the Hebrew text, that is, a pause. There are levels of strength in the Hebrew accents–D1 is a stronger accent than D2, which is stronger than D3, and so on. (There are level 4, D4, very weak disjunctive Hebrew accents, and there are also conjunctive accents–every word has an accent–but I have not included the D4 very weak disjunctives, nor the conjunctive accents, below.)
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
וַיֹּאמֶר֩ ע֨וֹד אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ יְהוָ֞ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֗ם אֱלֹהֵ֨י אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִצְחָ֛ק וֵאלֹהֵ֥י יַעֲקֹ֖ב שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם זֶה־שְּׁמִ֣י לְעֹלָ֔ם וְזֶ֥ה זִכְרִ֖י לְדֹ֥ר דֹּֽר׃
14 And God said unto Moses, D2 I AM D2 THAT I AM: D1 and he said, D3 Thus shalt thou say D3 unto the children of Israel, D2 I AM D2 hath sent me unto you. D1 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, D3 Thus shalt thou say D3 unto the children of Israel, D2 The LORD God of your fathers, D3 the God of Abraham, D3 the God of Isaac, D3 and the God of Jacob, D2 hath sent me unto you: D1 this is my name for ever, D2 and this is my memorial D2 unto all generations. D1
Note that the strongest disjunctive accents / pausal accents correspond to the periods in the English punctuation or to colons (and the accent on the colon is less strong than the one for the period). Note the correspondence of the weaker disjunctive D2 and D3 accents to commas in the English text and other places of natural pause. (There are reasons why some accents at levels D1-4 are stronger at times and weaker at times, but that is a discussion too complicated for this blog post.)
When the King James Bible was translated the inspiration of the Hebrew vowels and accent marks was generally accepted, unlike in modern times, when the Hebrew accents are generally viewed as an uninspired addition to the text, and one can take several years of Hebrew in evangelical or even fundamentalist seminaries and not even know how the Hebrew accent system works.
The fact that the Authorized, King James Version takes the Hebrew accents seriously is another way in which the KJV is superior to modern English versions. Furthermore, since the Hebrew text indicates pauses, when one is engaged in public reading of Scripture in the churches of Christ, one should take the punctuation seriously. Do not rush through the reading of Scripture. Pause where the KJV has a period. Pause where it has a colon. Pause for a slightly shorter time for a comma. Let the inspired words of God be read with reverence, solemnity, and care–read them for what they are, pausing over the punctuation just like Moses and the other Old Testament authors intended when the Holy Ghost dictated the Hebrew text– consonants, vowels, and accents–through the human penmen of Scripture.
May I also suggest that if you are going to learn Hebrew, you learn it from a source that takes the inspiration and preservation of the Hebrew vowels and accents seriously, and so makes sure that students learn the accent system, rather than being deprived of understanding this important aspect of the syntax God’s Word? What would you think of an English teacher that never taught his students what commas and periods are?
(Don’t you want to know whether someone is saying “Let’s eat Grandma” or “Let’s eat, Grandma!”) Shouldn’t students of Hebrew know the same sorts of things in the the Old Testament?
By the way, if you studied Hebrew but were never taught the Hebrew accents/punctuation, the resources below are a good place to start. I would read Futato first and then Fuller & Choi.
Basics of Hebrew Accents, Mark D. Futato
Learning the Hebrew accents will help you in your studying, preaching, and teaching of the jots and tittles of God’s infallible Word.
–TDR
The Amazon links are affiliate links, but I would recommend these works whether they were affiliate links or not.
God’s Name Jehovah: What Does It Mean?
I thought that the classical statement below on the significance of the name Jehovah in the very helpful 17th century systematic theology The Christian’s Reasonable Service by Wilhemus á Brakel, theologian of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie or Further/Second Reformation, which was comparable to English Puritanism, was worth reprinting and thinking about. I have reproduced it from one of the appendixes of my essay on the inspiration of the Hebrew vowel points:
[I]t has pleased the Lord to give Himself a name by which He wishes to be called—a name which would indicate His essence, the manner of His existence, and the plurality of divine Persons. The name which is indicative of His essence is יְהוָֹה or Jehovah, it being abbreviated as יָהּ or Jah. The name which is indicative of the trinity of Persons is אֱלֹהִים or Elohim. Often there is a coalescence of these two words resulting in יֱהוִה or Jehovi. The consonants of this word constitute the name Jehovah, whereas the vowel marks produce the name Elohim. Very frequently these two names are placed side by side in the following manner: Jehovah Elohim, to reveal that God is one in essence and three in His Persons.
The Jews do not pronounce the name Jehovah. This practice of not using the name Jehovah initially was perhaps an expression of reverence, but later became superstitious in nature. In its place they use the name אֲדֹנָי or Adonai, a name by which the Lord is frequently called in His Word. Its meaning is “Lord.” When this word is used in reference to men, it is written with the letter patach, which is the short “a” vowel. When it is used in reference to the Lord, however, the letter kametz is used, which is the long “a” vowel. As a result all the vowels of the name Jehovah are present. To accomplish this the vowel “e” is changed into a chatef-patach which is the shortest “a” vowel, referred to as the guttural letter aleph. Our translators, to give expression to the name Jehovah, use the name Lord, which is similar to the Greek word kurios, the latter being a translation of Adonai rather than Jehovah. In Rev 1:4 and 16:5 the apostle John translates the name Jehovah as follows: “Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.” This one word has reference primarily to being or essence, while having the chronological connotation of past, present, and future. In this way this name refers to an eternal being, and therefore the translation of the name Jehovah in the French Bible is l’Eternel, that is, the Eternal One.
The name Jehovah is not to be found at all in the New Testament, which certainly would have been the case if it had been a prerequisite to preserve the name Jehovah in all languages. . . . Even though the transliteration of Hebrew words would conflict with the common elegance of the Greek language, it is nevertheless not impossible. Since they can pronounce the names Jesus, Hosanna, Levi, Abraham, and Hallelujah, they are obviously capable of pronouncing the name Jehovah. . . . Jehovah is not a common name, such as “angel” or “man”—names which can be assigned to many by virtue of being of equal status. On the contrary, it is a proper Name which uniquely belongs to God and thus to no one else, as is true of the name of every creature, each of which has his own name. (Wilhemus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 1, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout [Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1992] 84-85)
May you be edified as you meditate upon Jehovah and His wonderful Name.
–TDR
The Tetragrammaton and the Incarnation–A Hebrew Connection?
George Sayles Bishop, contributor to The Fundamentals (George S. Bishop, Chapter IV: The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves, in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, ed. R. A. Torrey, vol. 2 [Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005], 80-96), defender of the inspiration and preservation of Scripture and opponent of higher criticism and secular lower criticism, and someone I cite in my papers on the history of the debate over the Hebrew vowel points and on the inspiration of the vowels, commented as follows on the Hebrew language and the Tetragrammaton in particular as connected to the incarnation of the Son of God:
[T]he Bible differs on its surface from every other book.
It speaks of a Trinity in the very roots of its verbs, ever one of which is, in the Hebrew, composed of 3 letters—tri-lateral.
It teaches man’s apostasy and restoration in the singular reversal of its text. The Hebrew is written and read from right to left: from God’s right hand where He doth work, is man’s departure. Then the Greek takes him up, a prodigal son at his remotest distance from God and brings him back from left to right—from death to life again.
Incarnation is in the Tetragrammaton [JHVH/YHWH]: that is the Hebrew letters of the word Jehovah, יְהוָֹה, written vertically from up to down give us the outlines of the human figure—God made flesh. This is the difference between Elohim, God in creation; and God in covenant anticipating incarnation.
Again: the Bible puts man’s true relations in the very conjugation of the Hebrew verb. In all occidental languages the verb is conjugated from the first person to the third—“I,” “Thou,” “He.” The Hebrew, in reversal of the human thought, is conjugated from the third down and back to the first: beginning with God, then my neighbor, then myself last—“He,” “Thou,” “I.” This is the Divine order: self-obliterating and beautiful. (George S. Bishop, The Doctrines of Grace [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1977], 8)
What do you think—is his comment just speculation, or is there something to it? God is the Author of language, after all, and it is reasonable to think that He would take the highest degree of care in His own name in the language, Hebrew, in which He originally revealed Himself. On the other hand, does He ever encourage us to draw conclusions like this in the plain statements He makes about how we are to learn of Him in His revelation? Do you agree with Bishop? Why or why not?
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