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Hebrew Thinking
Hebrew Thinking
There are
many translations available today, all translated according to the people’s perspective on
what they thought is the correct meaning of the words or phrases or sentences. People tend
to “hang” meanings on to words and get a different meaning of the verse all together. This is
why we have many translations with many denominations; everybody “interpret” the Scripture
differently and this cause a lot of theological differences and disputes. Is this what YHVH
intended when He gave the Scriptures to us? Surely there is only one truth, if it is not the
truth, then it is twisted and a lie part of the confusion created by Satan from the beginning.
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Confusion starts where words are translated wrong or where the reader interprets words with
their own understanding, different to the real meaning. To translate or interpret Scripture
correctly, you need to understand the traditions, history and idioms to get the true meaning of
the words and understanding of Scripture as the writer (YHVH) intended it.
The Hebrew Language is said to be a lazy language, because it has no vowels but only
consonants. If you put different vowels into the same word, using the same consonants, will
each time give you a different meaning that is related to each other. All the different meanings
of that one word (consonants), support the same meaning and stem from the same root. The
reader has to “ponder” on it to find the wealth of the wisdom of YHVH in it. The consonants
are believed to be male and from YHVH and the vowels are female to be inserted by the
Bride to complete and be part of the message of love. The Hebrew Language is designed by
YHVH to be searched by the reader (bride) and meditated upon to get the true essence of
what He meant when wrote it. The Scriptures is not to be read like a novel but to be dissected
and analysed from all angles to get the full three-dimensional picture.
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Hebrew is not as easy and precise on face value as the Greek language, which describes
precisely what you want to say. Hebrew is a multi-dimensional language with depth and must
be analysed to be understood correctly. The thing people do not understand is that you will
ONLY understand the Scripture if you understand Hebrew because the Scripture is written in
Hebrew. This can only be done by spending time studying the Scripture and Hebrew and
searching and meditating on the gems presented to you within the Hebrew text.
The other problem with translations are, is that the lack of understanding the Hebrew culture,
sayings, idioms. You might think that surely the Holy Spirit was helping the people to
translate the Word to give the correct meaning, but then I ask the question; why are there so
many different interpretations for doctrinal issues which are based upon the same translation?
The reason is that doctrines are build upon opinion, which creped in because of a lack of
understanding the true meaning of Scripture, this is mainly the case with the New Testament.
I think YHVH allowed this to motivate the people to search the Scripture (TaNaK) to reveal the
truth only to those who really search.
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Which do you prefer, a take away meal or a classy meal in a nice restaurant? They both will
get you fed, but the one will give you better quality, atmosphere and nutrition. Studying the
Scripture can be seen as feeding your soul with the spiritual food available. If you read the
Scripture like a novel, you will get sustenance and will be fed, but will you receive all the
nutrition you need for your spiritual life? It is far better to search into the wisdom of the
Hebrew, having a three-course meal, digging into the original language backed with idioms,
culture and the real understanding, this will give you a quality meal with much more nutrition.
To illustrate this, lets look at a few examples:
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Do we really understand what he is talking about? The people back then lived in goat hair
tents; they took the hairs of the goats and spin and weave it
make these tents. The goat hairs were normally black and when
you are inside this tent and look up; you would see little holes in
the form of light coming through. This would look like a night sky
with starts. Isaiah had this in mind when he wrote this where he
compares the heavens at night as the big tent of protection
provided by our heavenly Father.
What does this mean; “Lift up your heads, O gates…” Have you ever seen the head of a gate,
what is David talking about? This is a euphemism, replacing one word with another that
symbolises something else. The gates of a City were the place where the Judges sat to judge
or counsel the people. The gates in other words are the Judges and the Judges need to lift up
their heads for the King of Glory to come in. Lot is also a good example of a judge who sat at
the gates of Sodom, judging the people.
The Eastern (Hebrew) Culture is very different from our own Western Culture and we must
read the Scripture from the cultural background and perspective to fully understand the real
meanings and truths.
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In Hebrew it reads:
It reads as follows:
The word that is not translated is the “et” that is the “Aleph-Tav” The Aleph-Tav is also
the short form of the Aleph-bet and this means that Elohim created the “Aleph-tav” or aleph-
bet and then He created the heavens and the earth. We know how He created the heavens
and the earth; “…and YHVH said…” Have you ever wondered in which language He spoke
things into existence? The Hebrew language. The Aleph-Tav is also a short form for Y’shua;
the Word of YHVH Who became flesh through Whom everything was created. This we see in
Rev 21:6 where Y’shua said He is the Alpha and the Omega or the Aleph and the Tav, the
beginning and the end, from Whom the living water flows.
One thing you have to understand is this; Hebrew is not Greek! We can’t think in Greek when
we read the Hebrew language. When you read the Scripture you have to realise that you are
reading a translation of the Hebrew language. The Hebrew language is a much richer
language than Greek or English or any other known language and one Hebrew word cannot
be simply explained by one Greek or English word. You have to know the root words and
how they are related to get the full meaning of a word in Hebrew. This is not a simple task and
a lot of these meanings are lost because of simple basic direct translations.
Hebrew is an active language and every word is linked back to a root word that is a verb.
Any object in Hebrew is linked to an action so that you know what to use the object for. Greek
thinking applied to YHVH’s Word came up with abstract terms of theology but the Hebrew
way of thinking is linked to concrete things that you can relate to and understand.
Greek is a passive language that describes things, what they are and how they look. Hebrew
on the other hand is an active language that directs you how to act. English words have their
basic meanings but Hebrew words all have root words and all the words stemming from the
same root word are related.
The Hebrew mind will link a meaning of a word to something concrete, something you
can see, feel or taste. You must always ask yourself if the meaning of a word is abstract or
concrete. If there is a Hebrew word that is abstract like the word ’blessed’ or “berach”
, you have to find the concrete root to get the concrete meaning. The concrete
meaning for ‘blessed’ is ‘to kneel down’. It is also linked with the word “berechah”
that means ‘gift’. In the Greek mind this gift or blessing to YHVH is ‘words or worship’, but in
the Hebrew mind this gift is your actions that blesses YHVH. If we read that YHVH will bless
us, it literarily means that He will ‘kneel down and present a gift to us’. What is this Gift? It is
His Word or His Torah (Instructions) and His Spirit that He gave to us to help us to be
restored back into His presence.
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When you read this, it sounds great and you can’t see
anything suspicious about it, but if you look at the
Hebrew word translated as ‘steady’ your theology might
tumble. ‘Steady’ is the Hebrew word “emunah”
word is “'
aman” “'
Aman” is translated as faith, faithful, believe, assurance, nursing
father, nursing mother, pillars supporting a door entrance. It is the root for “amunah”
- faithfully, truth, faithfulness, steady; emet - truth, true, right; and amen.
Once you understand the real meaning of faith you can read Scripture from a Hebraic
perspective, using the real concept of faith in your mind, applying it to the verse and bringing
it to life and true understanding. Lets look at another example explaining the importance of
the understanding of Hebrew meanings.
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Once you understand the connection between these words, you will understand the true
meaning of this word and verse. The word “davar” does not literally means ‘word’, it means
‘order’. Words are an ordered arrangement put together in a specific way to make
understandable sentences. Therefore is a wilderness a place of ‘order’, a place where
everything is in harmoniums balance and peace. This is why most people go camping
because it is quiet, peaceful and get away from the rat race in the cities.
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To fully understand this we have to look at the opposite of wilderness, and that is a city. City
in Hebrew is the word “eer” and it links to the root word connected to the following
meanings; ‘darkness, evil, wicked’. That is why YHVH wants us to do Sukkot at
least one week every year, to get away from the chaos and to go into the
wilderness and learn from His order, peace and balance He wants us to see in
our lives.
Another word that is related to wilderness is the word “deborah” that means
‘bee’. How is a honeybee related to a desert? They are a ordered colony of
insects; there is perfect harmony in a beehive. YHVH wants us to consider
them and become like them in our relationships with one another. Look at their
structure in their beehive, everything is precise and in perfect order. His Word
“davar” is designed to do just that; to structure your life so that it will be in
perfect peace and order. Note that all these meanings are concrete, it is something you can
analyse and ponder upon, and that is why the meanings of Hebrew words are so rich.
How did the Hebrews think. Our thinking is mainly influenced by philosophy and so is the
Hebrew thinking influenced by their philosophies.
Philosophy - The study of the basic principals and concepts from a particular branch of
knowledge.
There are two major branches of thought; Western and Eastern. There are many sub
branches abut the majority of these branches fall in one of these two. In the ancient world,
about 6000 years ago, there was only one way of thinking, and that was similar to the Eastern
way of thinking as we know it today. This was until the Greeks came along and developed an
new philosophy of life, and this is what we know as Western thought today. The Greek way of
thinking was in the minority until the time of a great war, about 2000-3000 years ago when the
Western thought won and minimised Eastern thought as seen today.
To explain the difference between modern Western psychology or ‘mental process’ and
Hebrew ‘mental process’ I will use an example: Would you say these two are the same?
On the left is an Oak tree and on the right is a buck, would you conceder them one and the
same thing? Of course not, one is a plant and the other an animal, they do not LOOK the
same. If you have a Western way of thinking, that is exactly what your reaction will be. The
mistake you make is to judge on WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE. If you have an Eastern or Hebrew
mindset you will see them both as the same because they look at their FUNCTION. What is
the function of these two that are the same?
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The Oak is the strongest wood in the forest and the buck is a very strong animal; they
become very big and if they want to move you, they will. They both represent strength, the
strength of the field and the strength of the flock and they share the same Hebrew root word;
“ale” that means ‘strength’. Another example to illustrate this is found in the next verse:
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When you read the word ‘name’ you think of it as an identifier; names in Western thought is a
sound that connects to a person, it has no meaning to us, we might as well be called by
numbers. In Hebrew every name is a word with meaning. Every word describes an action and
so does every name. Your name in other words depicts your character. ‘Name’ in Hebrew is
the word “shem” . The word “nashamah” means ‘breath of life’ and is found
in Gen 2:7 where YHVH ‘breathed’ life into Adam when He created him. What is breath?
Breath to us is just the exchange of air from the lungs but in Hebrew it means your ‘character’.
In the Hebraic mind the breath of someone is his ‘character’ that makes you, you. The breath
of YHVH is not Him breathing heavily, it is what is inside of Him, His Character that makes
Him, Him. This is how your name “shem” is linked to your character “neshemah”. The Spirit of
YHVH is also known as “ruach” that means ‘breath’. If you receive YHVH’s Spirit you receive
His ‘character’ and start to act like Him because of the work His Spirit is doing in you. This
passage will then read; “…I will declare or tell of your character unto my brethren…” and
gives a totally different meaning.
How do we keep His Commandments? The first thing that springs to mind is the word ‘obey’;
to obey and do His commandments. Is this what ‘keep’ really means? ‘Keep ‘ in Hebrew is the
word “shamar” that literally means to ‘guard’. It is also related to the word “shameer“
and it means ‘thorns’. So in other words to guard means ‘to hedge about with thorns’. The
shephers protected their flock by building a coral for their flock and they usually did this with
stones and thorns on top. We should guard and protect His commandments like the
shepherds protected their flocks from the predators that want to steal and defile His Word. We
also see the root word “shem” or ‘character’ in there and this means we protect His
Commandments by learning and living out His Character in this world.
The Commandments are generally known as the law, which is the Hebrew word Torah
The first basic thing to understand is the Left-Right concept. In Hebrew thought
Left always means Physical and Right means Spiritual. The right side
represents YHVH and the left side, man. Left sometimes means sinfulness but
right always means righteousness. In Hebrew they write from right to left and this
implies that what is written in Scripture comes from YHVH to change the sinful fleshly man.
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You need to understand these concepts to interpret things mentioned in Scripture. For
example; in the tabernacle the Showbread is on the left side and the Menorah on the Right
side, as you enter. The Holy place, where these items are found represents your soul area.
The bread shows our physical needs and what sustains us in life and the Menorah shows the
Spiritual side of our soul where it provides light fuelled by oil (the Holy Spirit). You can eat
what is on the left but you cannot eat what is on the Right side.
Your soul is also divided into two parts, the fleshly side (nephesh) and the spiritual side
(nashamah). When YHVH created man He breathed into man, the word for breath is
“nashamah” and represents His Spirit. When He breathed into man, he became a living soul
or “nephesh”. All animals are also living creatures (nephesh) and have a physical soul.
When man sinned he lost the “nashamah” and only YHVH’s Spirit can restore him back to the
spiritual and light the Menorah in his life again. Do you see the correlations?
The Torah Scroll is read from Genesis to Deuteronomy in one year and you read Hebrew
from Right to Left. If you begin the year, you start with the Left side as the big heavy roll and
work your way through and at the end of the year the Right side is the heavy side of the
Scroll. This gives us an understanding that you start of fleshly and as you learn and study His
Word, you will die to the flesh and grow Spiritually.
Any spoken language consists of sounds that are formed by your mouth. The
words are expressed by vowels (sounds) and formed “in between” the
consonants. In the Hebrew language the words are written only by the
consonants and the reader must put in the vowels.
The Teachers say that the Hebrew text is Male (Yeshua – Bridegroom) and
that a male’s action influences or initiates a female’s response. In the same way
the Torah interacts with the reader (female – Bride) and initiates a response or thought that
bring light on the life of the person reading it. It is said that man needs the Torah and the
Torah needs man, they cannot exist on their own.
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If you understand these “blueprints” of YHVH’s Plan and Spiritual things, you will understand
the Scripture more fully and not be confused with translations and interpretations.
Seeing it in this light opens up the benefits in studying the Torah, to understand Who the
Messiah is, what He is all about and ultimately, to get to know YHVH. The whole Scripture is
interweaved describing one Plan, one Person and one Purpose and it is all about YHVH and
what He is all about, His Personality, His likes and dislikes, His power, supremacy and
wisdom and His Standards and His Culture; the Hebrew Culture.
Now that we know that we must search the Scripture and not only read it, we must learn the
thinking process in how to search and this is called Hebrew Poetry. Hebrew Poetry is not the
same as we learned from our Western mindset; with rhyming sounds, it is Rhyming
Throughs. Why is it like this? YHVH made our brain to work with pictures and these pictures
linked to similar thoughts to forms an index to order your thoughts. His Language is designed
to link thoughts together and the one thought leads to another and soon you will see the full
picture as you ponder on His Word.
For example: Take the word “Lamb” used in John’s Gospel. We find it the first time in
Genesis where Abraham was about to offer Isaac. The backdrop to this word and the
essence of what John is communicating is the Father offering up His most precious
possession; His Son. Meditating on this story, thinking what must have gone through
Abraham’s mind and emotions, you’ll get an insight of what it meant for YHVH to let His Son
die for us.
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1. - P’shat - literal meaning based on historical intent of author
1. The first way to look at scripture is the literal way and simple meaning of the words
just as it is written. For instance interpreting the seven churches spoken of in
Revelation; historically there was seven physical Churches that had those attributes.
You would read the Scripture like a novel with no in depth meaning.
2. The second way to interpret Scripture is to look for a hint or phrase that connects
to another verse somewhere else in Scripture and this gives you a better
understanding of what it is all about. A good example is where Y’shua said that the
whole Law and the Prophets hang on two greatest commandments; to love YHWH
and love your neighbour. To find out how to love, you have to go to the Law and the
Prophets to get the detail description on how to do this. This is so because there are
no reference titles and numbers in the Hebrew text like Lev 11:3 to refer to a certain
passage, they had to quote a certain phrase to refer to that part of Scripture for
everybody that know the Scripture to understand what they were talking about.
3. The third type of interpretation is based upon what the verse means to you
personally. Take the example of the seven Churches again; each church had a
recommendation and a reproof, use this to look into your own life and see where you
need some improvement in order to comply to the requirements stated in those
verses.
4. The last form of interpreting Scripture can only be done by the use of the Hebrew
alphabet, numbers, colours, idioms and language, which is rich in symbolism and
deeper understanding into the secrets hidden by our complex and super
intelligent God.
The letters from right to left: “Shin – Resh – Dalet”. “Shin” means ‘Fire’, “Resh”
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The numerical values of letters are Shin – 300 - Resh – 200 - Dalet – 4. 300 means
‘Covenant’, 200 means ‘restoration of relationships’ and 4 means ‘the work of the Messiah’.
The verse in which these two words “derosh derash” is found is Lev 10:16, the passage that
describes Moses searching the goat for the sin offering:
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Meditating on these meanings and the passage can give you the following:
To search or study the Scriptures is to learn the depth of the Torah is about the ‘covenant’ (3)
and the ‘restoration of man’s relationship’ (2) with YHWH. All of this work is done through the
‘work of the Messiah’ (4) Who is the Door and the Way to the father. We also see that we
must learn about His cleansing fire of purification, which lights up our dark world of
sinfulness. He is also our Master and head of the assembly Who became the sin offering
for us. Moses searched for a goat to offer up and the Father searched and gave His Son and
we must search His Torah to find Him so that we can reveil him as the Messiah to the world.
We must also search the Scripture to washed in His Blood and be purified by applying His
Word to our lives, making Him the Head and Master of our lives.
We can even delve deeper into this verse by looking at the meaning of other words
within that passage to support the message. Lets look at the word ‘goat’ and see
what we find:
Goat - “saiyr” means, “goat, hair, covering, vile, offensive, recon, reason
out, horror, gate, unit of measure”.
How can one word have so many meanings? This is where you have to meditate on
these meanings to find the wisdom of the Hebrew text.
He wants us to search His Word and reason it out in our minds (resh) so the we
can see (ayin) His ways so that His fire (Shin) can purify us. Those who reject
His Word will be measured by His Word (Torah) in the day of His consuming fire
(shin) of His wrath.
To conclude this we saw that searching the Torah will reveal to us the means of Salvation; the
Covenant made by the work of the Messiah through the sin offering He became for us. We
also see that searching the scripture will restore your relationship with Him and you prepare
your self by using the cleansing fire or His Word and Spirit so that you may be covered in a
time of judgement. All of this is the Redemption and Restoration Plan of YHVH and we found
it in two words in the Heart of YHVH’s Torah.
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To look at the beginning and the end of the Torah we will see what is
contained within it and what YHVH’s motive is for giving it to His people.
The first word in the Torah is “B’resheet” and the last word in the Torah is “Yisrael”.
“B’resheet” means ‘in the beginning and “Yisrael” means Israel that is made up out of two
words “Yisra” and “El”. “Yisrah” means ‘straight or righteous” and “El” is the short form of
“Elohim” (translated as God) that means ‘Messenger, Judge and King’. These three meanings
are the attributes of Y’shua; He is the Word or brought the message, He will be the Judge that
will judge the world according to His Word and He is the King that will rule in His Kingdom in
the New Jerusalem. Israel actually means – ‘the righteous people of Elohim’ and you are part
of Israel if you become born again and are grafted into the Olive tree (Israel) [Rom 11:16-21]
The first letter in the Torah is “Bet” and the last letter is “Lamed” and these two letters,
together form the word “bawl” that means ‘heart’, and if you read it from left to right,
you get the word “labe”, that also means ‘heart, centre of all things, intelligence and
wisdom’. What is contained within the Torah? The love of YHVH for His people and the
wisdom and foundation of all things He has created. Bet has the meaning “house” and
Lamed the meaning “to learn” and these two meanings speak for themselves. Instructing
us to learn about YHVH and to enter His house. This message of love is contained in the
Torah for those who search His Word to become the Righteous people of Elohim.
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Marks the Spot
The very structure of the Bible’s opening verses affirms in an amazing way the connection
between aleph ( ) and God’s various names and titles. As mentioned above, has a
numeric value of twenty-six ( + + + = 10 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26), as do the component parts
of the letter aleph ( ). Interestingly, if we start with the first letter of the Bible (Gen.1:1) and
count twenty-six letters, we arrive at an . Also, if we take the shortened form of YHVH,
(Yah) which equals fifteen ( y + h = 10 + 5 = 15), and count fifteen letters, we once again
come to an .
After Yah ( ) and YHVH ( ), the two most common names for God are El ( ) and
Elohim ( ). El ( ) has a numerical equivalent of thirty-one ( + = 1 + 30 = 31),
and Elohim ( ) has a numerical equivalent of 86 ( + + + + = 1 + 30 + 5 + 10
+ 40 = 86). Once again, counting thirty-one letters from the beginning of the Bible, we arrive
at an . And the same result is achieved when we count to the eighty-sixth letter. Notice also
that the names El and Elohim both begin with an . These are the earliest titles by which God
is identified in the Bible. But of all His titles, the one used most by Yeshua is Father, which, in
Hebrew, is (av). The numeric value of this word is three ( + = 1 + 2 = 3), and the third
letter in Genesis 1:1 is, once again, an .
In a similar way the other Names of YHVH counted in the same way spell out the Name
Yahweh , which also counts up to, 26, just like the Aleph .
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