BHC Bible Studies: January 2014

Friday, January 24, 2014

Basic Tools for Studying the Hebrew Bible

I receive many inquiries asking about which Hebrew-English Interlinear Bible I would recommend. There are two interlinear Bibles that I have used in Bible studies and classes for many years:

(1) The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament by John R. Kohlenberger III

(2) The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew-English (4 Volume Set) by Jay Patrick, Sr. Green

The text of an interlinear Bible looks like this:

(Remember, Hebrew is read from right to left ß ß ß)

As you can see, the Hebrew text is written on the upper line and an English translation for each word is found below each Hebrew word. Studying with an interlinear Bible is a step up from just using an English translation, but unless you know how to find the root words for each of the Hebrew words in the interlinear text and look up their meanings in a lexicon you are still dependent on the choices translators made and will not know the other options for translating the words were.

Being able to look up the root words in a lexicon requires another tool – an analytical lexicon. In order to use it, you need to memorize the Hebrew alphabet or use the BHC Hebrew-English Transliterator.

Below is a picture of what you see in an analytical lexicon and how it identifies the root word:

The Hebrew analytical lexicon I recommend is -- The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon

by Benjamin Davidson

I also recommend that students use A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William Lee Holladay to find the meanings of root words. Most of the analytical lexicons were written over a century ago, long before the Dead Sea Scrolls and other important discoveries were made. Holladay’s lexicon includes the later information and is much more useful and relies less on theology. The BHC Hebrew-English Transliterator is also keyed to Holladay’s lexicon.

A comprehensive computer program that allows you to do in-depth Bible studies is BibleWorks 9. This a great computer program that includes a library of resources. I have been using it for many years. BibleWorks 9 is a large collection of software tools and database resources designed specifically to assist pastors, seminary students, professors and missionaries in their exegesis of the Biblical text. It contains more than 200 Bible translations in nearly 40 languages, 45 original language texts and morphology databases, 29 lexical-grammatical references, and a wealth of practical reference works. These include Greek and Hebrew sound files, Bible maps, Greek New Testament diagrams, Greek and Hebrew grammars, new transcriptions and image sets for seven of the most important Greek New Testament manuscripts, and the full CNTTS New Testament apparatus.

For more information about the above Hebrew Bible Study Tools or to purchase them – CLICK HERE.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Different Types of Biblical Love -- HESED & RAChAM

Today, I received an email with the following question:

In the Hebrew Bible, what is the difference between hesed and rahamim?

These are two very important biblical words that are translated by the same English words often, but they have very important differences.

(If you haven’t downloaded and learned how to use our FREE Hebrew-English Transliterator CLICK HERE for Part 1 & CLICK HERE for Part 2. These are very short exercises that teach you how to use the BHC Hebrew-English Transliterator. It will transform the way you study your Bible. The Hebrew Lexicon we use and recommend is A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay. For more information about it, or how to order your copy -- CLICK HERE.)

The first word we will examine is HESED.

The definition is found in A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay on page 111a entry # II:

1. obligation to the community in relation to relatives, friends, guests, master, and servants; loyalty; faithfulness.

2. In relationship of God to people or individuals, faithfulness, kindness, grace.

The second word is RAChAM (rahamim is the plural form).

Its definition is found on page 337b:

1. show love for

2. have compassion on

When a Hebrew speaker sees or hears this word, they understand its relationship to another Hebrew word that has the same root and is found written exactly as the above word – RAChAM. Its meaning is found below the definition above:

1. womb

I was discussing this with a rabbi many years ago and I haven’t forgotten what he said:

RAChAM means “to show love or compassion like a mother shows for her child.” It denotes a “motherly type of love.” This parental type of love is seen in Psalm 103:13 where RAChAM is used twice – “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”

On the other hand, HESED is “linked to a relationship based obligation” and denotes a “loyalty and faithfulness type of love.” This type of love is seen in Psalm 33:5 – “He loves (AHAV) righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the loving-kindness (HESED) of the LORD.”

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Sea of Chinnereth, Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee and Lake of Galilee

The names of places change – even in the Bible -- and unless you are aware of those changes you may not know that different names ion the Bible are references to the same place. A good example is a very well-known body of water in the Bible.

Sea of Chinnereth

In Numbers 34:11 & Joshua 13:27, YAHWEH and Moses called it the Sea of Chinnereth. A Canaanite fortified village called Chinnereth was located on northwestern shore of that body of water. It had been there long before the Israelites settled there. The body of water was named after the village.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP

Today that village is called Tell Kinneret.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP & PICTURES.

Lake of Gennesaret

The name of the village above is also spelled Kinnereth and it gradually changed over the years to Genezareth, Genezar and Gennesaret.[i]

The Sea of Galilee

In Joshua 20:7 we read: “And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.” Galilee was an area in the area given to the tribe of Naphtali. The name “Sea of Galilee” doesn’t appear in the Hebrew Bible. It appears that the body of water acquired the name Galilee from the name of the surrounding area after being known as the Sea of Chinnereth. In Matthew 4:18, it is called the Sea of Galilee.

CLICK HERE TO SEE EARLY MAP OF GALILEE

Sea of Tiberias

The city of Tiberias was founded sometime around 20 CE by the Roman client king Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. The city was built as a spa and developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs and was populated mainly by Jews. It was place with a growing spiritual and religious status, which exerted a strong influence on health practices associated with bathing in the natural springs.[ii]

CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP

Sea or Lake?

When we look up the definitions of “lake” and “sea” in an English dictionary we find the following:

● lake – a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size, surrounded by land.

● sea – the salt waters that cover the greater part of the earth's surface.

The Sea of Galilee is an inland body of fresh water 13 miles long x 8 miles wide x 150 feet deep. Based on the English definitions above, the Sea of Galilee is a lake. Of course, that means that the “Dead Sea” is one too.

The next time you find the Sea of Chinnereth, Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee or Lake of Galilee you will realize that they are all names of the same body of water.

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennesaret

[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberias

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Is “In the Image of God” an Inaccurate Translation?

And God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible because it contains one of the most powerful memes in the history of mankind – humans are created in the image of God.

Memetics, a very new discipline, is transforming the way we view information, its transmission and influence on human behavior. It has important implications for understanding the Bible and the religious institutions that base their authority upon it. The following will provide you with an overview of the meaning of “meme:”

(1) the unit of cultural heredity analogous to the gene

(2) the internal representation of knowledge

(3) the complex idea that forms itself into a distinct memorable unit

(4) it is spread by vehicles that are physical manifestations of the meme

(5) a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events

(6) a unit of information that causes copies of itself to be created in other minds.[i]

Memes are idea complexes and meme vehicles are their tangible expressions.[ii] If we use the example of a computer, genes are like the hardware and memes are like the software.

The original meme in the above verse was written in Hebrew. If you haven’t downloaded and learned how to use our FREE Hebrew-English Transliterator CLICK HERE for Part 1 & CLICK HERE for Part 2. These are very short exercises that teach you how to use the BHC Hebrew-English Transliterator. It will transform the way you study your Bible. So, get your BHC Transliterator and use it as we examine the Hebrew word that was translated “in the image of” in Genesis 1:27 above:

In order to understand how to translate it, we must learn how Hebrew words are constructed.

Now let’s take another look at the Hebrew word above using this information:

In order to determine the meanings, we must look up the meanings of the prefix and the root word separately in our lexicon. The Hebrew Lexicon we use and recommend is A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay. For more information about it, or how to order your copy -- CLICK HERE.

Now let’s look at the prefix using the BHC Hebrew-English Transliteration:

It is letter #3 that is called “Vet.” It is a form of letter #2, Bet. A Vet is transliterated “V” and a Bet “B.” Look beneath the name “Bet” on the Transliterator and you will find “32,” which is the number of the page this letter first appears in the Holladay lexicon. In our studies, I refer to the location of words by page and column (a = left column; b = right column). The prefix above is found on page 32a where we find the following options for translating it:

1. in

2. among

3. as

4. within

5. on

6. on the

7. in

8. according to

9. into

10. by

11. N/A

12. (together) with

13. from

14. more than

15. with an; through (by)

16. for

17. N/A

18. because of, for the sake of

19. N/A

20. when

It is absolutely essential for you to understand that when you read any translation of the Bible you are only aware of the choice the translators chose from a number of other options. In other words, the choice made by the translators for the “Vet” prefix was “in,” but readers of their translation are completely unaware of the other nineteen (19) options they could have chosen. The more you learn to work with the Hebrew and Greek words of your Bible, the more you will realize exactly how often the theologies of the translators influence the choices they make. Anyway, glance over the above options for this prefix again and consider how different choices would have changed the translation.

Now let’s turn our attention to the root word:

It is found in Holladay’s on page 306b. There are two separate entries for this word -- I & II. I will use the transliteration of the root word TzELEM to indicate the two options:

I. TzELEM

1. statue

a. 2 Kings 11:18a – “And all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal, and tore it down. They thoroughly broke in pieces its altars and images . . .”

b. Numbers 33:52 – “then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places.”

2. image, model

a. 1 Samuel 6:5a – “Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. . .”

b. Ezekiel 23:14 -- “But she increased her harlotry; she looked at men portrayed on the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion.”

3. image (Genesis 1:26a) – “God said, “Let Us make man in Our image . . .”

II. TzELEM

1. Shadow, something shadowy, form without substance.

a. Psalm 39:6 (7) – “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro . . .”

b. Psalm 73:20 – “As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.”

Traditionally, all translators that I am aware of chose option #1 for the translation for the prefix “in” and option #I “image” for the translation of the root word.

But, there is a factor that I believe translators failed to fully consider when choosing their options – context.

Context is defined as that which precedes and/or follows any part of a discourse and can throw light on the meaning.

There are no references in the context to the physical description of God. But there are two verses that provide information we need to make a more informed decision about which option to choose:

(1) Genesis 1:2b – “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

(2) Genesis 2:7 -- “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Two different Hebrew words are used in the above verses for Spirit and breath, but they share the meaning of “form without substance.” They are the best description of God in the context before and after Genesis 1:27. Based on the linguistic principles that we call the BHC Linguistic Method, “Spirit” is the most contextually accurate option for the root word. When we use the same principles to determine the best option for the prefix, our choice is “with.” Now let’s use this information to update our translation of Genesis 1:27:

And God created mankind with His own Spirit, with the Spirit of God He created them; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

In many ancient cultures, their meme for the creation of humans transmitted the idea that humans are created to serve gods and goddesses, and are lower in value than animals. The traditional meme from the verse above – humans are created in the image of God – produced a very different view about humans – they were created in God’s image. Humans are created a little lower than God, but above all other creatures.

I believe that our more contextually accurate translation of the meme will have an even more powerful impact – especially when people either look in the mirror at themselves or when they interact with others and see every human as a creature “with His Spirit” – male and female, regardless of race, tribe or religion.

Of course, every human also has an Earth-soul – and it affects the choices we make -- but we will have to discuss that in a future blog.

Consider the content of this study and the way I provide you with as much factual information as possible, so you can learn how to acquire and use new skills and tools that allow you to understand how the words that appear in your Bibles were chosen. I believe this prepares you much better than simply telling you what choices I would make. Being chained to one translation of the Bible keeps you from growing and maturing spiritually.

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

“Corn” or “Maze” – Know the Culture of the Translator!

If you have read many of my blogs, you know how much I stress the importance of knowing as much as you can about the culture of Second Temple Judaism when you read the words of Jesus. It was his culture. But, there is another culture that you should be aware of too -- if you rely on English translations of the Bible – the culture of the translators.

Here is an example from Matthew 12:1 of the King James Version:

At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

Read the complete article at -- http://bhcbiblestudies.blogspot.com/2014/01/corn-or-maze-know-culture-of-translator.html

“Corn” or “Maze” – Know the Culture of the Translator!

Here is an example from Matthew 12:1 of the King James Version:

At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

Now compare the underlined words to the American Standard Version’s translation:

At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears and to eat.

When most Americans read the King James Version they picture Jesus walking through fields like this:

His disciples were plucking and eating ears like these:

But in the American Standard Version, Americans picture Jesus walking through a field like this:

His disciples were plucking and eating ears like these:

Which one is correct? Actually, British readers of the King James Version picture the same thing as American readers of the American Standard Version. Both translations create the same images in the minds of their original audiences. The word “corn” to British readers means “wheat,” but to American’s “corn” is a type of “maize.” The translators of the American Standard Version correctly translated the Greek word by choosing “grain.”

A very interesting situation arose in World War II because of the different meanings for the word “corn.” Not knowing these differences, an American government agency received a request for "corn" from the British government. The Americans shipped the British "maize." The British were expecting "wheat" which they needed for the European famine relief program. Needless to say, the British were not happy with the maize they received. Both groups used the identical word – corn – but they had different bundles of associations attached to it. The Americans corrected the problem by shipping the British “wheat.” This bit of linguistic ignorance cost tax-payers a few million dollars to correct.

Knowing this information doesn’t reveal a great theological truth, but it does give you a much more accurate picture of what Jesus and his disciples were actually doing. The next time you read your Bible, be sure to go to the introduction and find out who the translators were -- and identify their culture. It is good to get in the habit of comparing English translations made by people from different cultures. This will help you identify situations like the one above.

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Monday, January 13, 2014

Israel and a Canaanite god?

This is a study of Genesis 33:17-20 and it has some very interesting transliterations in it. If you haven’t downloaded your FREE Hebrew Transliterator and completed the two short lessons on transliterating Hebrew words click here for lesson one & click here for lesson two. I capitalize Hebrew words that are transliterations (plus use bold type and underlines) so you won’t miss them in the verses below.

¹⁷ And Jacob traveled there to SUKKOT and built himself a house for his livestock he made SUKKOT (booths), for this reason he called the name of the place SUKKOT.

(To see the verse in Hebrew click here – the underlined words are Hebrew words #3, word #9 and the last Hebrew word in the verse – you will probably need to zoom in to enlarge the text.)

The word SUKKOT appears three time in this verse. In most English translations it appears twice because the second appearance is translated instead of transliterated. Its translation is “booths.” SUKKOT is also a major Jewish holiday in which Jews construct small booths to remember the time of the Exodus when their ancestors lived in “booths.” I updated the verse with translations instead of transliterations to give you a feel for what a Hebrew reader would have seen:

¹⁷ And Jacob traveled there to Booths and built himself a house for his livestock he made booths, for this reason he called the name of the place Booths.

Look at the map below and find SUKKOT, spelled “Succoth” (on the right side of the Jordan River).

¹⁸ And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, and he came from Padan Aram, and he camped in front of the city.

Jacob traveled from Succoth to Shechem (it is on the left side of the map). Jacob made his camp right in front of the city of Shechem. We discover that he had traveled from Paddan Aram (in northern Mesopotamia, probably where Haran was located) to Succoth and then to Shechem. Paddan Aram or Padan-aram was an early Aramean kingdom in Mesopotamia. Paddan Aram in Aramaic means the field of Aram.[i]

¹⁹ And he bought that part of the field where he had pitched his tent, from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for a hundred QeSITAH.

The meaning of the Hebrew word QeSITAH is unknown. The text says Jacob paid 100 QeSITAH, but we do not know what that was or its value. However, and more importantly, Jacob acquired his property in Canaan by buying it from the owner. This indicates that the owner freely executed the contract with him. The next verse is a “loaded” one. There is no doubt that it created a theological nightmare for many translators.

²⁰ And he (Jacob) set up an altar and called to it:

Now it’s your time to have some fun and get a feel for what the translators experienced. Transliterate the three Hebrew words above. Keep in mind that Hebrew is read from right to left. Write down your transliterations and compare them to the translations below:

(1) King James Version: And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.

(2) American Standard Version: And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-israel.

(3) Bible in Basic English: And there he put up an altar, naming it El, the God of Israel.

(4) Darby's English Translation: And there he set up an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

(5) Douay Rheims Bible: And raising an altar there, he invoked upon it the most mighty God of Israel.

(6) Noah Webster Bible: And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.

(7) World English Bible: He erected an altar there, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

(8) Young's Literal Translation: and he setteth up there an altar, and proclaimeth at it God -- the God of Israel.

My transliterations of the above words are: #1 EL; #2 ELOHEY; #3 YISeRAEL. Compare my transliterations to your work. How did you do? Now, let’s take another look at how the above translators dealt with Hebrew words #1 and #2:

● Elelohe – capitalized the “E” and combined the two words into one.

● El-elohe – capitalized the first “E,” added hyphen, did not capitalize “e” in second word.

● El-Elohe - capitalized the first “E,” added hyphen, capitalized “E” in second word.

● El, the God of – transliterated word #1 & capitalized “E;” translated word #2 “the God of” with capital “G.”

● the most mighty God of – translates word #1 “the most mighty” with no capital letters and translates word #2 “God of” with a capital “G” but leaves out “the.”

● God - the God of – translates word #1 “God” with a capital “G” and translates word# 2 “the God of” with a capital “G.”

Below is my translation of the verse:

And he set up an altar and called to it: “El, god of Israel.”

Pay close attention to exactly what Jacob did – he called TO it: “El, god of Israel.” Why would this cause theological problems? Look at th image below and you will understand. It is a statue of the chief Canaanite god – El.

SOURCE

Did Jacob build an altar and call out to a Canaanite god? If you have purchased the Hebrew lexicon we recommend – A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (click here for link for more info about lexicon) – turn to page 15. In column b you will find five entries for the word EL. #V is the one for this form of the word:

(1a) the high god El

(1b) gods

The entries after the two above are heavily influenced by theologies, as will be seen in books that were written later. If you haven’t ordered the lexicon, I would recommend that you do because I will be referring to it many times in my articles and blogs – and the Hebrew Transliterator is keyed to it.

Now for the big surprise! Are you sitting down? I bet you did not even think about the meaning of Hebrew word #3, which every version above transliterated as “Israel.” Everybody know that Israel is the name of the Jewish people and nation! Wrong! This is only the third appearance of this word in the Hebrew Bible. Below is the first appearance (Genesis 32:28a):

“Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel. . .”

“Israel” was Jacob’s name, not the name of the nation, yet. So let’s take one more look at the verse we are working on, with this last bit of information added:

And Jacob set up an altar and called to it: “El, god of Jacob.”

But, what about monotheism? That will not come until later in Jewish history – but I will have to wait and address it in future blogs. Isn’t it amazing how much was packed into just three short verses and how thing we may have not even questioned can turn out to be very different from what we though? I hoped you enjoyed this study.

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddan_Aram