Biblical Hebrew Words-Page II

In Order To Understand The Scriptures You First Have To Understand The Words It Was Written In. Here are a few words transliterated and translated incorrectly from the Hebrew language. This is a continuation of "The Misunderstanding of Biblical Hebrew Words".

Being. The Hebrew word translated as being is נפש and is pronounced nephesh

A person is composed of a unity of different parts, the mind, thought, emotion, personality, body, blood, organs, etc. This word is often translated as “soul,” implying an abstract entity contained within a person. But, the Hebrew meaning of this word is “the whole of the person” and can be understood as a “being,” “person” or “entity.” This word can be used for man (as seen in Genesis 2:7) and animals (as seen in Genesis 1:21 where it usually translated as “creature”). The root of this word, naphash means “to refresh” in restoring the whole of the person to its wholeness through rest and nutrition.

Faith . The Hebrew word translated as faith is אמון , and is pronounced Emunah.

To understand the meaning we have to look at the root word. The Hebrew root aman means firm, something that is supported or secure. The word emunah is derived from the root word aman, meaning firm When the Hebrew word emunah is translated as faith, there is a misconception of its meaning. Faith is usually thought to mean "knowing", but in Hebrew emunah is a firm action. To have faith in God is not knowing that God exists or knowing that he will act. It means rather that the one with emunah will act with firmness toward God's will. This means he wants God's will because he knows God's will is lifeward and leads him on the correct path.

Glory. The Hebrew word translated as glory is פאר and is pronounced Kavod

Exodus 16:7 says "and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD". What is the "glory" of YHWH? We see that the "glory" is something that is seen. The word "glory" exist in thought and is an idea. If we look at how this word is similar with other words in the Bible, we can see the original concrete meaning of this word. Psalm 3:3 the kavod of God is comparable with his shield. Job 29:20 Job's kavod is compared with his bow. Psalm 24:8 says "who is this king of the kavod, YHWH is strong and mighty, YHWH is mighty in battle." The original concrete meaning of kavod is battle equipment. The literal meaning of the root of kavod which is "heavy" means heavy weapons and defenses of battle.

Good. The Hebrew word translated as good is טוב and is pronounced tov

In Genesis he calls his creations "good". The Hebrew words almost always relate descriptions to functionality. The word tov should have been translated "functional". God declared that his creation is "functioned". He did not see it as "good", he saw it as functional. The Hebrew word "ra" means dysfunctional. The Bible uses the words tov and ra for the tree of the knowledge of "good" and "evil". The word "ra" doesn't mean evil and should have been translated as "dysfunctional". The knowledge of opposites.

Holy. The Hebrew word translated as holy is קדוש and is pronounced qadosh

When people say a person is holy, they usually mean the person is righteous. If someone interprets the word "holy" as "righteous", in the Hebrew Bible they are misreading the text. The meaning of the Hebrew word qadosh, is "to be set apart for a special purpose". Israel was qadosh because they were separated by the other nations as servants of God. Anyone who truly serves God is set apart from the world to be his representative.

Life. The Hebrew word translated as life is חיים and is pronounced hhai.

In Hebrew all words are related to something concrete or physical, something that can be experienced by one of the five senses. Such as hand, bosom, house. The Greeks very often use abstracts/mental words that cannot be grasped by the five senses. Words such as bless, believe, and life. When reading the Bible you should try to find a concrete physical word to describe the abstract ones. This will help you uncover the concrete root word and understand it's meaning. To the Ancient Hebrews life is seen as a full stomach while an empty stomach is seen as death.
So to give you life means to make you full.

Light. The Hebrew word translated as light is אור and is pronounced or

In Genesis, God says "Let there be Light". In Hebrew, light is associated with order. Genesis 1:3 can be interpreted as “Let there be order” which corresponds with verse 2 which states that the creation was in “chaos.” (Hebrew Torah)

Praise. The Hebrew word translated as praise is שבח and is pronounced halel

The word praise is an abstract word that has no relationship with the ancient Hebrew's concrete way of thinking. While the word halel is translated as "praise" it is also translated as "shine" as in Job 29:3. The original meaning of halel is the North Star. This star remains motionless and constantly shines in the northern sky and is used as a guide when traveling. In the Ancient Hebrew mind we praise God by looking at him as the guiding star that shines to show us our direction. When we think of praising God, we picture a man with his arms raised up as though he is pointing toward something of greatness. A shepherd staff of God to move his flock toward a direction. The idea of "looking toward something" is formed.

Righteous ~The Hebrew word translated as righteous is צדיק and is pronounced tsadiyq

What is a righteous person? The word righteous is an abstract word and in order to understand this word from a Hebrew mindset we must uncover its original concrete meaning. One of the best ways to determine the original concrete meaning of a word is to find it being used in a sentence where its concrete meaning can be seen. For example the word yashar is usually translated as upright or righteous (abstracts) but is also translated as "straight". From this we can conclude that a "yashar" is one who walks a straight line. The problem with the word tsadiyq, and its verb form tsadaq, is that there are no uses of this word in its concrete meaning. The next method is to compare how the word in question is paralleled with other Hebrew words as commonly found in the Bible. Sometimes these parallels will be synonyms and other times antonyms. When we look at the word tsadiyq we find that it is commonly paralleled with the word "rasha". Rasha is usually translated as "wicked" but has a concrete meaning of "to depart from the path and become lost". From this we can conclude that a tsadiyq is one who remains on the path. The path is the course through life which God has outlined for us in his word.

Sinner. The Hebrew word translated as sinner is חטא and is pronounced hhata

If someone aims at a target and misses it, we would say that he "missing the mark," In Judges 20:16-every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.The word translated as "miss" in this verse is hhata. This word is incorrectly translated as "sin." God provides man with the target, his teachings, and when man does not hit that target he "misses the mark." The word hhata, the noun form of the verb, translated as "sinner," means "one who misses the mark."

Thanksgiving The Hebrew word translated as thanksgiving is תודה and is pronounced todah

The word todah comes from the root word, yadah meaning "to throw out the hands." This root word is derived from the parent root yad meaning "hand." This word is synonymous with the root word "halal" usually translated as "praise". as can be seen in the following verse where these two words are used in parallel, "I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify him with thanksgiving" (Psalm 69:30). Or I will look toward God and throw my hands out to Him.

Truth ~The Hebrew word translated as truth is אמת and is pronounced emet

The root of this word is aman, a word often translated as "believe" but the true meaning is "support". Isaiah 22:23 it says "I will drive him like a peg in a place of support..." A belief in God is not a mental exercise of knowing that God exists but rather our responsibility to show him our support. The word "emet" has the similar meaning of firmness, something that is firmly set in place. Psalms 119:142 says, "the 'Torah' (the teachings of God) is 'emet' (set firmly in place).

Wicked-The Hebrew word translated as wicked is רשע and is pronounced rasha

In English a wicked person is one who does evil. But, in the Hebrew language rasha has a very different meaning. The root of this word is rasha . The concrete meaning is found in Psalm 18:21 Most translations have "wickedly departed" but the word "wickedly" is added to the text and not part of the Hebrew. It really just says "departed". Rasha means "to depart from the path," either by intentionally going off the path or by becoming lost from the path. The word rasha is "one who has walked off the path".

Word-The Greek word translated as word is λόγος and is pronounced lógos and means the voice of reason. A form of the same word is λογική and is pronounced Logik and means logic, rationale,reasoning, rationality, and sanity. It is where the English word logic is derived.The word Λέγω pronounced legō, means "say" or "I say"

The actual Greek word for "word" is λέξη and is pronounced léxi̱. It is where the English word lexical is derived. Lexical means: the words or vocabulary of a language.

John1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

Was translated from Greek
Εν αρχή ην ο Λόγος και ο Λόγος ήταν με τον Θεό, και Θεός ήτο ο Λόγος
From Greek Bible (Below)
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
In the beginning was the Reason and the Reason was with God, and God was the Reason.
But the word Λόγος is synonymous with the word ομιλία which means speech
ομιλία and λαλιά means speech.
φωνή means voice and λόγος means reason

Worship-The Hebrew word translated as worship is פולחן and is pronounced shahhah

In the modern western thought, worship is an action directed toward God and God alone. But this is not the case in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew word "shehhah" means to to lay face down on the ground before another in respect. We see Moses doing this to his father-in-law in Exodus 18:7. When the translators translate the word shehhah they will use the word "worship" when the bowing down is directed toward God but as "respect" when directed toward another man. There is no Hebrew word meaning worship the way we use it today. The Hebrew perspective of worship, or shehhah is the act of getting down on ones knees and placing the face down on the ground before another worthy of respect.

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