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Overview
The basic message of the Bible can be understood in any language. At the same time, many biblical texts are hard to understand because they don’t quite make sense when translated into English. Something is missing. Quite frequently, what readers miss has been lost in translation. Maybe there is a pun or wordplay in the original. Sometimes names like Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and Eden just seem like names to us but have meanings that are essential to the story. Many Hebrew words have multiple meanings, but the English translators have to just pick one (for example, the same Hebrew word can mean both hear and obey). Even more common are Hebrew words that have much wider meanings than their English translations. A few examples are the Hebrew words rendered as remember, covenant, walk, gates, love, cleanliness, holiness, glory, wisdom, and fear. The original language allows various parts to click together like well-constructed puzzle pieces. With Hebrew in mind, interpreters see new details they didn’t realize were missing before. They make new connections. They immerse themselves in scripture more fully.
That’s where this book comes in. Learning a language is like learning a worldview. Those who learn biblical Hebrew can better understand not only what biblical authors wrote, but also how they thought. Unfortunately, those insights come only after years of study. This book is about getting right to the important, exciting insights. It’s an opportunity to be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we better understand how biblical authors used their language to express their experience of God and the world.
If you are just beginning to study Hebrew and want the insights and motivation to continue or if you have no intention of learning biblical Hebrew but want to better understand the Bible, this book is for you!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426799976 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 07/17/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 813,452 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Losing Hebrew Sounds
Every word has both sound and meaning. Usually, translation means we lose the sound of Hebrew words:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
This point seems very obvious. Of course, words sound different when translated! We could even ask, does the loss of sound matter? People who study languages have maintained for a long time that most words' sounds are arbitrary. In English, we talk of "blood." In the Old Testament, it's called dam. As different as "blood" and dam sound, they refer to the same red substance that flows through our veins. Nothing innate about this liquid requires that it be called "blood" or dam. (See Signifier and Signified.)
So, at first thought, it might seem that the loss of sound has relatively little significance for Bible translation. It doesn't seem to matter what sounds are used, as long as the audience understands what's in mind.
The Bible, however, comes out of an oral culture that placed high priority on how words sound. Even today, thousands of years later, we can still find many cases in the Bible in which the sounds of Hebrew words actually matter a great deal. The writers of the Bible often draw connections between different words that sound alike but mean something different. This is called "wordplay." (See Wordplay and Other Terms.) Although wordplay doesn't show up in every verse of the Bible, it's hardly a rare occurrence. According to one scholar, there are more than five hundred cases in which the Old Testament text plays with how words sound in order to drive home a larger point. That means sound plays an important role, on average, more frequently than once every other chapter. In these cases, when the sound of the Hebrew is muted, we lose a key component of the passage. (See The Irony of Not Hearing.)
Genesis 2–4
The opening chapters of Genesis overflow with wordplays that are lost in translation. Consider Genesis 2:7: "The LORD God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land" (CEB). In terms of the meaning of the Hebrew words in this verse, the Common English Bible does an excellent job. However, the Hebrew words for "human" and "fertile land" are remarkably similar:
[TABLE OMITTED]
A few brief notes about this chart: First, the Hebrew letters are explained in the appendix at the end of the book. Second, I've also transliterated the Hebrew, meaning I've put Hebrew letters into their closest English equivalents in the right column. Third, my websitewww.MatthewSchlimm.com provides sound files explaining how to pronounce these words.
Both adam and adamah are very popular: adam appears about 550 times in the Bible, while adamah shows up over 230 times. Twenty verses feature both words, including Genesis 2:7, which says that God formed the adam from the adamah. It's easy to see — even in terms of the letters and sounds themselves — how adam comes from adamah: "The LORD God formed the adam (human) from the topsoil of the adamah (fertile land)" (CEB, alt.). Scholars have tried to capture the wordplay by going alternate routes. Some have suggested translating adam as "human" and adamah as "humus." While this translates adam correctly, few people today talk about the ground as "humus." In fact, we might get things confused with what we put on pita.
Others, including myself, have translated adam as "earthling" and adamah as "earth." However, people today tend to talk of "earthlings" only when they're impersonating aliens. Capturing all the nuances and connections of the Bible's original language is notoriously difficult — even when these connections are immensely important to the text itself. In Genesis 2:4b–4:16, the words adam and adamah appear fourteen and twenty-five times, respectively, as the text artfully interweaves the two words together to drive home the key message that humanity is intricately connected with the soil. (See Humans and Land.)
Many other wordplays exist in Genesis 2–4. The following examples involve Hebrew words that aren't very popular and don't need to be learned at this point. However, they illustrate the literary artistry of these opening chapters of the Bible:
• The Hebrew word for "stream" or "mist" is ed (2:6), which sounds like a shortened form of eden, the name of the garden (2:8, 10, 15; 3:23-24; 4:16). The ed gives life to eden.
• The text describes the human beings as "naked" in 2:25 (see also 3:7, 10-11), and the next verse describes the snake as "crafty" (3:1). The Hebrew words for "naked" (arom) and "crafty" (arum) are nearly identical. The arom humans are vulnerable to the arum snake.
• In Genesis 4:12, 14, Cain is called a "vagrant and a wanderer" (NASB). The Hebrew words behind those terms are very similar (na and nad). They are also akin to the Hebrew for Nod (nod), the land where Cain settles in 4:16. Cain is a na and nad left to the land of nod.
As these examples begin to illustrate, the opening chapters of Genesis are rich in meaning and wordplay. The Hebrew of this text reveals textures that cannot be captured in translation.
Babbling at Babel
In Genesis 11, readers learn of people's attempt to stay in one place and become famous by building a huge tower. The name of their city is usually translated "Babel," which matches the Hebrew fairly well:
[TABLE OMITTED]
This word appears over 250 times in the Bible. Aside from Genesis 10:10 and 11:9, it's always translated "Babylon." That's the name of the kingdom that conquered Jerusalem in 587 BCE and scattered segments of its population into exile where they were forced to learn new languages. Babylon was also home to a massive towering temple to the god Marduk.
When readers know the Hebrew, the connection between this story and Babylon is hard to miss: it presents God as scattering the very people who scattered Israel (See Mocking Babylon.)
The Hebrew bavel sounds similar to this Hebrew word:
[TABLE OMITTED]
In Genesis 11:7, God uses this verb to talk about confusing the people of bavel. For that reason, 11:9 reads as follows: "Therefore it was called Babel [bavel], because there the LORD confused [balal] the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth" (NRSV). The NRSV contains a footnote on the word "confused" explaining the wordplay taking place here. Footnotes, however, never receive as much attention as the main text. What's most striking about this verse in the Hebrew only constitutes a footnote in English.
In fact, in this particular passage, the text as a whole builds to the moment when the name bavel and word babel are used: in only nine verses, the text contains twenty-two appearances of a Hebrew letter that can be pronounced as "B" or "V," as well as thirty-seven appearances of the Hebrew letter pronounced "L." The earliest audiences of this text would have heard a chorus of "B," "V," and "L" sounds growing until the passage's last verse when they learned that the place was named Babel because there God "babbled" the people's languages. This artful construction of sounds does not appear in English renderings of the story.
The Parable of the Vineyard
The beginning of Isaiah 5 tells a parable. A farmer plants a vineyard, takes perfect care of it, and does everything to ensure the growth of delicious grapes. Instead, the grapes smell awful and cause nausea. At a climactic moment, God says, "For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting" (Isa 5:7a NRSV). Why does God draw this comparison?
God has done everything for the people of Israel and Judah — transforming them from a motley group of slaves into a royal kingdom. And yet, the people don't bring forth what God expects. The passage explains: "[God] expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!" (Isa 5:7b NRSV). Nothing that God wants comes to fruition.
Word-for-word, the NRSV (shown above) does a decent job translating the meaning of 5:7b. We have two pairs of opposites. Bloodshed suggests a violation of justice. Meanwhile, the Hebrew word for "cry" here isn't a sad sob but a life-threatening cry for help. It's used when talking about things like mass slaughter (Exod 11:6; 12:30) and rape (Deut 22:27). Obviously, that type of outcry shows that everything is not right.
While this sort of translation captures the basic meaning of the Hebrew words, it completely misses something present in the Hebrew. In the original text, the words for "justice" and "bloodshed" look and sound nearly identical:
[TABLE OMITTED]
The Hebrew words for "righteousness" and "cry" are also nearly identical:
[TABLE OMITTED]
What we have in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 5:7 are two pairs of words closely related in terms of appearance and sound. That's important because in the parable, the vineyard's grapes initially look good, but close inspection reveals they are repulsive and nasty. It's like buying berries that look good at the grocery store, only to open the box at home and find white, fuzzy mold hiding behind the label.
The NRSV and similar translations do nothing to communicate how the expectations for fruit were both so close and yet so far from what was actually produced. Yes, the NRSV captures the basic meanings. But there's nothing about the English word pairs justice-bloodshed and righteousnesscry that communicates how the grapes should have been perfect but instead disgusted people. However, it's nearly impossible to capture the precise meanings while still coming up with two pairs of words related visually and audibly.
The NJPS translation comes closest. Here's how it renders the text: "And [God] hoped for justice, But behold, injustice; Forequity, But behold, iniquity!" (Isa 5:7b NJPS). Here, we see a play on "justice" and "injustice," as well as a play on "equity" and "iniquity." Such a wordplay does reflect parts of the Hebrew quite nicely. However, what's captured in terms of appearance and sound is lost in terms of meaning: the Hebrew word mispakh literally means "bloodshed," not "injustice." Meanwhile, the word tseaqah means "outcry," not "iniquity."
So, either way, something is lost. The NJPS captures the audible bond between the word pairs in the Hebrew, but it deviates from the meaning. The NRSV and most other English translations capture the meaning, leaving readers clueless about the auditory and visual connections, which make an important point about how Israel turned out so close and so far from what God intended. The English fails to capture exactly what's going on with the Hebrew.
The Horror of a Fruit Basket?
The book of Amos rages with disturbing images. Because of Israel's harsh treatment of poor people, God's judgment is coming with furious destruction.
Toward the end of the book, just before describing a new round of horrors, God shows the prophet Amos a basket of summer fruit. Without explaining the fruit basket, the text jumps to God's coming judgment. Here's the passage:
This is what the LORD God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again forgive them. On that day, the people will wail the temple songs," says the LORD God; "there will be many corpses, thrown about everywhere." (Amos 8:1-3 CEB)
Most English readers of this text are left confused. Why did God show Amos the summer fruit? How could that be terrifying? What on earth does it have to do with what follows?
The text actually makes perfect sense in Hebrew. Here's the Hebrew word for "summer fruit":
[TABLE OMITTED]
This word is associated with the last crop to be picked during the agricultural calendar. In fact, one of the oldest inscriptions from Israel is a tenth-century BCE calendar that lists what farming activities take place during the year. The last word in this inscription is what we have here: "summer fruit." This word sounds similar to the Hebrew word for "end" that God uses to talk about Israel's demise in this passage:
[TABLE OMITTED]
This word evokes ideas of death not only here but also when it's used to describe Noah's flood (Gen 6:13) and the destruction of Jerusalem (Lam 4:18; Ezek 7:2-3). So, although in English the words "summer fruit" and "end" look and sound nothing alike, in Amos the two are closely related. God shows Amos a basket of qayits as an ominous sign of Israel's qets. English readers wonder what's horrifying about a fruit basket, but Hebrew readers see the ominous potential in Amos's vision. Together, qayits and qets make over one hundred appearances in the Bible.
A Famous Benediction
It's helpful to close this chapter by examining a case in which sound plays a key role in a passage, even if we don't need to know the particular Hebrew words at hand.
The book of Numbers isn't popular. Yet, it contains a blessing that priests would give in ancient Israel. Archaeologists have found this blessing, in part or whole, on jewelry from ancient Jerusalem and on a jar in northern Sinai, dating from seven hundred to five hundred years before Jesus. Even today, many pastors use this blessing at the end of worship services. Here it is: "[v. 24] The LORD bless you and protect you. [v. 25] The LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. [v. 26] The LORD lift up his face to you and grant you peace" (Num 6:24-26 CEB). Unbeknownst to most English readers, the three lines of the blessing build phonetically upon one another. In Hebrew, there are clear patterns:
• Verse 24 has three Hebrew words, twelve syllables, and fifteen consonants.
• Verse 25 has five Hebrew words, fourteen syllables, and twenty consonants.
• Verse 26 has seven Hebrew words, sixteen syllables, and twenty-five consonants.
We have in the words of one scholar "a rising crescendo." Furthermore, there are three references to "the LORD" with twelve Hebrew words remaining, possibly a reference to the Lord being present with the twelve tribes of Israel. The first half of the first line ("The LORD bless you") has seven syllables in Hebrew, just like the last half of the last line ("and grant you peace"). All in all, the Hebrew sounds more poetic than the English, akin to limericks and haikus with their own rhythms.
In the context of Numbers, the people are presented as an army that will soon go forth from Mount Sinai to the promised land. The rhythm and cadence of this blessing inspire the Israelites to march with metered precision, assured of God's presence. Unfortunately, English readers miss the poetic sounds of the blessing.
Conclusion
At first glance, the loss of Hebrew sound seems minor, a necessary casualty of any Old Testament translation. However, in many passages, readers lose something quite important. The text often drives home larger points through how words look and sound. It's one thing to read that God formed the first human from the ground. It's another thing to hear that God formed the adam from the adamah so that our eyes and ears reinforce what our brains process. With knowledge of Hebrew sounds, other passages come to life as well. Too often, translations can capture mental ideas but lose sound in the process. It's as though we have the lyrics to a song without the accompanying music. Knowing key Hebrew words, we recover missing parts of important passages.
CHAPTER 2Losing Hebrew Meaning
As we just saw, translation means abandoning Hebrew sound and letters, replacing them with sound and letters in English. However, sometimes in our English Old Testaments, we actually hear an echo of Hebrew sounds but lose the meaning. This chapter looks at cases where our English Bibles retain Hebrew sound but let go of meaning:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Adam and Eve
English readers hear something of how Hebrew sounds when they encounter names.34 Our English Bibles talk about a couple named Adam and Eve who live in the garden of Eden. They are the parents of Cain and Abel. Each of these names comes close to the sound of the Hebrew:
[TALBLE OMITTED]
As the Hebrew Transliteration column shows, vowels might change, and the letter "h" doesn't always transfer across languages. Nevertheless, connections surface between how the Hebrew and English are pronounced.
While it's nice to hear the Hebrew approximated, each Hebrew name in these chapters is loaded with meaning that does not translate into English:
• The Hebrew for Adam means "Humanity."
• The Hebrew for Eve means "Life."
• The Hebrew for Eden means "Delight."
• The Hebrew for Cain means "Spear."
• The Hebrew for Abel means "Fleeting Breath," like what we see on cold mornings. It's there one second and gone the next.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press.
Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Chapter 1: Losing Hebrew Sounds,
Chapter 2: Losing Hebrew Meaning,
Chapter 3: Words We Lack in English,
Chapter 4: Missing Multiple Meanings,
Chapter 5: Visualizing the Abstract,
Chapter 6: Blinded by the Past,
Chapter 7: Practices and Objects,
Chapter 8: Cultural Values,
Chapter 9: Conclusion,
Appendix: How the Hebrew Alphabet Works,
Abbreviations,
Works Cited,
Endnotes,
Index of Hebrew Words, Their Common Translations, and Technical Terms,