The Biblical Language Was A Very Special Writing System
It is very old. Hebrew writing originated about 3,500 years ago at a unique point in time: the dawn of modern writing (c. 1600 BC) when written language as we understand it today, where letters are used to represent individual sounds, didn’t yet exist.
The other major forms of writing in that area at that time were Egyptian hieroglyphs c. 3200 BC – 400 AD which primarily represented syllables and concepts, and Cuneiform (wedge marks) c. 3200 BC – 100 AD that variously represented syllables, consonants and concepts.
Knowledge of the Egyptian Hieroglyph system was lost around the 5th century AD and it wasn’t deciphered again until the 1820s. Once Cuneiform went extinct it wasn’t deciphered again until the 1830s. Hebrew writing, on the other hand, survived as a liturgical language and came to be understood as a language of consonants (which is similar to the alphabetic writing systems that replaced the old pictograph / concept systems). The Hebrew word meanings were preserved via tradition.
Before Hebrew became purely liturgical it was a common language and it underwent stages where it transformed from merely stringing pictograph concepts together (to form mini logic puzzles that resemble words) to devising conventional methods to easily alter the meanings of words (i.e. adding a specific letter to convert any verb into a noun) .
As written language became more common, the systems adapted to be more user friendly. Hebrew pictograph writing had a big advantage over those older writing systems. Hieroglyph and Cuneiform writing systems had nearly 1000 different characters each which took a long time to learn and limited the usefulness of writing as few people would have had enough education to be completely literate. (Imagine how difficult it would be if the English alphabet had 1000 letters to learn – not many people would even be able to recite it.)
The Hebrew system actually had two advantages. First, it used only 22 characters that were typically grouped together into two or three-letter words. 2,277 different two and three-letter words could potentially be created just using the ancient ‘logic puzzle’ approach.
Second, not only was Hebrew easier to learn but much of the language was glued together with the religious teachings that were commonly known among all Hebrews. This feature made it very easy for an entire population to quickly become literate. We’ll elaborate on this aspect in a moment but first an example of how the ‘logic-puzzle’ words worked should be considered.
Let’s look at the root words of the two-word English phrase ‘Holy Language’. The word ‘language’ in Hebrew is actually ‘Tongue’. Bearing in mind that Hebrew is written backwards from English (right to left), the phrase can be deciphered as follows:
The hints given in the image above are merely the Biblical meanings of the letters. As you can see, the Key to understanding the Holy Language is to understand the Hebrew letters.
Many have argued for and against it, but this is what makes the Biblical Language holy: the language and the scriptures are so intricately interwoven its virtually impossible to determine which came first. Consider, if you will, the following three examples.
Example 1:
The Hebrew word שמים (Sh-M-Y-M) is traditionally translated as ‘heavens’ (or ‘sky’). The most probable word construction was a letter added to a root word which reads: ש = fill + מים = water. From a general perspective this construction makes no sense. But consider what is written in Genesis 1:6-8 regarding the creation of the Heavens:
“1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” – (KJV)
Example 2:
The Hebrew word אחד (A-Ch-D) means ‘one’ and the word first occurs in the scriptures at the end of the first day of creation (Gen. 1:5). The meaning of the letters אחד are: ‘first… separate… connection’ which actually summarize the main event of Day One of creation when God created light and separated it from darkness:
“1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” – (KJV)
Actually, all the day numbers in the creation story summarize the events of their days. That is why some of the number spellings are unusual and day six and seven have the prefix ‘the’ attached to them whereas the other numbers don’t have a prefix. There was an important reason for those spelling and grammar peculiarities: they served to preserve the Biblical language.
Example 3:
The letter מ (Mem) is commonly used as a prefix to mean ‘from’ and the letter originated as a pictograph depicting water. If you study the verses under the letter Mem in the acrostic Psalm 119, you will find hints pointing to things which are the product of words. At first glance these three concepts seem unrelated… until you consider Genesis chapter 1.
In the Scriptures, the product of words is the physical world AND from the first waters the physical world as we know it was created (water and darkness were the two things that existed before God created light). Thus the meaning of Mem is water and water is what everything is FROM. Hence, Mem can be interpreted as ‘from’.
Those three examples are only the beginning. The entire language is constructed unlike any other known language. Even its contemporaries, such as Aramaic, do not function like Biblical Hebrew.
So where does one begin their quest to learn the Holy Language?
From the Bible, of course! It has built into it everything you need to understand the language.
If you’ve ever read the scriptures you probably noticed that it often gives an explanation for specific names (albeit sometimes more vaguely than other times).
An example of a vague explanation that is often overlooked is Genesis 4:1.
“1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.” – (KJV)
That seemingly random statement about having ‘gotten a man from the Lord’ actually has an important purpose in the text.
The name Cain in Hebrew is קין (spelled: Q-Y-N) and the meaning of those letters are: ‘venerated (God)… bring… emerging’.
Get it? ‘God… bring… emerging’ = “I have gotten a man from the LORD”
That is just one of a multitude of lessons built into the scriptures that have preserved the original language since the First Temple Period over 2,500 years ago.
The First Steps To Learning
In order to approach reading the Scriptures in Hebrew, you must begin with the building blocks: The Hebrew Letters and Their Meanings. The Biblical meanings of the letters can be found in the scriptures. Many are tucked into the acrostic Psalm 119 as hints. Some, like the letter Mem mentioned above, are found elsewhere in the scriptures. But two letters, Pe and Tsadi, are occasionally used to represent the older Proto Sinaitic pictograph meanings from which those letters evolved. (Specific details for each letter can be found in the link above).
Once you know the Letter Meanings you can immediately begin reading root words. For instance, the word דרך (spelled: D-R-K) has the letter meanings: ‘path through… body… carry’. This word is commonly translated as ‘road’ or ‘way’. (It really is that simple.)
Sometimes, the letters of words literally spell out what the word means in a very obvious way. Other times, basic knowledge of the scriptures is required to understand the word. An example of the latter is the word אמר (spelled A-M-R). Its letters mean: ‘source… physical… body’ and the word is translated as ‘speak’ or ‘said’. The correlation between those letter meanings and that translation will only make sense if you are familiar with how God spoke everything into existence in the creation story and/or the biblical concept of blessings.
A Whole New Meaning To The Phrase ‘Bible School’
Letter meanings aren’t the only lessons woven into the scriptures. The first 11 chapters of Genesis (all the stories before the story of Abraham begins) are excellent material for learning the language.
They are conveniently written so that new words are mostly grouped by topic. Even the the two genealogies (chapters 5 and 10) have specific focuses. The one in chapter 5 introduces the Hebrew numbers, whereas the one in chapter 10 provides extensive practice reading names (sounding out words).
Those first 11 chapters are often repetitive, which helps a learner to quickly become familiar with a new word. They also make use of several different words that have nearly the same meaning but are given in a context that helps teach the differences between them.
This is why the beginning of the Old Testament is written so oddly. It has a diverse vocabulary appearing almost eloquent but yet it is simple and repetitive at the same time (not to mention that most of the sentences actually begin with the prefix ‘and’). It really is great learning material.
In effort to make the original scriptures accessible to everyone, basic resources for learning the Holy Language are available on this blog for free including a new series called The Old School which presents the new vocabulary words for each verse of those first 11 chapters of Genesis. A Study Dictionary is also available to help a reader be able to look into a word and discover what it originally meant. It is a work in progress but quite helpful nonetheless.
Special note: sometimes later portions of the scriptures make use of words found in earlier scriptures but they have ascribed different meanings to them than the letters reveal. The altered meanings were typically determined from the context that the word previously appeared or, sometimes, they were derived from the original meaning via a chain of logic. Therefore, reading the later writings requires an awareness of this practice and, at times, a bit of exploration to discern the intended meaning of some words. But don’t be dismayed by this challenge, the result of your effort is an even greater knowledge of the Bible.
Discover The Holy Language 