This is a segment of a much larger video production that I am working on and am looking for feedback (positive and negative) on the layout and content. ___________________ When we wish to find the definition of an English word we go to a dictionary. While this is also true with Hebrew words, there are additional methods of determining the meaning of a Hebrew word. One such method, which has been previously demonstrated, is to examine its roots which provide additional insight into that word. Another method is to examine the meaning of the letters used to write that word. Each biliteral, or parent, root is composed of two letters and these two letters in themselves provide meaning to the word. The Hebrew word av, is spelled aleph-beyt. The word aleph means “ox.” The ox, and this letter, represents the idea of “strength.” In the original pictographic script this letter was an image of an Ox head. The word beyt means tent, or house. The tent, and this letter, represents the idea of “home.” In the original pictographic script the beyt was an image of the nomadic Hebrews tent. This image includes the entrance and the wall inside that separates the men’s side from the women’s side. When the meanings of these two letters are combined we have the meaning “the strength of the home” and descriptive of “the father.” The Hebrew word BN is spelled beyt-nun. As we have just found, this letter represents the home. The word nun means “seed,” but also represents the idea of “continuing …
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@YAHWEHisperfect LOL @ “treating u like google.” Not a problem. Yes, this is confirmed. In fact, the name of the letter, pey, is a Hebrew word that means “mouth.” Also, Proverbs 31:10-31 is an acrostic, first letter begins with aleph, second with beyt, etc. Verse 26 begins with the letter pey and begins with the word “peyah” meaning “her mouth” an allusion to the meaning of that letter. You are right, there is not much info on this on internet, But more info in books.
about letter ‘pey”…..u draw it like a mouth….is that a conform info about this letter?
info about these things r very hard to find on internet…sorry for treating u like google but ….
@Bimfirestarter -I’ve been told by adherents of it and read about the idea that every letter in a word signifies another word, etc. It just smacked of The Matrix sequels, and what I mean is that it had the ring of something trying to sound deeper than it really was. Nothing in the Bible or ancient inscriptions suggest the Hebrews were ever in2 mystical things (unless they deviated from the pure worship of their god Yahweh). By contrast, every other nation around was STEEPED in mysticism!
@ancienthebreworg Is not the most ancient attestation for these names of the Hebrew alphabet from the Septuagint renderings of the acrostic psalms, where the first letters of certain verses appear as superscriptions and follow the general Hebrew arrangement of the letters? Know what I mean? If there’s an older Greek thing that lists the names of the Greek letters, then please PLEASE! direct me 2 it! -That would be quite cool!
@ancienthebreworg Interesting. Some have supposed that ‘nun’ was really ‘nachash’ for serpent, since that’s what the proto-sinaitic image comes from, a serpentine hieroglyph. ‘Gimel’ was thought to be a camel’s neck (gamal)….’gam’, huh? Indeed, who knows. More recently I found out by accident that an arabic word ‘simkah’ means ‘fish’, which would explain ‘samekh’s proto-sinaitic form as a fish! Who knows, maybe the Hebrews themselves invented this alphabet while in Egypt. Any thoughts on that?
@ancienthebreworg -This makes sense. I guess I was merely told by an orthodow Jewich fellow that it didn’t mean ‘ox’ it meant ‘thousan’. The guy objected to my suggestion, not very learned about ancient Hebrew at all, and he was a little irritated that a ghetto gentile kid like me could follow everything he said in Hebrew, etc.
@ancienthebreworg -The people who made this alphabet got it from the hieroglyphs, so most likely they meant ‘house’, since Egyptians weren’t nomadic. Small points…I’m not trying to be petty or argumentative, don’t get me wrong. This series of clips is wonderful! ‘El’ as shown by the ox-head and staff…the ‘lamedh’ comes from a different age in time than the ‘aleph’. The proto-sinaitic ‘lamedh’ has a curvy crook like a letter ‘c’ and it’s at the top of the letter rather than the bottom….
@Bimfirestarter In some cases I believe the Greek has preserved the original name of the letter, while the Hebrew name is an evolved form. For instance the gimmel in Hebrew and gamma in Greek. I believe that the Greek preserved the original name which was “gam” (gimel being an evolved name).
@Bimfirestarter I don’t know if you have read any Kabbalah or not, but this really has nothing to do with Kabbalah. There is about an 80% margin of error in the identity of the names and the meanings of the letters, but this is true for any ancient language. Also keep in mind that the Greeks adopted these letters around 1200 BCE and they used the same names as we have in Hebrew (aleph – alpha; beit – beta; gimel – gamma). Continued….
@Bimfirestarter You are correct, a beit is a house, not a tent specifically, but keep in mind that in a nomadic culture the house is a tent.
@Bimfirestarter The Hebrew word ??? can mean “thousand,” it can also mean cattle or oxen (See Strong’s #504).
@ancienthebreworg Who’s to say how the ancient Hebrews thought, other than what we have written in the Bible and relatively few, precious inscriptions? Know what I mean? This seems more like Kabbalism, the ideology, and whether it is or not, it hinges on these supposed meanings of letters, but we don’t know the names of these letters from anything earlier than maybe 300 BCE. Some perhaps had different names than we know them.
‘Beith’ doesn’t mean ‘tent’. ‘Ohel’ is the Hebrew word for tent, and the older version of ‘beit’ than the one here shown has no ‘wall’ seperating ‘the men’s side from the woman’s side’, so the logic is perhaps not sound… I believe the Serabit El Khadim inscription shows the older version of ‘beith’ that I’m referring to.
Right after the fellow with the chalkboard says his thing about this seeming Kabbalistic view of letters and the word ‘av’ this goes on to contradict him by saying ‘aleph means -not ‘master’- ‘ox’. The original shape of the letter would suggest it meant ‘ox’, but the hebrew word as found in the Bible ‘eleph’ means ‘thousand’ and ‘alluph’ means ‘sheikh’ or rather ‘chief over a thousand’.
@stevenangier I chose the picture to show a scholar, not him in particular. But thanks for bringing this up as maybe I should find another picture to more accurately reflect the narration.
Thanks, Jeff for all the great work you have been doing here. I am learning much from it. I have a question though: in this video when you put forth the idea that the Hebrew words and letters form a dependent relationship etc., you show a picture of theologian and Anglican Bishop NT Wright (at 7:25) while saying that most scholars reject this symbiotic relationship. Are you saying that Bishop Wright rejects this position? He may have. I don’t know, but I just thought I’d check if you knew.
@eli9taub
Very good observation. However I wouldn’t say that the writing came first, but the writing and language developed at the same time. If this is true, it would be very strange indeed as it would contradict all current theories on how writing and language developed.
Very interesting and nicely presented.
From the explaination of the word origins it would looks like the writing came before the spoken language – that would seem quite odd.
In fact it would seem to contradict the findings of Petrie & Gardiner from Serabit el-Khadem you mentioned in part 8.
The interpretation seems weird because we think very differently from how the ancient Hebrew think. In fact, if the ancient Hebrews were to be showed how we think, they would think we were wierd.
Cool, but the interpretation is kinda weird
Not so much the language, but the philosophy, though a universal philosophy may be related to a universal language.
what a strong closing statement and concept. So you are saying this closly relates to the universal language of old
Thank you.
Very informative.