Skip,
I wanted to comment on the “Jots and Tittles” referenced in Matthew 5:18;
[18] For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. – Mat 5:18 KJV
You commented about the “crowns” on the letters in the Torah – these are not actually what are referred to here. They’re known as the “tagin” and only appear in the Torah scroll. They look like the letter zayin and only appear on seven letters – shin, ayin, tet, nun, vav, gimel and tsade. They’re known as the “treasures of the Torah”.
The “jots” refer to a series of 5 dots above the text that appear in a sefer Torah scroll in the following places: Gen 33:4, Gen 37:12, Num 3:39 and Deut 29:29 as a sign that these four stories are connected and form a whole picture.
The “tittles” refer to other classes of scribal marks within the text and appear in the prophets and the other writings as well as the Torah. They include “stigmatised” letters i.e. letters that are written defectively (e.g. the “broken vav” in Num 25:12 re Phineas, the inverted nuns in Numbers 10:35-36, Psalms 107:23-23,40 and the elongated vav in Lev 11:42), Enlarged Letters, Small Letters and some places where sofit (the final form) letters are used in the middle of words e.g. the final mem in the middle of a word in Isaiah 9:6.
Every one of these marks has a teaching associated with it and almost every one has something to do with Messiah Yeshua. Unfortunately, many Jews don’t know what they’re about since they rejected Yeshua as Messiah and the Christians have no idea about them either since they don’t read the scriptures in Hebrew.
For reference, all of them are shown in the Stone Edition of the Tanach.
Here’s one example – the “inverted nuns” in Numbers 10. They appear like parentheses around verses 35 and 36 in a sefer Torah scroll. Nun is a picture of a fish and means, “the quickening of life”. It’s like when a fish suddenly splashes its tail in a pond as it darts away. When the letter nun is written inverted though, it has an even more specific meaning – it means “life from the dead” i.e. resurrection.
So what are the verses around which these inverted nuns appear in Numbers?
[35] And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O Lord , and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” [36] And when it rested, he said, “Return, O Lord , to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.” – Num 10:35-36 ESV
Yes, these two verses are “bracketed” at the beginning of v35 and the end of v36 by the inverted nuns. Solomon said that the Torah contains the “7 pillars of wisdom”. Some sages divide the book of numbers into 3 at this point – Num 1:1 to 10:34, 10:35-36 and 11:1-end. They say that the wisdom contained in these 2 verses is equivalent to all the other individual books of Torah.
Remember, the inverted nun means resurrection, so we have the first resurrection, “Arise O Lord, let Your enemies be scattered…”, then “Return O Lord to the myriad thousands of Israel” followed by the second resurrection (ours).
I am reminded of the words of Paul in his letter to the believers in Corinth:
[6] Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. [7] But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. [8] None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. [9] But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”– [10] these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. – 1Cr 2:6-10 ESV
Also those of Solomon:
[2] It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. – Pro 25:2 ESV
Skip,
I wanted to comment on the “Jots and Tittles” referenced in Matthew 5:18;
You commented about the “crowns” on the letters in the Torah – these are not actually what are referred to here. They’re known as the “tagin” and only appear in the Torah scroll. They look like the letter zayin and only appear on seven letters – shin, ayin, tet, nun, vav, gimel and tsade. They’re known as the “treasures of the Torah”.
The “jots” refer to a series of 5 dots above the text that appear in a sefer Torah scroll in the following places: Gen 33:4, Gen 37:12, Num 3:39 and Deut 29:29 as a sign that these four stories are connected and form a whole picture.
The “tittles” refer to other classes of scribal marks within the text and appear in the prophets and the other writings as well as the Torah. They include “stigmatised” letters i.e. letters that are written defectively (e.g. the “broken vav” in Num 25:12 re Phineas, the inverted nuns in Numbers 10:35-36, Psalms 107:23-23,40 and the elongated vav in Lev 11:42), Enlarged Letters, Small Letters and some places where sofit (the final form) letters are used in the middle of words e.g. the final mem in the middle of a word in Isaiah 9:6.
Every one of these marks has a teaching associated with it and almost every one has something to do with Messiah Yeshua. Unfortunately, many Jews don’t know what they’re about since they rejected Yeshua as Messiah and the Christians have no idea about them either since they don’t read the scriptures in Hebrew.
For reference, all of them are shown in the Stone Edition of the Tanach.
Here’s one example – the “inverted nuns” in Numbers 10. They appear like parentheses around verses 35 and 36 in a sefer Torah scroll. Nun is a picture of a fish and means, “the quickening of life”. It’s like when a fish suddenly splashes its tail in a pond as it darts away. When the letter nun is written inverted though, it has an even more specific meaning – it means “life from the dead” i.e. resurrection.
So what are the verses around which these inverted nuns appear in Numbers?
grrr – getting my “blockquote” and “/blockquote” tags mixed up… 🙁
What a great thing it is to have so many contributors from the community with so much to offer us all. Thank you, Rodney. I didn’t know this.