How to Understand the Bible
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.” Hosea 1:2 NASB
Spoke through – Do you want to know the single most important key to understanding the Bible? Would you like to have just the right tool for interpreting the text? Then follow along. We’ll use YHVH’s interaction with Hosea, but we could choose just about any other conversation. The principle applies anywhere in Scripture, whether we are reading the Tanakh or the apostolic writings. In fact, this crucial principle applies any time you are reading anything at all.
First, let’s look at the whole phrase in Hebrew. “[T]he LORD spoke through Hosea” is dibber YHVH be’hosea. While the NASB chooses to translate be’hosea as “through Hosea,” it might just as easily be translated “in Hosea,” “within Hosea,” “according to Hosea,” or “with Hosea.” The idea captured by the translation “through” might lead us to imagine that Hosea was simply the mouthpiece of God. But since be can also mean “in” or “within,” we shouldn’t be quick to think that God simply sent a message to Hosea. More is implied in the use of this tiny preposition. Somehow, in ways that are not clear and are not clarified, YHVH’s speech was manifested in Hosea. What is clear is that the Hebrew cannot be contained in a single English word. The umbrella of Hebrew shelters a lot more meaning than the more technical and less flexible English.
And that, my friends, is an example of the single most important key to understanding the Bible. “Language embeds a culture. In fact, language is the clearest manifestation of a culture. If you want to learn a culture, learn its language or languages. Language is how we speak about our lives, realities, ideas, policies, and faith. And when you look at the development of a language, it tells you the story of its culture.”[1] Turnage’s remarks underscores the most important key you will ever use regarding the Bible. You must know the language it was written in! That doesn’t mean you have to become a Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek scholar (although it wouldn’t hurt). It means you have to stop relying on your translations and start asking about the original words. What did they mean to the people who used them when they were written? What umbrellas were put aside when the translators chose one word rather than another? What idioms have been replaced with contemporary images? What unwritten assumptions are part of the “way things work” according to the language systems of the original audience? How much of what you think you know about the Bible is really the result of assuming that the translation is all you need to know?
Did God speak through Hosea, or in Hosea, or within Hosea, or according to Hosea, or by Hosea, or from Hosea—or all of the above?
Topical Index: be’hosea, through Hosea, Hosea 1:2, language
[1] Marc Turnage, Windows into the Bible, p. 201.
I think that’s one of the most awesome thing (and sometimes the most challenging thing) about Hebrew – so many nuances. If I think about the different implications of the various prepositions I can use (through, in, within, according to, by, from), there are so many different possibilities, and it opens my eyes to all the different ways that Gd speaks to us. He doesn’t just use us as mouthpieces, he may speak quietly within us, or we may speak His words according to how He reveals them to us, or He may just become in us… So many ways. How often I limit Gd to one very small way of doing. Yet, He can do immeasurably more than I can imagine!
The Last (yet Living) Word
And the Word of the LORD came unto…. [Him, Her, Them..]
People are part of the Program. Adam was the first, but he certainly was not the last. All through our Bible, all through the scriptures, and all through history, God speaks to and through people. Our inspired Bible (itself) was written by and for “men.” It is a known scientific fact, monkey fingers are far too fat to use a typewriter.
Yes, from A-Z, God “having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways…” [the rest of the story?] — HAS at the end of these days spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds ~ And, according to the revelation or unveiling given unto John, “On His robe and on His thigh He has this Name written: King of kings and LORD of lords.” (Revelation 19.16) The question is: Do you worship Him as such? John tells of a rider upon a white horse. (Will there be animals in Heaven? Here we have a horse!) He, the One upon this horse,~ has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a Name [a Name that is far above every other name whether in Heaven or upon the earth!] written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is?? — The Word of God. Bible study anyone?
[please, go ahead – do this] “Search the scriptures;” [diligently!] for in them you think you have eternal life.
His answer?
~ *These are they which testify of Me* ~
*For there is one God and one Mediator between God and mankind, —the man (the Messiah) Christ Jesus
And? You [still] will not come to Me, that you might have life.
Why? Please, tell me. Why is this so? Do both mules and men suffer from stubbornness? ~ Today, if you will hear His voice, “harden not your heart!”
[for] in Him was [is] life, and that life was/is the light of all mankind.
Are the life-imparting words of the risen and reigning Christ forever true?
*Come unto Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I AM gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.…”
Again and again, thanks to Skip and community. Only recently could I really appreciate the perspective of how we understand not just what we understand. It was one of those moments when truth becomes both glaringly obvious and personal. It was the reality of my submission of my understanding to my senses and how deeply engrained predict and control was. The contrast was to submit my senses to my understanding and restore the delighted discoverer long ago lost. Again thanks to all.
Skip, this is where I get a bit frustrated. The reason isn’t because I don’t think I can learn Hebrew but the fact of the matter is there is a really big elephant in the middle of the room. It starts with if Moses were to read the Torah or the O.T of today he would have no idea what it was saying. It wasn’t written in masoretic Hebrew with vowels (Torah that is) but rather Paleo Hebrew. So am I suppose to learn that? With that even said the oldest Masoretic text dates back only 1000 years after Christ – and they even thought that there were errors in it and scribes messed with it. Then there are all sorts of discrepancies between the LXX. It begins to feel like a hopeless cause after some point. You’ll have Jewish anti-missionaries saying all these things in the N.T are wrong and have forgeries in them but conveniently ignore the fact that there are changes all over the masoretic text.
Then you start to get into the culture of Canaanites and how they had gods that resemble all different aspects of Hashem. El, “the kind, the compassionate,” “the creator of creatures,” was the chief of the Canaanite gods. He lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world. You can read all about the cult of El and the cult of Yah and how it fed into what we read today (which could explain the golden calf a bit better because El was a bull and God actually doesn’t even get upset with them for making a bull its because of the ‘singing and dancing’ which alludes to having sex). I’m sure there are some huge sources about how the Cannanite religion did some serious influence on ancient Hebrew beliefs – these are just things i have heard/read.
I guess what I’m trying to say is it begins to feel hopeless. Or am I looking at this too objectively?
I am hoping to address the gods of the ancient cultures in a week or so. Yes, I am sure it feels frustrating. I’ll try addressing that soon too. You are not alone in this feeling, that’s for sure.
We are expected to believe that the Hebrews wrote their most sacred texts in the language of their enemies, and that the Syriac Square Text was borrowed. This is like the Mormons claiming that the American Indian Hebrews wrote in Reformed Egyptian. It is much more likely that the Sacred Square text was made profane as were the Holy furniture of the temple by their captors. The paleo Hebrew was simply the common writing. The claim by the Orthodox is that there is no sacred text written in paleo Hebrew.
P’J Wiseman makes a good case for the toledoth being internal evidence that Genesis was written by eyewitnesses on tablets that would have been carried into Egypt by Jacob, passed to Joseph and placed in Pharaoh’s library where Moses had access to them.
I learned Hebrew without the modern vowels. So I notice things like Amar being both ‘said, word’ and ‘lamb’. And yes, you can read right through the vowel pointing by simply ignoring them. Hebrew does have vowels, the name Yahweh is nothing but vowels and since it pronounce with just breath, it is discerned that God is spirit. And there are 28 letters, not 22. (this also should not be unexpected since God spoke through 4 voices; prophet, priest, king and judge, and 7 means fully, and completely) 5 are final forms of five of the 22, and one is only found on the garment of the high priest. It is unpronounceable since it is not used in forming any words.
The Rabbis teach that the meaning of words derive from the combined metaphor of the letters, and the letters derive their meaning from the strokes within. As such, you can derive the meaning of a word by the letters. This is impossible to be imposed on the language by a man after the fact. We can only observe it.
The bet is a rosh with a lower horizontal line. The rosh is a revelation, distinct from a command (represented by the dalet) by an arc rather than a right angle in the top right. The curve indicates more, such as life and personality as it descends to man. The upper horizontal is what can be known about heavenly things. So the Bet is a revelation (with personality and life) to man. As a prefix it means ‘in’. God’s word was in Hosea.
As a translation, through or by Hosea is not too far out , but simply not as precise as the original metaphor for the bet. But they are all true. They are ‘close enough’ for a Hebrew understanding, though unsatisfactory to the precise mind of the Greek.
Evidence that Genesis is accurately preserved is found in the SOD. Like a watermark, if the Pashat (literal) had been tampered with, the hidden would have been spoiled as well. There is no SOD in the inter-testament books of the Catholic church. There is no SOD in Enoch. Nor in the Sephir Yetzirah. Thomas preserves the methods of riddling observed in the OT and when interpreted as SOD are consistent with Scripture doctrine. It is not scripture, but more like a lesson book on how to read scripture like a Berean.
Though I have not completely unpacked the SOD, nor is it likely in one lifetime, I have seen enough to have confidence in he reliability of Genesis. I spent 5 years on Genesis 1:1 alone. when it became clear, the rest started popping out. When Genesis 1:1 is read by the letters properly, the alphabet itself also becomes a message of Christ.
The whole of scripture springs from an invisible aleph, to the first word, the first sentence, the first chapter, and then to the rest of scripture, like a fractal expanding, speaking the primary message. God alone is God – the creator of heaven and earth.He is Holy and Love.. as revealed by the Son.
I appreciate your comments about the development of the language, but I think you might want to investigate the linguistic development of Semitic languages a bit more. It seems evident that Paleo-Hebrew was borrowed from Phoenician in spite of the cultural proximity of Egyptian. There are good reasons for this. But Babylon did influence the change in the alphabet, although I would argue that it did not cause a wholesale alteration in the linguistic culture. After all, the Targums are ADDITIONS, not the originals. Anyway, the issue is complicated. If you like, I can provide a few books on this subject when I get back to my library.
Thank you. Tradition says that the Square text is the actual language of God. In my studies under rabbis I have found it productive to make that assumption. If I made the choice to follow conventional wisdom I could not share this: ( I have intentionally chosen to spell the aleph in bereshith as ‘a’ to make it clear that bara is in barashit as I reproduce Johns exegetical methods)
The word berashit ‘in the beginning’ when read letter by letter says “A revelation to man. It is revealed that God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. His word did not return void. What he intended to do, he finished.”
If it is split into bara shith is says “God created six” . Pull out the middle and it says “a covenant with man’in the center”. Pop off bar; Son, what is left is “had a purpose of total devotion (burning as in the burnt offering).
Bara is translated “created” but the rabbi’s say it is also the word which created because God used words when he created. John tells us that bara is in barashit. The word was in the beginning. He says that bara was with Elohim, and indeed the first three words of Genesis are barashit bara elohim and bara is with elohim , the word was with God. Bara is: bar the Son – aleph spoke and created the heavens an the earth. So indeed the Word was God. AND the Son ‘bar’ was the Word ‘bara’.
Elohim has three puns:alo khoom – not dark, so John say he was the light. l’chaim – life, and lechem – bread.
The rabbis ask why Ge 1:1 starts with the second letter of the alphabet and not the first. They personify the letters and make the aleph more humble. But the real answer is that the silent aleph is also invisible, from it we discern that when God spoke and created the heavens and the earth (aleph) he did it when no one saw or heard him do it.
The first two letter then are ab but you done see then for the invisible aleph. From the beginning no man has seen the AB father. The first two visible letters are BR. Bar is the Son who makes the Father known.
John tells us that in heaven shamayim there are three. The gematria is three, and the consonants represent the Spirit, Father and Son. He says in earth there are three. In artz ‘earth’ the gematria is 3 and the letters represent the spirit hovering over the water, the revealed word as the water, And holiness and grace reconciled in the death of the righteous one as the blood.
Further we are told the spirit hovered over the waters. Shamayim the Shin is the spirit and mayim is waters.
These may seem like trivial accidents of the language, But they are systemic to the whole.
Take the dalet which we said was the command or spoken word and add the final mem as the finished work of the son and you get blood ‘dam’. Add the aleph as the secondary metaphor of the Spirit hovering over the water put the spirit in the face of dam, and you have Adam. Since Adam didn’t understand that God is Holy, add the hei which means not understanding the word. Now you have adamah for ground. Adam was in the ground filled with blood and has the spirit breathed into him.
The words are formed by the metaphor of the letters which are derived from the revelation of the cross. I am not sharing opinions, but observations. The nature of the language is unlike any other. Anyone can make the observations if they assume the language has the attributes attributed to it and then solves a giant crossword puzzle.
Oh, the message of the alphabet itself:
God is. God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. He revealed to man .. that he pursued them with a .. declared word .. which they heard .. and it distinguished them .. as the bride. when they understood .. they became the bride; .. a new creation. The Son of God .. taught .. the promise of the Father. .. The Son of Man .. fulfilled the promise .. reconciling holiness and grace. .. He spoke of heaven through examples of earth . .. Holiness and grace were reconciled in his flesh. .. The Son of God died .. revealing .. that his word does not return void. He completed his work resulting in a new life spontaneously responding to him. The Son of God died … and finished his declared works. .. The Son of Man died. .. The prophet died . .. The judge died . ..
For the time being I am fascinated at seeing Christ pop out of the scriptures at every turn. Most theologians openly admit they cannot read the OT the way the NT authors did. I have just reproduced the exegesis of John 1:1-4 and gave several other examples showing that the metaphor is consistent.
For those who think I invented it.. that I imposed a consistent metaphor on an alphabet that produce shadows of Christ that agree with the NT doctrine of Christ, and is used in every verse of every chapter of the OT,… Thank you for thinking I am more brilliant than God. But I’m not. The evidence, of which this is just a sample, demonstrates that God intended to speak of Christ, throughout the OT Just as Jesus said it did.
He wants us to know…then to believe (obey) .. then to understand.. that He is God; beside him there is no other.
Thanks, but . . . a whole lot of interpretive paradigm going on here. Not that it isn’t interesting. It’s just a matter of how much LATER readers “find” in the text because they use their current understanding (paradigm) to read what the ORIGINAL audience might never have seen or known.
Also, please, let’s try to keep the comments short and pithy. 🙂
Thanks. The original audience would not have seen it. It was hidden in mystery until the cross when the mystery was revealed. The original audience interpreted it literally having no clue of the cross. But Jesus expounded on several occasions how the scriptures spoke of him.
Consider Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness. To make bread from stones? That comes from a literal reading of the prophecy. But Jesus did exactly that: He is the rock and stone of the OT prophecy, and he did make the stone aben (father-son) into bread and it was given for us.
Satan read the scripture literally and used it as a temptation. Jesus read the shadow and metaphor and fulfilled it.
The modern scholar accuses Jesus of reading back into scripture what wasn’t there. I might suggest that since he is the author of the OT scripture, he might know better than the modern scholars.
As for ‘finding’ it… yes. It is observed. The metaphor is not free-for-all, the rules are strict, the evidence ample, and the method reproducible and verifiable. The genre of prophecy is childish riddles and word play found in a double-entendre, known as ‘dark sayings/ riddles, shadows and types’ in scripture.
Thank you for as Skip said a very interesting explanation.
I love your connection to John 1 as well as showing that There are three facets of God busy with the creation… Sorry we cannot discuss this further in detail, if you can maybe provide a source we can read up on this topic…
Bob, you have a website or blog? That’s a lot of information to carry alone.
I’m not really an author. I use a personal wiki for study. I would be happy for someone else to write or to draw out of me what should be written. It’s not fair to publish links here without permission.
Understanding the Bible…
I was advised to consider the life of a child when approaching the scriptures. Remove previous insight and knowledge and view it as an opportunity to be.
Live life for the moment and enjoy it. Read scriptures in the moment and live it…
Become a living example of what you read not a question on how it could also be… Needless today I got caught up in studying and not living and this may be way God is not speaking in me but I need others through who I trust He is speaking…
Seeker, I agree. I go through periods where I deliberately do not read Scripture. Instead, I focus on applying it. We are promised that if we hide the Word in our hearts, the Holy Spirit will remind us of it at all applicable moments. This is about sharpening the ears, as Skip points out, for it is in daily life that the Word comes alive.
Our first parents chose for us to limit our understanding to experience only – and it is in living that I learn – but I think this also means that everybody has equal opportunities to learn about love. As we go about experiencing good and evil we learn to decide which one we choose. The Bible promises that all those who seek will find. Those without Scripture get taught directly by the Spirit. It is vanity and a dreadful mistake to assume that we can ‘teach’ ourselves. Not possible! Even if we think we know all the words we are reading! I go through my day asking and listening, and if I ‘hear’ relevant Scripture in my heart as a response, I am happy, for the Word confirms what the Spirit says, always.
Have a blessed day listening. Me too.
Ditto Laurita