God’s Texting

Then they spoke against God; they said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?  Psalm 78:19  NASB

Hebrew Acronyms – BTW, FYI, CYA.  We use them all the time.  Acronyms.  But did you know that the instructions about praying the Amidah in Hebrew also employ an acronym, a Hebrew acronym.  Here’s what it looks like:

בעשי”ת

It occurs at the beginning of this line:

בעשי”ת: זָכְרֵֽנוּ לְחַיִּים מֶֽלֶךְ חָפֵץ בַּחַיִּים וְכָתְבֵֽנוּ בְּסֵֽפֶר הַחַיִּים לְמַעַנְךָאֱלֹהִים חַיִּים

In English the rest of the sentence is, “Remember us for life King, Who desires life; and inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, Living God.”

You will notice that there are no vowel points in the acronym.  That’s because it really isn’t a word.  It’s an instruction about saying this prayer, an instruction that is made up of a preposition, an abbrevation and a special character.

The preposition is בֵ, “in.”  Next comes the first two letters of the word עשֶׂרֶת, the first letter of the word יםֵ, followed by the abbreviation of the word תֶּשׁוּבָה (the abbreviation is ת”).  All of that to say, “During the Ten Days of Penitence add.”  But how would you know this?  Well, clearly, someone has to tell you.  You could never figure it out, or even read it, without someone giving you instructions.  Fortunately, prior generations know what this means (as a result of also being instructed) so that the meaning can be passed to you and me.  And, of course, once we know, we can pass that information on (as I am doing right now).

What’s the point of this little investigation into God’s texting (LOL)?  It’s just this: Hebrew requires an informed instructor who knows the traditions of the past.  It’s not a language that can be deciphered without tradition, without prior oral instruction.  This little acronym makes the point.  Every word in the Hebrew Bible needs the same oral instruction because until the Masorites added the vowel pointing in the 10^th Century C.E., all reading depended on prior tradition.  The Masorites systematized the text, hopefully correctly.  But the Dead Sea Scrolls show us that the Masorites didn’t always follow the prior traditions.  Unfortunately, almost every modern translation of the Bible depends on the Masorite text.  This makes me wonder what God must have to correct to prepare us to hear what He actually said.

Topical Index:  acronym, Masorites, vowel pointing, Amidah