A History of Hebrew Part 12: The Alphabet and Language Connection

[discoqueen1970]

I am truly enjoying this. I want the video

[lepenseur1]

I didn't understand the conclusion : why would most scholars deny this simbiotic and dependent relationship between hebrew words and its aleph-beyt!? Are you basically saying that the Hebrew vocabulary and the aleph-beyt didn't evolve together but rather independently!? If so, how would so many relationships could be present between the pictographs, the actual aleph-beyt and the entire Hebrew vocabulary!?!?

[ancienthebreworg]

@lepenseur1 I am claiming that the alphabet and the vocabulary were created simultaneously, and this is what is rejected for the simple reason that if the meanings of the letters match the definition of the word they formed, it proves they were created together and not separately.

[wiseyeffect]

So A=Ox Eloim=God or Baal. Funny how the Nordic mythology begins with a cow from all is created.

[FractalInfinities]

Fractals :)

[12345soccerguy]

wow, how did the ancient semitic people know how a seed looks like? i'm talking about how the photographic nun, looks like a sperm cell!

[ancienthebreworg]

@12345soccerguy The simple answer is that it looks like any sprouting seed, but as you noticed, it looked like a sperm, and I find that very interesting.

[deborahbetty58]

Not sure if my first comment posted; In any case: Hebrew is a conceptual language... idd and I luv it :-))

[hankkoeh]

i think the way the clip explains the origin of Hebrew language is very wrong. for example,

father: av, is likely from "aba" which is just a common and natural calling for father among various human languages, not related to tent or ox.

[ancienthebreworg]

@hankkoeh Many others have proposed the same theory, but the problem is that this relationship between the meaning of the letters of a word are directly related to the meaning of the word is not unique to this word alone, but with the entire Hebrew vocabulary.

[donsdigitaldig]

I have just found this site and am delighted. Thankyou

[ancienthebreworg]

@donsdigitaldig You're welcome.

[avoice77]

Mr. Benner, are you saying that most Hebrew scholars reject the symbiotic relationship that you support regarding the meaning in the hebrew letters and words because they believe the hebrew letters and words evolved separately over a long period of time? (Excuse me if my question does not accurately reflect what you said in the video)

I rely on your books for study/teaching and the benefits have been priceless. Your work is causing great things to happen.

[ancienthebreworg]

@avoice77 Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. I hope you are finding the books and materials useful.

[avoice77]

@ancienthebreworg Your books and other materials have opened up a whole new dimension for me - so the benefit has been monumental. I do presentations in classroom based on your books and the attendees say they find the information very valuable.

You are bringing clarity to a diverse and previously obscure body of knowledge that will ultimately affect the course of the world.

Keep up the great work.

[ancienthebreworg]

@avoice77 That is good to hear, thank you.

[hypnotix2000]

7:00 good description... however, also note that God is considered 'the Sheppard' ... perhaps therefore the staff and the bull?

[YAHWEHisperfect]

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 ....

[ancienthebreworg]

@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.

[Bimfirestarter]

'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.

[ancienthebreworg]

@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]

@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]

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'.

[ancienthebreworg]

@Bimfirestarter The Hebrew word אלף can mean "thousand," it can also mean cattle or oxen (See Strong's #504).

[Bimfirestarter]

@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.

[stevenangier]

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.

[ancienthebreworg]

@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.

[eli9taub]

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.

[ancienthebreworg]

@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.

[melbourneopera]

Cool, but the interpretation is kinda weird

[ancienthebreworg]

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.

[Bimfirestarter]

@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.

[ancienthebreworg]

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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?

[Bimfirestarter]

@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!

[KRU78]

what a strong closing statement and concept. So you are saying this closly relates to the universal language of old

[ancienthebreworg]

Not so much the language, but the philosophy, though a universal philosophy may be related to a universal language.

[swift65594]

Very informative.

[ancienthebreworg]

Thank you.

[HadasahB]

Well done! - and (more importantly) enlightening!

[ancienthebreworg]

Thank you.

[tudungsenduk]

Nun from snake and not seed?

[ancienthebreworg]

While the image of this letter does look like a snake, and many people believe this comes from the Egyptian Hieroglyph for a snake, in my opinion it is a seed. This is mostly based on the fact that the Hebrew word nun means "heir" or "continuance." The Hebrew word for a snake is nahhash.

[tudungsenduk]

In Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, nun can represent a water snake, eel or fish. I do not know how it can be a seed. Nahhash starts with a Nun. In hebrew nun can also mean future generation or posterity i.e. The head to the tail. The idea of a snake is bad luck thus maybe this is why we have the 'missing nun' in Psalms 145..

Thanks Jeff.

[ancienthebreworg]

Ah, interesting interpretation :-)

[deborahbetty58]

Actually it does look like a semen to me. Although I do understand ppl tend to make a link with the Egyptian, hieroglyphic snake. Like in Gen. 3:16, the Seed will crush the head of the serpent; God's Seed versus satan's seed. One could also wonder, if the orginal (Semetic) icon/letter for semen wasn't perverted as a concept, through Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

[moemoe56]

how can you say that writng came first, when came after adam and eve

[ancienthebreworg]

I didn't say writing came first, I said that writing and speech existed together, symbiotically.

[ancienthebreworg]

That is a good question. Speach really isn't part of the equation, just the vocabulary (words) and the alphabet (letters), so yes, it is possible for the written to have existed first apart from speach. Is there a reason you ask? An alternative theory?

[Danmill23]

Jeff ... Half way through this vid I was thinking which came first the writing or the speech ...

It would seem logical that the speech came first. You seem to imply they developed together....

Could the written word have come first? Or at least have had a major organizational influence on the speech?

[jmbpastor]

"The implication of this relationship between the meanings of Hebrew words and the letters, is that the words and letters form a dependent symbiotic relationship."

What do you think Jeff... were they formed together?

[ancienthebreworg]

Yea, I do. It is a tough pill to swallow but the alternative is that this relationshiop between the letters and their meaning is just coincidence and I find that hard to swallow too :-)

[bradyspace]

This is amazing!

[canadianbacon007]

Thx, very interesting.