Pictograms in Biblical Hebrew

our last session covered the Hebrew alphabet and I made the point that the Hebrew word for a miraculous sign from God is an ought and the word for a letter of the Hebrew alphabet is also an ought Aleph love tub the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet with a evolve in between valve is a connecting letter at the start of a word it usually means and in Hebrew I also made the point in the last session that I believe that every letter of the Hebrew alphabet points to Jesus and it is Jesus who connects us to heaven he is the connection between heaven and earth between spiritual and material and in this word what he connects from first to last from beginning to end and that introduces the idea of pictograms the symbols behind each of the Hebrew letters a pictogram is an icon it is a symbol that conveys its meaning through a stylized resemblance to an object we're familiar with the idea through road signs for example a stop sign might have a hand raised palm open to indicate its stop it's a universal sign it's a recognized no matter what language you speak this idea and the characters of an alphabet is fairly common in ancient languages I don't know anything about the Chinese languages but I understand that about 4% of the characters in their writing are pictograms representing for example Sun Moon trees etc Hebrew has these pictographic ideas behind each of their letters I'll cover a few of them here is a second principle to understand every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a name I left bet gimel dalet and so on many but not all of these names have meaning that can add to our understanding or confirm our understanding of the idea contained in the pictogram of the letter sometimes the name of the letter simply sounds like a word that adds meaning let me illustrate this from the Bible in the Book of Jeremiah in the first chapter we read the word of the Lord came to me saying what do you see Jeremiah and I said I see a rod of an almond tree then the Lord said to me you have seen well for I'm watching over my word to perform it that makes little sense to us in English but if we understand Hebrew we realize that the Hebrew word for an almond almond tree is shaked and the Hebrew for watch over is shocking in both cases spelled Shin kook dalit but with different pronunciations one word sounds like another it is a play on words we get the same idea in the Book of Amos chapter 8 thus the Lord God showed me and behold a basket of summer fruits he said what do you see on us and I said a basket of summer fruit then the Lord said to me the end has come for my people Israel it makes no sense to us in English but when we realize that the Hebrew words there are kites for summer summer fruit roof your daddy and the word for end in Hebrew is ket's roof sorry - the Hebrew year these are very similar sounds once again there is a play on words now when we come to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet the pictogram behind this letter is an ox head with horns horns in the Bible are a symbol of strength the name of the letter is Aleph and other sounds like aloof which is the Hebrew word for chief or leader combining these two ideas the pictogram and the name of the letter we see that it symbolizes the leader the main person now let us look at the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet bet the pictogram is a tent if you were to visit Israel today and made a tour to the Negev desert you'd likely be taken to a Bedouin in campement and there you'd see tents open tents with their backs to the wind these are the sort of tents that Abraham Isaac and Jacob lived in and the Israelites in the wilderness and of course that was their house where their household gathered and the word bet the name of this letter of the alphabet means a house or household now we get the first example of a word that is formed out of these two letters the letters on the screen are Aleph bet Aleph is a leader bet symbolizes a house the word spells of father the leader in the house is the father let us look at another Hebrew letter the fifth letter hey the pictogram idea behind this is a mouth breathing breath the idea behind it is spirit or revelation the name for this letter is hay like the Hebrew word henna hair indicates behold see revelation now let us look at a word that is formed out of the three letters we have covered the word on the screen is our half a loaf hey bet the first that indicates a leader the last that indicates our house or household Aleph bet that means father in Hebrew the letter in between is hair indicating spirit the spirit of the leader of the house the spirit of the father and the word spells loved I'm reminded of the scripture where God tells us that he so loved the world that He gave His only Son that all who believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life the word on the screen now spells Ahava Aleph hey Beth hey it means love the spirit of the leader of the house the spirit of the father is revealed and that revelation his love the love of God and his expression of love is the giving of his son as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet that we'll look at is evolved it is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the pictogram is a nail the nail is indicative of the character of this letter of the alphabet it is a connecting word the next letter we'll look at is the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet sign the pictogram is of a scepter the scepter of a king a symbol of his authority it would be a small baton or a staff held in the hand a royal symbol a symbol of authority the word on the screen now is Zahav sign hey bet Zahav in Hebrew means gold gold is a type of faith the spirit of the king over the household of God is trust faith and the last pictogram we'll look at here is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet you'll the pictogram is of a hand and the word hewed sounds like the Hebrew yard meaning hand interestingly the next letter is a cuff and cuff means the palm the open palm of the hand and so we have two words for hand side by side but the right hand one is the you often in Scripture we see the reference to the right hand of God I'll give you one more word to consider it is the Hebrew word for hyssop hyssop is a weed a lowly plant that grows in Israel it has spongy leaves and a woody stem the first Bible reference to hyssop is in Exodus 12 where hyssop was to be used to dip into the blood of the sacrifice lamb to apply the blood to the doorposts and the lintel of the houses of the israelites so that the Angel of Death would pass over them another reference to hyssop is found in Psalm 51 which is King David's prayer of repentance after his adultery with bath Shema he prayed cleanse me with hyssop in the New Testament we have a reference to hyssop at the cross in the Gospel of John we learned that Jesus was given sour wine in a sponge on a stalk of hyssop hyssop a lowly plant is a picture of humility hyssop in Hebrew is Heslov Aleph Zion valve Becks once again we see the letters elephant bet on the outside and inside the letters Zion valve Zion is a scepter and love is a nail it's a picture of the father with the symbols of our king the Lord Jesus the king who humbled himself unto death on a cross the scepter in his hand is a nail

Channel: thelivingword

Views: 23,596

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Keywords: Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew language, Hebrew alphabet, Pictograms

Id: Tzwu2P510hM

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2015