The Original Documents in Hebrew

 

The world's oldest copies of the biblical scrolls are found in the Shrine of Book in Israel. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and therefore it would be useful for us to consider examining this actual original language, the Bible was written in. Unfortunately English is not rich enough to capture all of the essence of the original text. Some interpretations are word for word and others capture the "thought process" and transliterated by the interpreters as per its context.

This material, is taken mostly from the Precept upon Precept Leader's guide, shows the depth of the Hebrew language:

Let's look at some to get a feel of it:
1. In the beginning God.... God here is a plural noun and the transliteration from Hebrew to English letters is ELOHIM, the "IM" ending is plural.
God - more than one - created as One.

John 1:1-3,14 describes the Word was with God, that says that there are two distinct persons of the Godhead. But the Word also was God, and this shows that these two are indeed one in essence. The Word, the Son of God, created all things in the beginning.

Other Scriptural references are: Heb 1:2; Col 1:16; 1 Cor 8:6; Rev 4:11

2. created.... bara "emphasizes the initiation of the object... creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)." Before God created everything else, there was only God. There was nothing except Him, so creation is out of nothing.

3. ...the Spirit of God was moving, hovering or vibrating (rachaph), over the surface of the waters.

4. He "said" (amar) - to speak or say. This is mentioned 8 times. In Hebrew 11:3 ...the worlds were prepared by the Word of God".

5. He saw; raah means to look at or inspect.

6. He separated; badal means to divide or distinguish.

7. He called; qara means to call our, cry out - the light "day" the darkness "night"

Time reference is "evening and morning" - one day

The first day of creation God created the heaven and the earth; said that there should be light; saw that the light was good; separated the light from the darkness; called the light, day and the darkness, night.

8. He blessed; barak or barakh means praise, salute, kneel. It can also mean to curse.

God blessed them by telling them to be fruitful and multiply.

9. ...were "completed"; kalah can mean to accomplish, bring a process to completion, at an end, finished.

10. Rested, shabat or shabath or shavath can mean cease, desist or rest, leave off, to bring to an end.

11. He blessed it; He sanctified it; qadash or qadhash can mean holy, consecrate, to be set apart, to be clean or make clean.

The Bible is very interesting if you learnt it in its original language and context!