Language of The Bible

The Jewish People are known as the chosen people of God.  This, because they were picked to be the ancestors of Jesus from among the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed "Israel".  The Israelites are not Jews, but the Jews are Israelites.  Judah was the fourth son of Jacob/Israel and represents the fourth tribe of Israel.  (The number 4 is representative of the earth and the name Judah means: "The Praise of The Lord")  His mother was Jacob's beloved Leah.  Gen.46:12

The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language by Moses, the poets and the prophets, Genesis through Malachi.  It was the language Adam spoke.  In my writings, I will make frequent reference to the Hebrew language for translations in the Old Testament.  The same goes for the Greek of the New Testament.

FYI:  the Hebrew language reads right to left, has 22 letters in the alphabet and uses those letters for numbers.  It is a bit complicated when you grow up with English but highly descriptive and beautiful in meaning.  Hebrew goes much deeper in meaning than English, rendering more to the meaning.  A typical example is the word "Shalom" which is translated "peace".  BUT indeed, is much more.  To understand it in Hebrew, you have to translate it as "perfect peace" with a meaning of health, calm assurance, great peace and prosperity; the perfect peace of God.  Heb.4:12 

Letters represent numbers; there is no actual number system in Hebrew outside of the alphabet.  This gives greater significance to  numbers.  Each number/letter has a meaning.  ie:  7 is the number of completion, 5 represents God's grace, 10 is the number representing law and 12 the number to represent government.  Every number in the Bible has deeper meaning than just a count.  We can go deeper into this in another writing.

Another interesting word is "hesed". I have seen this word translated as "faith" which does not go near the description of all of the positive aspects of God: faithfulness, peace, love, truth, honor, eternal, steadfast, gentleness, shelter, and on and on, encompassing every adjective that describes this magnificent being.

"Hesed" - a beautiful Hebrew word that cannot be defined by one English word. This word encompasses all the positive assets of God: faithfulness, honesty, love, wisdom, compassion, generosity, grace, devotion, joy, loyalty, etc, etc, etc. This amazing word can only define God because any human beings are incapable of possessing all of these qualities. 

There are no swear words in Hebrew.  Of course, it is God's language.  To curse or swear, the Hebrew people must borrow a swear word from another language.

I find that Jewish people have a reverence for God that I have never witnessed.  They will not write His name; instead you may see "G_d" or the term "Hashem" which means "The Name", referring to "Yahweh". 

When studying any culture, it is important to know the language in order to truly understand.  In studying the Old Testament, it is an enormous help to understand the basics of Hebrew. 

Jesus was Jewish of the Hebrew people.  He spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and probably Roman.  What the heck, He was God in flesh so He could speak any language at any time with anyone.  I am sure He could speak in one language to a crowd and the Holy Spirit would translate in any tongue to a listener who spoke a different language - just like on the first Pentacost.

The Bible will make you wise.  As Jesus often said, "It is written."
Rev.1:3

Amen