Tag: Hebrew
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Jubilees and the curse of Cain
This is a short post continuing my study of Jubilees. See here and here for background. Jubilees contains only a short reference to the murder of Abel: 1 In the third week in the second jubilee, she gave birth to Cain; in the fourth she gave birth to Abel; and in the fifth she gave…
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Wings of healing and protection — Part 2
This is simply a continuation from where I left off in part 1. It is just too much to cover in one post. So it’s better to read part 1 if you have not done so but I will still give a very brief recap: The Hebrew word, kanaph, is translated into words as diverse…
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Wings of healing and protection — Part 1
In our modern society, wings are associated with freedom and movement. Spreading your wings is an idiom relating to independence. This is very different from how ancient Israel used the symbolism. They used wings as symbol of healing and protection. The Hebrew word for wings is kanaph. This can also mean extremity or edge and…
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Blood and soul
Israel are commanded time and again not to eat or drink any blood. This strict prohibition is repeated many times in the Torah. For example, in Leviticus 17: 10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against…
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The meaning of Hagoth
Hagoth is an interesting Book of Mormon character, who is introduced in Alma 63 And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by…
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Paneh (פָנִים): face
The Hebrew word for face would seem a quite trivial thing to make a blog post about, but I find it interesting for several reasons. Just like other body parts, face can be taken literally but also carry deeper symbolic meaning. For an ancient Jew, the face was also synonymous with “presence”. This is sometimes…
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Adam and adamah — Part 3 ("in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed")
Links to Part 1 Part 2 We have looked at the story in Genesis 2-4 from the perspective of the ground (Hebr. adamah) because it plays a central role and is even sometimes personified, but also because it forms an intimate relationship with man (Adam) in the text emphasized through the similarity of words. In…
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Adam and adamah — Part 2 ("the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood")
Adamah as the mother of adam When I write adam with lower case ‘a’ in the heading, it is in the meaning of mankind, not as a personal name. With so much focus on the earth (Hebr. adamah) in Genesis 2-4, it is an interesting exercise to read these chapters from the perspective of the…
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Adam and adamah — Part 1 (Introduction)
As I read the beginning of Genesis recently, I noticed the central role of the ground in chapters 2-4 in particular. The Hebrew word adamah means land, ground, earth, soil (listed in order of translation frequency in the Old Testament). Linguistically, it is closely related to Adam, the Hebrew word for man or mankind in…
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"the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters"
The creation account The phrase in the heading has always been a bit mysterious. You may recognize it from the second verse of Genesis. The creation is a fascinating account chock full of symbolism. What to make of this phrase? Two important things are worth mentioning for a start. “Spirit” in this phrase is from…