On our home page you see a picture of the Western Wall. It is if we may say so, a beautiful picture. You could also look at the Western Wall area of the Old City of Jerusalem on a 72-inch high definition TV. It would look so real; and if they showed a close-up of the Wall, you would see every little detail, every little nook and cranny of the Wall. You might even feel like “wow, I’m right there!” I know when my wife and I have seen the Wall on TV, we both say, “it’s like we could step right through the TV and be there!” (Which we would do in a heartbeat if it was possible! For the record we don’t own a 72-inch TV, or even close to it).
The Wall looks very bright, vivid, and again, “like we’re right there”, when they show the Wall or Plaza area up close.
However having been very blessed to have been there and prayed there many times, both individually and together with others (traditional Hebrew prayers) I can tell you this.
There is no comparison no matter how good the picture, between seeing the Western Wall, and actually being there. Not even remotely close!
For one thing, there is a certain almost indescribable weightiness one experiences at the Wall, that does not come through on TV (or the Net). The only way I can try to describe it in words is this. There is a very palpable feeling of weightiness there, as though there is the Afterglow so to speak of the LORD’S Presence, that’s still radiates there almost 2,000 years after Yeshua was there, and after the Temple’s destruction by the Romans. The Psalms of course speak of Jerusalem as the, in Hebrew, place where He (the LORD) dwells like a neighbor.
It reminds me of this passage in the Torah. The LORD says to Moshe He will pass over “…(the) weightiness (of) glory (of) Me…”, in response to Moshe’s, more deeply in Hebrew saying “…the positive bearer of existence actuality, show me (very literally “see”) me, I beg, plead, beseech, pray, there is some doubt it will happen, (the) essence and substance and everything about, in an encompassing way Your weightiness of Glory.” Exodus 32:22; v.18.
Glory in Hebrew is no abstract idea. It is weightiness of Glory (the best we can render it in English) and means heavy. The exact root letters are used for “liver”, because the liver is the heaviest i.e. the weightiest organ.
Though Moshe asked this of the LORD at Mount Sinai not Jerusalem (so there’s no confusion), it is this sense of the weightiness of the LORD’s Presence, that one can feel at the Western Wall. “Presence” in Hebrew comes from “dwell”, which more deeply means “to dwell like a neighbor”. It is again, as though there is the Afterglow of the LORD’s Presence that still radiates there! I am no world traveler, but I have felt nothing even remotely like this anywhere else.
When I made this remark to a pastor I know he replied, “I am a world traveler and I have not felt anything like this anywhere else”!
In fact there is an Indescribable sense of weightiness in the Land of Israel in general that I have never come even remotely close to feeling in the US or Canada (and I am very fond of both).
Very interesting you might say, but what has this to do with Radically Biblical – The Western Wall And The Unique Benefit To You Of The Bible’s Original Languages?
Hebrew is very concrete rooted where Greek is concept rooted. In the Hebrew Bible and in the Hebrew heart of Yeshua, as well as Paul and the other Jewish Brothers (followers of Yeshua) who write the RCS (Renewed Covenant Scriptures: a much more accurate term than “New Testament” as we explain ahead) we tend to find the following.
That is, the use of physical metaphors; the olive root of Israel the individual Gentile follower of Yeshua is grafted into (Romans 11:17-24), houses of stone, lamps, doors, oil, etc., used in order to illuminate great spiritual truth.
This is why Yeshua speaks of himself as “the good shepherd and the sheep” i.e. people, in Yochanon 10. (“God is gracious” – and He is (!) “John’s” original Hebrew name).
Sheep were very important in first-century Israel. You can still see Arabs herding sheep today in the Valley of Hinnom, a short distance down below the Western Wall area and Mount Zion. If you walk no more than 10 or 15 minutes north, with the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and David’s Citadel and Jaffa Gate on your right and cross Paratrooper Boulevard. on your right, setback, is the New Jerusalem City Hall.
How many modern capital cities can say that!
Learning and being taught from the Bible’s original languages is actually like being at and experiencing the Western Wall area; rather than seeing a picture or video regardless of how high definition it is.
Lest we forget Yeshua’s use of shepherd and sheep, he derives very directly both from the Torah, beginning with Abraham and Isaac, and especially Jacob’s experience with the LORD and with the angel, who we know was Yeshua in his divinity (Genesis 48:15-16; see Genesis 32:25-33. You should note; Yeshua gives Jacob his name Israel here!). The rabbis astutely point out, the greatest of men in the Hebrew Bible were shepherds. This also includes Moshe and David. Sheep were very important in Yeshua’s first-century agricultural Israel; and of course at the Temple!
Yeshua’s use of shepherd and sheep comes from his Hebrew heart and his connectedness with those greats listed above (Matityahu “Matthew” 1; for Moshe see Luke 9:28-36 and the Mount of Transfiguration).
Yeshua’s Hebrew heart also comes from his knowledge of the Torah and of the 23rd Psalm (“the LORD is Shepherd of me”, as we explain the Hebrew in our audio teaching. Please see the Psalms window). Again, sheep were important in agriculturally-based first-century Israel; as well as having great spiritual significance.
The spiritual significance is for another blog or better, a teaching…
In translation Yeshua is “the good shepherd” Yochanon 10. In his Hebraic original – after all Yeshua speaks to his fellow Jews in Israel does he not? – this is what his fellow Jews heard him say.
“The” in Hebrew or Aramaic (Hebrew’s close sister language), more deeply means the positive bearer of existence actuality. “Good” in Hebrew means good, well-being; bring benefits to man.
Thus Yeshua’s original tells us he is the positive bearer of existence-actuality, good, well-being; bring benefits to man, shepherd.
Which seems richer to you; the immediately above or “the good shepherd”? Yochanon’s Koine Greek rendering (for a 1st-century Roman world where Koine Greek was common) tells us that Yeshua is not merely described with the quality of shepherds in general. Neither Hebrew nor Greek uses “a”. Koine Greek, which is very Hebraic rather than classic Greek (Attic), in short tells us Yeshua the shepherd is the specific subject named. (Articular nominative used to specifically name the subject and to indicate “to be”. Yochanon uses it in Yochanon 10:11, to tell specifically about what follows. That is, the good shepherd).
Further what form of “the” does Yochanon use?
English does not differentiate between types of uses or forms of “the”. Koine Greek has four different types depending in short on what is being emphasized (Called “cases”. One case (optative) is for particularly emotional expression, and does not use “the”).
In Yochanon 10:11 we see specifically that the key subject named is Yeshua, that he is “to be” not “a” good shepherd but “the good shepherd”. Further “the” in Greek is, no pun intended, the most used and according to Greek grammars the most important word in Koine Greek! It is extremely key to properly understanding the Koine Greek text – and thus gives us, the best way to understand and apply it!
Are we talking about “grammatical technicalities”? No! Rather, keys to more deeply open up what in this case Yochanon – not Latin or English minded non-Jews – is trying to express to us! The original languages reveal to us more deeply and more accurately and authentically what the writer tries to communicate to us. The more accurately we understand the writer’s expression and intention the more accurately and authentically we can apply it as God intends it to be!
Further, what form of “the” does Yochanon use? English does not differentiate between types of uses of “the”. Koine Greek has different types – and much more complex uses of “the”.
These are extremely key. Why? How do they benefit us over “the” in English? How do we learn of the truer intent of the writer?
Lest we forget; the Renewed Covenant writers, write under Inspiration. Does the Ruach Hakodesh (Hebrew name of the Holy Spirit) supernaturally teach the writers English? Of course not!
The Ruach inspires them to write based on what they know of the language. (In the Koine Greek Text there are obviously different levels used; depending on each writer’s own knowledge).
Yochanon in 10:11 uses “the” for Yeshua as the good Shepherd we believe, to indicate what is called “par excellence”, “in a class by itself” or “monadic” “one of a kind”.
Thus, we benefit by knowing that Yeshua does not just have the quality of “a” good shepherd; he is the specific subject named, the specific subject discussed, and, that Yeshua is the shepherd par excellence and one-of-a-kind! In other words the focus is on Yeshua as the shepherd, the good (in Hebrew, noun before the adjective).
Further – and this is key- Yochanon’s Greek reflects an Hebraic original typically not seen in English.
In English the shepherd the good is obviously awkward; thus the good shepherd. However Yochanon’s Greek “O poimnv (“poimeen”) O kalos” “the shepherd the good, beautiful”, directly reflects Yeshua’s Hebraic original. Thus we benefit by hearing Yeshua speak with his Hebrew heart; not a Greek-Western mind!
This is because Hebrew expression is the shepherd the good (noun before the adjective).
Here is another great and profound benefit to you from the original languages.
Is it the “New Testament” – or is it really the “Renewed Covenant” – that Yeshua makes at the Last Seder, Luke 22?
Lest we forget; the question of some scholars “Hebrew or Greek for Yeshua?”, is very easily settled for us by Acts 26:14-15 and Yochanon 20:16. See also Revelation 9:11; especially 16:16 and Armageddon. “Mary” Magdalene, Yochanon 20:16, was actually “Miryam” (“Bitter”) “Miriam”. (Greek “Mariam” to transliterate the Hebrew “Miryam”; same for Yeshua’s mother! “Magdalene” is not a last name, it’s original reflects the town she was from).
To return: “Testament” come from the Latin “Testamentum”; as foreign to Yeshua as Hebrew to William Shakespeare!
Luke’s Greek rendering of an Hebraic original in Lk.22:19-20 is “diatheke“, “covenant”. Here is the “key” – and how we profoundly benefit from Luke’s original, when it comes to “new”.
In short, Luke uses a form of the Greek for “new in quality”, “renewed””. For example, like the new moon. Luke does not use neos, “new in time” i.e. brand new.
Here is the great “key”. If Luke thought those fellow Jews of Yeshua he personally called at the Last Seder, thought Yeshua was making a “brand new covenant”, Luke would have used a form of neos, new in time i.e. brand New Covenant. Luke does not! Luke uses a form of renewed, new in quality Covenant (a specific form of “kainos”).
Luke communicates to us in Lk 22:19-20 v.20, that the Jewish Brothers with Yeshua understood Yeshua was making a renewed, new in quality Covenant; not a “New Testament”!
They did not hear, “the brand New Testament”! They did not hear, and Luke’s Greek rendering does not reflect, “testament”. They heard and Luke communicates to us, the “the renewed, new in quality Covenant”!
Does Yeshua in Lk. 22 – or anywhere – speak of “Old Testament” – “New Testament”? No. No!
Yeshua comes in the flesh (Yochanon 1:14) as 1st-century Jew in Israel, who spiritually thinks in Hebrew (cf. Luke 4:16-17 etc.). Yeshua is of Hebrew heart; not – at all – of Greek-Western mind!
Hebrew is “wholistic”, not dichotomy/separation rooted. Yeshua – nowhere – speaks of any sort of “OT-NT” dichotomy!
Imagine the positive potential possibilities and great benefits to you in hearing Scripture as though you were actually at and experiencing the Western Wall, rather than seeing a picture of it…
That is the “why”, of why learn together, from the original languages!
The original languages bring us closest to the heart of God, because they are the ones HE speaks or communicates directly to us through.
Amazing!