ELTBefore Introduction
Learning Hebrew: My Journey
When I first started learning Hebrew, my main goal was to find out if the meanings people gave to Hebrew words were really true. The Hebrew alphabet was so new to me that I couldn't even recognize the letters at first. To get better, I used a children's workbook and traced the letters until I could tell them apart.
I also used tools like Strong’s Concordance and Harris’ Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament to learn what Hebrew words meant. But as I dug deeper, I noticed something troubling: much of the information wasn’t reliable. For example, the Wordbook was based on vowel marks (called nikud) that didn’t exist until 600 AD, long after Jesus’ time. Many entries had notes like:
- “4a – Assumed root...”
- “1a – Assumed root...”
- “27a – Assumed root...”
These notes admitted that the roots and meanings were mostly guesses. I didn’t want to build my understanding of Hebrew on guesses, especially since I was studying the language of the Bible. (See Appendix 1: Critique of Modern Hebrew Tools )
Next, I looked into what the Rabbis taught about Hebrew. They had a deeper knowledge of the language in some ways, but their teachings often left out Jesus. This meant their interpretations were sometimes off track. Even when they had some correct insights, much of what they taught was still misleading.
For example, the Rabbis told Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin) that Hebrew had only 22 letters, like Greek. But that wasn’t true. Hebrew has 28 letters, including six “final forms” used only at the end of words. One of these letters even appeared on the priest’s clothing but wasn’t found in any words. The number 28 made more sense considering the special meaning of numbers. [1]
The Rabbis also claimed that every Hebrew word came from three-letter roots, like in Greek. But this ignored an important part of Hebrew: the shapes and strokes of the letters themselves have meaning. These shapes are key to understanding Hebrew words, but the Rabbis didn’t share this information. Final forms are different letters from the standard forms because they have a different form. (See Appendix 2: Critique of Rabbinic Interpretation )
To deepen my understanding of Hebrew, I realized I needed to step away from traditional methods. Instead, I chose to study the letters and their shapes, aiming to uncover their meanings inductively. Given that Hebrew had been a dead language and the ancient approach to understanding it had long been forgotten, I began reverse-engineering the language.
I analyzed approximately 8,000 Hebrew words (lemmas) from Strong’s Concordance, breaking them down into their individual letters. I then examined the strokes and shapes of each letter, treating Hebrew as a vast, three-dimensional crossword puzzle. (See Appendix 3: Hebrew as a Multidimensional Crossword Puzzle ) As I progressed, patterns and connections began to emerge. When I applied these insights to the first verse of Genesis, it felt like a major breakthrough. (See Appendix 4: Restoration of Ancient Methods of Interpretation )
My work isn’t finished, and I’d love to hear thoughts and ideas from others. But so far, this journey has been exciting and rewarding. I believe I’m on the right path to uncovering the deeper meanings of Hebrew and, through it, the Bible itself.
[1] We do not do any kind of Gematria, but treat numbers as any other symbol which must follow the same rules. Twenty-eight (28) is much more interesting than twenty-two (22) because of the abundant usage of 4 and 7 as symbols compared to the dearth of 22. It suggests that the alphabet contains 'all' (7) that God has to say through the four (4) voices of prophet, judge, priest and king. Everything that can be said is formed by the combination of the meaning of the letters. This eliminates the idea that spirituality is an ethereal experience incapable of being put in words. Awe alone is not spirituality. True spirituality is knowing God as he has chosen to be known, through the means he has given to be known.
