by Risa Wolf

Created on: April 18, 2010   Last Updated: April 25, 2012

Knowledge of Hebrew is essential to a deeper understanding of the Bible for both Christian and Jew. Words carry cultural baggage. They do not carry the same denotations, let alone connotations, across the language barrier. Very few words do not have multiple levels of meaning within their social setting. Without knowledge of these multiple levels, much essential information is lost in translation. This is particularly true of translations from Hebrew; more often than not, a single word in Hebrew requires a sentence in another language. An example or two will illustrate why knowledge of Hebrew is essential for a deeper understanding of the Bible.

Illuminations in books of hours, murals, mosaics, stained glass windows, and even modern pictures show Jesus, with both a lamb and a child, as the Good Shepherd. Psalm 23 in Hebrew, not Greek, is the origin of this double image.

Psalm 23 in Hebrew is not the simple, sunny little song of the translations. Written in the merry tone of both a playful lamb and a mischievous child, this Psalm is among the densest poems ever written in any language. The Psalm sustains one metaphor: The Lord the Shepherd. It flips back and forth 30 times in just 11 lines between two domains: a lamb and a child. In Jesus' day, Hebrew speakers knew and understood these multilevel references.

Word-association triggers tied to both sound and sense reach back and forth across lines and across the two domains. If a word has five possible meanings, the poet means all five. An internal envelope encloses the bad and the good granted by the Lord against the bad. An external envelope loops back from the end to the first line to enclose the entire Psalm in an endless circle of praise and protection.

Psalm 23 has a context; in antiquity, a king or clan leader was the shepherd of his people. A bad shepherd brought calamity upon his people. A good shepherd guarded his people. The Lord of Psalm 23 is the best shepherd possible.

The first half of verse 1 has two meanings: it can be read, "The Lord shepherds me" or "The Lord is my shepherd." We need not choose; it means both. The explicitly stated doubled "and" phrasing at the close of the Psalm reiterates and reinforces the double meaning of the beginning.

From Verse 2 to the end, the psalm is a non-stop paean to the Lord presented in the ever-interacting voices of the domains of the two little ones.

Let us examine one word in Psalm 23, which should amply illustrate why knowledge of Hebrew is essential to

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>