The Hebraic New Testament (Part 4)

This is the fourth in a series of studies on Hebraic characteristics in the New Testament.

And it came to pass....  the phrase is so stereotypically Biblical.  We probably don't even notice the words as we are reading— we just pass over them along the way to the words that mean something.   Behold, a collection of them all together— all the verses in Luke that begin "And it came to pass..."  (I am not expecting anyone to read every word.  Just scan it and get an impression about how often this phrase appears.  I could give statistics or just list the references— nobody would look them all up— but seeing them makes it more real.)

Luke 1:23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.
Luke 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
Luke 1:59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
Luke 2:15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Luke 2:46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
Luke 5:12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Luke 5:17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Luke 7:11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.
Luke 8:1 And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,
Luke 9:18 And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?
Luke 9:33 And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.
Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
Luke 19:15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
Luke 19:29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
Luke 20:1 And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,
Luke 24:4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
Luke 24:15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luke 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Luke 24:51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Every one of these occurrences of "and it came to pass" in Luke is translated from the Greek phrase kai egeneto (και εγενετο – G2532 G1096).   Thayer's Lexicon (p. 115) says that the phrase kai egeneto is "very common in the first three Gospels, especially that of Luke, and in the Acts."  Following is an image from Thayer's Lexicon showing the quote.  Notice the little bit of Hebrew after the και εγενετο; that is the the Hebrew (ויהי – vay'hi) that kai egeneto is translated from where kai egeneto is used in the Septuagint.

Following is a graph of occurrences of kai egeneto (και εγενετο) in the New Testament.  Notice that it is common is the same set of books were we have seen Hebraic patterns in previous studies in this series.  You won't find quite as many occurrences of and it came to pass in the King James Version (and fewer still in most other translations) because it is sometimes ignored in English translations or sometimes translated into English in a different way.

Following is a graph of occurrences of kai egeneto in the New Testament where the phrase is at the beginning of a verse.  As you can see by comparing with the previous graph, most occurrences are used in this way.

The reference in Thayer's Lexicon to the Hebrew vay'hi (ויהי) is a clue that should make us suspect that this is a common pattern in the Septuagint and in Hebrew.  It is.  Vay'hi occurs 601 times at the beginning of verses in the Old Testament.  Here is a graph of the occurrences by book.

Like kai egeneto in the New Testament, some of the occurrences of vay'hi are not translated in the KJV as and it came to pass, but 304 of them are.  Following are some occurrences of vay'hi in Genesis that begin a verse and are translated into English as and it came to pass.  As with the previous list from Luke, I don't expect anyone to read them all— this is just to get a visual impression of the pattern.

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Gen 8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Gen 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Gen 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Gen 19:17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Gen 19:29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
Gen 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Gen 24:15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
Gen 24:30 And it came to pass, when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister’s hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me; that he came unto the man; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the well.
Gen 27:30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Gen 29:23 And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her.
Gen 31:10 And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.
Gen 39:7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
Gen 39:13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,

All of these verses begin with kai egeneto in the Septuagint.  In the Septuagint, kai egeneto is used to translated vay'hi.   In the New Testament, kai egeneto may or may not be a translation from Hebrew, but it is certainly a Hebraism— a phrase that is characteristic of the Hebrew language.  The Hebraism is evident even when translated into English.  When you see and it came to pass in the New Testament, you can be reminded that it is little bit of Hebrew in the language.

Patience (Part 4)

This is the four study in a series on patience.

The parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 is a good illustration of the true meaning of patience as it is used in the Bible.  The king was lenient with his servant, but the servant was not lenient with his fellow.  This text uses the verb form makrothymeo of the word makrothymia used in Galatians 5:22.

Mat 18:21 ESV - Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. 23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience (μακροθυμησον – makrothymeson – G3114) with me, and I will pay you everything.' 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience (Μακροθυμησον – Makrothymeson – G3114) with me, and I will pay you.' 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 'And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

We see Paul using the adverb form makrothymos with King Agrippa— he is seeking to be judged with a tolerant spirit.

Act 26:1 ESV - So Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense: 2 "I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently (μακροθυμως – makrothymos – G3116).

The well known text on love in 1 Corinthians describes the true spirit of patience (makrothymia)— it endures offences, bears wrongdoing without irritation or resentment.  It is the spirit that Jesus talked about in Matthew 18; it is willingness to forgive— slowness to punish.

1Cr 13:4 ESV - Love is patient (μακροθυμει – makrothymei – G3114) and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

The Hebraic New Testament (Part 3)

This is the third in a series of studies on Hebraic characteristics in the New Testament.

In the last study we looked in the Greek New Testament at a pattern of verb-subject-object phrases beginning with the word and (και – kai).  Since this pattern is not the norm for Greek but it is common in the Septuagint and it corresponds to the grammar of Biblical Hebrew, it seems likely that the pattern in the New Testament is a Hebraism— "a usage, trait, or characteristic of the Hebrew language."

Five New Testament books contain this pattern much more than any of the other books: the five books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts and Revelation.  The following graph shows the counts of this pattern by book, sorted by descending count.  Mark has 263 occurrences of the and-verb-subject-object pattern.

In today's study, we are going to look at another pattern— the use of the word behold (Greek: ιδου – idou – G2400).   The Greek word idou is translated in the King James Version as behold (181 times), lo (29 times), and see (3 times).  Thayer's Lexicon describes idou as "used very often in imitation of the Hebrew hineh (הנה)."  The Hebrew word hineh (H2009) and the related word hen (H2005) are translated in the KJV Old Testament as behold, see, lo, here etc.  Some would argue that idou is not just an imitation of hineh, but rather, it is a translation— more on this later.

The word idou also occurs more frequently in the same set of books as the and-verb-subject-object pattern.  Notice that the same five books— Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts and Revelation— use this word much more than the other books.

Let's look at idou in the Septuagint to see what Hebrew word it translates.  We will look at the texts in English first in order to see the context.  Following are texts from Genesis 1-11 that use the word behold in the KJV.  The word behold is in bold red; those that are highlighted in yellow correspond to instances of idou in the Septuagint.


The word behold in Genesis 1-11, King James Version

Now we will look at the same texts in Greek from the Septuagint; the word idou is highlighted in yellow.  Notice that it is the same verses— Gen 1:29; 1:31; 3:22; 6:13; 6:17; 9:9; and 11:6— that are highlighted above.


The word ιδου in Genesis 1-11, Septuagint

Now we will look at the same texts in Hebrew; words hineh (הנה) and hen (הן) are highlighted in yellow.  Notice that it is the same verses— Gen 1:29; 1:31; 3:22; 6:13; 6:17; 9:9; and 11:6— that are highlighted above.  The instances of hineh and hen that are not highlighted in yellow below— Gen 4:14; 6:12; 8:11 and 8:13— are not translated in the Septuagint, but they are translated as behold in the KJV.


The words hineh and hen in Genesis 1-11, Hebrew

The word hineh occurs 1061 times in 1004 verses in the Hebrew Bible.   I don't have immediate access to the same statistics for idou in the Septuagint, but the evidence I have from the tools I am using is that it occurs more than 1000 times.   In the Septuagint, idou is not an imitation of hineh, it is a translation and there are hundreds of instances where idou translates hineh.  

Lets look at some examples from the New Testament.  Matthew 28 has six instances of idou in 20 verses.

Matt 28:2 And, behold (ιδου – idou), there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

Matt 28:7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold (ιδου – idou), he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo (ιδου – idou), I have told you.

Matt 28:9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold (ιδου – idou), Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Matt 28:11 Now when they were going, behold (ιδου – idou), some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

Matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo (ιδου – idou), I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This is just one more piece of evidence that some people use to support the idea that some of the books of the New Testament were originally written in Hebrew.  This idea isn't just modern speculation.  There are ancient sources that present it as history.  Eusebius of Caesarea wrote his Church History in the 4th century.  Here is the historical/documentary evidence from the Church History.

Book 3, Section 24: Matthew at first preached to Hebrews, and when he planned to go to others also, he wrote his Gospel in his own native language for those he was leaving, his writing filling the gap left by his departure.

Book 3, Section 39: Mathew compiled the sayings in the Hebrew language, and each interpreted them as best he could.

Book 5, Section 8: Matthew composed a written Gospel for the Hebrews in their own language.

Book 6, Section 25: I learned by tradition that the four Gospels alone are unquestionable in the church of God.  First to be written was by Matthew, who once was a tax collector but later an apostle of Jesus Christ, who published it in Hebrew for Jewish believers.

There is more documentary evidence; I will talk about it in a future post.

My purpose in studying this topic is not to discredit the Greek New Testament or to search for "lost" Hebrew texts.  The goal is to better understand the New Testament by looking at it from a Hebraic perspective.

Patience (Part 3)

This is the third in a series of studies on patience.

The Oxford American Dictionary defines patience as "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset."  Although tolerance of delay is a an important kind of patience, the examples from the Old Testament using the equivalent Hebrew words seem to be more about tolerance of offenses in others— of avoiding conflict and of having a forgiving spirit.

Pro 15:18 NIV - A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,but a patient man calms a quarrel.

Pro 19:11 NIV - A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Does the New Testament also use the word patience in the same way?  Certainly controlling anger in an impersonal setting— such as a delay in traffic— is important, but even more important is controlling our anger when we are mistreated or offended.

Eph 4:1 NKJV – I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering (G3115 – μακροθυμιας – makrothymias), bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The following text brings out the connection between patience and forgiveness very clearly.

Col 3:12 NKJV – Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering (G3115 – μακροθυμιαν – makrothymian); 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

Paul points to Jesus as the example of this kind of patience.

1 Tim 1:16 NKJV – However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering (G3115 – μακροθυμιαν – makrothymian), as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

As we saw in an earlier study, Patience is not permissiveness.  We see Paul making this point in the next text.  We can be patient and principled at the same time— rebuking and exhorting and teaching.

2 Tim 4:2 NKJV – Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering (G3115 – μακροθυμια – makrothymia) and teaching.

James  also links patience to not grumbling against one another— if we are patient we may have to endure suffering— without grumbling!

Jas 5:9 NKJV – Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience (G3115 – μακροθυμιας – makrothymias). 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

Peter points to the patience, the longsuffering of Jesus as our salvation.

2 Pet 3:15 and consider that the longsuffering (G3115 – μακροθυμιαν – makrothymian) of our Lord is salvation...

Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they do.”

The Hebraic New Testament (Part 2)

This is the second in a series of studies on the Hebraic New Testament.   The purpose of this series is to demonstrate the Hebraic characteristics of significant portions of the New Testament and to justify the use of the Septuagint as a primary tool for interpreting New Testament Greek.  This post covers the same material as the last in this series— I am hoping it makes the subject a little clearer.

Here are a few photographs of "Chinglish" signs.  The photographer is Jeremy Barwick.

More photographs of "Chinglish" signs can be seen here.

When you see a sign like this, what do you know about the writer of the English text?  Based on the English text alone, we know that English is not the native language of the writer; we know that the writer is from a non-English speaking culture.

Following is a familiar nursery rhyme as it might look if it had been badly translated from Hebrew.  Are we justified in saying "this looks foreign?"  Would any native English speaker doubt the foreignness of this text?

And behold, Miriam to her a goat young
Which hair as snow.
And all places that Miriam walked,
The goat certainly to walk!

He walked her to the house of the book day one,
Which toward the statutes.
He did the sons mock and sport,
To behold a goat at the house of the book.

The Hebrew word seh (שה – H7716) can mean either "a sheep or a goat".   If Miriam, in the Hebrew "original", had a little seh, which word should we use to translate it into English?  It is the same question we would face in translating Genesis 22:7 from Hebrew to English.

Genesis 22:7 – And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the seh for a burnt offering?

The Hebrew word qaton (קתן – H6996) can be translated in various ways including young or small or unimportant.   In the rhyme, is Miriam's goat old but small in size or is it young?  In the following text, Solomon refers to himself as a na'ar qaton which is translated in the KJV as a small child.  The word na'ar (נער – H5288) is translated in the KJV most frequently as young man or servant.  It is thought that Solomon was in his late teens or possibly early twenties when he became king.  Did he really mean small child or did he mean unimportant young man?  (Or did he mean that he was a short servant?)

1 Kings 3:7 – And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a na'ar qaton: I know not how to go out or come in.

The Hebrew word halakh (הלך – H1980) is translated in the KJV as go (217 times), walk (156 times), and come (16 times), among others.  In the rhyme, did Miriam's goat go or walk?  The translators of the Bible have to make decisions like this one.  Compare the following two verses that use the identical word (‏ויתהלך – v'yithalekh) in Hebrew, but where different English words are used to translate it?  Did the translators make the right choices?

Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
(Or, did Enoch go with God?)

1 Chr 21:4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
(Or, did Joab walk throughout Israel?)

There are two points to this exercise.  One— translation is not easy and it is not possible to produce a perfect, English representation for any foreign language source text.  The English translation is always a compromise between choices— none of which perfectly express the meanings and connotations of the foreign text.  Two— sometimes some foreign elements are retained in the English translation that indicate the foreign origin of the text; the characteristics of these foreign elements may allow us to identify the foreign language of the source text.  Or, the specific characteristics in an awkward English text may allow us to identify the native language of the writer struggling with faulty English.  We may not be able to determine whether a text is a translation or whether it is mearly written by a foreign writer, but we can often identify the foreign language and culture that the text came from and we can often point out specific features in the foreign language that produced the awkward English.

Some medical transcriptionists working in English with doctors whose native language was Spanish noticed that one doctor routinely mentioned in his reports that his patients had "three sons" or "two sons" or "five sons", etc.  After a while, they began to wonder if the doctor somehow never had patients with daughters.  When they asked him he said, "Of course some have daughters.  Why do you ask?"  They pointed out that he always said "sons".  He asked, "How do you say it then?"  In Spanish, the word hijos is the plural of hijo (son) and is used to mean both sons and children.

A brief detour— this difficulty also exists in translating Hebrew to English.  The following two texts both use the same word b'ney but one translates it as children and the other as sons.  B'ney is the plural of ben, which means son.

Exod 1:1 KJV – Now these are the names of the children of Israel (b'ney Yisrael), which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.  /  ESV –  These are the names of the sons of Israel...

2 Kgs 6:1 KJV – And the sons of the prophets (b'ney hanvi'im) said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.  / GOD's Word – The disciples of the prophets...  /  NIV – The company of the prophets...  /  The Message – the guild of prophets  /  CEV – the prophets  / 

It wasn't a grammatical error that was the clue that something was anomalous in the doctor's use of the word sons;  it was the improbability of his language that was the clue indicating that he was using a Hispanism— a usage derived from Spanish rather than standard English.  In a similar way, the pattern of verses beginning with and-verb in New Testament Greek is not grammatically disallowed, but it is unlikely to be frequent in standard Greek.  When we see this pattern repeating frequently in a text, we are justified in looking for an explanation.   A Hebraic origin for the text is an explanation because the pattern matches the structure of Hebrew text.

Following is Mark 6:30-44.  The text is taken from the KJV.  I have modified it so the English matches the Greek word order in the places where the Greek begins a verse or phrase with a kai-verb pair (in English and-verb).  It is non-standard English, but it makes it possible to see the pattern apart from the Greek text.  The pattern is highlighted with green for the and and orange for the verb.  Notice that this is a very frequent pattern in this passage (it is common throughout Mark) and recall that this pattern in not frequent in standard Greek.


Mark 6

• 30 And gathered the apostles themselves together unto Jesus,
  and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.
  
• 31 And said he unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place,
  and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
  
• 32 And departed they into a desert place by ship privately.
  
• 33 And saw the people them departing,
  and knew him many, and ran afoot thither out of all cities,
  and outwent them,
  and came together unto him. 
• 34 And came out Jesus, he saw much people,
  and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd:
  and began he to teach them many things. 
• 35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 
• 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 
• 37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat.
  And say they unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 
• 38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see.
  And knew they, they say, Five, and two fishes. 
• 39 And commanded he them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 
• 40 And sat they down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 
• 41 And took he the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
• 42 And did eat all they, and were filled.  
• 43 And took up they twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 
• 44 And were they that did eat of the loaves about five thousand men.
  

Biblical Hebrew is a language that prefers verb-subject-object order (Hit John the ball); Greek is flexible but tends towards subject-object-verb order (John the ball hit) or subject-verb-object order (John hit the ball).  English is a subject-verb-object language.  If we see a New Testament Greek text with frequent use of verb-subject-object order, and we have other reasons for making a Hebrew connection, can we understand it correctly while ignoring the Hebraic character of the text?  I will talk about other Hebraisms in the New Testament in a future study. 

The purpose for looking at Hebraisms in the New Testament is to lead us to see the texts through the lens of the culture in which it was written.  We can use the Septuagint as a tool for comparing the language of the New Testament with the Old so that we can better understand it.

1 Corinthians 14:13 (Contemporary English Version) –
When we speak languages that others don't know, we should pray for the power to explain what we mean.

Patience (Part 2)

This is the second study in a series on the subject of patience.

What impressions do we get from these photographs?  What emotion is being communicated?  How do we recognize it?

The web site simplebodylanguage.com describes the characteristics of an angry face.  Two of the characteristics that the site mentions are relevant to this study.

• Nose wrinkle - the nose is pushed up as the brows furrow.
• Nostrils flare - the nostrils are wider and are pulled up.

In the last study on this topic we looked at the Greek word makrothymia (G3115 – noun) and the related word makrothymos (G3115.1 – adjective) that is used in the Septuagint Old Testament and is often translated as slow to anger.  

Exod 34:6 ESV -  The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim), and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,...

Prov 14:29 ESV - Whoever is slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

In these texts in the Septuagint, the Greek word makrothymos translates the Hebrew phrase  erekh apayim.  This phrase is composed of the word erekh  and apayim.  Erekh (H750) is defined as long or slow in Gesenius's Lexicon.  In addition to the singular (one) and plural (many) grammatical forms that we are familiar with in English, Hebrew has a dual form (two) that is used to express the concept of a pair.  Apayim is the dual form of the word aph (H639) which has the primary meaning of nose or a breathing place (nostrile) in Gesenius's Lexicon; thus, apayim is a pair of nostrils.  The phrase erekh apayim could be translated literally as slow of nostrils.  Since nostril flare is an important facial indicator of anger, this phrase is an appropriate figure of speech to communicate the concept of a restraint from anger at an offence (Prov. 19:11).  This manner of speech is typical of Hebrew; it often uses concrete, physical expressions ("he lifted his eyes") to communicate ideas for which we use abstract words.

The Greek word makrothymos (G3115.1) that is used in the Septuagint to translate erekh apayim (slow to anger) is a compound of the Greek words μακρος (G3117 – makros)and θυμος (G2372 – thymos).  Macros means long and thymos which is defined as passion or angry heat in Thayer's Lexicon; the component parts of the word match the corresponding Hebrew words in meaning.

In the previous study on patience, I mentioned the word leniency as one of the definitions for makrothymia.  The dictionary defines leniency as permissiveness or willingness to lower standards of strictness when it comes to imposing discipline.  I don't think that fits a Biblical picture of God.  Exodus 34:7 makes that clear— he "will by no means clear the guilty."   "The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." (Heb 12:6)  The following text adds balance to the picture— God is forebearing, longsuffering and restrained, but he is not permissive or indulgent.

Nah 1:2 ESV - The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger (‏ארך אפים – erekh apayim / μακροθυμος – makrothymos) and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

The story of Eli the Priest is a good illustration of a character that permissive rather than patient.  It also shows that God is patient rather than permissive.  The text says that Eli "kept hearing" a bad report about his sons.  A "man of God" came to Eli and warned that "the days are coming" when he would be punished.  God then speaks to Samuel and said "I am about to do a thing... I am about to punish [Eli's] house."  1 Samuel 3:19-21 ("And Samuel grew...") suggests that some time passed  before Eli died (chapter 4).  Eli was warned and had plenty of opportunity to repent.  We see in this story a contrast between a patient God and a permissive father.

1 Sam 2:12 ESV - Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.... 17 ... the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.... 22 Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 And he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24 No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25 ... But they would not listen to the voice of their father,...

1 Sam 3:11 ESV - Then the Lord said to Samuel, "Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever."

The story of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) also provides a contrast between patience and permissiveness.  

Exd 32:21 ESV - And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?" 22 And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, 'Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' 24 So I said to them, 'Let any who have gold take it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." 25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.'"

Just shortly before, Moses had been begging God to relent from destroying the people, but now he is calling for punishment.

Exod 32:9 ESV - And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Ezekiel 33:11 describes well the balance between God's patience and justice.

Ezek 33:11 ESV - "Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Patience (Part 1)

This is the first study in a series of studies on the topic of patience.

Gal 5:22 ESV - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience (G3115 – μακροθυμια – makrothymia), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The word patience in this text translates the Greek word makrothymia (G3115), a noun in a family of words that include a related verb, adjective and adverb.

• G3114 – μακροθυμεω – makrothymeo – verb – Be lenient
• G3115 – μακροθυμια – makrothymia – noun – Leniency
• G3115.1 – μακροθυμος – makrothymos – adjective – Lenient
  
• G3116 – μακροθυμως – makrothymos – adverb – Leniently
  

One of the definitions given in Thayer's Lexicon for this word is "slowness in avenging wrongs."  The Apostolic Bible Polyglot uses the word leniency to define makrothymia.  Many of the Old Testament uses of this family of words are describing the slowness to anger, forebearance, tolerance, endurance, restraint and clemency of God over our disobedience.  For this reason, I would like to focus on leniency— the restraint of a parent with a wayward child— when looking at some of these Old Testament texts.

In the texts below, key points are highlighted in yellow.  The English words that translate one of these Greek words (makrothymeo, makrothymia, makrothymos, makrothymos) in the Septuagint are in bold and are followed by a Strong's number and the Hebrew text (in Hebrew script and English transliteration) that the Greek word translates.  I will discuss the Hebrew words that these Greek words translate in a future post. 


The first use of these words in the Septuagint is in Exodus 34:6.  It is the well known passage that begins "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger..."  Notice in this passage the connection between slow to anger and "forgiving iniquity and transgression."

Exod 34:5 ESV - The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim), and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Later, when the people rebel at the border of Canaan, Moses intercedes with God and reminds Him of His own words.  Moses than adds: "Please pardon the iniquity of this people" and God responds "I have pardoned, according to your word."

Num 14:2 ESV - And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!... 4 And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt." 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.... 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." 13 But Moses said to the Lord , "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,... 15 Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, 'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'... 17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 'The Lord is slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.' 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now." 20 Then the Lord said, "I have pardoned, according to your word.

We can read an account in the book of Nehemiah where the people confess their sin and recall God's leniency with their ancestors.

Neh 9:16 ESV - But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.

In the Psalms, we Bless the Lord for his tolerance and restraint for "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."

Psa 103:2 ESV - Bless the Lord , O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.... 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

In the book of Proverbs there are several verses that make comparisons or contrasts with this concept.  The contrasts are highlighted in green.  In these texts we are encouraged to imitate the patience of God.

Pro 14:29 ESV - Whoever is slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Pro 15:18 ESV - A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim) quiets contention.

Pro 17:27 ESV - Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit (G3115.1 / קר רוח – qar ruach) is a man of understanding.

Pro 19:11 ESV - Good sense makes one slow to anger (G3114 / ‏האריך אפו – he'erikh apo), and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Ecc 7:8 ESV - Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit (G3115.1 / ‏ארך רוח – erekh ruach) is better than the proud in spirit.

God's tolerance and restraint should lead us to return to him, to "rend our hearts."

Joe 2:12 ESV - "Yet even now," declares the Lord , "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the Lord , your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger (G3115.1 / ארך אפים – erekh apayim), and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
(NKJV – ... relents from doing harm. / CEV – The LORD said... I don't easily lose my temper, and I don't like to punish.)

Paul cautions us not to "presume" (NASB: think lightly of,  NIV: show contempt for) on the patience of God over our waywardness for "God's kindness" is meant to lead us to repentance.

Rom 2:4 ESV – Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience (G3115), not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

The Hebraic/Aramaic New Testament (Part 1)

This is the first post in a series on The Hebraic/Aramaic New Testament.  The purpose of this series is to show that there is significant evidence for a Hebrew (or Aramaic) background to the New Testament.

Many authors have observed that there are frequent Hebraisms in the Greek of the New Testament.  Several theories have been offered to explain the Hebraisms.  Some have suggested that the authors of the New Testament were imitating the "translation Greek" of the Septuagint; others have suggested that the writers were working with source documents written in Hebrew (or Aramaic); and others have proposed that the original language of some of these books of the New Testament was Hebrew or Aramaic.  I don't take a position on which of these theories is correct.  I am interested in this topic because it leads us to a useful approach for interpreting the text of the New Testament. 

Our English New Testaments are all translations of Greek manuscripts.  How do we determine the meaning of Greek words written two-thousand years ago?  One approach would be to look for other Greek texts of the period to see other contexts were a word in question is used; many of the texts we could look at would be of pagan origin.  Alternatively, we could use Greek texts of Jewish origin as our primary context; many of these texts might be translations of Hebrew sources.  The primary text in this category is the Septuagint; the Greek translation of the Old Testament.  If we assume that the text of the New Testament is at least culturally Hebraic even if not directly or indirectly from a Hebrew source, then we should prefer to use Hebraic contexts for interpreting the Greek language of the New Testament.  The Septuagint might serve for us as a kind of Rosetta Stone— a document for which we have essentially the same text in multiple languages that we can compare.

The New Testament mentions specific languages several times.  What can we learn from these references to language?  In the following texts, the Greek references are highlighted in orange and the Hebrew references are highlighted in yellow.  Each instance of the word Greek or Hebrew is in bold; in parenthesis following each of these words is the Greek text from the Greek Bible, along with its English transliteration, and the Aramaic text from the Peshitta Bible, along with its English transliteration.  (The Aramaic New Testament text is from the Peshitta Tool at Dukhrana Biblical Research.)

Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek (Ελληνικοις – Ellenikois / יונאית – yavnayit), and Latin, and Hebrew (Εβραικοις – Ebraikois / ועבראית – v'ebrayit), THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit), Gabbatha.
John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) Golgotha:
John 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit), and Greek (Ελληνιστι – Ellenisti / יונאית – yavnayit), and Latin.
Acts 21:37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek (Ελληνιστι – Ellenisti / יונאית – yavnayit)?
Acts 21:40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue, saying,
Acts 22:2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / דעבראית – d'ebrayit) tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
Acts 26:14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew (Εβραιδι – Ebraidi / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek (Ελληνικη – Ellenike) tongue hath his name Apollyon. (Aramaic: וארמאית שמא לה אית שרא – varmayit shma leh it share)
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew (Εβραιστι – Ebraisti / עבראית – ebrayit) tongue Armageddon. 

Notice that in these verses, Hebrew is consistently referred to as Ebraisti in Greek and Ebrayit in Aramaic.   The Greek references are also consistent but with one interesting exception (highlighted in green) on the word Greek is in Revelation 9:11 where the Aramaic Peshitta is translating into Aramaic rather than Greek and consequently does not say "in Greek."

Although these verses come to us from Greek manuscripts, it is the Hebrew language that is mentioned most frequently.  Of special interest are the verses in Acts 21; Paul is in Jerusalem and a crowd has been stirred up against him.

Acts 21:35 When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. 36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, “Away with him!” 37 Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I speak to you?” He replied, “Can you speak Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 But Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; and I implore you, permit me to speak to the people.” 40 So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,...

Notice in this text that the commander asks "Can you speak Greek?"  Would this question make any sense if Greek was commonly spoken in Jerusalem?

In a future study, I will have more to say about documentary evidence for a Hebraic perspective on New Testament texts.   For the remainder of today's study I want to focus on one aspect of internal, linguistic evidence for a Hebraic perspective.

The following graph shows the number of occurrences, per 1000 words,  of verses in the King James Version of the Bible that begin with the word and.  The first occurrence of this pattern Genesis 1:2: "And the earth was without form...."  The next verse also begins with and: "And God said, Let there be light..."  In fact, 29 out of 31 verses in the KJV Genesis 1 begin with the word and.  Take special note of the two dips in the graph. The first begins around the book of Job and continues somewhat lower for most of the rest of the Old Testament.  The second dip begins after the book of Acts and continues up to but not including the book of Revelation.

Verses Beginning With And in the King James Version

Verses Beginning with And in the World English Bible

The World English Bible has many fewer verses beginning with and.  Is this use of the word and to begin a verse some peculiar King James English trait that died out in more modern English?  Let's look at the evidence.  Following is a list of books of the Bible.  The name of each book (or range of books) is followed by two numbers; a count of the verses in the book (or range) beginning with the word and followed by the count of the total verses in the book (or range).  For example, 1142 verses in Genesis begin with and; there are a total of 1433 verses in Genesis.  80% of the verses in Genesis begin with and!  A very large percentage of the verses in the King James Old Testament begin with the word and.  In face, 8840 verses out of 23261 in the King James Old Testament begin with and— 38% of all the verses!

The Old Testament: King James Version

• Genesis 1142/1433
• Exodus 820/1213
• Leviticus 493/859
• Numbers 731/1288
• Deuteronomy 315/959
• Joshua 404/658
• Judges 415/618
  
• Ruth 54/85
  
• 1 Samuel – 2 Chronicles 2723/4804
  
• Ezra 80/280
  
• Nehemiah 135/406
  
• Esther 65/167
  
• Job 55/1070
  
• Psalms 84/2577
  
• Proverbs 11/915
  
• Ecclesiastes 14/222
  
• Song of Solomon 1/117
  
• Isaiah 252/1292
  
• Jeremiah 259/1364
  
• Lamentations 4/154
  
• Ezekiel 436/1273
  
• Daniel 109/357
  
• Hosea – Malachi 237/1050
  

William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616; the King James translation of the Bible into English occurred toward the end of his lifetime.  A list of Shakespeare's works follows below.  After the name of each work are two numbers; the first number is the count of the number of lines in the work beginning with and; the second number is the total number of lines in the work.  (The source for this data is Open Source Shakespeare.)   Clearly, none of the works of Shakespeare have a significant number of lines that begin with and.   Perhaps all of those ands are not a characteristic of King James English at all— maybe they are somehow in the original language.

The Works of Shakespeare

• All's Well That Ends Well 18/3060
• Antony and Cleopatra 17/3845
• As You Like It 37/2610
• Comedy of Errors 18/1870
• Coriolanus 17/4005
• Cymbeline 13/3955
• Hamlet 14/4070
• Henry IV, Part I 17/3185
• Henry IV, Part II 17/3740
• Henry V 10/3370
• Henry VI, Part I 38/2960
• Henry VI, Part II 32/3350
• Henry VI, Part III 36/3140
• Henry VIII 8/3475
• Julius Caesar 13/2765
• King John 14/2755
• King Lear 12/3515
• Love's Labour's Lost 26/2875
• Lover's Complaint 0/330
• Macbeth 13/2565
• Measure for Measure 14/2985
• Merchant of Venice 13/2780
• Merry Wives of Windsor 25/2810
• Midsummer Night's Dream 13/2290
• Much Ado about Nothing 43/2680
• Othello 20/3740
• Passionate Pilgrim 4/430
• Pericles 12/2635
• Phoenix and the Turtle 1/65
• Rape of Lucrece 9/1905
• Richard II 13/2935
• Richard III 30/3930
• Romeo and Juliet 17/3285
• Sonnets 0/267
• Taming of the Shrew 26/2695
• Tempest 10/2420
• Timon of Athens 9/2655
• Titus Andronicus 21/2745
• Troilus and Cressida 22/3690
• Twelfth Night 24/2620
• Two Gentlemen of Verona 36/2330
• Venus and Adonis 7/1215
• Winter's Tale 11/3470

Let's look at the data from a different perspective.  Without any knowledge of Hebrew, how can we convince ourselves that the ands are in the original Hebrew.  What if we were to do a similar analysis on the Bible, but translated into a different language— Spanish for example.

The following graph shows the number of occurrences, per 1000 words, of verses in the Spanish Reina-Valera (1960) translation of the Bible that begin with the word y.  (Y means and.)  Notice that the graph has the same basic shape as the first KJV graph that we looked at first.  In the Reina-Valera translation, 6309 verses out of 23270 begin with y; 27% of the verses!  The same pattern of beginning ands is there even in a translation to another language.  There doesn't seem to be any evidence for many ands at the beginning of lines in other contemporary texts (Shakespeare).  The absence of many ands in Shakespeare's works and the presence of many ands in both Spanish and English translations of the Bible and that the KJV English and Reina-Valera Spanish graphs of the ands have a similar shape, together, are strong evidence that the ands are in the original text and are not just an artifact of the translation.

Verses Beginning With Y in the Spanish Reina-Valera (1960) Bible

What if we do the same analysis on the Hebrew text?  Do we see the same pattern?  The pattern is there, but it looks a little different in the graph.  First, it is actually a little stronger; in fact 12504 verses out of 23213 in the Hebrew Bible begin with vav— vav is the Hebrew letter that is used to express that concept of and.  Second, the shape looks different because the books are in a different order in the Hebrew Bible.  However, just like in the other graphs, the low point is at the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, etc. 

Verses Beginning With vav in the Hebrew Bible

Following below are some verses from Genesis 1 that are highlighted to illustrate this grammatical pattern in three languages.   It should be possible to see the pattern without having a background in the Hebrew and Greek alphabets.

Each verse below is written in two sections; the first section is the text in English (KJV).  The second section is the first few words of the verse in Hebrew and Greek (Septuagint) that was translated from the Hebrew.

The Hebrew and Greek section is written with the Hebrew and Greek letters along with a transliteration of the Hebrew and Greek into English letters.  The Hebrew and Greek are separated by a slash (/) character and are enclosed in parenthesis in the following format:

(Hebrew – Hebrew-transliterated  /  Greek – Greek-transliterated)

Each word is highlighted in a different color to illustrate its grammatical role.  The ands in each language are highlighted in green.  The verb in each language is highlighted in orange.  The subject/noun in each language is highlighted in light-blue.  (When looking at the pattern, keep in mind that Hebrew letters are read from right to left.) 

In English the order is and-subject-verb.  In Hebrew and Greek the order is and-verb-subject.  Verb-subject order is normal and common in Biblical Hebrew.  Verb-subject order is possible in Greek but is not frequent in non-Biblical texts.  (Greek is grammatically flexible with word order.) Word order is not as flexible in English grammer; it is not possible to write a good English sentence using verb-subject order. 

Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
(‏ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)

Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 
(‏וירא אלהים – vayar elohim / και ειδεν ο θεος – kai eiden o theos)

Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
(‏ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)

Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
(‏ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)

Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
(‏ויעש אלהים – vaya'as elohim / και εποιησεν ο θεος – kai epoiesen o theos)

Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
(‏ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)

Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
(‏ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)


Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
(‏ויקרא אלהים – vayiqra elohim / και εκαλεσεν ο θεος – kai ekalesen o theos)

Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
(‏ויאמר אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos)

Genesis 1:12-22 in Greek (Septuagint) translated from Hebrew

The following text is the verses from Genesis 1:12-22 taken from the Septuagint; these verses were all translated from Hebrew into Greek and they continue to use the and-verb-subject pattern that we saw in the verses that precede them.  (We can see the pattern even if we can't read Greek.)

12. και εξηνεγκεν η γη βοτανην χορτου σπειρον σπερμα κατα γενος και καθ' ομοιοτητα και ξυλον καρπιμον ποιουν καρπον ου το σπερμα αυτου εν αυτω κατα γενος επι της γης και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλον
13. και εγενετο εσπερα και εγενετο πρωι ημερα τριτη
14. και ειπεν ο θεος γενηθητωσαν φωστηρες εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου εις φαυσιν της γης του διαχωριζειν ανα μεσον της ημερας και ανα μεσον της νυκτος και εστωσαν εις σημεια και εις καιρους και εις ημερας και εις ενιαυτους
15. και εστωσαν εις φαυσιν εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου ωστε φαινειν επι της γης και εγενετο ουτως
16. και εποιησεν ο θεος τους δυο φωστηρας τους μεγαλους τον φωστηρα τον μεγαν εις αρχας της ημερας και τον φωστηρα τον ελασσω εις αρχας της νυκτος και τους αστερας
17. και εθετο αυτους ο θεος εν τω στερεωματι του ουρανου ωστε φαινειν επι της γης
18. και αρχειν της ημερας και της νυκτος και διαχωριζειν ανα μεσον του φωτος και ανα μεσον του σκοτους και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλον
19. και εγενετο εσπερα και εγενετο πρωι ημερα τεταρτη
20. και ειπεν ο θεος εξαγαγετω τα υδατα ερπετα ψυχων ζωσων και πετεινα πετομενα επι της γης κατα το στερεωμα του ουρανου και εγενετο ουτως
21. και εποιησεν ο θεος τα κητη τα μεγαλα και πασαν ψυχην ζωων ερπετων α εξηγαγεν τα υδατα κατα γενη αυτων και παν πετεινον πτερωτον κατα γενος και ειδεν ο θεος οτι καλα
22. και ηυλογησεν αυτα ο θεος λεγων αυξανεσθε και πληθυνεσθε και πληρωσατε τα υδατα εν ταις θαλασσαις και τα πετεινα πληθυνεσθωσαν επι της γης

Since Greek is a highly inflected language, it it quite flexible with word order.  The Wikipedia article on Modern Greek Grammar has this to say about word order.

The predominant word order in Greek is SVO (Subject-Verb-Object), but word order is quite freely variable, with VSO and other orders as frequent alternatives.

Another site on Greek Grammar adds this:

An affirmative sentence in Greek follows the SVO pattern (Subject, Verb, Object), just like in English. However, the SVO structure is considerably more relaxed in Greek than in English.... One may assume that the normal structure is very similar to the one in English (often a word-for-word translation will not be far from an accurate one), but one should not be surprised if one encounters a sentence with slightly different order; if that happens, it will be for purposes of emphasis.

In Ancient Greek, particularly in Classic, the pattern SOV was more common than SVO.

Although Greek has a flexible word order, it is not the usual for Greek sentences to have a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order.  If we encounter a situation such as we see in the Septuagint Genesis 1 where most of the verses have a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order, we are justified in asking "why?"  Since we know that the Septuagint is a translation from the Hebrew Genesis and since it is usual and normal for Hebrew narrative texts to have a verb-subject-object word order, we can be confident that the VSO order in the Greek of Septuagint Genesis 1 is because it is a very direct (tending towards word-for-word) translation of the Hebrew. 

Spanish is also an SVO language, but also allows for a flexible word in the same way that Greek does.  In the text that follows from the Spanish Reina-Valera translation, can see the same verb-subject pattern that we saw in the Septuagint Greek.

Gen 1:3 Y dijo Dios: Sea la luz; y fue la luz.
Gen 1:4 Y vio Dios que la luz era buena; y separó Dios la luz de las tinieblas.
Gen 1:5 Y llamó Dios a la luz Día, y a las tinieblas llamó Noche. Y fue la tarde y la mañana un día.

Notice that in a contemporary Spanish translation— La Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos (2005)— that the word order is more flexible.  The translators probably thought that a word-for-word translation using frequent verb-subject order sounded un-natural; verses 4, 5, 7 and 8 are in subject-verb order.  Also notice that the Y is missing in some of the verses (or has been replaced by Entonces – Then).  

Gen 1:3 Entonces dijo Dios: "Sea la luz." Y hubo luz.
Gen 1:4 Dios vio que la luz era buena; y Dios separó la luz de las tinieblas.
Gen 1:5 Y Dios llamó a la luz día y a las tinieblas llamó noche. Y fue la tarde y fue la mañana: un día.
Gen 1:6 Entonces dijo Dios: "Haya expansión (firmamento) en medio de las aguas, y separe las aguas de las aguas."
Gen 1:7 Dios hizo la expansión (el firmamento), y separó las aguas que estaban debajo de la expansión de las aguas que estaban sobre la expansión. Y así fue.
Gen 1:8 Y Dios llamó a la expansión cielos. Y fue la tarde y fue la mañana: el segundo día.

We see the same kind of changes in contemporary English translations; there are many fewer ands (especially ands at the beginning of a verse) in contemporary translations.  This explains why the graph of initial-ands in the World English Bible (the second graph in this post) does not show the same pattern as the KJV.  The Hebraic character of the texts is harder to see in most modern translations.

Following is a specific word pattern with examples from Genesis 1— And God said.  They are all said in the same way in Hebrew and are consistently translated into Greek using a "kai Verb Subject" word pattern.

Gen 1:3 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:6 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:9 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:11 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:14 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:20 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:24 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:26 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )
Gen 1:29 And God said ( ‏ויאמר ‏אלהים – vayomer elohim / και ειπεν ο θεος – kai eipen o theos )

So far, we have looked at a grammatical pattern in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint.  We have determined that the verb-subject order, although possible in Greek, is not the usual order, but it is common in Greek that is translated from Hebrew.  We have looked at a specific word pattern: And SUBJECT said.  (Greek: και ειπεν ο SUBJECT – kai eipen o SUBJECT )

This is the point we have been heading for: does the New Testament Greek have this pattern?  Let's look at a few examples.  In each text is the first few words from the KJV followed by the Greek text and a transliteration of the Greek text.  These texts confirm that the pattern exists in the New Testament.

Matt 8:13 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν ο Ιησους – kai eipen o Iesous)
Matt 8:32 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Matt 9:15 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 1:17 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 2:19 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν αυτοις ο Ιησους – kai eipen autois o Iesous)
Mark 4:40 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Mark 9:29 And he said ( και ειπεν αυτοις – kai eipen autois )
Luke 8:45 And Jesus said ( και ειπεν ο Ιησους – kai eipen o Iesous)

This pattern doesn't just occur a handful of times; there are 61 instances of this specific word pattern (kai eipen) in the New Testament Greek.

Matt 8:13, 32; 9:15; 14:2; 18:3; 19:5; Mark 1:17; 2:19; 3:9; 4:40; 6:31; 7:29; 9:29; 12:32; 14:24; 16:15; Luke 1:18, 30, 46; 2:10, 49; 4:3, 6, 23; 8:45; 9:3, 9, 48, 50, 58; 11:5; 12:18; 13:32; 14:22–23; 15:12; 16:15; 17:19; 19:17; 21:3, 29; 22:15, 35, 46; 23:43; 24:19, 38, 46; John 1:46; 8:23; 9:7, 39; 11:34; Acts 7:3, 56; 9:34; 22:21; Rev 17:7; 21:5–6; 22:6

The general and-verb pattern is very common in the New Testament Greek; it occurs 1052 times.  In the following graph, we see the distribution of this pattern through the books of the New Testament.  Notice that the pattern is less common in the Epistles.

The specific Hebrew situation that this pattern is associated with in the Old Testament is an initial verb that is vav-consecutive (or waw-consecutive) form.  The details of this grammatical construct are beyond the scope of this post, but the important thing to note about it is that it is used in narrative contexts— the telling of a story.  That is why it is less common in non-narrative books such as the Psalms.  Notice that it is also uncommon in the non-narrative books of the New Testament.  (The epistles are also less Hebraic in their language in other ways as well, so that may completely account for the low frequency of this pattern there.)

The high frequency of this Hebraic pattern in New Testament narrative books can not be accounted for in the Greek language alone.  It is either "Hebrew translation Greek" or an intentional or cultural imitation of the Septuagint.  In any case, it is evidence for a Hebraic cultural background for the New Testament.  This pattern is just one of many Hebraic features of the New Testmanent Greek texts.

The Hebraic (Old Testament) context of the New Testament is a subject that this blog will be discussing repeatedly.  The New Testament cannot be correctly understood except through the lens of the Old Testament.