Mathew 5:8
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
Introduction to the Ancient Alef - Bet
The following series of articles will both enrich and teach Christians in ways that may surprise them. My Hebrew students and I have been amazed and have learned a lot about Hebrew by studying the meaning of the original pictorial Hebrew language. Our study of Biblical Hebrew has been enhanced immeasurably by the pictorial language. The pictorial characters pictured will be used throughout this series to aid in visualization. The ancient pictorial alphabet dates back to approximately 1,000 BC, the time of King David. The evolution of the alphabet takes one to the time of Jesus and eventually to the Greek alphabet and then to the modern-day alphabet we currently use.
Hebrew is a language filled with verbs; it is a language of continuous motion. This is in contrast to English which is filled with nouns and is a language of contemplation, thought and adjectives describing the nouns. While the basis of Hebrew is the action happening, English is more rooted in the Greek concept of thought and discussion. The modern word for alphabet actually comes from the Hebrew letters alef-bet, the first two Hebrew alphabet letters corresponding to the “a and b” in the English alphabet.
The fact that Hebrew has been resurrected as a living language is a prophecy of Zeph. 3:9 that has been fulfilled in our time. God says He will restore a pure language. For two thousand years Hebrew was dormant with exception of prayer and religious celebrations. Because it was dormant for two-thousand years it did not adopt slang or other defilements and when it was restored to the nation of Israel, as its official language, it was a pure language, void of words used to identify the modern message, i.e., anything electronic, mechanical, or technical, etc. There are differences in modern Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew but the basic principles are still the same.
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