Author Archives: Neal Walters

ELEM = young man

Why is it when you look up “elementary” they give you a Latin etymology, when “ELEM” is one of the Hebrew words for “young man”? http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/5958.htm Original Word: עָ֫לֶם Transliteration: elem Phonetic Spelling: (eh’-lem) Short Definition: young man It’s also … Continue reading

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Give Us a King

In the Bible class I’m taking, we were asked to compare translations of the I Samuel passage (chapters 8-12) where Saul is first anointed as king by Samuel.  The looked at the Jewish Study Bible (the newer Jewish Publication Society … Continue reading

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That whole “Nazirite” thing

A quick word search on “Nazirite[s]” show only the following: Num 6:2-21 – used at least 10 times Judges 13:5,7 and 16:17 (Samson) Amos 2:11-12 This made me wonder if Numbers 6 was created primarily to explain Judges 13.  I … Continue reading

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“The spirit of the LORD” motiff in the Tanach

Yes, I like word counts. In the Tanach, the phrase “the spirit of the LORD” occurs 23 times, 7 of those being in Judges, and 4 of those being just on Samson. Wikipedia lists 12 judges in the book of … Continue reading

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Was Rahab really a prostitute?

“RACHAV” is the Hebrew name for Rahab, in Joshua Chapter 2. Targum [referring to the Aramaic translation] renders “ZONAH” as PUNDIQTA which literally means seller of foods. Rashi understands the Targum literally, but Radak argues that Targum translated euphemistically; just … Continue reading

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Helpmate?

From Professor Rodman: How did we ever get to the term “helpmate,” which [a student] has picked up from some other translation? It’s a funny history. The King James Version reads (in 2:18) “…let us make an help meet for … Continue reading

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Punctuation in Genesis 2:4 (favoring the documentary hypothesis)

I’m currently taking “Bible – Text and Context’ and Hebrew College.  Part of the course involves looking at the documentary hypothesis, which typically claims that redactors combined four different sources to give us the Bible we read today.  For example, … Continue reading

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According to Research … Letter Order in English

Learning to read Hebrew without the vowel points may not be as hard as you think.  Here’s an example from English where the vowels are there, but not necessarily in the proper order, and it’s really not that hard to … Continue reading

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Arabic, a Sister Language of Hebrew?

I started studying Arabic via Pimsleur (in my car).  I’ve used Pimsleur before, and love the passive and easy way of learning.   I’ve studied several romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French) and some of them are very similar.  If … Continue reading

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