Page 134 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement
P. 134
Mark 7:31-34
And again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within
the region of Decapolis. And they brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and
they entreated Him to lay His hand upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude by himself,
and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking
up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, "Be opened!"
Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Yahshua cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which
is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
As one might anticipate, when the Jews returned to the land of Israel after their sojourning in
Babylon, the Aramaic they spoke once again began to differentiate itself from that which was spoken
elsewhere. Over time it once more became distinct so that in the time of Christ the speech of the Jews
was again referred to as Hebrew. Many language scholars, however, believe it is more accurate to
describe the language spoken by the Judeans of Christ’s day as “the Aramaic vernacular (or dialect)
of the Jews.”
[End Excerpt]
It appears that most notions of the Hebrew language being divine, or favored by God, are predicated
upon a complete ignorance of the origin of Hebrew. Some suggest that it was the language spoken
by Adam and all of his descendants until the tower of Babel. Such a claim is indefensible for if the
language had become so transformed in 1,400 years from Abraham to Hezekiah to be unintelligible,
the Hebrew speaking people of Christ’s day, much less this present day, would not recognize anything
that was spoken prior to the flood of Noah. Can you understand the following words?
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;
Si þin nama gehalgod
to becume þin rice
gewurþe ðin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
ac alys us of yfele soþlice
The words above are The Lord’s Prayer, the one that Christ taught His disciples that begins with “Our
Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.” The language it is written in is English, Old
English. It is written as the words might have appeared about 1100 years ago. The Hebrew language
has undergone just as much, if not more, transformation in the same length of time, with this process
being repeated many times over.
If you learn modern Hebrew you are NOT learning the Hebrew of Yahshua’s day, and if you learn
Aramaic as it was spoken 2,000 years ago it is NOT any language that King David, or Moses, or
Abraham would understand. Again, if you learned the Aramaic that Abraham spoke, it would be
unrecognizable to those who lived before the flood of Noah. Language is not static. It is ever