The origin and the meaning of – ‘Amen’ by Tuvia Pollack “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.” Psalm 41:13 You have often heard the word “Amen” but what does it mean, and where does it come from? It actually appears a lot more in the Bible than you think – it’s just that is translated in most cases. All of these Hebrew words actually derive from the same root as “Amen”: Emunah – Faith, faithfulness, steadfastness Amanah – Indeed, correct, for sure, contract Oman – Artist Omen – Foster parent Ne’eman – Faithful As we can see, the word “Am ..read more

The four directions in ancient Hebrew by Tuvia Pollack In Genesis 28:14, God gave Jacob a promise: “You will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” The Hebrew expressions used for the different directions here are “yama, qedma, tsfona, negba.” The “a” in the end of the words is a grammatical suffix indicating direction, i.e. “to the west, to the east,” etc. Without the suffixes, the names of the directions would be “yam, qedem, tsafon, negev.” In Modern Hebrew, we would ra ..read more

“Brit Olam” – Everlasting Covenant, the First Hebrew Chronological Bible by Tuvia Pollack The Bible Society in Israel, in partnership with “Maoz Israel,” recently published “Brit Olam,” the first ever Hebrew chronological Bible after three and a half years of work. This is a real game-changer in terms of resources available in Hebrew for the study of Scriptures, not only for believers but also for seekers or any Israeli who seeks to read and understand the Bible. It’s written in chronological order, breaking down the canonical order of the books, and putting each event in its place. The bo ..read more

The Jewishness of the Christian Faith by Tuvia Pollack About one hundred years after the death and resurrection of Christ, a rich man named Marcion arrived to Rome. He donated a large sum to the Christian congregation there, and started teaching a total separation between Christianity and Judaism. He taught that the God of the Old Testament was an “evil and vengeful God.” He created his own bible, comprised only of a heavily edited version of the gospel of Luke and ten of Paul’s letters. The congregation returned his donation and expelled him from Rome in 144 AD. He moved to the area of mo ..read more

Is the Hebrew word for “Thank you” related to the thanksgiving turkey? by Tuvia Pollack Todah – the Hebrew word for “thank you” is also connected to confession, and to the name Judah after whom the Jewish people is named – and it originates from the word for “hand.” By coincidence the word “splendor,” the word “validation” and the Modern Hebrew word for the Turkey bird all sound as if it they are connected to the same root – but they’re not! The root of the word in Hebrew is YDH which makes it a hard and problematic root to identify, especially in Latin alphabet transcript. Since the vowel ..read more

God’s Library by Ray Pritz And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. (Revelation 20:12) God has a library. Unlike a normal library, it is not a place where people come to study. It seems to be more of an archive or official record. What kinds of books does God keep on his bookshelf, and what is written in those books? The passage in Revelation 20 tells us that some of the books contain a record of the things ..read more

Economy in the Bible by Tuvia Pollack The Hebrew word כלכלה (kalkala) means Economy in Modern Hebrew. To an Israeli it sounds like something current, dealing with figures, money, and stock exchange, but the term has ancient roots from the Bible. Where does it appear, and what does it mean? In Psalm 55:22, the word is translated as “sustain” in the NASB – “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.” In 1Kings 18:4 it is translated as “provided”: “Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.” We can see the connectio ..read more

Shalom in the Bible by Tuvia Pollack Unless Hebrew is your native tongue, chances are that the first Hebrew word you ever learned was “Shalom.” Shalom is the last word in the priestly blessing, the blessing found on the oldest known fragment of a biblical text. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you, and give you shalom. (Numbers 6:24-26) As you probably know, shalom means peace, but is also used as a greeting, for both hello and goodbye. However, the first time it appears in the Bible, it’s actua ..read more

Bible and Archaeology by Tuvia Pollack The story written thrice in the Bible – and the archaeology confirming it. As you probably know, after the death of king Solomon in 931 BC, the Israelite kingdom split between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian empire destroyed the northern kingdom in 720 BC, and threatened Judah too. A campaign by the Assyrian king Sancherib in 701 AD threatened to put an end to the kingdom of Judah. This happened during the time of the prophet Isaiah. Miraculously, Judah survived the assault, and lived for another 115 yea ..read more