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Words are meant to communicate!
Watch Your Language!
With a title like this, you may think we are going to talk about avoiding profanity--the so-called “four-letter words”.
But plenty has already been said about that--some of it worthy of consideration, and some without adequate basis. “Profane” or “vulgar” both just mean "ordinary" or “common”—that is, lacking a more refined vocabulary. Other times it is just showing off, and there are ample Scriptures to address that. In a very few cases, as a last resort, strong language is the most effective way to wake someone up to the seriousness of the course they are pursuing.
Scripture gives plenty of guidelines on the parameters of what is or is not proper when one is truly swearing (making an oath or promise) or cursing (calling down wrath on someone who has sold out to evil), both of which are to be used carefully and advisedly, since they do have genuine effects. (Ex, 22:8; Lev. 19:14; Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21)
What we are addressing here is of much greater gravity. There are specific words our Creator YHWH tells us never to have in our mouths:
"Now in all that I have said to you, be watchful, and do not mention another elohim by name; it shall not be heard [coming] from your mouth." (Ex. 23:13)
In other words, even saying the names of pagan deities is a form of unfaithfulness to Him. (Joshua 23:7).
You will undoubtedly be shocked at what some of these names are. Some of these “bad words” actually turn out to be words we think of as especially “good”. To show just how extensively our values have been reversed, the word “God” is actually the name of a being that ancient pagans worshipped--one we are specifically commanded in Scripture not to worship!
Where? It is so often missed because it has been conveniently covered up by translation. Isaiah 65:11 equates “forsaking Yahweh" with "setting a table to that troop" (KJV). That seems like a foreign concept to us, but in Hebrew “that troop” is Gad--pronounced just like "God" in English. (He is identified with Jupiter.) This table is part of an alternative worship site contrasted with YHWH’s Temple. So “God” is actually who some wayward Israelites were praying to instead of YHWH! Ba'al (best translated "Lord" or “owner”) was a category of pagan deities. One of them was actually named Ba'al-Gad. That is too close to "Lord God" for comfort!
The Norse/Teutonic/Germanic Gott/Gud, from which we most directly derive "God", was the name of a particular local deity, borrowed to communicate the Christian idea of the Most High. This is done by missionaries everywhere, but it not only “gives His glory to another”; it lowers the standard by confusing His characteristics with those of what in reality are demons given some measure of authority over particular tribes or nations. (Daniel 10:13, 20; compare 1 Cor. 10:20.)
It would be “straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel” to teach our children not to use “bad words” as defined by Western tradition but to neglect to warn them about terminology that evidences underlying pagan assumptions. These words give credit to Yahweh’s rivals and take it away from Him!
The very first thing the real Most High wanted to tell His people about Himself was His proper name. At the burning bush, He ordered Moses to "Tell the children of Israel [that] YHWH... has sent you; this is My Name and how I am to be remembered for all generations." (Exodus 3:15)
Linguistic scholar Nehemia Gordon points out that this Hebrew term for “remembered” has a broader sense of being mentioned or referred to. So He does not want it substituted with names other nations use to describe a supreme being.
The meaning of “Gad” also opens up a whole group of related concepts that must be avoided at all costs. It can mean “troop”, as seen above. But in the context of Isaiah 65:11 it would have been better translated "Fortune", for the parallel line in the same verse says, “…and furnish a drink offering to that number.” The word for “number” refers to a concept similar to rolling dice, and is alternately translated “destiny”.
In other words, it’s all chance, happenstance, fate (more words that aren’t kosher). The philosophy is that everything just came about by accident—that no one planned it and no one is really in control. The logical conclusion to that is “grab all that you can get”. "Opportunity" is just another spinoff from "fortune", and the term “happy” comes from dependence on what “happens”, as opposed to joy, which can endure despite circumstances. And, what do you know? Hapi just “happens” to also be the proper name of an Egyptian deity. “Perhaps” means “by the permission of Hapi”! “Lucky” means “blessed by Lucifer”. Is that really who we want to give the credit for the rewards or mercy we receive? Our fathers have indeed inherited lies! (Jeremiah 16:19)
One might argue that there is a Hebrew verb for “to happen upon” in an unplanned sense, and it is used in Scripture. In that case, one could use the Hebrew word, since it has none of the connections with pagan deities. Some of them (and even men) were called by the titles El or Elohim, but it was not borrowed from another language where the term was used as a proper name for an existing spirit; rather, the term was first used of YHWH, then borrowed or counterfeited by others. There is a world of difference. When a broadly-used term like Christos (which referred to many pagan objects of worship) was applied to the Messiah, it opened the door to misinterpret his mission by thinking of him as in the same category as them.
Easter (Ishtar--a Babylonian goddess) is also just one example of a pagan concept superimposed on a Hebraic event (the Feast of Firstfruits) which changed our entire focus.
Future (Futura) is also a Greek goddess, but again even the concept itself is in opposition to Yeshua’s command to “not worry about tomorrow”, since today has enough trouble, and seek first YHWH’s kingdom by using for it the resources we have today. (Luke 12:16-34)
Our names of planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) were named for Greek deities, not vice versa.
Days of the week are named for the sun, moon, and pagan elohim named Tiwas, Woden, Thor, Freia, and Saturn. The Roman names that we use for months are named after Janus, Mars, Maia, Juno, etc. (Don't read these out loud!)
By now it should be painfully obvious that our language is hopelessly riddled with paganism. What is the solution? You can start by writing dates by their numeric month (such as 5/5/15) and substituting synonyms (“glad” for “happy”). But undoubtedly we will find many more words we must discard from our vocabulary. To get back to the “pure language” promised in Zephaniah 3:9, we have no choice but to learn Hebrew as well as we can. It is not only the heritage of Israel; it will be the tongue of the righteous remnant in the whole world in the Messianic Kingdom.
Hebrew names for planets are more meaningful, too. For example, the largest is Tsedeq (which means “righteousness” or "proper balance").
Hebrew months begin with the actual new moon, and thus are much more in touch with the reality of the signs in the heavens than the Roman months, which are based on the sun and rarely coincide with the cycles of the moon, though that is what “month” means. Most of their names in Hebrew, though, were not used by Israelites until their captivity in Babylon, and have connections to the Babylonian deities, so learn them only to be familiar with their usage.
The only month that really has a name is the seventh (which was the first until the Exodus from Egypt). It is called Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2) which means “perpetual, constant, enduring, or reliable ones”. The other months are just called by their numerical order: “First Month”, “Second Month”, etc., just like the days of the week. (The first month, as Yahweh defined it at the Exodus, is called the “month of the Aviv”, but aviv is really a stage in the growth of barley when the ear has reached the point at which it can be harvested in a little over two weeks, not the name of the month as such.)
Especially Greek terms should be replaced with Hebrew, since they bear a special reproach even when they are not directly pagan because Greek culture is what Antiochus IV forced on Israel. So why call your meeting-place a synagogue (a Greek term)? And certainly do not call it a “church” (kirche or kirk, which stems from the Greek goddess Circe, pronounced "Kirke") In Hebrew it is a beyt knesset (house of gathering).
Isn't that both more informative and more inviting?
In Hebrew, days of the week are simply numbered: “first day”, etc. It is worth learning their Hebrew forms:
Yom Rishon (first day)
Yom Sheni (second day)
Yom Shlishi (third day)
Yom Revi’i (fourth day)
Yom Khamishi (fifth day)
Yom Shishi (sixth day)
Yom Sh’vi’i or Shabbat
When people want to make excuses for not living according to the simple, straightforward absolutes of the Torah, they invent complicated religious words. Other terms just lose clarity through linguistic change or second- or third-hand translation. When we go back to the primary source, ideas that have become jargon in English are not so mysterious. Here’s what some of them really mean in Hebrew:
- “Holy” or “sanctified” (qadosh) means separated out, set apart into a different category, closed off from all else, dedicated to a single use.
- “Bless” (barakh) means “to bend the knee”. That works for us blessing Yahweh, but how can He bless us? By stooping down to meet us face to face as a parent does with his child!
- “Grace” (khen) means favor, acceptance, pity, consideration, or provision.
- "Pray” (hitpalel) means "to judge oneself".
- “Glory” (kavod) really means “weightiness”, i.e., what carries the most weight (an idiom for importance or authority). It means honor and the dignity of one’s reputation, and has little to do with bright lights or halos.
- “Worship” (mishtakhav) means to bow down prostrate.
- Righteous (tzeddeq) from tzad daq, "the narrow edge", which you need balance to navigate. Thus, one meaning of tz'daqah is giving to the poor, restoring the balance in society. And courts of justice are symbolized by the scales which must be balanced with "righteous weights and measures".
An individual may be redeemed (bought back by the Messiah) but no one is “saved” until the whole nation of Israel is corporately rescued when He comes back to physically set up His Kingdom in the land of Israel.
This is only a sampling of how much clearer and less mystifying things are when we go back to seeing them through a Hebraic grid. And there’s much more where that came from!
