The First word in the Bible

[Roseeurekacross]

I am tagging @CRM_Brother

 

[toddy]

I surprise the word “TAU” which is pronounced to call God in China around 500 BC. Lao Zi, the founder of the first Chinese religion [Virtue Way] Taoism or Tauism, said “I do not know His name, so I call Him Tau”.

The world is not too far now. So the Ancient Chinese named Tau as their God for over 4000 years and the Far East called they were Tau people since then. This is concrete evidence they worshiped the Son of God or the Cross!

Thanks for this interesting Hebrew words.

 

[Aulef]

I’ve seen this video and others by the same author. There are some interesting things, whereas others lack of foundation.

But, honestly, the Church has been teaching Salvation history for thousands of years, and her teachings are more consistent

 

[Cirdan_XII]

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m going to ask someone who is fluent in Hebrew about it. If it is true, it’s quite interesting.

I agree with this.

In Hebrew, as in other languages, many words can have multiple meanings depending on how you chop them up.

Think in English: history → his tory. Is that a deeper meaning or is it randomness?

Somebody would need to do a statistical analysis on how likely it is that random stuff has meaning…

 

[Cirdan_XII]

Here is where it gets interesting.
Bet & Resh together means The son of…
Alef means God
Shin means destroyed
Yod means by work
Tau means cross.

Put it together and what do you have: “The Son of God will be destroyed by His own work on a cross.”

I can see some prepositions and even grammatical cases, and even a reflexive, being introduced there that I don’t see a basis for.

The Hebrews had Grammar, you know.

 

[CRM_Brother]

I think that we are also looking at this slightly from a historically revisionist view of the Hebrew grammar signification. The equivocation of Tau with the cross is historically out of place to a somewhat extreme degree. The equivocation of the signification of the Hebrew Taw or Tav (ת) with the Greek Tau (τ) comes quite a bit after the initial inscription of the Pentateuch from the oral record. The Taw was part of the Hebrew language long before the Tau evolved from the Phoenecian Taw (x). Both alphabets, Hebrew and Phoenecian evolved from Egyptian both simultaneously. It wasn’t until the Greek conquest of Alexander the Great of Israel in 332 BC that the signification between the Greek Tau and the Hebrew Taw came about. It is only at this time that the Taw gained the signification of the Cross, as it was used by Greek city states as early as the 6th century BC.

The original inscription of the Pentateuch in the 14th to 13th centuries BC wouldn’t have even used the Hebrew we know today, but rather the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. The signification back then of the Paleo-Hebrew Taw (x) was simply as a “mark”, carried over from the original Egyptian.

 

[BartholomewB]

In the modern Hebrew translation of the NT the word for “cross,” as in John 19:17 (link below), is tzelav (צְלָב), unrelated to the name of the letter ת. However, this is a word unknown in the OT, possibly for the simple historical reason that crucifixion was a form of torture unknown in OT times. How long the word has been in existence in the Hebrew language I have no way of telling.

http://www.haktuvim.com/en/study/John.19

 

[WileyC1949]

I can see some prepositions and even grammatical cases, and even a reflexive, being introduced there that I don’t see a basis for.

My understanding is that’s the way it works in Hebrew. I used the example of Bet Resh used to mean “son” coming from something like “the most important person in the household.” But as I said, that is my understanding and I do not speak or read Hebrew (yet).

 

[toddy]

I surprise the word “TAU” which is pronounced to call God in China around 500 BC. Lao Zi, the founder of the first Chinese religion [Virtue Way] Taoism or Tauism, said “I do not know His name, so I call Him Tau”.

The world is not too far now. So the Ancient Chinese named Tau as their God for over 4000 years and the Far East called they were Tau people since then. This is concrete evidence they worshiped the Son of God or the Cross!

Thanks for this interesting Hebrew words.

No doubt the first prophecy of the first sentence of Hebrews bible came true, so I believe the people of Tau or the Cross would also come true.

Though 30 million Christians attend officially registered churches putting China on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians.

Protestants have linked Shangdi that ancient Chinese have worshiped as the Almighty God or El Shaddai base on dialect, but I do not see any public expression about the dialect of word “God Tau” or the Cross between saint Lao Zi’s Tauism and in Hebrews bible.

God bless,

 

[toddy]

Ezekiel 9:4 And the Lord said to him: Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem: and mark Tau [the Cross] upon the foreheads of the men that sigh.

Revelation 22:13
I am Aleph and Tau [ Alpha and Omega in Greek], the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty…

Unsure the letter Aleph alone is God. Only letter Tau is the Cross at the time of Ezekiel.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

My understanding is that’s the way it works in Hebrew. I used the example of Bet Resh used to mean “son” coming from something like “the most important person in the household.” But as I said, that is my understanding and I do not speak or read Hebrew (yet).

My understanding of Hebrew, whic admittedly is limited to a couple of lesons I did online, is that Hebrew has a rich grammat, with different noun cases etc. You don’t make a sentence by stringing undecliend words together.

 

[ChristMyLife]

Put it together and what do you have: “The Son of God will be destroyed by His own work on a cross.”

This is the very first word of the Bible folks, and the plan of salvation was spelled out right there! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

This would be really cool if it were true…

But I’m afraid it takes some rather “creative” etymological finagling and not a little eisegesis to reach such a conclusion.

This theory certainly doesn’t hold in the face of historical-critical scholarly scrutiny, which means it may be a nice pious thought, but it’s a very subjective thing not really based in objective fact.

 

[porthos11]

I saw a video on YOUTUBE which really blew my mind. I did do some research and found it to be true. The video was speaking about the first word of the Bible which is “bereshit” meaning “In beginning”.

In Hebrew there are 22 letters in their alphabet, but unlike English each letter has multiple meanings. The breakdown of the Hebrew letters of bereshit would be"

Bet means: a tent, house, the body, household, inside, within and amid
Resh means: a head, a person, the one who is the highest, most important, and chief
Alef means: ox, bull, gentile, tame, the leader, strength, what is first, Adonai (God), thousand, and teach.
Shin means: teeth, ivory, the point of a rock, a peak, to devour, consume, destroy, something sharp.
Yod means: a hand closing, to work, a deed done, and a finished work
Tau means: a mark, to sign, cross, ownership to seal, covenant, to join 2 things, together, and the last.

When you combine Bet and Resh you get the word “bar” meaning “the son of” as in Yeshua bar Yoshef meaning “Jesus the son of Joseph” as Christ was known. (coming from the meaning of the two words it would be “the most important person in the household.” which in Jewish custom would be the oldest son.)

Here is where it gets interesting.
Bet & Resh together means The son of…
Alef means God
Shin means destroyed
Yod means by work
Tau means cross.

Put it together and what do you have: “The Son of God will be destroyed by His own work on a cross.”

This is the very first word of the Bible folks, and the plan of salvation was spelled out right there! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

This is no more valid than me predicting the end of the world from the Yellow Pages.

Here’s the first place the “argument” (and that’s dignifying it too much) falls apart.

The Hebrew word for “son of” is “ben”, not “bar” (which is Aramaic). “Bar” in Hebrew means something different.

I could just as easily make that “interpretation” say “The last king will eat his ox’s horns in his palace.”

“Coding” is not the way to read and understand Scripture, unless explicitly indicated (e.g. 666 in Revelation). Don’t waste your time and get too excited about it.

 

[CRM_Brother]

I am sorry, but I don’t know where you have gotten these translations. They are rather contrived.

In Ezekiel, ‘Taw’ in Hebrew literally means ‘mark’, any mark. It is not a cross. This definition comes directly from it’s ancient Egyptian roots. the ‘Tau’ is different from ‘Taw’. ‘Tau’ is Greek and can mean a cross, but this is not what neither the Hebrew nor the Greek Septuagint states. ‘Taw’ is used in the Hebrew and semeion (σημεῖον) in the Septuagint which means a ‘point, dot, or mark’".

It is only later through the exegesis of Origen in the second and third centuries that the link between this mark and the Greek letter Tau is made. It is then that this mark in Ezekiel is seen to be the Greek letter Tau, not a simple Hebrew taw, or mark.

All historical evidence points to Crucifixion being invented over a hundred years after Ezekiel’s death.

In Revelation, the translation of ‘Alpha and Omega’ as Aleph and Tau is poetic license trying to make the Biblical language sound more Hebrew in origin, which is somewhat ridiculous as the New Testament was written in Greek. Aleph was the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Taw was the last. This is the only reason why the translation was given as it was. It was imitating the Alpha and Omega in Greek, the first and last letters of the alphabet. Alpha and Omega have no symbolism of God apart from being the first and the last. Omega does not mean Cross.

Again, the equivocation of a cross as a Greek Tau to the Hebrew did not come into Hebrew literature until after the Greek invasion of Israel in 333 BC. Even then, ‘Tau’ in the Greek is not used in the New Testament as a stand alone word to my knowledge.

 

[GospelOfMatthew]

Whether it is 100% accurate or not, this is very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[GospelOfMatthew]

Wow! I wonder how many other passages have this deeper meaning connected/coincidence?

 

[BartholomewB]

It reminds me a bit of the fish symbol used in the early Church. Once you know that the initial letters (in Greek) of the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” spell out the word that means “fish”, then it’s clear why the early Christians adopted that symbol. But it doesn’t work the other way around. It doesn’t mean that whenever the word “fish” appears in the Greek Old Testament, it is to be read as a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

 

[meltzerboy2]

You probably know Debbie Downer!

 

[porthos11]

I am sorry, but I don’t know where you have gotten these translations. They are rather contrived.

In Ezekiel, ‘Taw’ in Hebrew literally means ‘mark’, any mark. It is not a cross. This definition comes directly from it’s ancient Egyptian roots. the ‘Tau’ is different from ‘Taw’. ‘Tau’ is Greek and can mean a cross, but this is not what neither the Hebrew nor the Greek Septuagint states. ‘Taw’ is used in the Hebrew and semeion (σημεῖον) in the Septuagint which means a ‘point, dot, or mark’".

It is only later through the exegesis of Origen in the second and third centuries that the link between this mark and the Greek letter Tau is made. It is then that this mark in Ezekiel is seen to be the Greek letter Tau, not a simple Hebrew taw, or mark.

All historical evidence points to Crucifixion being invented over a hundred years after Ezekiel’s death.

In Revelation, the translation of ‘Alpha and Omega’ as Aleph and Tau is poetic license trying to make the Biblical language sound more Hebrew in origin, which is somewhat ridiculous as the New Testament was written in Greek. Aleph was the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Taw was the last. This is the only reason why the translation was given as it was. It was imitating the Alpha and Omega in Greek, the first and last letters of the alphabet. Alpha and Omega have no symbolism of God apart from being the first and the last. Omega does not mean Cross.

Again, the equivocation of a cross as a Greek Tau to the Hebrew did not come into Hebrew literature until after the Greek invasion of Israel in 333 BC. Even then, ‘Tau’ in the Greek is not used in the New Testament as a stand alone word to my knowledge.

The use of tav in Ezekiel and its coincidentally cruciform shape is accepted as a prefiguration, and falls under typology, but you are correct; tav does not mean cross in and of itself, and it does not point to crucifixion.

Again, the link is just gymnastics, and despite the oohs and aah’s of some of the posters here, it’s not even “interesting.” It’s falsehood.

 

[HeDa]

Start with looking into the meaning of the names. Adam - ha’adam - soil/earth. Adam´s name is then changed to Adam when Eve comes around. Before he was called ha’adam the “Earthling”.