This study focuses on how intricate God’s Word truly is. We’ll learn about Paleo-Hebrew and how it can sometimes reveal a deeper level of understanding. More importantly, in this study we’ll look at the name of God and see how it shines light into the darkness. To start this study, we’ll open with a question: Have you ever heard of a fractal? If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, here’s an example…
A fractal is a complex geometric shape that exhibits self-similarity across different scales. In other words, no matter how much you zoom in or out, you'll find patterns that repeat the overall shape. Fractals are often found in nature, like in the branching of trees, the formation of snowflakes, or the intricate patterns of coastlines.
The Word of God is in essence, a fractal. The overarching pattern of Scripture is SIN-SACRIFICE-SALVATION.
That pattern repeats over and over again throughout both the
Old and New Testaments. When we zoom out to look at the big picture of Scripture, we see Christ and His sacrifice- for our salvation. And amazingly, when we tighten our focus and zoom in, we see Christ and His sacrifice- for our salvation. We’ll see an awesome example of this in just a bit, but first we need to lay our foundation and learn some history of the Hebrew language…
Hebrew is written and read from right to left, which is opposite of English. The oldest known form of this ancient language is called Paleo-Hebrew. Instead of the familiar “square” letters we see in modern Hebrew, Paleo-Hebrew was written in pictograph form, similar to Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
This chart shows the modern Hebrew alphabet and how to pronounce those letters. It also shows the Paleo-Hebrew pictographs that those letters developed from, and a basic definition of what those pictographs represented.
Without getting into all the boring details, Paleo-Hebrew originated from a language called Proto-Sinaitic, which itself originated from Egyptian Hieroglyphs. A unique aspect of all these languages was that they formed words by combining these pictographs, with each character symbolizing an object or concept.
Combining these symbols created words that often had deeper meanings based on the visual and symbolic relationships between the characters.
While this deeper level of understanding isn’t always clearly present in every word written in Paleo-Hebrew, there are some notable examples where the significance is unmistakable. For this study, we’ll be studying the greatest word in all of Scripture, the name of God.
In this verse, the phrase “The LORD” is the Hebrew word YHWH.
This word is called the Tetragrammaton and it’s God’s sacred Name.
Pronounced YAHWEY, many scholars and theologians suggest that His name may have a connection to the inhale/exhale cycle of human breathing, so that every breath we take, we praise His holy name.
While that’s certainly an interesting avenue to explore and definitely worth noting, for this study we’ll be focusing on the written word.
If we look at the sacred Name in Hebrew, this is how it appears…
Remember, Hebrew is written from right to left, so His Name is spelled
YOD-HEY-WAW-HEY.
Something very interesting happens if we trace this word and these letters back to the Paleo-Hebrew. We can see a pattern emerging. Let’s give it a try…
The first letter is YOD. In modern Hebrew, it looks like a plump comma. It makes the “Y” sound. In Paleo-Hebrew, it was written as an outstretched arm and hand. In modern “Block Hebrew” it’s written as a stylized hand-
It represents action, work, and worship.
The next letter is HEY. In modern “Block Hebrew”, it looks similar to the mathematical Pi symbol. It carries the “H” sound, as in exhaling a breath. It was originally drawn in Paleo-Hebrew as a man standing with arms raised in awe and wonder. It symbolizes revelation, beholding, and breathing.
The third letter is VAV or WAW. In Hebrew, the “V” and “W” sounds are interchangeable, similar to the German language. In modern Hebrew, the letter resembles a backwards, lowercase (r), but in its original form it looked more like a (Y). It represents a spike, nail, or tent peg and carries the meaning of securing something.
The final letter is another HEY, so the Word of Words looks like this:
When combined, the pictograph forms the concept: THE HAND- BEHOLD-THE NAIL-BEHOLD
The sacred name of God, YHWH, testifies to the sacrifice His Son would make.
Isaiah 49:16See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;...
AMEN.