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semantic cognates
(meaning-related). A good example is the Hebrew word
sar,
which
means "prince." This same word is used in other Semitic languages, where it means
"king."
For centuries, European students of Hebrew used Arabic philological cognates to
decipher the meaning of obscure Hebrew words. This unreliable method is used by many
of the older English dictionaries and lexicons.
2. Meaning from Context.
It has often been said that the best commentary on
Scripture is Scripture itself. Nowhere is this more true than in Hebrew word studies. The
best method for determining the meaning of any Hebrew word is to study the context in
which it appears. If it appears in many different contexts, then the meaning of the word
can be found with greater accuracy. For the words that appear with very low frequency
(four times or less), non-biblical Hebrew texts or other Semitic texts can help us locate
the meaning of the word.
However, there is one caution: It is never wise to use one obscure word to try to
determine the meaning of another obscure word. The most difficult words are those that
occur only once in the Old Testament text; these are called
hapax legomena
(Greek, "read
once"). Fortunately, all the Hebrew words of theological significance occur fairly
frequently.
3. Poetic Parallelism.
Fully one-third of the Old Testament is poetry. This amount of
text is equal to the entire New Testament. English translators have tended to ignore the
poetic structure of lengthy Old Testament passages, such as Isaiah 40-66 and the entire
Book of Job; but the complexities of Hebrew poetry are vital to our understanding of the
Old Testament. This can be seen by studying a modern English version of the Bible that
prints poetic passages as such. Several verses from the Psalms in the RSV will illustrate
the underlying structure of Hebrew poetry.
Note there is neither rhythm nor meter in Hebrew poetry, unlike most English poetry.
Hebrew poetry repeats ideas or the relation of ideas in successive lines. Here is an
example:
(I) O Magnify the Lord with me,
(II) And let us exalt His name together!
Notice that virtually every part of speech in Line I can be substituted for its equal in
Line II. Scholars designate the individual words in Line I (or hemistych I) as "A" words
and those in Line II (or hemistych II) as "B" words. Thus we see the pattern in Psalm 34:
Hemistych I: O magnify A the Lord A with me, A
Hemistych II: Let us exalt B His name B together! B
As one can readily see, the "A" words can be substituted for the "B" words without
changing the meaning of the line, and the reverse is also true. This characteristic of
Hebrew poetry is called
parallelism.
In scholarly studies of Hebrew poetry, paired words
in a parallel structure are often marked with slanting parallel bars to show (a) which word
usually occurs first-that is, the "A" word, (b) the fact that the two words form a parallel
pair, and (c) which word is usually the second or "B." We can show this for the first verse
of Psalm 34 in this manner:
O magnify / / exalt; the Lord / / His name; with me / / together.
This
Expository Dictionary
cites such pairs because they indicate important
relationships in meaning. Many pairs are used over and over again, almost as synonyms.
Thus the usage of Hebrew words in poetry becomes a very valuable tool for our