Ancient Hebrew Thought
The definition of a word is going to be directly related to the culture in which that word is being used. One word may have different meanings depending on the culture that is using it. In order to place the correct context to a Hebrew word from the Ancient Hebrew language one must first understand Ancient Hebrew thought.
Abstract and Concrete
Greek thought views the world through the mind (abstract thought). Ancient Hebrew thought views the world through the senses (concrete thought).
Concrete thought is the expression of concepts and ideas in ways that can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted or heard. All five of the senses are used when speaking, hearing, writing and reading the Hebrew language. An example of this can be found in Psalms 1:3; "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither". In this passage the author expresses his thoughts in concrete terms such as; tree, streams of water, fruit and leaf.
Abstract thought is the expression of concepts and ideas in ways that cannot be seen, touched, smelled, tasted or heard. Examples of Abstract thought can be found in Psalms 103:8; "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger, abounding in love". The words compassion, grace, anger and love are all abstract words, ideas that cannot be experienced by the senses. Why do we find these abstract words in a passage of concrete thinking Hebrews? Actually, these are abstract English words used to translate the original Hebrew concrete words. The translators often translate this way because the original Hebrew makes no sense when literally translated into English.
Let us take one of the above abstract words to demonstrate the translation from a concrete Hebrew word to an abstract English word. Anger, an abstract word, is actually the Hebrew word (aph) which literally means "nose", a concrete word. When one is very angry, he begins to breathe hard and the nostrils begin to flare. A Hebrew sees anger as "the flaring of the nose (nostrils)". If the translator literally translated the above passage "slow to nose", the English reader would not understand.
Appearance and Functional Descriptions
Greek thought describes objects in relation to its appearance. Hebrew thought describes objects in relation to its function.
A Greek description of a common pencil would be; "it is yellow and about eight inches long". A Hebrew description of the pencil would be related to its function such as "I write words with it". Notice that the Hebrew description uses the verb "write" while the Greek description uses the adjectives "yellow" and "long". Because of Hebrew`s form of functional descriptions, verbs are used much more frequently then adjectives.
To our Greek way of thinking a deer and an oak are two very different objects and we would never describe them in the same way. The Hebrew word for both of these objects is (ayil) because the functional description of these two objects are identical to the Ancient Hebrews, therefore, the same Hebrew word is used for both.
The Hebraic definition of is "a strong leader". A deer stag is one of the most powerful animals of the forest and is seen as "a strong leader" among the other animals of the forest. The wood of the oak tree is very hard compared to other trees and is seen as a "strong leader" among the trees of the forest.
Notice the two different translations of the Hebrew word in Psalms 29:9. The NASB and KJV translates it as "The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve" while the NIV translates it as "The voice of the LORD twists the oaks". The literal translation of this verse in Hebrew thought would be; "The voice of the LORD makes the strong leaders turn ".
When translating the Hebrew into English, the Greek thinking translator will give a Greek description to this word for the Greek thinking reader, which is why we have two different ways of translating this verse. This same word "ayil" is also translated as a "ruler" (a strong leader of men) in 2 Kings 24.15.
Ancient Hebrew will use different Hebrew words for the same thing depending upon its function at the time. For example an ox may be identified as an (aluph) when referring to a lead ox, a (shor) when referring to a plow ox, (baqar) when referring to an ox of the field or (par) when referring to an ox of the threshing floor.
Static and Dynamic
In our Modern western language verbs express action (dynamic) while nouns express inanimate (static) objects. In Hebrew all things are in motion (dynamic) including verbs and nouns. In Hebrew sentences the verbs identify the action of an object while nouns identify an object of action. The verb (malak) is "the reign of the king" while the noun (melek) is the "the king who reigns". A mountain top is not a static object but the "head lifting up out of the hill". A good example of action in what appears to be a static passage is the command to "have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). In Hebrew thought this passage is saying "not to bring another one of power in front of my face".
Ancient Hebrew...you mean hieroglyphics? lol
Have fun.
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