We think using words. Try thinking without using words or symbols. We can imagine a few simple things without using words (I can imagine myself picking up a spade and digging a hole by simply picturing it in my mind), but as soon as we start attempting to think of anything more complex, we think using words in our mind. We think in our language. And those words strongly affect our thoughts.
We all live in the same world. But we organise the things we see into groups using language. And then we understand the world based on how we have organised it. For instance, there are many four-legged furry pets. But we primarily group them into "cats" and "dogs" and then understand them using those terms. We decide "we want a dog" and then look for a dog. Theoretically we could also organise them by size, or colour, or something else. And we might think about them quite differently if we did that.
But we don't organise the world for ourselves, because we don't make up our own language. It has already been organised for us. We are taught a language, a system of organising the world, when we are young. This language teaches us how to think, and we tend to think that way all our lives.
For a deeper understanding of this, read this article.
This may seriously affect our ability to understand scripture.
For example, consider a drink made from the juice of grapes.
Hebrew has several words: "tiyrowsh" (H8492) meaning fresh pressed grape juice (but associated with merriment or whoredom in some verses so possibly alcoholic), "chamar" (H2562) which seems fairly generic, "yayin" (H3196) specifically meaning fermented wine, "'aciyc" (H6071) referring to either fresh new wine or high quality fermented wine, "shekar" (H7941) meaning particularly strong drink, possibly distilled, and a few others used rarely.
Greek has a single main word for this, "oinos", meaning either fresh grape juice or fermented wine, plus a few others used rarely.
English has a single word, "wine", which all of these are usually translated as. English also has the term "grape juice" meaning unfermented juice, but which isn't used in most Bible translations.
The argument in the English-speaking world is all about alcohol - is this "wine" in the Bible in this particular verse referring to "grape juice" or "wine"? This argument reflects the distinction made in English. We try to take scripture and shoehorn it into English, and can have massive arguments over this issue when it comes to issues like whether Christians should drink alcohol, should we use wine or grape juice for communion etc. But it all comes back to our language.
What if we were thinking about this in Greek? Would we see it all as "oinos", see no fundamental difference between unfermented and fermented "oinos", the difference only being how old the "oinos" is, and would we just not care?
What if we were thinking about this in Hebrew? What is the difference between "chamar" and "yayin"? Are they from different types of grapes? Is there a theological significance to this? Is "tiyrowsh" alcoholic? When is something "tiyrowsh" or "'aciyc"? Should we save "shekar" for people who are in serious pain and only drink "yayin" or "chamar" under normal circumstances? Would there be something completely different that we argued about? Would a Greek or English speaker even understand what the problem was, or would they just think we were crazy?
This has serious implications for our understanding of marriage.
Obvious example:
The English word "adultery" means "sex between a married person and a person other than their spouse". That is how most Christians read the word in scripture. According to this definition, polygyny is adultery.
But in Hebrew, "adultery" means "sex between a married woman and a man other than her husband". To show that polygyny is not adultery, we have to take people back to the Hebrew and re-define the words for them.
But it goes much deeper than that.
A lot of discussion comes back to whether a woman is a "wife" or not, and when she becomes a "wife". Because in English, we have one word for "woman", and another word specifically for "wife". And our English bibles are full of both terms.
While in both Hebrew and Greek, there is no distinct word for "wife", only the word "woman" ("'ishshah" and "gyne"). Some women happen to be associated with husbands, others are not. How much of our thinking is simply a misunderstanding?
Then if you look into the English word "wife", you find that it also used to only mean "woman"! The old meaning of "woman" is preserved in the words "midwife" and "fishwife". The meaning of "married woman" is only around 500 years old or so. So are we getting confused by something that is only a recent change of meaning of a word?
But it goes still deeper.
The entire purpose of our discussions here is to better understand "marriage". The word "marriage" in English means "the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law". The word is ultimately of Latin origin, from "marito" meaning to marry, couple, join, graft or impregnate.
But there is no such word in Hebrew. The words "marry" or "marriage" appear at various times in the Old Testament, but are translated from five different words that are usually translated differently. The closest is "ba'al", meaning "lord" or "rule", which is translated as "marry" eight times in the sense that at marriage a woman is coming under the rule of a man. The next is "chathan", almost always translated "law", but translated three times as "marriage" in the sense of the contractual obligations entered into at marriage.
On the other hand, Greek does have words for "marry" - "gameo / gamizo / gamos" (G1060,G1061,G1062), always translated "marry", "wedding" or something similar. And the variants "ekgamizo / ekgamisko", meaning to give in marriage.
What does this mean for our understanding? When we look at the relationship between a man and a woman from an English, Latin or Greek mindset, we have a concept of "marriage" as a distinct named entity. And we attempt to shoehorn the Hebrew scriptures into defining when this "marriage" starts or ends.
But do we have it all backwards? Does Hebrew reflect YHWH's perspective more accurately? Is there actually no such thing as a distinct thing called "marriage"? Rather, do the Hebrew laws around the relationships between men and women apply more generally to ALL people who are in such a relationship, regardless of the detail of how it was formed or what they call it?
When we look at the obligations of a man and a woman, our primary question, in English, is always "is this couple married, or not?".
What if that's the wrong question?
What if we should rather be simply asking "What obligations does this man have to this woman, and vice versa?"
We all live in the same world. But we organise the things we see into groups using language. And then we understand the world based on how we have organised it. For instance, there are many four-legged furry pets. But we primarily group them into "cats" and "dogs" and then understand them using those terms. We decide "we want a dog" and then look for a dog. Theoretically we could also organise them by size, or colour, or something else. And we might think about them quite differently if we did that.
But we don't organise the world for ourselves, because we don't make up our own language. It has already been organised for us. We are taught a language, a system of organising the world, when we are young. This language teaches us how to think, and we tend to think that way all our lives.
Alexander Bain said:
Benjamin Whorf said:
For a deeper understanding of this, read this article.
This may seriously affect our ability to understand scripture.
Charles Briggs said:
For example, consider a drink made from the juice of grapes.
Hebrew has several words: "tiyrowsh" (H8492) meaning fresh pressed grape juice (but associated with merriment or whoredom in some verses so possibly alcoholic), "chamar" (H2562) which seems fairly generic, "yayin" (H3196) specifically meaning fermented wine, "'aciyc" (H6071) referring to either fresh new wine or high quality fermented wine, "shekar" (H7941) meaning particularly strong drink, possibly distilled, and a few others used rarely.
Greek has a single main word for this, "oinos", meaning either fresh grape juice or fermented wine, plus a few others used rarely.
English has a single word, "wine", which all of these are usually translated as. English also has the term "grape juice" meaning unfermented juice, but which isn't used in most Bible translations.
The argument in the English-speaking world is all about alcohol - is this "wine" in the Bible in this particular verse referring to "grape juice" or "wine"? This argument reflects the distinction made in English. We try to take scripture and shoehorn it into English, and can have massive arguments over this issue when it comes to issues like whether Christians should drink alcohol, should we use wine or grape juice for communion etc. But it all comes back to our language.
What if we were thinking about this in Greek? Would we see it all as "oinos", see no fundamental difference between unfermented and fermented "oinos", the difference only being how old the "oinos" is, and would we just not care?
What if we were thinking about this in Hebrew? What is the difference between "chamar" and "yayin"? Are they from different types of grapes? Is there a theological significance to this? Is "tiyrowsh" alcoholic? When is something "tiyrowsh" or "'aciyc"? Should we save "shekar" for people who are in serious pain and only drink "yayin" or "chamar" under normal circumstances? Would there be something completely different that we argued about? Would a Greek or English speaker even understand what the problem was, or would they just think we were crazy?
This has serious implications for our understanding of marriage.
Obvious example:
The English word "adultery" means "sex between a married person and a person other than their spouse". That is how most Christians read the word in scripture. According to this definition, polygyny is adultery.
But in Hebrew, "adultery" means "sex between a married woman and a man other than her husband". To show that polygyny is not adultery, we have to take people back to the Hebrew and re-define the words for them.
But it goes much deeper than that.
A lot of discussion comes back to whether a woman is a "wife" or not, and when she becomes a "wife". Because in English, we have one word for "woman", and another word specifically for "wife". And our English bibles are full of both terms.
While in both Hebrew and Greek, there is no distinct word for "wife", only the word "woman" ("'ishshah" and "gyne"). Some women happen to be associated with husbands, others are not. How much of our thinking is simply a misunderstanding?
Then if you look into the English word "wife", you find that it also used to only mean "woman"! The old meaning of "woman" is preserved in the words "midwife" and "fishwife". The meaning of "married woman" is only around 500 years old or so. So are we getting confused by something that is only a recent change of meaning of a word?
But it goes still deeper.
The entire purpose of our discussions here is to better understand "marriage". The word "marriage" in English means "the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law". The word is ultimately of Latin origin, from "marito" meaning to marry, couple, join, graft or impregnate.
But there is no such word in Hebrew. The words "marry" or "marriage" appear at various times in the Old Testament, but are translated from five different words that are usually translated differently. The closest is "ba'al", meaning "lord" or "rule", which is translated as "marry" eight times in the sense that at marriage a woman is coming under the rule of a man. The next is "chathan", almost always translated "law", but translated three times as "marriage" in the sense of the contractual obligations entered into at marriage.
On the other hand, Greek does have words for "marry" - "gameo / gamizo / gamos" (G1060,G1061,G1062), always translated "marry", "wedding" or something similar. And the variants "ekgamizo / ekgamisko", meaning to give in marriage.
What does this mean for our understanding? When we look at the relationship between a man and a woman from an English, Latin or Greek mindset, we have a concept of "marriage" as a distinct named entity. And we attempt to shoehorn the Hebrew scriptures into defining when this "marriage" starts or ends.
But do we have it all backwards? Does Hebrew reflect YHWH's perspective more accurately? Is there actually no such thing as a distinct thing called "marriage"? Rather, do the Hebrew laws around the relationships between men and women apply more generally to ALL people who are in such a relationship, regardless of the detail of how it was formed or what they call it?
When we look at the obligations of a man and a woman, our primary question, in English, is always "is this couple married, or not?".
What if that's the wrong question?
What if we should rather be simply asking "What obligations does this man have to this woman, and vice versa?"
