Hebrew Voices #213 – A Bridge Between Worlds: Part 1

Nehemia, I was struck by your conflation of soul and spirit. Can you explain this, esp. from the Hebrew language perspective.

Southern Italy and Sicily has a very large “Jewish” population. My family got exiled to Sicily prior to emigrating to the US. Before that they were in Northern Italy. Before that they were in Spain and experienced the Inquisition in the 13th century. I was informed of the Spanish time by a family member I encountered as a Messianic Congregation I attended many years ago. There are more Jews in the world who were forced to hide themselves because of the churches of Constantine. Sadly they also forgot the Jewish heritage over time.

I’ve been on the Hebrew Roots road for more than 30 years. One of the wisest things I read at the beginning came from Marvin Wilson (“Our Father Abraham” author) when he said, “I write my theology in pencil.” I have a big eraser, and I’ve used it a lot over the last three decades. Absolutely, the more I study, the more I learn, the less I know. I don’t even engage people in debate anymore for the sake of argument. Nothing good comes of it.

Love your stuff even though some of it is way over my head. I have a question for you. Does Hebrew have grammatical declensions like Greek or Latin? I ask because I was reading in John chapter 20 where Mary Magdalene calls Jesus “rabboni”. This word is different than rabbi. Is it a vocative form in Hebrew like Latin has in the example “Et tu Brute?” and is Hebrew declined in its endings to show grammar structure? I’ve tried Google but it just tells me that Hebrew has not declined LoL in its usage over the years. Or is it possibly Aramaic wording in John 20. Thank you so much for all your hard work.

So blessed by the mutual respect and humility of this discourse.