Ancient Israelite Thought
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One of our members of our Facebook Community asked a question along the lines of whether or not I am a Bible Translator. I can see where persons can assume that I am. So, this is for everyone to understand with a little more clarity how we were able to discover the things that we have discovered.
One of my closest friends asked me a similar question a while back. He asked, “how is it possible that people study theology for multiple years and do not know what was being discovered? “How is it that you are decoding the Scriptures so quickly,”
I will explain.
The primary objective of the research at the Institute was not in the context of creating an alternative version of the Bible.
The objective of the research was to answer the question, “why isn’t the Scriptures working today as it did for biblical characters”.
As a translator, that immediately brings to the table 2 questions.
1. Is the translation accurate?
2. Are the readers understanding the translation in the same context that the speaker or author intended.
The first phase of the research was to identify whether or not the translations that we have today are accurate. This was naturally my initial suspicion, and would be anyone else’s, when we come to terms with the fact that our Faith seems to us to be in vain. Trusting something that could potentially be a lie, in light of no manifestation.
After scrutiny of 11 versions that I have gone through personally, even though the translations vary, they are not inaccurate. The translations vary because each translation has its own priority. The purpose of a translation has significant influence on how a translation is approached. In addition to that, one must understand that languages evolve over time. So, sometimes, depending on the language that one is translating from, can be significantly more sophisticated than the language that you translating to. This could means that one concept in translation could be paragraphs in a lesser sophisticated language, or there could be no words in the language that the translator is translating to to communicate the sentiment of the author.
A good example of this within the Bible itself is the book of Genesis chapter 1. The entire chapter is written in what is now known as the voluntative mood.
Right now as your read that, you are probably looking at the screen perplexed. Why? Because that tense per se, does not exist in the English Language. The mood or tense means speaking with or through desire. They are not commands that are imperative like an instruction, but a mood that is a command filled with desire. You experience this when for example you have a desire for a particular food or snack. Then, out of the blue, someone brings you the same thing that you desired, or was feeling for. That desire was a command in the Spirit. That is an example of the voluntative mood. Just that in Genesis it was with decided intention. Your desire for the food is very passive.
So in a case where English does not have a separate tense to communicate that, the translator can translate the words and the sentences according to what the text reads, but the reader (excluding the translator) will NEVER figure it out, unless there are certain cues that another translator like myself would pick up through the identification of patterns. This is just one example of many things about Ancient Hebrew that cannot be translated because of the youth of the English Language.
It brought to light:
1. That the Ancient Hebrew Language and the authors of course communicate concepts that our the English Language is not equipped to communicate with the same brevity of the verses for example.
And, 2. that the translator has the task of communicating in his translation what is possible to be communicated. Unfortunately, the rest of the context is lost.
So, in this case, the text is accurate but the intention on the other hand is another story.
Since the translations were accurate, the next phase was number 2. Is the reader understanding the translation in the same context and mindset of the speaker?
This is where the Philosophy of the Language comes in.
This enables us to now understand the text through the lens of the authors.
The Philosophy of a language is how a language or culture attaches concepts and sentiments (like the voluntative mood mentioned above), to its syntax (or grammatical structure).
This is what the written translations of the Scriptures do not provide.
Here is an example of how much concepts can be attached to one word, that reading the Bible through the lens of your spoken language will not discern.
When you read the word “God”, you immediately trigger a mental picture that is specific to your understanding and FEELINGS of what God is. The usual concept is somewhere in the environs of the supreme being that is the Creator that no mere mortal can attain to nor fathom.
This is not the idea that is in the Bible. The context of God in the Bible is the word Elohim.
Here are 3 things that you did not know about Elohim, which is translated “God” in the Bible.
1. Elohim is a plural word. In the PHILOSOPHY of the Ancient Hebrew Language when when a plural word is used to refer to one person, it transitions from quantitative plurality, to qualitative plurality. That means it is no more referring to number, as in more than one. It is now understood as one person having multiple qualities or capabilities of function.
This gives context in the Genesis narrative to 2 things. ONE: the fact that every other creation mentioned in the Genesis narrative is singular in capacity, from animals to elements. And Elohim is the only multifaceted being who is creating each creation by multiplying individual aspects of his multifaceted character. And, TWO: Since man was created first with God’s Name YHVH Elohim, and He (YHVH Elohim — Adam) was the Creator of Heaven and Earth, not only is each creation singular in comparison to him, but the entire spectrum of creation, which is the entire universe is a multiplication of the multifaceted nature of His Spirit, as Elohim. His qualitative plurality is now seen in quantitative plurality.
2. The term Elohim refers to a title and function. It translates the One of Authority and Power. That is a title that one can take as their own, and begin to be Elohim by adopting a mindset and emotional posture that is Authoritative, which reproduces Power. No more victim perspective. It requires that you do not complain, nor blame. One is required to take full responsibility, and get the understanding to make things happen.
3. The letters that are used to form the concept of Elohim in the Hebrew Language denotes the concept of two oxen yoked together pulling a plow. This in contrast to the Greco-Roman based abstract perspective of supremacy that cannot be attained to nor fathomed, it denotes the concept that the God of the Bible makes you God to be your God (reflected in the 2 oxen), and that He the Spirit of the body of the universe yokes himself to you in your body and functions as your leader and guide to walk and function like he functions.
Before I shared that, you would not have even fathomed the idea that that was what the text was communicating. The unfortunate aspect of this is that the greater majority of Believers have been trapped in this lack of understanding. Some have even resigned to their futile experiences, and in an attempt to make sense of their lives, they have constructed doctrines, and perspectives that provide them with comfort.
Do you see now how the difference in the Philosophy of a Language can impact what you understand? Without truly understanding the intention and the perspective that the authors are communicating, there is no fruit. Consciousness can only manifests what it is aware of. It is on this note that the Apostle Paul said to Philemon, “that the communication of your faith is made effective and powerful, with the ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE of what is ours in Christ”.
This is where the research at the International Institute of Pneumatology comes in.
The truth of the matter though is that the identification of the Philosophy of the Language was a by-product of our target. The Institute is called after “Pneumatology”, which is the study of spirit and spiritual phenomenon. The objective of the Institute was to identify what Spirit is in the Ancient Hebrew Paradigm, how it worked, and what was the Spiritual construct that they worked with. Then, to put it to practical tests to see if it is true at all, and if it was, then to understand the blueprint of the Spiritual realm of the Bible, to be able to bring Believers today back into the understanding that Jesus and His Apostles had to enable mankind to benefit from the Eternal Life that is available.
To be able to get to that, we evidently needed to find what the texts are communicating in context. With this, we have successfully been able to identify what we set out to identify, and every day, the nuances get clearer.
It is through this research that the true context of the Name of God was identified as the Principe of Functionality that it was to Jesus, the Apostles and the Priests, Prophets, and others in the Bible. The Name is the Frame through which not only the Bible is made super clear, but also through which the universe and its functions are understood in ways that not even Physics today have grasped.
This is the importance of the Philosophy of a Language. And, this is the significance of our research for the Body of Christ, and the world at large.
To learn more, visit the International Institute of Pneumatology today!
