"The Ancient Tav", by Dr. Frank Seekins

[alon]

Interesting booklet by Dr. Frank Seekins, called “The Ancient Tav, the Hebrew Sign of God.”

Aparently “making your X” as well as “X marks the spot” comes from ancient Hebrew culture, with Biblical roots as well. And the “sign of the Cross” was a Jewish thing centuries, even millennia before it was a Christian thing! In the Hebrew aleph-bet the last letter is a “tav” which, in earlier times was actually a cross but a little sideways (think leaning right). It means a sign, or a covenant, or a sign of a covenant; also can denote ownership. It was branded onto livestock, and was also the mark placed on the foreheads of the faithful in Ezekial 9:4-6. This we know from the Talmud (Shabbat 55a). The Jews stoped using the letter as a cross, as well as abandoned it as a symbol when the Natzarim, and a century later the Christians started using it as a symbol of their faith in Yeshua.

I’ve said many times that Yeshua never said “I am the alpha and the omega.” He was Jewish, He didn’t speak Greek as His primary language, if He ever spoke it at all! Apparently even the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church agrees with me on this one. Rev. 1:9 “I am the aleph and the tav” Talmud Shabbat 55a calls the mark a “prophetic mark,” which raises the possibility that this is the mark that will be placed on the foreheads of the remnant in Rev 7:3, 9:4 & 14:1. I know the Talmud is not considered by most of Messianism as inspired, however I’d posit that some may be as inspired as any of the Deutero-cannon, such as some of the Apocrypha. The Talmud also teaches that priests were anointed with oil on their heads in the sign of a tav. This sign also appeared on wafers, coins, and on the graves and ossiaries of many Jewish believers.

The Hebrew word for cross is ts’lav, spelled tsaddik-lamed-vet. One representation of the tsaddik is a picture of a righteous man kneeling, with his hands raised in worship to Elohim. Lamed-vet spells out the word “heart.” So the word picture for ts’lav is “the righteous heart.” So long before Yeshua the promise of the cross was given in symbols and in the language itself! In Ezekiel and in Revelation those with this mark on their foreheads are protected from destruction. So the sign of the cross is a symbol of God’s love and protection, and has been so from the beginning.

I like Dr. Seekins works, but if we had a rating system I'd give this one a 3 out of 5.

Dan C

[rakovsky]

Aug 5, 2014 2:05:13 GMT -8 alon said:

I’ve said many times that Yeshua never said “I am the alpha and the omega.” He was Jewish, He didn’t speak Greek as His primary language, if He ever spoke it at all! Apparently even the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church agrees with me on this one. Rev. 1:9 “I am the aleph and the tav”

Shalom, Alon!

I don't know what you mean by the Orthodox Church agreeing with you - Yeshua is commonly considered by scholars to have spoken in Aramaic (or more precisely a Hebraic dialect of Aramaic). I think that someone could accept that Revelation 1:8 quotes Yeshua as calling Himself the Alpha and Omega in Greek while still accepting the other mystical meanings of the "Tau". Revelation begins with Yeshua's instructions to write seven letters to seven churches in Asia minor, historically a Hellenized region where Greek was a kind of "Lingua Franca". It would make sense for the author of Revelation, or the dictator of the seven letters, to put them in Greek therefore. The Book of Revelation was either written in rough Greek by someone whose native language was a Semitic one, or else it was written in the Semitic language first and then translated into Greek in such a way that the translation had a rough style in the Greek.

Anyway, I don't know why someone couldn't relate the Lord to the "Aleph and the Tau" in Hebrew to express the concept of the "first and the last", but then when addressing a Greek speaking audience use the term "Alpha and Omega". The Greek "Alpha" comes from the Hebrew Aleph.

[alon]

Jan 20, 2019 17:03:44 GMT -8 rakovsky said:

Aug 5, 2014 2:05:13 GMT -8 alon said:

I’ve said many times that Yeshua never said “I am the alpha and the omega.” He was Jewish, He didn’t speak Greek as His primary language, if He ever spoke it at all! Apparently even the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church agrees with me on this one. Rev. 1:9 “I am the aleph and the tav”

Shalom, Alon!

I don't know what you mean by the Orthodox Church agreeing with you - Yeshua is commonly considered by scholars to have spoken in Aramaic (or more precisely a Hebraic dialect of Aramaic). I think that someone could accept that Revelation 1:8 quotes Yeshua as calling Himself the Alpha and Omega in Greek while still accepting the other mystical meanings of the "Tau". Revelation begins with Yeshua's instructions to write seven letters to seven churches in Asia minor, historically a Hellenized region where Greek was a kind of "Lingua Franca". It would make sense for the author of Revelation, or the dictator of the seven letters, to put them in Greek therefore. The Book of Revelation was either written in rough Greek by someone whose native language was a Semitic one, or else it was written in the Semitic language first and then translated into Greek in such a way that the translation had a rough style in the Greek.

Anyway, I don't know why someone couldn't relate the Lord to the "Aleph and the Tau" in Hebrew to express the concept of the "first and the last", but then when addressing a Greek speaking audience use the term "Alpha and Omega". The Greek "Alpha" comes from the Hebrew Aleph.

Aramaic primacy comes from the fall-back position of the church to say Jesus did not speak Hebrew as His primary language. In order to make their new religion, the church fathers had to distance Jesus as much as possible from all things Jewish. And this had to start with the language. Many, many scholars today are saying it is likely the New Testament was written in Hebrew. But many hold to Aramaic primacy, others hold fast to Greek primacy, and some say it was a hybredized Hebraic/Greek tongue. But the fact is it was written by Jews to Jews, and those letters were encyclicals, meant to be copied and widely distributed. So many of the places they were read did not speak Greek. But in every synagogue there is a Hebrew school. And every official in every synagogue may not have spoken Greek, but they would have been fluent in Hebrew.

The Greek NT was translated into Koine Greek, which was the lowest form of Greek and often used for translations into reek from other languages. Sadly all we have now are over 5800 copies and fragments of the so called "original" documents, very many of which disagree. I was in a class with a person from Wycliff, and I asked how they chose which ones were correct and which false. I knew the answer, but I wanted them to admit it. They go back to and throw out what doesn't agree, keeping what does! Sometimes life is just sweet like that ...

Dan (feelin' ornery at times) C

[rakovsky]

Dan,
OK. I'm not coming to preach a pale, "blond haired blue eyed Jesus" born in a life-sized Nativity Creche, or when I assert things like Jesus spoke Aramaic, I don't mean to be laying down the law or something, so please feel free to correct me on things, since I like hearing your ideas.

Regarding Hebrew language, I think it would be neat if the 1st century Judeans spoke and wrote ancient Hebrew, like they did in King David's time. I think that Orthodox Jews teach that the script used in King David's time was the same one used today. But scholars typically say that David used the Middle Hebrew script and that some time after the Assyrian conquest, the Jewish nation and the TaNaKh came to use the "Assyrian" script like today. Likewise, since the Targums and the Talmud are, as I understand, written in a Hebraic dialect of Aramaic, it's commonly considered that the same was true for the normal language spoken in 1st c. Judea. Dr. Michael Brown wrote an essay that I found persuasive on why he believes that Yeshua and the apostles spoke Aramaic rather than Hebrew.

[alon]

Jan 20, 2019 19:59:09 GMT -8 rakovsky said:

Dan,
OK. I'm not coming to preach a pale, "blond haired blue eyed Jesus" born in a life-sized Nativity Creche, or when I assert things like Jesus spoke Aramaic, I don't mean to be laying down the law or something, so please feel free to correct me on things, since I like hearing your ideas.

Regarding Hebrew language, I think it would be neat if the 1st century Judeans spoke and wrote ancient Hebrew, like they did in King David's time. I think that Orthodox Jews teach that the script used in King David's time was the same one used today. But scholars typically say that David used the Middle Hebrew script and that some time after the Assyrian conquest, the Jewish nation and the TaNaKh came to use the "Assyrian" script like today. Likewise, since the Targums and the Talmud are, as I understand, written in a Hebraic dialect of Aramaic, it's commonly considered that the same was true for the normal language spoken in 1st c. Judea. Dr. Michael Brown wrote an essay that I found persuasive on why he believes that Yeshua and the apostles spoke Aramaic rather than Hebrew.

There are many persuasive arguments out there. However the arguments of linguists and other scholars more and more suggests Hebrew. But that gets argued ad infinitum by just about everyone. What we have of the NT is in Greek, so that is the reality we must deal with. The reason for Hebrew primacy is that many things, while difficult to understand when translated from the Greek are much more clear when 1st back-translated into Hebrew then translated into English. But I don't speak either Greek or Hebrew, so I take the word of the experts on it. Either way, it is still God's word. Aramaic is, I am told, so close to Hebrew if you speak one you can understand someone speaking the other. 

So this is one where I generally give my opinion and allow anyone else to believe what they want. It won't effect your salvation to believe it was originally written in Tongan or even French ... well, maybe French ... 
But you get the idea.

Dan C