LandonWillis

Author: Landon Willis

  • What Is The Shema?

    The Shema is a famous and still very important prayer in Judaism. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4, where it is written:

    “4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

    In Hebrew, that first word “hear” is the command Shema, which itself comes from the Hebrew word “to hear”, Shama.

    The modern Jewish prayer consists almost entirely of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41. And since the first word of this prayer is Shema, the whole thing is now just referred to as “the Shema”.

    Even during Jesus’ time, the Shema was recognized as a very important section of the Scriptures. Think of when Jesus said in Mark 12:29 that the greatest command was “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

    And, strangely enough, the word Shema was also the name of four men and one city recorded in The Old Testament. You can find all references to these men and this city in 1 Chronicles 2:43, 1 Chronicles 5:8, 1 Chronicles 8:13, Nehemiah 8:4, and Joshua 15:26.

    It seems that the name was probably from the noun form of Shema, which would mean “sound”. So, their names were something along the lines of “sound”, “hearing”, or “fame”.

    Plus, this is where we get the modern names Simeon and Simon.

  • What Is The Decapolis?

    We see the word “Decapolis” three times in our Bibles (all in The New Testament), Matthew 4:25, Mark 5:20, and Mark 7:31. But, what on earth is it?

    Well, the word comes from the Greek deka, meaning “ten” and the Greek polis, meaning “city”. So, the Decapolis is the region of ten cities.

    Now, from the reading that I’ve done, it seems that we don’t exactly have the best records for what the Decapolis fully was. But, I’ll go ahead and piece it together as best as I can.

    Pretty much, at the time of Christ, the Decapolis referred to a region mostly east of the Jordan River. There were a total of ten cities (although maybe more than ten) that all were part of the Roman Empire but had been granted a large degree of independence.

    Only one city in the Decapolis was west of the Jordan River. Scythopolis. It was apparently one of the richest and most powerful of the cities.

    And while most of the cities were all more or less in the same region, Damascus was located a good deal further north than the rest.

    There are also conflicting reports of which cities were actually part of the Decapolis. Some resources that I saw said there may have been as many as 18 cities in the Decapolis at some points. It did at least originally refer to just ten cities though (as the name deka polis would have us believe).

    But, was “Decapolis” just a description of that general region, or was it the name for a political alliance or confederation between these ten cities? I have got no clue. Some sources say that it might have been an economic alliance between these rich cities. Others speculate that it was an actual political union. And others still guess that it was just a geographical name with no real significance to how the cities worked together.

    Even though we don’t know too much about how the Decapolis region actually operated, we do know a bit more about its history.

    After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, there were a few new Greek Empires across the Middle East. Over the course of the next couple centuries, these empires founded most of the cities that would later become the Decapolis region.

    Then, in 63 BC Pompey the Great (a famous Roman general) came and conquered a decent chunk of the Middle East. By the time that Pompey came around, the Decapolis region (which was still mainly populated and influenced by Greeks) had become conquered by a new Jewish Kingdom.

    So, Pompey came and effectively liberated the Decapolis. He granted several cities (maybe ten in total) a large degree of independence from Rome. They were on the extreme border of the Roman Empire at the time, and the cities were all apparently very happy to be in charge of themselves again. In fact, I read several sources describing them as city-states. They even had permission from the Romans to mint their own coins.

    Since these cities still kept such a strong Greek influence, that can explain one very well known story in The New Testament. When Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee into the “region of the Gerasenes” (Mark 5:1), He’d entered the Decapolis. The city of Gerasa (from whom the Gerasenes get their name) was another city-state within the Decapolis. And when Jesus at the end of the encounter with the “Garasene Demoniac” casts the demons into a giant herd of pigs, did you ever wonder why there were pigs? Remember, the Jews considered pigs unclean. Well, they were in a Gentile region, the Decapolis. So, these pagans didn’t care much about Jewish dietary law, and they kept plenty of pigs.

    From what I can tell, we just don’t have too much information about the Decapolis. But, to sum it all up, it seems that it was a region of at least ten autonomous city-states which were established by Pompey the Great in 63 BC. They were mostly Greeks/Gentiles. And they maintained their wealth and semi-independence until around 106 AD.

    I hope that helps.

  • Difference Between Christ, Messiah, And The Anointed One

    Messiah comes from the Hebrew word mashiah, which means “the anointed one”.

    This idea of anointing is seen all throughout both The Old Testament and The New Testament. There are many examples of God commanding different people to anoint kings, prophets, and priests in The Old Testament.

    “Anointing” literally means “to smear with oil” (it comes from the Latin word unguere, meaning “to smear”). God ordered this ceremony of rubbing people with oil (apparently usually a special kind of oil for which he gives us the recipe in Exodus 30:22-33) many times, seemingly as a special ritual to show that someone or something is set apart for God.

    This process was especially important for men of high standing, like men who were about to become king or about to become priests.

    So, when we read in The Old Testament about how The Messiah is coming (think Daniel 9:25-26), we can know that “Messiah” is just being used as a catchall term to describe the one who is specially chosen and set apart for God. We know that this Messiah was Jesus, and even though He was anointed with oil at times (like Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet/smearing his feet with oil), He was called the Messiah because the term “anointed one” had just become a general term to describe someone set apart and chosen by God.

    Now, that’s for the Hebrew.

    When The New Testament was written in Greek, though, the authors properly translated the word mashiah into Greek as khristos, which also means “the anointed one”. This Greek term is where we get the English word “Christ”.

    There are also two instances in the whole of The New Testament where the word “Messiah” is used, John 1:41 and John 4:25. In both of these verses, the author of John uses the word messiah because he’s recording what someone who spoke Hebrew or Aramaic was saying. He does also immediately follow it up both times by saying that “Messiah” is just the Hebrew word for “Christ” (in English “anointed one”).

    Also, the word “Messiah” had a real interesting history. As it traveled through Greek and Latin, it became Messias. And this used to be the English word for “Messiah” too. But, when the authors of the Geneva Bible (one of the first English Bibles) were translating it into English, they decided to make the word look more Hebrew. So, they replaced the ‘s’ with an ‘h’, giving us our modern English word for Messiah.

    I’m not entirely sure why most translators choose to not translate the words “Messiah” and “Christ”, but I hope that this is some useful information for you.

  • Word of The Week No 9: Hosanna

    We only see the word “Hosanna” in two places in our English translations of the Bible, Mark 11:9-10 and Matthew 21:9,15.

    These examples both happen during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Here are all the verses where we can find “Hosanna”:

    Mark 11:9-10: 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

    “Hosanna!”

    “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

    10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

    “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

    Matthew 21:9: 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

    “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

    “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

    “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

    And Matthew 21:15 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

    So, what on earth does “Hosanna” mean?

    Well, the word in the original Greek manuscripts is hosanna, which is just a transliteration of hosha’na, which is either a Hebrew word or an Aramaic word.

    Either way, this word, hosha’na, seems to be a contraction of the Hebrew word hoshi’ah-nna. And this word, hoshi’ah-nna, does appear in other parts of the Bible, specifically in Psalm 118:25.

    In Psalm 118:25-26, we read: 25 Lord, save us!
        Lord, grant us success!

    26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

    That first phrase, “Lord, save us!” (also translated as “Save, we pray”), is the Hebrew word hoshi’ah-nna. When this got shortened down to hosha’na, it started to be used by Jews as a common part of a hymn/prayer.

    And over time the word began to mean not just “Save us” but something more along the lines of “Honor to the one who saves”. This explains why the crowds were shouting Hosanna as a shout of praise. The crowds meant “Honor to the Savior” and “Honor to the Messiah” when they were shouting out Hosanna.

    Plus, as an interesting connection, Jesus’ Aramaic/Hebrew name was Yehoshua, which translates as “The Lord is Salvation” or “The Lord is deliverance”. So, the shouts of Hosanna had an extra connection directly to His earthly name.

    Also, notice how in Psalm 118:26, it says “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” This is exactly what the crowds shouted in both Mark 11:9 and Matthew 21:9. That is a major piece of evidence which lets us know that the word Hosanna does indeed originate from hoshi’ah-nna in Psalm 118:25.

    The Gospel of Luke, per usual, does not contain this Hebrew/Aramaic expression. But in Luke 19:38, we see again the slightly altered phrase “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

    So, “Hosanna” was originally a cry of distress meaning “Save us!”, but over time it changed into a shout of praise to the Lord/Savior/Messiah. And this shout of praise was most fulfilled during Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, just a few days before He would in fact save us.

  • Golgotha, Calvary, And The Place of The Skull

    The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John all tell us that Jesus was crucified in a place called Golgotha.

    They also all tell us that Golgotha is a Hebrew word meaning “place of the skull”. (Technically, Golgotha is an Aramaic word, but Aramaic is commonly called Hebrew, since it was the common language of the Hebrew people at the time).

    Plus, the Gospel of Luke simply tells us that they crucified him at a place called “The Skull”.

    Every time we see the word “skull” in these passages, it is a translation of the Greek word Kranion, which means “skull” and is also where we get our modern word “cranium”.

    But, where do we get the word “Calvary” out of all this?

    Well, when the translator Jerome was compiling all the Bible into Latin in the late 300s AD, he properly translated that Greek word Kranion into the Latin word for “skull”, Calvaria.

    Then, as the centuries went by, some people translated the Latin Bible into English. When they did this, they just borrowed the Latin term and called the place “Calvary”, from Calvaria.

    Most modern English translations actually use the original manuscripts (Greek) when translating The New Testament though. So, now most Bibles will call it “the place of the skull”.

    But, we still have the word “Calvary” now, which is entirely unrelated to an army of horses, a “cavalry”.

    And, as for the place where Jesus was crucified, there’s been a whole lot of guessing about where it is and why it’s called the place of the skull.

    First, as a quick note, in the original Greek it’s more accurate to say “of the skull” and not “of a skull”.

    Anyhow, all four Gospels just call Golgotha/Calvary a “place”. Tradition has said that this was probably a hill, but we don’t really know for certain.

    A lot of people seem to think the place was called Golgotha because it was on a hill that kind of looked like a skull. Some other people say that it might have been because it could have been close to some tombs. And there are a good deal more guesses that scholars have made over the years.

    The gist of it is all pretty simple though. Jesus was crucified at a place called “place of the skull”. The Hebrew (Aramaic) term for “place of the skull” is Golgotha. And “Calvary” is just pretty much the Latin word for the same thing.

  • What on Earth is Mount Zion?

    Zion is a fun little word, because it’s got a big ‘ole history of being confusing.

    The earliest record we have of the word is 2 Samuel 5:7:

    “7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.”

    So, the fortress of Zion was a stronghold of the Jebusites (a people who controlled the city of Jebus, more famously known as Jerusalem). And so, the whole mountain/hill that the fortress was on started to be called Mount Zion (also associated with the “Ophel”, but that’s a word for another day).

    What does the word “Zion” mean? No clue!

    Alright, well I have some clue. Pretty much, the current best guess seems to be that the word Zion comes from Hebrew ṣiyyôn, which means “castle” or “fortress”. This would make it literally be “the fortress of fortress” or “Mount Fortress”. It seems like a logical enough explanation, especially since plenty of languages name places like that (think of the Sahara Desert, where “Sahara” is just the Arabic word for desert). However, there are plenty of other guesses, and nobody really knows for sure where the word “Zion” comes from.

    So, we’ve got this mountain that had a fortress called Zion, so that mountain is called Mount Zion. Is that the end of it? No, of course not!

    There was another mountain, located just a couple thousand feet away, which was called Mount Moriah. This is the same mountain where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac, and where Solomon built the first temple.

    After Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah, it started to be called “the Temple Mount”. However, for whatever reason, the term “Zion” also started to refer to the Temple Mount/Mount Moriah.

    So, we’ve now got two mountains being called “Mount Zion”, one because there had been a fortress called Zion on it, and the other because of some sort of symbolic reason.

    Then, about a thousand years later, just after the time of Jesus, the Jewish historian Josephus was writing his books. And, by that time Jerusalem had grown a whole lot bigger. Thanks to this growth, Josephus mistakenly started calling a bigger mountain near the center of Jerusalem “Mount Zion”. And guess what? The name stuck.

    So, now we’ve got three mountains called “Mount Zion”.

    And, in addition to all of that, the term “Zion” started to refer symbolically to: Jerusalem, the entire land of Israel, the spiritual Kingdom of God, the people of God, and the coming New Jerusalem.

    Alright, that was a confusing word to write about, but that’s the gist of it. Zion can mean a lot of different things.

  • Word of The Week No 8: Tortiloquy

    Tortiloquy: crooked talk, crooked speech

    Tortiloquy is a weird word. The only surviving record of this being a word anywhere ever (that I’ve found at least) is from a single book, Thomas Blount’s Glossographia.

    Thomas Blount was a lexicographer(someone who writes dictionaries) in the seventeenth century. In 1656, he published his book, Glossographia, in which he covered some eleven thousand strange and rarely used English words. One of these words is tortiloquy.

    Blount says that this comes from Latin Tortiloquium. However, this does not appear to be a real Latin word in any dictionary. But, it could indeed come from the Latin words tortilis, meaning “twisted” or “crooked”, and loqui, meaning “to speak”.

    My best guess though is that he more or less made this word up all on his own because I can’t for the life of me find “tortiloquy” or tortiloquium referenced anywhere else ever aside from Thomas Blount’s dictionary.

    “The politician denied all accusations of tortiloquy earlier in his career”.

    “The crude mobster spoke nothing but tortiloquy”.

  • Word of The Week No 7: Obstreperous

    Obstreperous: loud, noisy, clamorous, defiant, disobedient, unruly

    Obstreperous comes from the Latin word Obstrepere, which means “to make a loud noise” or “to roar against”, and itself comes from two other Latin words, ob meaning “against” or “right before”, and strepere meaning “to make a noise”. So, Obstrepere literally means “to make a noise against”, or in other words, “to be defiant”.

    “The obstreperous children constantly got themselves into trouble.”

    “Tim did not like how obstreperous his new dog was.”

  • Word of the Week No 6: Animadvert

    Animadvert: to criticize openly and harshly; to censure;  to notice or observe; to turn the mind to; to consider; to make an animadversion

    Animadvert comes from the Latin word Animadvertere, which means “to notice,” and itself comes from three separate Latin words, anima meaning “mind,” ad meaning “to”, and vertere meaning “to turn”. So, together it means “to turn the mind towards”. Originally this word in English carried a similar meaning of “to notice” or “to consider”, but that meaning fell away, when the newer meaning of criticism or censure replaced it. Now, the word as a whole is mostly obsolete. 

    “The lawyer animadverted on the legality of the case.”

    “Cicero famously animadverted against his many opponents.”

  • Word of the Week No 5: Bible

    Where does the word “Bible” come from?

    It first started out as the Greek phrase ta biblia to hagia, which literally means “The Holy Books”. Christians seem to have first started using this phrase to talk about the Bible as a whole by the 2nd or 3rd century.

    This got translated into Latin as Biblia Sacra, which also means “Holy Books”. However, that word Biblia is in something called the neuter plural in Latin. So it is a plural word (it means “books” not “book”), but it looks like it could be a feminine singular word. Thanks to this, during the Middle Ages, Biblia Sacra began to just mean “Holy Book”.

    That is where many languages now get their word for “Bible”. It’s just the Latin word Biblia, which, by the end of the Middle Ages, meant “book”.

    But, this wasn’t the common Latin word for the Bible until around the 800s AD. Rather, Jerome (the man who did a lot of work with translating the Bible into Latin in the 300s) and other Romans would have commonly used the word Bibliotheca, which literally means “library”. This is where we get the lesser used English word “bibliothec”, which used to be our common word for “the Bible” back in Middle English.

    Both of those words, though, Biblia and Bibliotheca, clearly have a similar root Bibli-. So, where do these words come from originally?

    Well, they both go back to the Greek word Biblion, meaning “a scroll” or “a book”. The Greeks got this word from the Ancient Egyptian word for papyrus, Byblos. And, it seems that the word was introduced into Greek through the city of Byblos, which was probably named that because they were an exporter of Egyptian papyrus.

    Overall, the word used for the Bible has a long and interesting history. But, in most languages that I’ve seen it just ends up going back to the word for “book”. So nice and simple.