Catacomb Resident Blog

Blessed Wilderness

03 October 2024

A few of us in the Radix Fidem community have been looking recently at the work of Jeff Benner, a Hebrew language specialist. He's another one of those scholars who is trying to make Biblical Studies material accessible to the broader public.

It's not as if we agree with everything he has to say -- for example, he's apparently a Zionist. But that doesn't seem to hinder his accurate probing of Hebrew thinking through understanding their language. He has books you can purchase, but for most of my readers, it's probably enough that you just spend a little time with his YouTube archive or his website. I'm plowing through his videos by starting with the oldest, some 15 years ago.

What makes him unique in my experience is that he has dug into the Hebrew alphabet to discover that the modern typography hides some of the rich etymology of the language. The ancient Hebrew language in written form is pictographs, not the classic square script we are used to seeing that was borrowed from Aramaic, nor even the so-called Paleo-Hebraic script. Benner believes that the ancient pictographs are in themselves a clue to the meanings of the words.

If you buy into his approach, then you quickly discover that a considerable heritage of translation work from Hebrew into English is deficient. There are out there any number of scholars who know the traditional mainstream approach to the Hebrew text and can chatter at length about how to translate words, but haven't actually examined the etymology of those words. It's a rather shallow approach behind most English translations.

Let me offer an example. As Radix Fidem Blog's recent series on the Thorlief Boman book Hebrew Thought Compared to Greek runs its course, a particular point of interest has arisen. The Hebrew word davar (also transliterated as dabar or dabhar) is typically translated into English as "word" or "thing". Boman offers his own analysis of this word, but I think he misses the point entirely.

Digging into the etymology of this davar and its symbolism, you would find that the root concept is more of "order" in the sense of "how things ought to be". In Hebrew language and culture, the primary drive is moral truth in the heart, not simply intellectual information. Once you settle the moral questions, everything else falls into place.

The quintessential Hebrew occupation is shepherding -- tending to sheep. It is the symbol of manhood and probably one of the most sensible uses of the lands in the Middle East. Most of it not precisely "desert" in the sense of the sandy Sahara in Africa. It's more like scrub wilderness with limited rainfall. Palestine in particular is more rocky than sandy. One of the terms based on davar is midvar -- typically translated "wilderness", referring to this dry scrub land.

It's a fine place for sheep and goats. It's a fine place for shepherding. How does davar contribute to the meaning of midvar? Benner suggests that the Hebrew concept of wilderness is a place of order in the sense of moral peace, something God made, while a city is a place of chaos because it pushes us away from moral peace into whatever mere man can build.

Even this probably misses the point, in the sense of being only half-true. Hebrews considered wilderness a place fit for sheep and shepherds. It is "ordered" in the sense of a shepherd leading his sheep to good pasture. It is the place where one finds contentment and peace with God (Psalm 23). This is why you have the Old Testament expression "to your tents, O Israel" as a way of depicting a return to the basics of life and getting away from people trying to control your life for their personal benefit. It's getting away from bad shepherds.

Nor should you imagine that it means idyllic living; that's a western concept. The ancient concept of the Devil as "devourer" is also out there where Jesus went to face temptation. Rather, the wilderness is the place where things are reduced to their essence. A lot of silly questions are pushed aside and what really matters to our human existence is found out there. The dangers are undisguised, but so is the hand of our God leading us.

I believe that's the Hebrew concept.


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