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The Symbols of the Bible

Somewhere along my journey I learned that the English words of my Bible were not the original ones. The words of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew symbols.

(Hebrew is read from right to left.)

The words of the New Testament were written in Greek symbols.

(Greek is written from left to right)

What would happen if you opened up your Bible and found those symbols? As a good friend of mine once said, "It all looks like Greek to me, even the Hebrew!"

Before we learn more about working with Greek and Hebrew symbols, let's first discover how a bundle of associations become attached to symbols in order to form words. Otherwise, we could be looking at a group of symbols, like "tmeckstor," and think is a real word.

Translation or Transliteration?

When a professional translator opens a Greek or Hebrew text of the Bible, he or she has to make a decision as to what will be done with each word. The translator can translate, transliterate or ignore it. Now, in order that we can have a Successful Communication Experience, let's make sure that we have the same bundles of associations for the new terms.

(1) Translate - Transfer the meaning from one language to another.

(2) Transliterate - Transfer the sound or symbols from one language to another.

Let me give you an example of the transliteration process by transliterating the first Hebrew word in the Bible (Genesis 1:1) --

*Hebrew Word*
*Transliteration*	BeRESHIYT

Later you will learn how to transliterate Greek and Hebrew words by using a tool that we created called the BHC TRANSLITERATOR.

I think that it is obvious that even if we transliterated the entire Greek and Hebrew Bible it wouldn't make much sense. Do you have a bundle of associations for "BeRESHIYT"? Until the the biblical texts are translated, they won't mean anything for most people. Our next stop on our biblical heritage journey will be to learn how to make sure that the right bundle of associations is attached to each set of Greek or Hebrew symbols so we can have a Successful Communication Experience.

If you chose Option 2 and are participating in the BHC Leadership Development Program you are to write a summary of this lesson. Tell us what you learned and make any suggestions on how to improve the lesson. Include any comments on how this information affected your spirituality. E-mail your paper to us by clicking here and attaching your finished paper. If possible use WORD format.

END OF LESSON TWO

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