GLOSSARY CONTINUED (L-Z) For
The Testimony of Yeshua
The Word of Elohim
and the Everlasting Kingdom Book Series
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The terminology on the Everlasting Kingdom website is being updated to reflect the terminology in this Glossary. Many of these terms are a response to the names of pagan gods and goddesses that have been adopted by Christianity into their everyday vocabulary in a process called syncretism (serving two masters) that tarnishes the name and reputation of the Creator—something He strongly frowns on. In fact the first three of the Ten Commandments are centered on respect for His name, and His hatred of false gods, the imposters! The Bible condemns these gods 215 times using the word “gods”; in addition to the numerous times where a single “god” is condemned by name! It’s not as tho they don’t exist—they’re called demons! When Elohim (God) said “Be careful to do everything that I’ve told you, and never memorialize the names of other gods, or let them be heard from your ‘lips’, (Exodus 23:13). He obviously didn’t mean that we couldn’t mention their many names in a condemnatory manner such as when we read them aloud in the Scriptures. We simply must never use their names in a favorable manner. If He meant “never” under any circumstances, many of us would even have to change our names! Martin means “Mars god of war”. Daniel’s pal Abednego, “servant of Nebo” also comes to mind, as does Apollos, “given by Apollo”, and others. It isn’t the time to purify the names of people and places, or days of the week and months of the year, but it has never been the right time to provoke Yehovah’s (Jehovah’s) wrath by adopting pagan terminology for our words of worship (Deuteronomy 12:30). And, “You must never use the name of Yehovah your Elohim (God) irreverently [in vain], because Yehovah won’t let anyone go unpunished who misuses His name!” (Commandment #3: Exodus 20:7). Why should the vast majority of ‘our’ pagan terminology usage end up in “church”? (Incidentally, the word church is derived from the name of the goddess Circe!)
Life Giver: The Aramaic doesn’t refer to us as being “saved”, but refers to our having “life”. In the same way Yeshua (Jesus) spoke of being a “Life Giver”, where the Greek has substituted “Savior”.
The Lord is a substitute name for Yehovah that I prefer not to use. It was prophesied that the name of Yehovah would be replaced by “LORD”. Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 23:26-27 How long will this be in the mind of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own mind? 27 who intend to cause My people to forget My name by the dreams they tell one another, just like their ancestors forgot My name due to Baal [Lord] worship.
Hosea prophesied that Yeshua’s bride would not refer to her husband as Lord—after she is punished for idolatry:
Hosea 2:13-16 I’ll come and punish her for the times when she burned incense to the Baals, when she adorned herself with her rings and jewelry, and chased her lovers, and forgot Me”, declares Yehovah. ... 16 Yehovah says, “When that day comes, you’ll call Me Husband [Ishi] and you will never again call Me Lord [Baal]!
The name Yehovah was commonly inserted in Paleo Hebrew letters in Jewish literature of the era when the Testimony of Yeshua was being written, whether in Aramaic, Greek or Latin. Tho none of the earliest copies survive, it would have been considered offensive to have omitted the precious name for any reason, from the text of the Testimony.
A verse like this would have been silly without the name intact:
Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of YeHoVaH will live!”
Nations or ethnicities is almost always translated as “Gentiles”, a very derogatory term. “Heathen” is occasionally a good synonym for nations, and that often described the behavior of Israel. Interestingly, “goyim”, thought to be the Hebrew equivalent of “Gentiles” is very often applied to Israel in the Bible, as happens in the Greek when gentile/ethnos is applied to Israel; but the translators “fix” all of those places. See Did You Know That All Israelites Are Also Gentiles?
Offering (sacrifice): Offering [changing to zebak] is used rather than the word “sacrifice”, because sacrifice [Zebachim], like so many other “theological” terms, is derived from the name of a pagan god. Incidentally, “theology” originally meant the study of pagan gods. How much has that really changed? “The first to use the term ‘theology’ in the context of Christianity was Origen. He was responsible for developing theology as an ordered, philosophical pursuit within Christian circles. Origen was already influenced by Stoicism and Platonism, philosophies which in turn molded how he would understand and explain Christianity.”
Psyche is usually translated as soul or life, but soul is totally misunderstood—it is far from immortal—in fact it “defines” mortal! The Greek word psuche (psoo-khay’) is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew word nephesh (neh’-fesh). Both literally mean “someone/thing breathing”, in essence someone/thing that is (or was) alive. The first usage of “psuche” is in Matthew 2:20, “Get up and take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, because the people who were trying to take [destroy] his life [psuche] are dead.” The first usage of “nephesh” is Genesis 2:7, “Yehovah Elohim (God) formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [‘soul’]”. However there is a usage of the word that transcends breathing, but falls short of immortality, that I would call “the inner self” or “the essence of life”. We have an essence of spirit in our breathing/mortal form without being a spirit—Job 32:8, “But there is a spirit in mortal mankind, and the breath of El Shadday gives them cognizance.” Our inner self, sort of our backup copy, goes back to Aloha when we die (Ecclesiastes 12:7), to be utilized when we are resurrected. (There was no goddess Psuche until after the Bible was written.)
Saint Most English Bible translations use the word “saint” in their “New Testament” (Testimony of Yeshua). The Greek word behind it is “hagios”. When the Testimony was translated into Greek, hagios meant “devoted to the gods”. Like the Greek word Hades, “god of the underworld”, translated as hell, they are just 2 more clues why the original texts were in Aramaic, not Greek. The word “holy” as in “Holy Spirit” is also translated from “hagios”. (However the English word “holy” is derived from helios, Lord of the underworld.)
The Greek word “hagios” is the equivalent of the Latin adjective “sanctus”. The Latin Vulgate uses the word “sanctus”. In 1395, Wycliffe translated the Latin sanctus into English as “seyntis”. Later Tyndale spelled it “sayntes”. Coverdale spelled it “saintes” in 1560. The evolution ended with “saints” in the Geneva Bible in 1587. So the key to the origin of the word “saint” is found by tracing the Latin word “sanctus”.
Now keep one eye on the word “sanctus” as you read the following quotes on sacred, sanctified and sacrament:
Sacred and Sacrament: Another pagan term of worship. Derived from the sun god Sancus— “Augustine in his City of God, [p]121 reveals to us that the Sabine chief deity, Sancus, was called by some: Sanctus. In the Realencyclopaedie, under ‘Sancus’, we read of a statue of Sancus, representing an archaic type of Apollo, the great Sun-deity of the Greeks. At the end of the article it states that, originally, Semo Sancus was Jupiter itself. Another cognate form Sancius was also identified as Jupiter.”
Sanctified: “Another word that translates the Hebrew qodesh and the Greek hagios, is the word ‘sanctified’, which, according to the dictionaries, originates from the Latin sanctus. According to Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie, under ‘Sanctus’, the primary meaning and origin is not certain. However, this article quotes a source mentioning Santus as a deity, named deus sanctus, and also states that Sanctus was often used as an epithet or surname of deities (See also this same book’s entry: ‘Sancus’). Augustine in his City of God, 121 reveals to us that the Sabine chief deity, Sancus, was called by some: Sanctus. In the Realencyclopaedie, under ‘Sancus’, we read of a statue of Sancus, representing an archaic type of Apollo, the great Sun-deity of the Greeks. At the end of the article it states that, originally, Semo Sancus was Jupiter itself. Another cognate form Sancius was also identified as Jupiter.”
“Although we have fewer witnesses here than in the case against the words ‘holy’, ‘sacred’ and ‘hallow’, we still have enough evidence that ‘Sancuts’ was the name of a pagan deity, even identified with Jupiter and Apollo. Another ‘wicked abomination’, in the form of the words ‘sanctified’ and ‘sanctuary’, had been fused with the pure Messianic Faith, and we must eliminate them.”
Scriptures: Actually, the term “Hebrew Scripture” is a bit redundant since “all Scripture” is in Hebrew. All 51 references to “Scriptures” in the “New Testament” refer to the Scriptures extant when Yeshua (Jesus) was here. The inspired Writings pertaining to Yeshua are really called “The Testimony of Yeshua”. See The Word of Elohim. The Scriptures are the part of the Bible that include the Torah, the Writings and the Prophets—the part of the Bible that Timothy had from his childhood. The “NT” was not even a concept as most of it was being written. The writers thought that the end time had arrived. Same goes for “the Word of God” (Elohim (God). No reference to “the Word of God” includes the Testimony of Yeshua, a separate book. Look them up! “...and that from your childhood, you were taught from the kadish (holy) Writings, ‘things’ that can give you the wisdom to obtain eternal Life, thru faith in Yeshua Messiah. All Scripture [writing] that was written by the spirit is profitable for doctrine for proving convictions, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17 so that a person of Aloha [God] can become ‘very adept’ and accomplished in every good work.”—2nd Timothy 3:15-17. It is apparent that these Scriptures leading to eternal Life are referring to the Tanak, contemptuously dubbed the “Old Testament”, since all 50 other references to Scripture/s in the Testimony of Yeshua (NT) refer to it, including a twisted interpretation of 2 Peter 3:16. These Scriptures were not nailed to the cross, they are the ticket to eternal life!
Servant: Doulos (doo’-los) literally means a slave. There are other words for servant. Yet the metaphoric meaning, “one who gives himself up to another’s will, those whose service is used by [Messiah] in extending and advancing his cause among men” and “devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests”, is a perfect fit to someone who willingly serves Yehovah, and wouldn’t have it any other way, with absolutely no desire to escape. Both Murdock and Etheridge used the word “servant” rather than “slave”, in the spiritual applications, as is common in many Greek translations. Roman slaves of the first century had the right to be professionals and have families, and other rights. We don’t exactly have a word for that in English. Sundoulos, a related word, means “fellow slave”.
Sheol/Hades/Hell: We can thank the people who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into the (Greek) Septuagint (or their successors) for introducing Hades, the pagan “god of the underworld” into the Biblical realm, rather than transliterating it as Sheol (see verse 23), the Hebrew and Aramaic word, since there is no Greek equivalent (nor English, for that matter). What exactly Hell is can be read about here. Once the pagan Greek concept was introduced into the “Old Testament”, it paved the way a couple centuries later for Christian translators of the Testimony of Yeshua (NT), when translating from the original Aramaic into Greek, to pass along some pagan Greek thought as well.
Spirit messenger is translated as “angel” in almost every other version. Angelos is a word borrowed from the Greek. One reason that spirit Messenger Messenger is used in the Gabriel Tanakay is because “angel” has strictly come to mean a spirit composed female being with wings, in our society—a concept borrowed from paganism. The literal translation of angelos is “a messenger, envoy, one who is sent.” In Greek, it can mean anyone, such as the human representatives of the seven “churches” of Revelation 2-3. “Angel” in Aramaic and Hebrew also means messenger. The references to demons as “angels” has been retained because I like the distinction. See What are Angels?
Splendor is usually translated as “glory”. In pre Christian (pagan) old English, the third month of the year was called the ‘month of Hreða’ (‘glory-goddess’). The next month of the pre Christian calendar was called the ‘month of the Eostre (Easter)’, the goddess of the radiant dawn. Both of these goddesses were readily adopted by Christianity. While “glory” may not exactly be the name of the god, I prefer not to use the term in connection with the true Elohim (God).
TaNaK is an acronym that stands for Torah (the 5 books of Moses) + Neviim (the Prophets) + Ketuvim (the Writings). Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD) popularized calling the Scriptures/Tanak, the “Old Testament”, because he considered it obsolete.
Tanakay’: TaNaK+Ay (Bible) is a continuation of the acronym TaNaK above. While Tanak means Torah + Neviim + Ketuvim; Tanakay adds Ay-dooth’, the common Hebrew word for Testimony (The Testimony of Yeshua is the proper name for the “New Testament”), to finish what Christians call the Bible. The English word “bible” is from the Latin biblia, and ultimately from the Greek. While some associate the word with a pagan goddess, it most certainly isn’t derived from the inspired Word, or even the inspired languages, nor in my opinion from inspired people. “Bible” ultimately means “paper” (papyrus), or the Phoenician port city of Byblos that made paper famous—not exactly inspiring! Christian use of the term can be traced to about 223 AD. Tanakay is my suggested alternative for people who are concerned with word etymology. See why the word “Scriptures” does NOT apply to the “whole Bible”. Isaiah 8:20 says, “To the Torah AND to the Testimony! If people don’t speak in agreement with these Words, it’s because it [the truth] hasn’t dawned on them!”
Theology originally meant the study of pagan gods. That’s why I don’t personally use the word. How much has that really changed in light of the massive syncretism in Christianity? “The first to use the term ‘theology’ in the context of Christianity was Origen. He was responsible for developing theology as an ordered, philosophical pursuit within Christian circles. Origen was already influenced by Stoicism and Platonism, philosophies which in turn molded how he would understand and explain Christianity.”
Thru and tho: These words appear frequently on anything I’ve written. Since childhood I have been an advocate of spelling reform. English should be completely logical and phonetic. If you can pronounce something you should automatically be able to spell it. Go here to read about the bleak history and future of spelling reform.
Torah: The generic Aramaic and Greek words for “Law” represent any kind of law, but in the Testimony of Yeshua, almost every one of the 197 references to nomos means the Torah: the very specific “Law of Moses” (actually the “Torah of Elohim (God)”). In reality, the usual rendering, “law” is an improper translation, intending somewhat of a negative connotation; it really means direction or instruction! So for clarity to a modern audience, the word “Torah” is used wherever Torah is meant in the Gabriel Bible, as best as I can determine from the context.
Torah teachers is a reference to the “scribes” who in reality were putting their sectarian viewpoints from their “rabbis” way above the Books of Moses. Similarly, most of today’s religious teachers have entirely replaced the Torah with their own sectarian and antinomian [anti Torah] teachings, over Yeshua’s (Jesus’) strong objection. Matthew 5:18-19.
[U]: Another detail of the Gabriel Bible (Tanakay) is the unique link, using this symbol [U]. This link is used when there appears to be something hiding in the Hebrew or Aramaic, illustrated by live links, that isn’t found in any of the translations I’ve compared, such as Isaiah 57:16-17.
Another detail of the Gabriel Bible (Tanakay) is the unique link: [U]. This link is used when there appears to be something hiding in the Hebrew or Aramaic, illustrated by live lexicon links, that isn’t found in any of the translations I’ve compared, such as Isaiah 57:16-17.
“Under the law” and “works of the law”: In every instance where these phrases are used, the definite article has been added to the Greek, in defiance of John’s warning at the close of Revelation. The word “law” (nomos), that in the vast majority of cases means the Torah, is differentiated from ordinary laws by the use of the word “THE”, as in “THE Law”. If you look up all 197 instances of nomos, or law, in an interlinear this clarification is quite consistent: “The law” means Torah every time! Law without the identifying “the” usually means some other law, but there are a few exceptions. If Torah “law” has already been established in the context, then the “the” may not be re-specified. Then very infrequently the context is so clear that nomos is used without the “the” being necessitated. In the Gabriel version “works of the law” is worded “obeying sectarian law”. “Under the law” is worded “under sectarian law”. Commentary in the literature found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, long before Paul, used these terms in reference to their own sectarian restrictions. This link explains how the Essenes used these phrases. The same claims are made for the Pharisees by Avi Ben Mordechai.
The Word of Aloha (Elohim (God) is what the Jews call the Tanak, and Christians call the “Old Testament” in every place that it is used in the Testimony of Yeshua, except for when it refers to the pre incarnate Yeshua (Jesus) Himself. See The Word of Elohim.
Yahweh is he name of the God of Samaria (keyword: stele). Yeshua (Jesus) told the Samaritan woman: “You Samaritans don’t understand what you worship, but we worship what we understand, because [eternal] Life comes from the Jews” (John 4:22). This pronunciation was preserved by the Greeks. Beware of Greeks bearing names! This article does a very good job debunking Yahweh as being the name of the Creator, however in the conclusion, their alternative names of choice are quite convoluted. See Yehovah below.
Yehovah (YHVH): It seems logical that the earliest copies of the “Testimony of Yeshua” (New testament) would have used the Paleo Hebrew name YHVH in the text, as was done in the earliest copies of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Tanak, “the Old Testament”). Origen wrote: “in the more accurate exemplars [of the Septuagint], the [kadish] name is written in Hebrew characters; not however in the current script [modern Hebrew], but in the most ancient [paleo].” —Migue, pg.12
The generic Greek “Kyrios” (Lord), later replaced the original Paleo YHVH (Yehovah) used in the original copies of the Septuagint, also known as the LXX. This was rather recently born out in the finds of some original fragments, such as the so-called Fouad papyrus 266, containing His Paleo name (pictured) dating back to the early first century BC at the latest.George Howard presents evidence in his book: The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures that the name YHVH was in frequent use in religious literature prior to the Christian era, whether in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek or Latin. Severe persecution of anything Jewish and anything written in Aramaic changed all of that. Christians greatly distanced themselves from their Hebrew roots in order to survive under Roman occupation. The Romans exterminated anything written in Yeshua’s (Jesus’) native language (Aramaic) that they got their hands on, including every single Aramaic copy of the complete works of Josephus. Fortunately Josephus learned Greek late in life and translated his works into Greek.
An anonymous writer wrote: “The original Jewish followers of Y'hoshua, that is, the sect of the N'tsarim (popularly, though erroneously rendered as Nazarenes) were, like all other Jewish sects at the time, zealous of Torah and continued to live by the mitsvot of Moshe as well as the Jewish traditions (see Acts 21:20-24 and elsewhere), a fact implicit in their very name - N'tsarim, from the root word 'natsar' (No. 5341 in Strong’s) meaning to obey, observe, to guard; to the Semitic ear, so fond of word association, this name would be immediately linked to the Jewish term "Notsray HaTorah" keepers or guardians of the Law (see also Hebrew text of Jer.31:6). Accordingly, the question arises, would the original Jewish - N'tsarim scribes have been any less scrupulous in preserving the Sacred Name when first recording the life and teachings of Y'hoshua in their Hebrew or Aramaic documents? It seems most unlikely, the divine name YHWH was and is the most sacred word in the Hebrew language, and so it is inconceivable that religious Jews of a sort would have removed it from any of their religious documents. How then did the 'erasing' of the Sacred Name in the Greek NT come about?”
It seems implausible to me also that “God’s” personal name YHVH, however you care to pronounce it, would be written over 6,800 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, but not once in the Testimony of Yeshua (Jesus). So in my Testimony of Yeshua (a harmony {and occasional disharmony} of both the Aramaic and the Greek texts, not a translation), most of the places where the Etheridge used the generic word Aloha, the personal name YHVH is used, as well as the instances where Etheridge used “Lord”—but not in reference to our Teacher, Yeshua. Aloha is used where it seems likely that His personal name would not have been used. For example, John 12:38 is a quote from Isaiah 53:1 where the name “Yehovah” is translated as “Lord” in both instances in almost every version. Yet a check of the Hebrew shows that it is His personal name, YHVH, being used.
The oldest complete Hebrew Bible in existence, the Leningrad Codex, is complete with vowel points for every word—except for the Tetragrammaton, where they deliberately left out the middle vowel, leaving Yeh_vah. However in about 50 instances they accidentally [?] forgot to leave out the “o”! In those instances we see YeHoVah! An example of Elohim’s (God’s) actual name can be seen in Genesis 3:14 on the NASB interlinear, and even tho they write in Yahweh under the Name, the complete spelling is there for anyone who reads Hebrew! However, in their “fine print” the NAS Exhaustive Concordance does give the correct phonetic pronunciation here! For strong evidence that the Tetragrammaton was and is pronounced Ye-ho-vah’, see Do You Know Father’s Name?
Yehovah the Warrior King is usually translated as:“LORD of hosts”, “LORD Almighty”, “LORD of Heaven’s Armies”, “LORD of Armies” or “Jehovah of hosts”. Host is an archaic word meaning army. Host is an archaic word meaning army. This term is two Hebrew words “Yehovah” and “Armies”. But who or what is “Yehovah Armies”? The common clarifying word “of” helps personify it: “Yehovah of Armies”, but it’s still quite vague. The online Hebrew Lexicon lists: “that which goes forth (to war), army, war, warfare and host” as the possible renderings for “tsaba”, plus a very few misc applications. So we have Yehovah plus warfare personified. A person “of” warfare is called a warrior. Now why do I believe that King is an implied word? History teaches us that kings always led their armies. What other possible role would Yehovah have to do with His armies? Interestingly, the second in command, “the Commander of Yehovah’s Army” (Yeshua) is mentioned in Joshua 5:14-15, and there is no ambiguity at all in that term! Also see Jude 1:14-15.
Yehovih (Yeh-ho-vee’) is a deliberate misspelling/mispronunciation of Yehovah used next to Adonay (Ad-o-noy’), and pronounced by the Jews as Elohim in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound (Adonay Adonay), since elsewhere they pronounce Yehovah as Adonay, and they refrain from just saying His name: Deuteronomy 32:3, Psalm 20:7, Psalm 72:17, 96:2, 102:21, 105:1 Isaiah 47:4, 48:2, 54:5, 56:6, Jeremiah 23:6, Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, 22:16, Romans 10:13.
Yeshua is usually translated as “Jesus”, but He was really named Yeshua; that is what His family, friends and followers called Him. While not in any way an eternal life issue, if you claim to love Him, shouldn’t you at least know His real name? For evidence read this. His name is most certainly not YAHshua, as this link explains. As always, I apply my standard disclaimer to every site.
Zebak / Zebakim is usually translated as “sacrifice/s”, but since the word sacrifice, like so many other “theological” terms is derived from the names of pagan gods and goddesses (in this case the sun god Sancus), the Hebrew word zebak is being phased into my writings, using phonetic spelling. Hebrew pluralization: zebakim.
The *asterisks* used in the Word of Elohim, Gabriel Bible means that the text is utilizing the oldest known Scriptures*, the Aramaic targums for clarity where the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. In some instances, such as “the Word”, I simply accept that it is the original meaning.
