BibleProject - Word Study: Shema - "Listen"

Episode Date: March 25, 2017

This week on the podcast we do something a little bit different. We try to look inside the biblical writers’ imaginations and think about what they were trying to picture when they used certain words. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. For thousands of years its been passed down through translators. And sometimes the words that we read today in our Bibles don’t fit with the context the authors were originally using. Tim and Jon have a quick discussion on a popular Hebrew word “Shema.” It originally meant "to listen" and to the ancient Hebrew it was one of the most powerful words in the Scriptures, but today its importance is mostly lost. This podcast accompanies the first in a new video series called "Word Studies." For more info, check out our YouTube channel and the video called "Word Study: Shema - Listen". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQLOuIKaRA Thanks for being part of this! Music Credits Defender by Rosasharn Music Shine by The Album Leaf

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

This is John from the Bible Project. This week on the podcast, we're going to do something new. As you know, the Bible was not written in English. It was written in Hebrew, Greek, and a tiny bit of Aramaic. Our translations are pretty good, but even so, sometimes the English words that we use don't carry the full weight and nuance of the original words. Now, there's so many words that we use that occur in our translations of the Bible, but they don't mean what those words mean in their biblical context. And that's the problem as we read. We read in modern meetings into these ancient words.

We're going to try to step inside the imagination of the ancient writers as they use these words to describe the world that they lived in and the experiences they had. Here we go. So we're gonna have a conversation today to prototype a brand new type of video series that we're calling word studies. Yeah. So we're gonna take biblical words that were in Hebrew or Greek or Greek or yeah, where's in air Mac?

There might be some air a little bit a little bit of the Hebrew Bible yeah is air Mac okay but but the but the word in its original language and we'll discuss that word and this will be kind of a like a Bible dictionary kind of series yeah like a video Bible dictionary word studies yeah yeah and there'll be these short little two-minute videos. Yeah, you know, biblical vocabulary has this paradoxical life, I think, in Western culture where there, biblical vocabulary has so shaped the English language over the last 400 years through the King James translation, that some words have passed into English

and they've become so bland that they, we don't even know what their original meaning would be in the Bible, in Greek or Hebrew, like righteousness or glory or grace or love. Right. The English word that we use isn't the Hebrew word, but it's this old English. Yeah, it might even be influenced by the biblical translations from long time ago, but now there's so many words that we use that occur in our translations of the Bible, but they don't mean now what

those words mean in their biblical context. And that's the problem as we read. We read in modern meetings into these ancient words when we read them in the Bible. So the first word we're going to do is the Hebrew word Shema. That's right. Yeah. Because the first half a dozen of these videos, we want to make into a little mini-series unpacking one of the most famous verses in the Old Testament, which is a prayer. Well, it became a prayer. It's a line in the mouth of

Moses in the book of Deuteronomy that he called the people of Israel to listen to, and then this call to listen became itself a prayer in Jewish tradition. Called the Shema. Shema. Yep. And that's because the word Shema is the first word in this famous verse. Which means listen. It means listen. Yep, to listen.

And the verse is hero is real or listen, oh is real. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being and with all your strength. However, what translation is that? That's like your translation. Yeah, that's my translation.

Heart, soul and strength. Yeah, soul is the traditional word there. Traditional word there. Game James and on the English there. But what we wanna do is the traditional word. Traditional word. Game James and on English there. But what we want to do is unpack this verse word by word. And so here, oh Israel will be the first word. And then we'll talk about the word the Lord. The Lord, the divine name.

The divine name of God. The covenant name of God and the Old Testament. And then we'll talk about love, heart, soul, and strength. And strength. And, and oh man, it's gonna be so great. Yeah, yeah, these are such power-packed words. Yeah, awesome. So this, so we'll just talk about the word,

Shema. Here. Yeah. Shema. Shema. Shema. Yeah, no, no breathy age. No, like, rule-off. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, it age. Noch, like Rua.

Oh right. Yeah, it's a pretty simple word to say. Yeah. Actually, technically, there's a silent letter after the A, that way back when would have been like, you know how you, when you say the word orange, you close your throat. Orange. When, at the, before you even say anything, pay attention to your, what your throat does before you say the word orange. Yeah, it kind of drops.

You close your throat so you can push air out. Orange. Orange. Oh yeah. You close your throat. So that closing of the throat. Oh, that's an, is a, is a, is a represented by a letter in Semitic languages. And it's what you do after the last single.

You close your throat at the shema. Oh, shema. So it's got this hard stop. Yeah, it's called a gutter-all stop. You literally close the back of your throat. Shema. We don't have that in English, do we? Well, we sometimes use the same muscle.

But at the end of a word, I'm wondering. But at the end of a word, I don't. Spaghetti. Spaghetti. I'm trying to think of words that end in vowels. Anyway, so Shema. I love that. We're thinking of words that end with vowels. Anyway, so Shema. I love that. We're thinking of words that ends with vowels

and spaghetti with the first question. Well, one of the only words that ends with why? English words that end with I. Excuse me. Oh, I. There's not that many. And mostly Italian words that end with me. Anyway.

Ferrari. Ferrari. OK, so Shema, which is a very super common word, it occurs hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible, and it's the word here or listen, just like in English. So if I'm calling to my kids to get their attention, I'm like, Shema. Yeah, listen.

Listen. Yeah, listen. Pay attention. So there's many, well, pay attention is different than listening. Pay attention. Pay attention requires that you listen, but it also means you do something more. And in English we have a separate phrase, pay attention. In Hebrew, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

First, here's a classic proverb. Ears that Shema and eyes that see, the Lord has made them both. Ears that Shema. That's what your ears are doing. Proverbs 20, yeah. Proverbs 20, verse 12. That's just very simple. Your ears, yeah, it's what you're, they take in sound waves,

and translate them in the meaningful signals. So that our brains can talk to each other. So that's, that's simple. We don't really need to, there's lots of times that gets used. However, the word shema also gets used to mean more than just that your ears hear things. It also can be used to mean what you just said, pay attention to. In English, we have a separate phrase. Listen, and we have pay attention. But we also use the word listen to mean pay attention. Yes. We don't mean, hey, just let sound waves come into your ears. Yeah, it can mean that, but it, we usually, by context, indicate that it means listen up. But we also have a separate phrase, pay attention.

And Hebrew doesn't have a phrase. And Hebrew you just say, shema. Shema. So there's just one example picked at random. This is from Genesis chapter 30. There's a story about Jacob and Leah. Leah is one of Jacob's four wives, and he doesn't like her as much as the others.

It's rough. She's unloved. Yes, horrible. It's a really dysfunctional family. And, but she has a son, and she names him Shim-on. Hmm. Shim-on, which is a word play on Shim-a. Hmm.

Shim-on. Um, and then what she says is the Lord has Shim-a-d that I am unloved. Okay. That's what she says. The Lord has heard, heard, that I am unloved. So he's paying attention. Obviously, yeah, it means more than just he like heard a report.

The point is, It's not like I heard a crow cawn the woods. Yeah. He was paying attention to what it meant. Yeah, and what she, she the fact that she got pregnant and had a child, she interprets that as the Lord paying attention to her, that she's been neglected by her husband. Seems like pay attention to notes.

I always forget the difference we did note and can note. But it seems like what pay attention is doing is it saying, don't just listen. You're not just hearing, you're interpreting, and you're heating whatever that message is. Yeah, yes. Yeah, which is closely linked then to the next meaning, nuance of meaning that Shema has, which is if you listen to something, it draws

your attention. Okay. You focus on it. Okay, so just focus. But then if you listen and pay attention and focus on something, you're likely to do something about it, like actually act as a response to what you are noticing. And in Hebrew, that idea also is covered by this Hebrew word, Shamah. So it means not only to hear, not only to then pay attention and focus on what you're hearing, but it also, Shamah, can include respond. Like actually do

something about what you're just noticed because you heard it. So if I'm walking through the woods and I hear someone screaming for help. Yes, yeah, yeah. And all I do is just notice a scream and I don't know if it's a bear or a person. You might even pay attention to it.

Well, but first, I just hear it. First you hear it. And I first, I just hear it. First you hear it. And I'm hearing the birds, I'm hearing the wind, I'm hearing, and I hear a scream. I'm just hearing things. Yes. That's the first meaning. Second meaning is, it gets my attention. I hear that and I'm like, oh, that was important.

Yeah. I need to focus on that scream. Well, that's what Leia says. Oh, God, pay attention. He shamad my difficult circumstance Meaning he paid attention to me and then the third meaning would be I Hear it. Yeah, I focus on it and then I decide I need to go help that you actually run Towards the voice and help the person and all three of those actions are shema covered by the word shema

So I shema covered by the word shema. So I shema by just kind of hearing it with all the other background noise. I shema when I focus on it and I shema when I run and help. That's right. And if you didn't run and help, you didn't shema. I didn't actually shema. Yes. Yes. So for example, so but I did because I yeah, yeah, right you did I mean you technically heard but in the deepest sense of the word you didn't Shema so just look at some examples in the way the words actually used so this is all over the Psalms Here's one just at random Psalm 27 verse 7 the poet says Shema my voice when I call, oh Lord, be merciful and respond to me.

So you're asking God to listen. It's synonymous with Shome Mercy, which is synonymous with do something. It's all the same thing. You're obviously not just asking God to pay attention. Don't listen to this like an album. Yeah. He's saying God do thing. You're obviously not just asking God to pay attention. Don't listen to this like an album.

Yeah. He's saying God do something. Help me. And when God helps you, he, that's how you know he is Shemaad. Because there's like, I put on a noise machine for the kids at night. And they're hearing it. Like white noise?

Yeah, that's white noise. The machine? Yeah, it's a machine and it makes the sound of like, oh yes, yeah, it got it. Like a river. I've used an app for that before too. Yeah. White noise app. We have a machine.

Yeah. Yeah, actually it's something that my wife did. Yeah. So now we just do it every night. Yeah, there you go. There's different things. There's water. There's the sound of a forest.

There's the sound of like, just white noise. And so you hear that, but you're not really listening to it. Yeah, the whole point is that it actually becomes white background noise that you don't pay attention. So the psalmist here isn't saying, God treat my voice like background noise. Yeah, that you can fall asleep too. That's right. Yeah, that would mean that God has not shaman. He hasn't actually shaman. He treated you both. But there's no other word.

What would a Hebrew person be doing if they were listening to background? Oh, I got it. Well, this is how words work in languages. It's the kind of like our heaven and earth circles, then overlapping circles, then diagrams. That's a common tool used in linguistics. Yeah, so you have separate words like in English, here and listen. They're two separate words, but they overlap in a big way. But if you were to start... So you could use the word in one sense, use the word in other sense.

Yeah, but you would have to do a full study of those two English words and how they're different. They don't fully overlap, but they do overlap. So are there other words for pay attention that you don't simply mean to listen? And yeah, yeah, there's one. Kashav. Kashav. Kashav.

But it means to notice. So you notice by either hearing or looking, that's Kashav. What is that mean? It means to notice. So you notice by either hearing or looking, that's Keshav. But Shema is the broadest word to hear, and it overlaps with Keshav to notice. And it also overlaps with the word like to act as saw, which means to do something. So the word shema overlaps with all these other ideas, but it's just one word that you can use in these different ways. And it's similar, English has similar. Like if I, yeah, if I asked my five-year-old

to clean up the yogurt that he just intentionally spilled on the floor. If he doesn't do it, I'll ask him, why aren't you listening? Which means why aren't you acting? And he could be like, I did listen. And you're like, no, you didn't actually listen. Yeah. Okay. So it's very similar to how the word works in English.

Okay, here's another interesting example. This is when Israel's at the foot of Mount Sinai. They've been rescued out of Egypt, and they're about to enter into this really formal covenant agreement, like a marriage. So yeah, this is the story in Exodus chapter 19, and this is the significant line. God says, if you shema me and keep my covenant, then out of all the

nations you'll be my treasure possession, even though all the earth belongs to me, you'll be a kingdom of priests and holy nations. So this is about Israel becoming a different kind of nation, a different people group that represents God's character before all the nations and all hinges upon them Listen Shema if you Shema Now there's two things interesting about this Sentence that God says one is that that in Hebrew there's this really cool idiom or kind of grammar tool that's used in Hebrew word. If you want to emphasize a word, you just say it, you just use the word twice. So when you're reading in Hebrew, it actually reads if you shema shema.

If you listen, listen. Listen, listen. Yeah, which means really listen. It's similar, this is for verbs. You can do it with nouns too, like song of songs, meaning the best song or the holy of holies, meaning the really holy place. But you can do it with the verbs through this other way. And when you're reading Hebrew, they're very obvious to notice because it's just just... Shema. So first of all, if you really Shema, and then second, the phrase

right after it shows you what Shema means, if you shema and keep my covenant, they're synonymous. So to not keep the terms of the covenant means that you haven't listened. And actually this line is so important that all throughout the book of Exodus, the rest of the Torah, on into the historical books, this motif of listening or not listening becomes like this key theme running through the whole story. Which highlights an interesting fact. In English, we have a separate word for listening to somebody who knows better than you and doing what they say. Actually, we probably have a few words for it. But what word are you thinking about? Obey. Oh, obey. Listen to someone who knows better than you or who's in a position of position of authority of responsibility over you or authority over you. Yeah.

Obey. Yeah, or you can wear it on t-shirt with Andre the Giant's face. As a skateboard brand. So Obey, we have a word for responding to and acting to the wishes of somebody who's in authority responsible for you, knows better than you. That's what obey means. Obey.

So yeah, we have this separate English word for obey. It was fascinating. There is no ancient Hebrew biblical word for obey. There's no ancient biblical word for obeybey. It's Shema. Hmm. I mean not and Exodus 19, you have God has rescued Israel. He knows what's best for them. He's taking responsibility for them as their authority and and what he has to do is keep the terms of the covenant. And so, actually, if you look in almost all of our modern English translations in Exodus 19, verse 4, they don't translate it if you listen.

What they translate it is if you obey. Just go look at here. I'll just do a quick survey. This is for Exodus. Yep. Exodus chapter 19 verse 4. Excuse me. Verse 5. New international version. If you obey me fully, If you obey me fully, the English standard version, if you will indeed obey my voice. New American standard, if you will then indeed obey my voice. New Revise standard version, if you obey my voice. King James, if you obey my voice.

There are no English, at least those are the big five. To the majority. Translators a little bit. Translators, don't even let you know that the Hebrew word here is actually the word lesson. Because they're giving you the meaning, what it means here isn't simply lesson, it means response. So now we've talked about four different layers.

Yes, that's right. So like you could hear someone scream, but it's background noise. Did you hear that or did you not hear it? I think I heard it. Yeah. Then there's the pay attention. That's an important scream.

Yes. Like what is that? Yeah. Then there's like, I'm gonna go and help this person who's screaming, that's the third one. And then there is, I'm gonna, that per, yeah, we're gonna fit in this. Like, someone telling you to help that person. It would be like, that person commanding you

to come help him. Yeah, yeah, totally. It would be like, come help. Yeah, you're a soldier and it's like your gender. And you realize as you're a general. And they're like, I order you, come get me out of this pit or something. I'm sorry, I was really stupid but.

No, we had to stay in that world that I created. Yeah. Yep. You're following, you're following orders. You're honoring the directive you've been given by somebody who knows better than you and is. Because how do you, how do you ingest an order through your ears? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like

Spont it. Yeah, that's right. When you're ordered by someone, it's always, they're always telling you. Yes. They didn't have like memos back then. Yeah. You wouldn't get an email. Yeah. Order. Yes. So, all of this is underneath some of these famous lions in the Hebrew prophets. Like Jeremiah repeats this lion where he says they have Israel, they've broken the covenant, they have eyes, but they don't see. And then he says they have ears, but they're not, they don't shema. And you get, it's very intuitive, you get what he's saying there. This is also what's underneath that famous, kind of parable image in the New Testament and the letter of James about not just being a Heurur of the Scriptures, but a doer. You know the passage?

So it's at the end of... In Jacob? Chapter one. Yeah, the end of James. Yeah, he says, don't merely listen. Now, he's writing in Greek, but he's Jewish. He grew up reading the Hebrew Bible. So even though he's writing in Greek, these authors are often, the apostles are often thinking in Hebrew. So don't

merely listen and deceive yourselves, actually do what the Scriptures call you to do. Anyone who listens to the Scriptures but doesn't do what they say, it's like looking at your face in the mirror, and then after looking, going away and immediately forgetting what it is you look like. So you kind of, he compares listening to sing. Yeah. And he's saying, he kind of swaps it out

the ears with the eyes. Yeah. Like, did you really look if you don't remember what you were looking at? Yeah, that's right. A second later. That's right. Like, did you really look if you don't remember what you were looking at? Yeah, that's right. A second later. That's right. Like, did you really see it? Yeah.

And his point is, no, you didn't actually just see it. Yeah. So in the same way, did you really listen if it didn't change your behavior? That's right. So that's the Hebrew word shema. Has these ranges of meaning. When you bring it all the way back then to the famous verse that we're focusing on, so the Shema, which became a prayer and Judaism that Jewish people pray morning and evening

every day. And what is it that they're to hear? So this Shema Israel, the Lord, well, is our God, the Lord alone, or the Lord is one. So this isn't, maybe we should add the word one. Yeah, all right. So we can talk about that, because this isn't making a philosophical statement about

the multiplicity or singularity of God's being. This is about Israel worshipping their fidelity to one God who redeemed them from slavery, not any of the other gods, the Canaanites or Babylonians. So listen, the Lord is our God. That's something you need to listen to. Yeah, totally. I mean, just stop and think about that. So you can totally hear that and just be like, yeah, of course, of course he is. Whatever. I'm doing it.

I'm going to God's people. Fine. But the whole point is, you're like, listen, I'm your dad. Yeah, totally. Yeah, but somehow, listening to the fact that this God alone is my God, is supposed to have a fundamental effect on my behavior. And if it doesn't, then I have it listed.

I haven't listened. And it's clear that I don't listen well because my whole tribe has adopted the practice of saying this out loud to ourselves every morning and every when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. So that listening to this fact becomes something that shapes our whole culture and life together as a people.

That's the purpose of the Shema. Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. [♪ music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, Thanks for listening to this episode. The Bible Project is a non-profit, based in Portland, Oregon. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus and has profound wisdom for the modern world. We make videos and other resources that you can find on our website, thebibelproject.com. You can watch all our videos on YouTube, YouTube.com slash the Bible Project. This year we have a lot of great stuff coming out.

We've got this word study series kicking off. We're still cruising through the gospel of Luke. We're still working on a series on how to read the Bible. And we've got a few theme videos coming out this year. Thanks for listening in and being a part of this.