Word For 2014 - Faith - Looking at the Ancient Hebrew Root

   For the past few weeks, I have been learning a lot about faith. I am learning what it means intellectually and practically. The book of Romans is an amazing book in the Bible that really expounds on it. As a visual learner, studying the pictograph Hebrew letters helped me to understood faith at an even deeper level. Below is how I studied the word with some simple steps you can follow with any word in the Bible:

1.  Look up the word:   Use a Hebrew Strong's Concordance.  ( I like to use e-sword on my computer and it is a free download that you can find here, if you don't already have it.) H529  אמוּן  'êmûn  ay-moon'  From H539;
 established, that is, (figuratively) trusty; also (abstractly) trustworthiness: - faith (-ful), truth.
 

2. Look for the root word (the original 3 or 4 letter word in Hebrew): 

 Sometimes it is as easy as going back a few numbers and the concordance should point you in the right direction. In our case it says "from H539" above.

H539  אמן  'âman  aw-man'

A primitive root; properly to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain; once (in Isa_30:21; by interchange for H541) to go to the right hand: - hence assurance, believe, bring up, establish, + fail, be faithful (of long continuance, steadfast, sure, surely, trusty, verified), nurse, (-ing father), (put), trust, turn to the right.

3.  Look at each root letter's pictograph meanings:
  I used my Ancient Aleph Bet Paleo Hebrew Alphabet Chart I made for the kids.  You can find an adult version here that I really like too. Faith = Aman (Hebrew transliteration)  Letters: אמן (Hebrew reads from right to left) 
1. letter- א -aleph: picture of an ox used for plowing and it's strength in ancient world. 

2. letter- מ  -mem: picture of water used for sustaining life and cleansing

 3. letter- ן - nun: picture of a seed






4.  Look at other references that use the same word:
 Look up H539.  If you are using e-sword make sure you are using KJV+.   Read them in the context of the scripture to help understand them better.  I found 102 references for the word and in most cases they were translated as "believe".    Below is the summary of the ancient Hebrew meaning of the word faith that I found:

Here are some questions that I have asked myself while studying the word faith along with the answers I have came up with:

What does it mean to have faith? 

Having faith is trusting In God for who HE is.

Who or What do you have faith in? 

Sometimes I am looking to the wrong things and I need to 

continually remind myself to look to YHVH and his son Yeshua for everything.

 Do you have faith in God?

Yes 

Do you have faith in HIS son Yeshua for your salvation?

Yes

Do I have faith in money to solve all my problems? 

No, because it will not. It may even create more "problems":) 

Do I have faith in a better house to make me happier?

No, because I am learning to be content in every circumstance:)

Did you know faith can make you righteous? 

 wow...now that is amazing...it's not the things I do, but faith - cool

What is your response to these questions?  What does faith mean to you?

My prayer for you and I is that we will continue to be challenged in our faith and that little seed of faith that we plant and water will grow to bear fruit.

If you would like to learn more about Hebrew or see how we incorporate it at Thetravelingclassroom please visit our Hebrew page. 

 I would love to give away a Ancient Aleph Bet Paleo Hebrew alphabet chart and my Ancient Hebrew Civilizations, Root Words, Acrostic Poems Unit to one of my blog followers. Please leave an e-mail with your comment below if you would like me to send you one:)

Thanks for stopping by TheTravelingclassroom!




I have linked up with the Schoolhouse Review Crew's Word for 2014. If you would like to read some more posts please click on the picture below.