Creation study guide - Introduction
Creation study guide - Introduction - The nature and purpose of close reading.
Contents
Creation study guide - Introduction
Previously, the pattern using heaven (H), light (L), water (W) and dry ground (G) was observed. In the study guide, you were told that it was there and to look for it. How many people never noticed? Even if you noticed the L-W-G pattern, it is unlikely that you found the bookend to H by yourself. Even theologians miss it, which is why there is a myth of a contradiction between the first and second accounts of creation.
Even Hebrew experts miss that the second sequence came from the first sequence because they are not familiar with the practice of notarikon. They may observe that day 5 is from day 2, and day 6 is from day 3, but they miss that day 4 is from day 1 because they do not see that the word for 'lights' מארת is broken into 'from מ light שר ( the tov ת makes light the object)'.
Close reading
Close reading is the discipline of observing details and facts within a text. Read in order to ask questions of the text. Read with curiosity. Read within the context of Christ and him crucified.
Pattern is prophecy. Look for patterns in letters, words, sentences, chapters, books and ideas. Ask questions of the patterns. Apply meaning discovered in one part of a pattern to the rest of the pattern.
Notarikon
In Hebrew, notarikon is the opposite of formation. Formation is the observation that the meaning of letters combine to form the meaning of words, and notarikon is the recognition that the meaning of words are formed by the meaning of the letters within. Familiarity with notarikon permits you to see patterns hidden in the warp and woof of scripture.
You need not learn Hebrew to benefit from the Hebrew studies presented.Visual clues are given here to permit you to enjoy the benefits without it. Those wishing to observe patterns on their own will want to learn to recognize Hebrew letters and use tools to discern Hebrew gates (two-letter sub-roots) and words. With this text, a short-hand is used to indicate when notarikon is used. The word father אב is split into א-ב after he spoke and created the heavens and the earth א he revealed himself to man ב. (Hebrew is read right to left) [1]
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech which a word or idea literally represents another. All language is metaphor. Words, which are either visual symbols or audible symbols are not the idea being represented, but tokens of the idea. An idea may be represented by different symbols. Extending our example above, the word 'father' is not a father, but a mere representation of a father. We might also use 'dad' or 'procreator'. Likewise, the symbol may be used for different ideas: 'originator of an idea', 'leader of a movement'.
A translation from Hebrew to English may change the linking of a symbol and idea. Notarikon helps us restore those links. We don't really care about words... the symbols, but what is meant by the words; the ideas. Notarikon is the father of understanding. (That was intentional word-play).
Ge 1 Notarikon - The father example
Father ab אב is 'after he spoke and created the heavens and the earth א he revealed himself to man ב'. But since each letter is a metaphor, we have different ways to express the metaphor which shed more light on the meaning of the word.
The aleph א can be expressed as 'Holy' or 'separated'. This is because there is only one creator. He is different from anything and everything that has been created. Father could be expressed as the Holy one who revealed himself to man.
The first three days of creation are expressions of the aleph. The Spirit hovered over the face of the waters, God separated light from darkness, he separated the waters above from the waters below, and he separated the dry ground from the waters.
On the third day, he expressed that he is the Father using different symbols. Grass came forth from the dry ground. Ab also means 'green shoot. The green shoot is a living metaphor for the father expressing that he is the giver of the first life.
There were trees with their fruit with their seed. The fruit on a tree is also called ab. Fruit is like a father and the seed like it's child. But it also shows that the Father is the giver of the second life. First a tree would be a shoot, and then produce life. God is the giver of the first and second lives.
The words used to express this on day three do not contain 'ab'. They use different symbols to establish a pattern and communicate the idea of what a father is.
The key thing to observe in this is not that words are themselves metaphor, but that the lives of the shoot and tree are also metaphors. The lives of the people in the Bible are metaphors. They express ideas about Christ.
What of the herbs created on day three? The herbs were given to men to eat. [2] With eating as a symbol for learning, between the giving of the first life (the grass) and the giving of the second life (fruit) you have the revelation of God to man; bet ב God revealed himself to man (herbs). This is also expressed by the aleph א. This is the very theme of the Bible: Between the creation of man, and his being 'born again', he learns from God.
Many ways
Some would have us believe that God reveals himself in only one way in the Bible. They insist we interpret it historically and grammatically. But Paul says that God has revealed himself in many ways [3] [4]. Recognizing and using the ancient Hebrew practice of formations and notarikon as part of our close reading discipline, produces the intended meaning of scripture without having to resort to free-for-all allegory. Meaning is unpacked from the words themselves.
References
- ↑ A study of the alphabet is here: Pneumnemonic_Hebrew_for_Beginners.
- ↑ Ge 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
- ↑ Heb 1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
- ↑ We are not ignorant of debates that 'scholars' have about the authorship of the book of Hebrews. They are simply dismissed as late arguments designed to cast doubt on scripture, perpetuated by those who would make themselves look clever.
