Amen! I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, not one
jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law . . . (Matthew 5:18)
What are jots
and tittles?
One thing they are is evidence that Yeshua, the Jesus of history, and his
followers were very familiar with the Hebrew language. However, to understand
this we have to trace the journey of the Hebrews words of Yeshua into the Greek
language of the ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and then into the
English translations we read today.
In
order to help you follow that journey I will use English transliterations of
Greek and Hebrew words, which means I will replace their letters with English
letters that are their equivalents. By the way, “Yeshua” is an English transliteration
of the Hebrew word that is his name.
If
we use a Greek text of Matthew 5:18, the Greek word translators read for “jot” is “iota.” Iota is the name
of a Greek letter. It is usually transliterated by the English “i.” However, it appears that the translators borrowed
from a Latin variant of the spelling of “iota”
– “jota.” They then dropped the final
“a” to get “jot.”
The
reason that ancient Greek translators chose to use the word iota is that it is the smallest
letter in the Greek alphabet. Their decision was based the fact that in Yeshua’s
Hebrew teachings he used the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet to
make his point – yod.
Now
let’s turn to the word “tittle.” The word
used in Greek manuscripts is keraia,
which means “anything projecting like a
horn.” When we track this word back into the Hebrew language of Yeshua we
discover it is a translation of the word qotz,
which means “thorn.” Yeshua and his
Jewish audience would have quickly recognized the connection between the words yod and qotz.
When
scribes made copies of scrolls they would add the decorative marks called thorns to letters. Also, the
Hebrew word Yeshua would have used for “Law” is Torah, which is the scroll that
contains the first five books of Jewish Scriptures
and Christian Bibles – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy.
Yeshua
was responding to accusations that “he had
misinterpreting the words of the Torah.” To make his point, he used these
words:
Amen! I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, not one
yod (smallest letters of the Hebrew alphabet), or even one thorn on one of the
smallest letters of the Torah will be misinterpreted.
For Yeshua to use this example in his teachings,
it is a clear indication that he and those in the audience were very familiar
with the Hebrew language and understood his point!
Shalom!
Jim Myers
Sign up for the Y Team and receive all of the team information.
Donations appreciated, no amount is too small.
Comments
Post a Comment