Believe it or not, the Bible was not originally written in the old King James English. The Old Testament was originally written in an ancient form of the language we now call Hebrew, and most of the New Testament was originally written in Greek. I want to look at the word "Hebrew" in the ancient Hebrew.

In Hebrew, the word "Hebrew" is Ibrit (pronounced eebreet), and it was originally a term used by the inhabitants of the land of Canaan to describe this guy Abraham who was wandering all across their land. Ibrit meant someone from over there, someone who crossed over, or more literally "to passover" (I will post on the beautiful irony of that at some point in the future). In my Hub, God Speaks: The Origin of the Alphabet, I explored the origin of the ancient Hebrew alphabet, and, as this was the original alphabet God used to first give scripture (or God's Covenants), I want to look at the meaning of the word Ibrit.

As I have discussed in other Hubs, the Hebrew alphabet is derived from an ancient Hebrew/Semitic alphabet made up of a series of pictographs. Each pictographs represented a letter of the alphabet, had a numeric value, and a symbolic meaning. I believe we are able to look at the ancient pictographs in the context of the words they are used to spell and see beyond the mere text.

The word Hebrew (Ibrit) is comprised of the Hebrew letters AYIN, BET, RESH, YOD and TAV. The pictograph for the letter AYIN (similar to, though not the exact equivalent of, our letter "E" or "I") is an eye, meaning to see. BET (B) is pictured as a tent or house, meaning house, as in a lineage. RESH (R) is pictured as a man's head, meaning the first or highest person. YOD (Y) is pictured as an arm from the fist to the elbow, meaning my hand/works. TAV (T) is pictured as two crossed sticks, meaning a covenant or mark.

Now, the Hebrew word brit (spelled BET, RESH, YOD, TAV) is the word for "covenant". So, the word Hebrew (or Ibrit) is TO SEE the COVENANT. The Hebrew word brit (covenant) can be broken down further. The Hebrew/Aramaic word bar (spelled BET-RESH) is the word "son". Therefore, brit (covenant) is the SON with his HANDS on the CROSS.

In short, within the very word Hebrew (Ibrit), God has shown that we will SEE his COVENANT, and that the COVENANT is the SON with his HANDS on the CROSS. So, Jesus is God's covenant.

Below is the word Hebrew (Ibrit) in the ancient Hebrew pictographs.