One Torah for All

 

One Torah shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

Exodus 12:49

The English Word “O”

By Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.org

In Scripture and Hebrew siddurs and other religious writings, one finds the English word “O” often in front of a name.  Here is an example that should be familiar to us all.

“Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah:”
                                                                                                                                Devarim 6:4 ASV


The problem with the presence of this word in this passage and many other passages is that there is no equivalent from the Hebrew text; it is inserted by the translators.  Let us demonstrate.

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל | יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

We have selected this passage because of its familiarity to us all.  Let us now break this verse down word by word

אֶחָד

יְהוָה

אֱלֹהֵינוּ

יְהוָה

יִשְׂרָאֵל

שְׁמַע

Echad

YHWH

Eloheynu

YHWH

Yisrael

Sh’ma

As you can easily see, there is no equivalent in Hebrew for the English word “O”.

So the question that this presents us with is: why did the translators insert this English word into the text when there was no equivalent to it in the Hebrew text?

To aid in our search for the truth of this word, we need to look at the history of the word “O”, which is different than the word “oh”. 

The next page is a photocopy of a page from Noah Webster’s first American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828.  On this page, you will see the entry for the letter O.

Notice on the following page, the paragraph from below:

Letter o-1.jpg

letter o.jpg

 

 

What this shows us, is that the ancients highly revered the letter “O” and the sound that it makes.  They also associated with it the number three, which was also a highly revered number, as it was intimately associated with their worship of the trinity. 

Since the overwhelming majority of translators who worked on the English Bibles we have in circulation today were Trinitarians in doctrine, it should not be surprising to us, to find translations from the original text that favor their doctrine.

The insertion of the word “O” was just such an act of worship and promulgation of their doctrine.  Of course, only the properly initiated would truly understand the significance of the presence of this word in the English text.

What comes now before each one of us is, that if we are going to be honest with the Hebrew text and with this evidence, then we should by all means stop using this word in the reading of Scripture and the recitation of prayers.  It is a pagan practice in which we should not be involved.

Here is the evidence; now you must pray and choose who you will honor: man or YHWH.  It is your choice.  May you choose life!

Amein and Amein!

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