February 11, 2015 - Idioms, Scriptures have lost Tree significance

Today I tried to drink from the firehouse of Brother Satterfield's exceptional lesson but I'm afraid I couldn't keep up. I do however have enough clues that I might be able to reconstruct many of his thoughts using the scriptures and some Hebrew insights to share it properly in another blog. But for now, here are some interesting highlights:

1. *IDIOMS. Common in English and Hebrew (And most languages). They exist as a way of respectfully discussing special topics such as using the bathroom (an idiom in itself), sexual topics, and I would add the topic of death to the list. As languages and cultures devolve, they become more literal, crude, as they move further from respect.
2. Translators must figure out these idioms and find some way to translate them - doing so literally would not make any sense in English. For example, Hebrews used the expression "to cover ones feet" with regard to 'going to the bathroom'. This expression has been incorrectly translated a number of times in the King James Bible. When King Saul was with his men, he told them he needed to go cover his feet, but it was rendered go to sleep in a cave. This translation of going to sleep has been repeated, probably because covering ones feet provides the imagery of pulling a blanket over the person.
3. *CONSTRUCT STATES. This phrase is a familiar concept to anyone who has read the scriptures and is familiar with what we think of as strange word orders. There is no word for "of" in Hebrew, so they simply put two nouns together. Anytime we see two nouns together, we simply stick an "of" between them in English. Examples include "Altar of Stone" (Eng. Stone Altar); Plates of Brass (Eng. Brass Plates); Sword of Laban (Eng. Laban's Sword).
4. *TREES have enormous significance in the Bible that has been lost in English. Beginning with Adam and Eve's Tree of life, and tree of knowledge (death); Then a bunch of trees in the old testament (I couldn't write fast enough); The familiar biblical reference to "The plains of Moriah" is actually "The Tree of Moriah" in Hebrew. Aparently Abraham always lived near/under trees. Lehi's dream is centered around a tree. He and his family camped near trees, gathered seeds of every kind, etc. Psalms has strong tree imagery. The tree of Shechem, where covenants were made. Joshua put a rock under a tree as a token to Israel's righteous covenant. This same tree was on the plains of Moriah, and was later purchased by King David. Jerusalem was built on this location. And finally, Jesus Christ was lifted up on a tree at this same location. This truly was/is sacred ground.