Responding to claims about the Hebrew word for “man”

#maklelan2176

[lisaboban]

"If your only evidence is that something looks like something else, you have no evidence."
Milo Rossi

[Taragraceruiz]

Aaaaand that was a great example of a huge part of my Christian teaching. As the pastor, they were the authority figure and we trusted that what they said was true. I can’t help but think that it seems little more than blatant lies meant to mislead those who blindly believe. 😢

[jackabug]

That guy was like the Glenn Beck of pseudo-Hebraic nonsense.

[PhrontDoor]

This is why it's SO hard to go to church when you've gone to any credible seminary.

[daniellamcgee]

Subtitles ' elephant is ox' . I think that was supposed to read 'aleph' is ox'. 0:42

Dan, is there a way to edit subtitles/ captions? There are frequent errors, which make it very difficult for people who read the subtitles to understand your wonderful information dense videos/ shorts.

[TheTrueOnyxRose]

It’s even harsher when a grown man…an ordained minister from what it looks like…gets busted.

[tramberg]

I literally just saw this garbage... imagine the millions that believe it. smh

[shanegooding]

Make up anything you like and present it to your congregation as facts. Wow.

[Arithryka]

I was just watching another of your videos, and wondering about a video I saw a while ago of a rabbi making similar-but-different claims about symbolism in Hebrew letters, and then this gets recommended to me! Love me some serendipity.

[kurtoogle]

Very happy that Dan will be working with Megan and Josh's project and teaching Hebrew! An interesting opportunity that will hone his skills and play on his strengths!

[perrywilliams]

To quote Dr Dan, we negotiate with the text to create meaning for rhetorical purposes. That does not mean we can simply make-up meanings for original language words, phonemes or characters. Unfortunately, this is what passes as biblical "knowledge" in many evangelical churches, especially charismatic ones.

[jerameesikorski]

I love that you bring in linguistics here, professor McClellan.

If I may, I'd suggest defining or demonstrating the linguistic terms in future videos. I understand a glottal stop because I've studied linguistics. For the rest of the audience, though, that technical bit was likely confusing.

Love your videos. I learn from them and draw strength from hearing you speak up for marginalized people. Please keep up your great work.

[gabitamiravideos]

Same energy as in the use gematrya to derive mystical meanings out of Hebrew words.

[PureBloodedPatriot-kp]

Paleo-Hebrew.
Thank you for clearing this up brother.

[attitudeblack]

Can CONFIRM Dan is absolutely right because in my native language we have the alphabet Aleph as well and it certainly does not mean god.

[miguelthealpaca]

Yeah, I used to believe in this sort of thing. I got it from a Hebrew for Christians website. It has stuff about how letters represent certain religious ideas.

There's also the word for God, Yahweh, that is made up of the characters yod hay vav hay, which can be translated to mean, "hand, behold, nail, behold". It's a cool coincidence, I guess? But the nail is actually a hook and Jesus wasn't hooked onto the cross.

[AurorXZ]

Part of the problem with reference historical development as a "correction" is that "far-sighted sovereignty" is built into the theology. Did it "mean" that to the original Hebrew speakers? No. But theologists only need to point to what it became (i.e. Jesus on a Cross) as a sign planted by God.

[iamfiefo]

2:44 I'm sorry, but my mind must be in the gutter. But did he just draw two balls sandwiching a very thin...

[LambentIchor]

I think this kind of thinking is at the heart of most religion. People have a model of the world they've built up over a lifetime of indoctrination, and it is full of symbolic meaning. Then there's this kind of free-association, without every really fact-checking to make sure they're on solid ground.
I remember when I first learnt that all the prophets of the Bible were having dreams and visions, and they took these to be messages from their god. Ezekiel has a vision of a valley of bones, which from the context scholars take to be an allegorical vision. One day in the future the Judeans will return to their land.
Then according to the needs of people later, Ezekiel’s vision lays the foundation for the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead. Which in turn becomes a central part of Christianity. Just people riffing on dreams and visions of previous people, all in a weird kind of fantasy fulfilment that is also confirmation bias. They want something to be true so much that they see signs of it everywhere.

[abandoninplace]

Also apparently at no time in the continuous culture of the Hebrew-speaking people did they have any language until they had adopted an alphabet and then decided to build words out of a convoluted symbolism using the letters for which they re-invented the meanings they already had. This was a miracle as symbolic thinking without word-like shared concepts is quite a feat, therefore god; q.e.d.