The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible

The Mechanical Translation project began with the Lexicon, the foundation to the process of creating a Mechanical Translation. In order to demonstrate the need for an Ancient Hebrew lexicon let us examine the word הלל, how it is written and what it means. According to the many Hebrew dictionaries and lexicons available today, this is a Hebrew word that is pronounced halel and means "praise". You may recognize this word in the phrase halleluiah, usually translated as "Praise Yah". The word הלל, as it appears here, in dictionaries and in Hebrew Bibles, is written with the Modern Hebrew script. But where did the Modern Hebrew script come from? Hebrew was originally with a pictographic script, but when Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon, they adopted the Aramaic script of the region and began using it to write Hebrew, including the Biblical texts, in place of the pictographic Hebrew script.

The Ancient Hebrew language is a concrete oriented language. This means that the meaning of Hebrew words are rooted in something that can be sensed by the five senses. Examples of concrete words are tree, which can be seen, sweet, which can be tasted, and noise, which can be heard. Abstract words have no foundation in the concrete and are a product of ancient Greek philosophy. Examples of abstract words are believe, faith, holy and praise.

If the word הלל is written with Aramaic script and the definition "praise" is from a Greek abstract definition, where is the Hebrew in this word? The purpose of the "Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible" is to restore the original Hebrew, script and meaning, to the Hebrew language of the Bible.

The word הלל would have been written as in the Early Hebrew script (over 3200 years ago) or as in the Middle Hebrew script (between 3200 and 2500 years ago). The original pictographic letters of the parent root is a man with his arms raised "looking" at something spectacular and a shepherd staff that is used to move the flock "toward" a place. When these are combined the idea of "looking toward" something is represented. The original meaning of is the North Star, a bright light in the night sky that is "looked toward" to guide one on the journey.

If we are going to read the Bible correctly it must be through the perspective of the Ancient Hebrews who wrote it, not from a Modern Aramaic or Greek perspective. The word in its original concrete meaning is a bright light that guides the journey and we "praise" Yah by looking at him to guide us on our journey through life.

The project today

As the Mechanical Translation of the Hebrew Bible project will take several years to complete, certain books will be published separately. The first book in this project to be published was the Mechanical Translation of the book of Genesis and was published in 2007. This book included the Hebrew text, the Mechanical Translation, the Revised Mechanical Translation, a dictionary and a concordance. The second book to be completed was the Mechanical Translation of the book of Exodus and published in 2010 with new features added including, additional footnotes to the text and a transliteration of the Hebrew text.

The future of the project

Work is now being done to complete the Mechanical Translation of the Torah, which will be published sometime in 2011 or 2012. This will be published in two volumes. One volume to include the five books of the Torah and the second volume to include the dictionary and concordance for these five books, as well as basic Hebrew vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

Once the Torah is completed, certain books will be completed first, such as the book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Once the entire Hebrew Bible has been translated, it will be published. In addition, a computer based program will be created for the Mechanical Translation of the Hebrew Bible.