{"id":355,"date":"2023-11-20T01:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/?p=355"},"modified":"2023-11-20T22:23:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:23:07","slug":"gaza-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/ptr-art-calaguas\/gaza-in-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza in the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Ptr. Art Calaguas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shalom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel has now gone into northern Gaza, into Beit Hanoun in particular as it demolishes the terrorist Hamas tunnels. It has made daring raids into the heart of Hamas territory, including into Al-Shifa Hospital where a Hamas complex is actually housed underneath it. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have now streamed to southern Gaza. Israel has made short humanitarian \u201cpauses\u201d to provide for the basic needs of the fleeing civilian population according to CBN News (700 Club). The plight of the very many hostages (~240) of many different nationalities taken by Hamas last October 7, including women, elderly children and babies seems to have been relegated to the backstage by the world\u2019s media as the fighting takes front and center stage. Amidst the din of Arab, Muslim and western states\u2019 calls for immediate ceasefire, Israel has refused to have a ceasefire and calls for the release of all hostages while reiterating its objective of destroying Hamas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in the US at Washington DC a huge rally was held last November 15 for Israel support and antisemitism by various Christian groups and had bipartisan political attendance (https:\/\/youtu.be\/-bnpa4jdt8U<\/a>). Although underreported by mainstream media, perhaps because of the apparent alliance of anti-God and anti-Israel Marxists and leftists, with radical Islamists who call for the destruction of Israel, the estimates of the massive crowd was up to 290,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another CBN News video (November 16), the UAE Minister Ali Al Nuaimi of the UAE parliament stood fast with the Abraham Accords and called for the recognition of Israel, with the support of other Muslim states and Saudi Arabia (https:\/\/youtu.be\/XWfrPXXZEuw<\/a>). Hope springs eternal that God will even bring something good out of this war!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the Lord Jesus Christ look after the hostages and keep them safe. May the Lord grant a just end to this war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While researching on our next Bible Study topic, I encountered the 5 Philistine cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron mentioned in the Bible. I decided to pause and do a little short research on Gaza as mentioned in the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The place name \u201cGaza\u201d is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament [OT]) several times. I was surprised that very early on in Genesis, it was already named in the account of the descendants of Noah\u2019s son, Ham after the Flood. Genesis 10:19 has the very first occurrence of Gaza:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u05d5\u05b7\u05bd\u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05b4\u059e\u05d9 \u05d2\u05b0\u05bc\u05d1\u05a4\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc \u05d4\u05b7\u05bd\u05db\u05b0\u05bc\u05e0\u05b7\u05e2\u05b2\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u0599 \u05de\u05b4\u05e6\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05d3\u05b9\u0594\u05df \u05d1\u05b9\u05bc\u05d0\u05b2\u05db\u05b8\u05a5\u05d4 \u05d2\u05b0\u05e8\u05b8\u0596\u05e8\u05b8\u05d4 \u05e2\u05b7\u05d3\u05be\u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u0591\u05d4<\/mark> \u05d1\u05b9\u05bc\u05d0\u05b2\u05db\u05b8\u059e\u05d4 \u05e1\u05b0\u05d3\u05b9\u05a7\u05de\u05b8<\/mark>\u05d4 \u05d5\u05b7\u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u059b\u05d4<\/mark> \u05d5\u05b0\u05d0\u05b7\u05d3\u05b0\u05de\u05b8\u05a5\u05d4 \u05d5\u05bc\u05e6\u05b0\u05d1\u05b9\u05d9\u05b4\u0596\u05dd \u05e2\u05b7\u05d3\u05be\u05dc\u05b8\u05bd\u05e9\u05b7\u05c1\u05e2\u05c3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading the Hebrew from right to left, below is my formal equivalence translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19And the Canaanite territory is situated from Sidon as you go toward Gerar as far as Gaza<\/mark>, then as you go toward Sodom<\/mark> and Gomorrah<\/mark> and Admah and Zeboim, as far as Lasha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the highlighted words, we see that \u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4<\/mark> is translated as Gaza<\/mark> while \u05e1\u05b0\u05d3\u05b9\u05dd<\/mark> is translated as Sodom<\/mark>, and \u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u059b\u05d4<\/mark> is translated as Gomorrah<\/mark>. As we can see, Genesis 10:19 was also had the first mention of Sodom and Gomorrah aside from Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We now get a glimpse of complexity in the Hebrew language and its historical development. Both \u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4<\/mark> and \u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u059b\u05d4<\/mark> start with the 16th<\/sup> Hebrew letter \u05e2, \u201cayin.\u201d As I\u2019ve learned while studying Biblical Hebrew, we normally do not have a pronounced sound attached to the consonantal letter \u05e2, \u201cayin\u201d meaning it is a \u201csilent\u201d letter (much like the consonant \u05d0, \u201calef,\u201d the 1st<\/sup> Hebrew letter). Only the assigned vowels attached to these letters would have a phonetic value. So by just going by what is taught in seminary class, \u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4<\/mark> should be pronounced as \u201cAzzah\u201d but it is not; it is pronounced as Gaza<\/mark>. Similarly, \u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u059b\u05d4<\/mark> should then be pronounced as \u201cAmorah\u201d but it is not; it is pronounced as Gomorrah<\/mark>. So it appears that over time there was a different way the letter \u05e2, \u201cayin\u201d was pronounced when used with certain words. That sound was like \u201cga.\u201d That is why we have \u201cGaza\u201d instead of \u201cAzzah\u201d and \u201cGomorrah\u201d instead of \u201cAmorah\u201d in our English Bibles. And this is true in all the 22 instances \u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4<\/mark> is translated as Gaza<\/mark>, and the 19 instances \u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u059b\u05d4<\/mark> is translated as Gomorrah<\/mark>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing on Gaza, a word study will show that this word is definitely used in 12 different books of the Bible. In the OT, it is found once in Genesis (10:19); once in Deuteronomy (2:23); 4x in Joshua (10:41, 11:22, 13:3 and 15:47); 4x in Judges (1:18, 6:4, 16:1, 16:2 and 16:21); once in 1 Samuel (6:17); once in 1 Kings (4:24); once in 2 Kings (18:8); 3x in Jeremiah (25:20, 47:1 and 47:5); 2x in Amos (1:6 and 1:7); once in Zephaniah (2:4); and 2x in Zechariah (9:5). And it only occurs once in the New Testament (NT); in Acts (8:26). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have historical proof of this in the pre-Christian translation of the Hebrew Bible, dated 250 BC; the Septuagint (LXX). The ancient Greek-speaking translators of the Hebrew Bible in Alexandra, Egypt pronounced the Hebrew place name \u05e2\u05b7\u05d6\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4<\/mark> as Gaza<\/mark> and transliterated it as \u0393\u03b1\u03b6\u03b1<\/mark> <\/em>(gamma-alpha-zeta-alpha) in the LXX. It has a straightforward pronunciation in the Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will continue next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God bless us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ptr. Art Calaguas Shalom. Israel has now gone into northern Gaza, into Beit Hanoun in particular as it demolishes the terrorist Hamas tunnels. It has made daring raids into the heart of Hamas territory, including into Al-Shifa Hospital where a Hamas complex is actually housed underneath it. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6,7,9,8,5],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ptr-art-calaguas","tag-church-of-the-risen-lord","tag-crl","tag-spiritual-refreshment-of-the-day","tag-upcemi","tag-upcrl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}