Hebrew with Dr. Stuart

I have two classes with Dr. Douglas Stuart this semester -- Exegesis of Historical Books and Intermediate Hebrew. He is a phenomenal teacher and scholar, but he assigns massive loads of work. I'm spending almost half of the week just trying to finish his assignments. Also, I am just beginning to realize that translating Hebrew is probably 80% syntax and 20% morphology... meaning everything I learned in Hebrew 1 and 2 only gets me 20% of the way through translation, at least for the book of Micah, which is the hardest OT book to translate and which Stuart chose for us to decipher.

But lest you think I only have negative remarks, here's something awesome I learned from class last week. There is a phenomenon in Hebrew syntax called the repetition of endearment. When Hebrew repeats a name twice, it is a sign of emotion or intimate relationship. For example, 2 Samuel 19:1 says "בני בני" ("my son, my son" or "my dear son") when David is mourning for Absalom. Also 2 Kings 2:12.

Thus, when the NT authors used this same repetition with names, their Jewish listeners would have understood it to carry a meaning of emotion or endearment. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he called out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Those standing there and hearing it would have understood it to mean, "My beloved, dear Father..."

Dr. Stuart explained that you would only use this repetition of endearment with someone you are buddies with, someone with whom you have a close relationship. This becomes more significant when you consider how Jesus addresses Martha in Luke 10: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things." To Western ears, hearing someone being called twice like that sounds somewhat condescending, but this would not have been how Martha heard it. Even more amazing is the context of Saul's conversion in Acts 9. When Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus, he address Saul with, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Jesus doesn't use a tone of condemnation but of endearment.

But the passage that, for me, opened up in a whole new light from understanding the use of the repetition of endearment was Matthew 7:21-23. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord', did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

It's not enough to approach God on judgment day and simple say that you love him, even if you really mean it with all your emotions. There is only one way to the Father and it's through Jesus.