Biblical Hebrew includes only about 8,000 words, far fewer than the 100,000 or more we have in English. Because Hebrew has so few words, each is like an over-stuffed suitcase, bulging with extra meanings that it must carry in order for the language to fully describe reality. Unpacking each word is a delightful exercise in seeing how the ancient authors organized ideas, sometimes grouping concepts together in very different ways than we do.
For example, the word shema (pronounced “shmah”) is often translated as “hear.” But the word shema actually has a much wider, deeper meaning than “to perceive sound.” It encompasses a whole spectrum of ideas that includes listening, taking heed, and responding with action to what one has heard.
I discovered the wideness of the word shema in my first Hebrew class. One classmate had a smattering of Hebrew knowledge gleaned from other places, and he let us all know it. He’d come late, leave early, and goof around during class. The teacher would pose a question to someone else, and he’d blurt out the answer before they could respond. Annoyed, one classmate pointedly inquired, “How do you tell someone to obey?”
“Shema,” responded my instructor.
Later that afternoon, curiosity prodded me to search for verses that contained “obey” in my computer Bible program. In almost every case, the Hebrew behind “obey” was shema!
For instance, in the English, we read Deuteronomy 11:13 as, “So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today…” Literally, though, this verse reads, “And it will be if hearing, you will hear…”
And after Moses recited the covenant to the people of Israel, they responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey” (Exodus 24:7, NIV). But the Hebrew here actually reads, “All that God had said we will do and we will hear.” The two verbs here are really synonymous—to hear is to do, to be obedient.
This became even more clear one sticky summer evening when I was visiting an old college friend. As we chatted together in her front yard, we could hear squealing and laughter coming from behind her house. Her kids were drenching each other in a water fight, a duel between the garden hose and a big squirt gun.
As the sun sank below the horizon it was getting past their bedtimes, so we paused our conversation so that she could call them inside. “It’s getting late—time to go in,” she announced. But the giggling and chasing didn’t even slow down. She repeated her command, louder and louder. No effect.
“My kids seem to have a hearing problem, Lois,” she sighed, wearily.
Since I knew that she had studied some Hebrew, I commented, “You know, actually, what I think your kids have is a shema-ing problem.” Her words were vibrating their eardrums, but not actually moving their bodies toward the door to her house. She could have been talking in Klingon for all their response. She knew as well as I did that the natural outcome of listening should be response.
Grasping the wider meaning of shema yields insights to other biblical mysteries. In the psalms, David pleads, “Oh Lord, please hear my prayer.” But he wasn’t accusing God of being deaf or disinterested. Rather, he was calling on God to take action, not just listen to his words. When the angel appeared to Zechariah to announce that his wife Elizabeth was pregnant with John, he declared that their prayer had been heard—that God was answering the barren couple’s prayerful longings to have a child. (Luke 1:13)
Understanding the word shema also helps us see why Jesus often concluded his teaching with the words “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” What he really meant was, “You have heard my teaching, now take it to heart and obey it!” He wants us to be doers of his words, not hearers only (James 1:22).
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(An excerpt from my book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Zondervan, 2012)
“Shema” is also one of the Hebrew word studies in my latest book, 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know.
Pictures from Michael Newton and funnydogsite.com
MexiManny14 says
Dear Dr Tverberg,
I’m from RVL’s discipleship class. At the beginning of each class we recite the Shema. We say it first in hebrew and then in english, and like you said, we translated it to “Hear O Israel…”. RVL has told us that because of the limited number of words in Hebrew, each word can mean a bunch of things, but I never thought about what Shema can mean. It makes sense that the opening word would be an instruction to obey. It really makes me wonder what the exact literal translation of the entire Shema would look like. Anyway, this article was thought provoking and well written. Good job.
Thanks,
Manny
David Russell says
Dr. Tverberg and readers,
I enjoyed this reflection and life example, depicting shema to mean hear and act on what is heard. What prompted my exploration of this, was a recent discussion of John chapter 13 where Jesus states, If you love me, you will “keep” my commandments. The person with whom I was having the discussion with, suggested that “keep or keeping” means more to hold dear, take in, not just an outward response like obeying or adhering to a town’s ordinance, speeding law, etc. Secondarily, I saw your definition also cited by Dr. Jeff A Benner from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center on line magazine also discussing shema as hearing and responding.. Thank you for this article and I trust this comment finds much well with you and yours!
Oyvind Gustavsen says
Dear Lois, thanks a lot for your books and your website. I love it. One question: In the article above, it says that “Biblical Hebrew includes only about 4,000 words”. However, in your book, “Walking in the dust”, chapter 2, under the subheading “Wise Hebrew Words” (page 36 in my edition) it says that there are 8000 words in Biblical Hebrew. What is correct?
Spencer Kasten ( MA ) says
Excellent teaching! Thanks so much!
phi says
the message I saw today also says 8,000
Lois Tverberg says
8,000 is the better number. I corrected it above.
Øyvind Gustavsen says
Thanks!
Matt VanderZwaag says
Dear Lois,
Thank you for your article about the word ‘shema’. In discipleship class, we also talked about the same topic of shema having a deeper meaning than just ‘hear’. It is good to remember that we can hear something, but then we also need to do it in order to shema.
Thanks, Matt
ROSA CHARGINGEAGLE MORALES says
DEAR brother’s and sisters, thank you for ministering to YESHUA , and to us all, I’m learning of this BEAUTIFUL Word “Shema” I’m blessed with a 8year old grandson, who is100% boy, very hyper active, hardly slowing down to any words to have attention for not even a break for lunch, showers, not for 5minutes, Long story short,
“S H E M A” is all this precious Word In a Loud Shout! He stopped in his tracks, (note; I’m not a Loud person) but to say what God loves ( TRUTH) There is Power in GOD ALMIGHTY, THIS ONE WORD “SHEMA” is like this child was awaken From a deep sleep, now he knows the meaning and how this Precious Word works, AMEN!🙏 MAY THE PRINCECOF PEACEC, BLESS AND HIGHLY FAVOR Y’ALL IN YOUR JOURNEY WITH SAFETY AND ABUNDANCE, IN YESHUA NAME AMEN🙏
Leslie S says
Was Googling “to hear is to obey”, trying to get the origin/source, and came on your website, providing the information. Many thanks. Would just like to ask, however, that since Jesus spoke, in conversation, in Aramaic, not Hebrew, does Aramic have a cognate word to “shema”?
Lois Tverberg says
Aramaic has a virtually identical word to shema with very similar semantic domains. The two languages are very similar.
Jesus was very likely bilingual, speaking both Hebrew and Aramaic. The idea that he spoke only Aramaic is outmoded and not supported by evidence. Almost all the Jewish prayers and parables that date back to the first century are preserved in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The oldest and earliest rabbinic texts were written in Mishnaic Hebrew. It was a few centuries later when Aramaic started to be used in rabbinic literature, like it is in the Talmud.
Aramaic was a “lingua franca” – a language that everyone speaks in the marketplace so that they don’t need a translator. Official documents and posted signs and place names might be in Aramaic, but it doesn’t mean that people spoke it much otherwise.
Here’s a very good lecture on the language we find Jesus using in the gospels, which is first-century Hebrew.
Chuck Weyh says
Thanks Lois!
Is there not somehow a similar case regarding “believe” as translated in our Bibles? Yeshua seems to point at this while talking to his mourning follower, Martha in John 11. Martha clearly says what she believes, while Jesus hints that this might not be enough. What might have been translated into our Greek gospel text?
David Hereford says
Lois, Father is pointing out to me just how arrogant I am here before Him this last week. I have a way of believing His authority and have been for some time. He is teaching me to lay this down and listen to His Spirit. Your words only convince me just how arrogant I am and have been for some time now. Thank you my Sister in Jesus.