Thus one third of your life is spent with the body and mind at rest so your spirit is free to commune with God. It is your spirit that communicates with God and not your mind or body. During your waken state your interaction with God is hindered by the natural body and mind and creates a barrier between your spirit and God. It is believed by the sages that when you dream your physical body and mind are inactive which allows your spirit the total freedom to interact with God. They would write out a question and place it under their mattress or pillow and that night God would give them the answer in a dream. Jewish literature is filled with stories of rabbis writing out a dream question. The sages teach that our dreams are a connection to the wisdom of God. This was too important so Daniel wanted to hear it directly from God.
He could have been given a word by a prophet, prophetic event, or an angel. In other words Daniel was expressing exactly how he wanted to hear from God.
The use of the first form uses a Yod between the Hei and the Resh showing the wisdom of God and the second form uses a Vav between the Hei and the Resh showing the connection of God to man. Indeed the first form of the word noohra is spelled as nihra and then is repeated as noohra. Rarely will they consider the repetition of the word as an expression of a secondary meaning.Ĭonsidering the importance of the Aramaic word noohra in this passage, I believe the writer specially chose the repetition to encompass its double meaning as a connection between man and God and the use of the word to express wisdom. Many translators just ignore the redundant use of a word, others simply assume it means an emphasis and will render the English word more emphatically. Hence, a word must go a long ways in Classical Hebrew and one word can have multiple meanings. In Classical Hebrew there are only 7,500 words compared to a million in Modern Hebrew.
However, just because a word is repeated, that does not mean the second time the word is used that it means the same thing. Sometimes to show emphasis, sometimes to express a poetic thought, sometimes just for clarification. Yet, it is a very common practice in the Semitic languages. Repetition of words is not practiced in our Western languages as it is considered redundant. The Aramaic word light is repeated two times. Here is what is interesting in Daniel 2:22. The Aramaic word has the Hebrew word ‘or embedded in it but is also expresses more of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The Hebrew word for light expresses a connection between the natural and the supernatural or more specifically a connection of God to man through the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word is spelled “Aleph, Vav, Resh. The Hebrew word for light is ‘or which is spelled differently than the Aramaic word which is spelled Nun, Hei, and Resh. When Jesus said He was the light of the world in the Gospel of John the Greek word used was phos which is a reference to both natural light and spiritual light, just as we have only one word in English which is light. The Greek is not so specific, then again neither is the English. This is the light that Jesus declared himself to be when He spoke the word in the Old Galilean form of Aramaic. This is the word noohra which is used for the light of God. The third word is the common word for light and has multiple meanings. Another word is “lampa’d’ which is a light coming from the sun or other natural sources like candle light. One is qal which is a small flickering light. There are basically three words in Aramaic for light. Daniel chapters 2-8 were written in a Chaldean form of Aramaic. What I found interesting in Daniel 2:22 is that the word for light is the Aramaic word noohra. This morning I was reading in the Book of James and found myself cross referencing the term Father of Lights found in James 1:17 to the Book of Daniel. Daniel 2:22: “He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.”
0 kommentar(er)
