When studied from the Hebrew perspective, words from the Scriptures can provide a wonderful and enhanced understanding that English definitions struggle to express.
The Old Testament (the Torah, Psalms, and Prophets) was written in Hebrew and so it is called the “Holy Language.” One very important reason to study the language is that it gives insight into the Jewish mindset, which is much different from Western mindset. To thoroughly understand the message of Scripture it is necessary to understand the people, culture, and time in which the original text was written.
Martin Luther summed it up when he wrote, “The Hebrew language is the best language of all…if I were younger I would want to learn this language, because no one can really understand the Scriptures without it. Although the New Testament is written in Greek, it is full of Hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks drink from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from a downstream pool.”
