HEBREW WORD STUDY – SIN VANISHES – TAMMU CHOT’IM תמו חטים Taw Mem Vav Chet Teth Yod Mem

Psalm 104:35: “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.”

One of the students in my Aramaic Translation class on our All Access shared with me a passage from the Talmud Berakoth 10a. There was once some highwaymen (thieves) in the neighborhood of Rabbi Meir who cause him much trouble. Rabbi Meir then prayed that they should die. However, his wife Valeria (Beruria in Aramaic meaning pureness, clearness, bright and innocent) said to her husband: “How do you reason that God would permit such a prayer?” Rabbi Meir replied to his wife that it is written: “Let the sinners (chatta’im) come to an end.” Chatta’im is an adjective rightly render as sinners. This is the way it is written in the Masoretic text. However, his wife responded “In the Torah scrolls, the word is chot’im and is a present participle. If you look at the context you find at the end it says ‘let the wicked be no more.’ Since all sin will cease, there will be no more wicked. So, you should rather pray for them and pray that they repent.”

What struck me as strange is that the husband, a rabbi, did not rebuke his wife and say: “Who are you to tell me what the Torah Scrolls are saying, you are just a woman and not a scholar like me.” Yet, he did not rebuke her but changed his prayer as she suggested and prayed that God not kill these men but bring them to repentance. Yet, this woman obviously was well versed in the Hebrew grammar and studied the Torah Scrolls as well as the Masoretic text, possibly more than her husband, a rabbi.

For two thousand years, the church taught that women are to keep silent in the church and are not teach men. I am writing a book now on the Ten Contradictions In The Bible. This is one of those contradictions. How could Paul have said that women are not to teach men when the Talmud clearly gives us an example of a woman instructing a male Rabbi, her husband of all things.

For one thing, Judaism clearly teaches in the Talmud that a woman can instruct her husband in the Torah and examples are given when she does as Berakoth 10a. That would mean we either interpret Paul wrongly or there might be a little difference in nuance in the translations.

For those interested, I am posting a study on I Corinthians 14:34 from the Aramaic wherein the English we are told women are not to teach or show authority over men. Hopefully, that will clear up a few things.

The purpose of this study, however, is to examine Valeria’s rendering of Psalms 104:35. She is right, of course. In the Christian world, the Masoretic text is almost consider inspired. Actually, the Masoretic text was not developed until 700 years after the birth of Christ. Before that time there were no dots and dashes indicating vowels and dageshes. The Masoretic text turns the Torah into a more precise document and in their aim for precision, the precision of the ambiguity right out of the text. We in the Western world demand that 2+2=4 and the Masoretic text gives us that. However, that does not mean the Masoretes are always correct in their final conclusion and many rabbis do not trust or revere the Masoretic text as we Christians do. But the Masoretic text is not the Torah Scrolls.

When I was in Bible College and Seminary the Masoretic Text always won out over the Septuagint in any dispute. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. Forget the fact that it is almost a thousand years older than the Masoretic text and thus should be more accurate. We Western Christians just love our languages to be precise. Recently, it was discovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Septuagint is actually more accurate than the Masoretic text.

Thus, we should look at Psalms 104:35 not as instruction to pray that our enemies be consumed, killed or in the Hebrew tammu which means to come to an end or vanish. Instead, as Valarie said, we should pray for our enemies that they repent. I mean did not Jesus teach the same thing in Luke 6:28? “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”