HEBREW WORD STUDY- TELA: LITTLE CHILD

Matthew 18:3:  “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

As a rabbi, Jesus used many little educational tools to instruct his disciples.  One tool used by rabbis throughout the ages is the use of word plays. There are many different word plays which we will talk about in our All Access site.  This particular wordplay is to take a word that has a  similar sound and meaning from another language and make a play off of that as we have in Matthew 18:3.

In Matthew 18:3 Jesus is saying that unless we become as little children.  We cannot determine the wordplay from the Greek as it only works in a Semitic language. The word used in the Greek for little children is paidai which is the word for a little child or infant.  Unless you become as a little child you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.   We rightly think that Jesus is telling us that we must have the faith of a child.  Tell a child a flying saucer landed out in the back yard and he will go look fully expecting to see a flying saucer.  Does God expect us to have a faith so naïve?  My book Journey into Silence might suggest this. But perhaps Jesus meant something even more.

Jesus spoke these words in the Aramaic and in the Aramaic, you have two words that could be used for a child. The most common word is yalad which is a child or small infant. But you also have another word, tabitha which is a play off the word in Hebrew talitha..  In Aramaic, it means a child.  But in Hebrew, a similar sounding word talitha means a wounded lamb.  Both share a similar root tela’. I think Jesus choose to use tabitha from the root word tela rather than the most common word yalad to give a little wordplay.

In Mark 5:41 when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead he said: Tabitha Koum.  This is in a feminine form in the Aramaic and means little girl get up.   But it closely parallels the Hebrew word tela for a wounded lamb.  Jesus could have said yalad rise up which also means little child rise but instead he chose to use a word which plays off the Hebrew and those who understood the Classical would instantly pick up on the wordplay. “Little wounded lamb, arise.”  Not all Jews in that day were fluent in Hebrew but they would have picked up on this play on words.

When Jesus said: “Unless you become as a little child you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” He used the Aramaic word tabitha and did a wordplay saying: “Unless you come as a wounded or sorrowful little child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, unless you are really sorry for your sins a like a little child is sorrowful because his mother corrects him and he climbs into his mother’s arms weeping and says: “Mommie, I’m sorry.” he will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  That is why Jesus further states that if you humble yourself as a child or wounded sorrowful child you will be great in heaven. 

Today politicians and celebrities are constantly apologizing for saying something that is construed as racist as you wonder if they are really sincere in their apology or they are just uttering the right words to keep their job.  Children are forced by their parents or other authorities to say “I am sorry.”  Most the time they say under duress, but when a child really says he is sorry without being told to, it is genuine. That is the repentance God is looking for not one under duress like the fear of hell. One of the sweetest things is to see a child who is truly sorry asking to be forgiven, it can melt the heart of a parent who will just want to hug the child and assure him of forgiveness.  Not much different from God.  If we are truly sorry for wounding or breaking God’s heart it will cause God to take you in His arms and assure you that all is forgiven and no punishment is needed for His Son took the punishment for you.

II Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”   Trying to appear repentant and sorrowful after you’ve been caught doesn’t cut it with most people if they suspect you are repentant because you must face the consequences.  What is godly sorrow? True Godly sorrow is just that, Godly sorrow over having wounded and broken God’s heart over your sins.  For you see it is The Holy Spirit who will convict you, break your heart and bring that sorrow.  Without the Holy Spirit convicting you of your sin you are no better off that than a politician who declares repentance just to save his own gizzard.  For unless you become a tela’ a wounded little lamb you cannot enter God’s kingdom

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