Hebrew Word Study – Swarm (Fellowship) – ‘Arob – עָרֹב  Ayin Resh Beth 

Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, was an extremely educated person.  He was of Greek origin educated in the Hellenistic city of Antioch. He studied Greek philosophy, medicine and art. Tradition holds he made paintings of Peter and Paul and was the founder of Christian iconography. So what amazes me about Acts 2:42 is that someone who is so steeped in the Greek culture and Greek language would write this verse in a very Aramaic style. In Greek as in English, we would write this passage as “And they devoted themselves in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and in prayers.”  The Greek and English would not repeat the word “and.” We just stick a comma after each word in a series and stick the “and” at the end. In the Aramaic, as like the Hebrew, you use an “and” or a conjunction after each word in a series as Luke does here. Luke could very well have written the Book of Acts in Aramaic as he was addressing an Aramaic speaking audience.

The word for fellowship in Hebrew is ‘arob and in the Aramaic it is shauteph. Both words are agricultural words used for the swarming of insects that would devour a crop.  Insects swarm for protection. When the Nile River in the Middle East would overflow, it would kill off a single fire ant. However, in time of flood thousands of fire ants link themselves together to form a raft. By doing this they would not drown as the would if they tried to navigate those waters on their own.  I believe that is why the Aramaic Bible, the Peshitta, uses the word shauteph for fellowship.

Throughout the history of the Jewish people shauteph was their means of survival. When troubles came they would link up with each other, young and old, married and single, women and men and share each other’s burden, like those fire ants. They formed one massive family and together they were able to survive throughout a history of persecution.

Many Christians today are questioning why they should go to church. They listen to music that they really do not like, they hear sermons that they have heard all their lives and they just go through a door, sit down, get a little show and get up and leave. Churches, in order to maintain their congregations seek to provide music they would attract the most people, they seek to give sermons that would appeal to a wide audience and they may have small group activities such as women or men only Bible studies, children programs, singles only programs and teenage programs. Again, you come and go and never really develop an overall sense of community. 

But if persecution or trouble arises these separate little bands will discover their real reason for coming together, they will shauteph, join hands, link up with each other, young and old, male and female, singles and married and form one large life raft so that no one person would flounder. It is then that they will discover what real fellowship means. They will not come together because they like certain music, they will not come together to play soft ball or have a pot luck dinner, they will come together to survive and the one ingredient that brings them together is their mutual love for Jesus.  

I drove a woman in my disability bus to her church the other day where she met with a few other ladies to put together little toys for the children in the her church to play with during the service. As we talked I learned she was a real born again Christian who loved Jesus with all her heart. She then bemoaned the fact that her church was a mainline liberal church and her pastor did not even believe the Bible was inspired and questioned the deity of Jesus. Like the good Baptist that I am I asked her why she did not join a Bible believing church. She then said that she had many friends in this church who also loved Jesus and when her husband passed away the church came together for her, supported her and helped her through that difficult time. She said: “I could never leave them.”  Her faith in God is firm, but what she really needs is shauteph which she has found. 

Hi there! Thank you for reading this Daily Word Study. Can I ask a favor? Share this Daily Word Study with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking one of the icons below.

Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!