Word Puns in The Hebrew Book of Matthew

Here is a list of Hebrew word puns as found in Nehemiah Gordon’s book “The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus” pages 39-42 and George Howards book “Hebrew Gospel of Matthew”, and any Hebrew Old Testament.

ADAM – red, derived from dam, blood

AdaMAH – ground

(Gen. 2)

aruMIM – naked

aRUM – clever

(Gen. 3:1)

shaKED

shoKED

(Jeremiah 1:11,12)

tachshilCHA – causes you to stumble

tashlicheHA – cast it from you

(Hebrew Matthew 18:9)

wayiRU – to see

wayiRU – to fear

1 word made from 2 separate roots

(Hebrew Matthew 9:8)

waYET – and He stretched out

waYET – and He turned

(Hebrew Matthew 12:13,15)

hachoLIM – sick

wechiLU – entreated

(Hebrew Matthew 14:35,36)

shaLEM – to pay

shaLEM – complete

(Hebrew Matthew 18:23)

evEN – stone

evNEH – I will build

(Hebrew Matthew 16:18)

evEN – stone

boNIM – builders

(Hebrew Matthew 21:42,44 cf. Psalm 118:22)

Note: The pun is clearer in the Hebrew script

Nehemiah uses Hebrew word puns as evidence of a Hebrew original. I think I will highlight these puns in George Howards “Hebrew Gospel of Matthew”, and then start looking for some of my own. That should build quite a vocabulary list. The I think i’ll start back through the Hebrew Old Testament and do the same. If you want to do the same, you can build a vocabulary list quickly that will be easier to remember because they are word pun pairs. If you need any help with this project, and you are a member of this site, please leave a comment and let me know how I can help. I hope you have found this useful and a springboard to further and deeper study.

There is just one more Hebrew word pun I want to leave with you which I got from Lew White’s book “Fossilized Customs” page 16 (header and footer)

YahuDAH – Judah (praise YahuWAH)

YahuWAH – Name of the Almighty (I always was, I always am, I always will be)

(Gen. 29:35)

On this day...

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